I felt like I was sleeping with one eye open throughout the night. If you know about living in a house prone to leaking or flooding during a hurricane, you can understand what I am talking about. It had started raining just around 20:00 the previous night. This had sent us in a flurry of trying to make our tents more waterproof. I had used a cheap tarpaulin to cover the very top section of my tent. I had to secure it using string fastened to rocks on the ground. This felt like the real deal. Of course, my friend had done the same thing, and you could say I was following her lead. She had told me that her tent was labeled as a waterproof tent, but the first time she used it, it turned out not to be waterproof at all. On the other hand my tent clearly indicated on the diagram that it was not for the rain and hence my attempts to make it rain proof. Yesterday I had decided to try sleeping on the cot instead of only the camping mat and my sleeping bag. I have found the camping mat against the stones to be quite uncomfortable even though I was in my sleeping bag on top of it. And so I thought I needed to be elevated above the stones situated underneath the tent. The cot had been brought from the car in error, as we thought it had been the big sun tent. But we decided to set it up anyway and I thought it would help me to sleep better that night. I made a mistake when I went to bed that night however, because I decided to put the camping mat on top of the cot, but it wasn’t a perfect fit at all. While I wasn’t feeling any stones underneath me, I still felt uncomfortable and the test from side to side. I felt at least if water did flow at the base of my tent I would have been above it. All of my bags have been put in plastic bags in the tent, so I didn’t think too much about them. The rain kept going throughout the night beating against my tent in a way that did not appeal to me at all. I was quite mindful of the fact that to one side of me was the river and to the other side were houses, the roadway and then shrubs and trees. The tent was on a slight slope, but it was also on sand which is quite porous. Yet none of this actually went through my mind as the rain continued to beat on the tent. I wondered if water would come in from the ground even though I had an extra tarpaulin laid on top of my tent floor. I was right against one side of my tent after my reconfiguration, and I started to notice the areas where the cot touched the tent had gotten wet.
The tent wasn’t leaking at all but it was condensing where it was exposed to an excess amount of water. The cot itself had fit right against both ends of the tent and so I pulled it away from the extreme right side where the widest section was. I also noticed that the foot of my sleeping bag which had been touching the end of the tent had also gotten moist, though I couldn’t feel it on my feet because of the thickness of the sleeping bag. The rain had eased somewhat, but it was still falling gently. I was not fully awake at around 4:00 AM and I could hear voices. I actually thought it was voices of another group possibly coming to set up camp in the early morning. I really needed to use the bathroom but I didn’t want to go out in the rain and so I thought I would wait until it stopped. That was a mistake because there was no letting up of that rain. I was also still trying to sleep, but it wasn’t happening. And then the rain got heavy again and so any thoughts of going outside at all were further diminished. I examined my tent and inside was drying there was no leaking no dripping or anything. I felt really thankful and happy about how my tent withstood the rains. My tent actually has a double layer which I never really gave thought to. When I think about the first layer I realized that layer is only for the sun because it gives you all the ventilation. But when I put the other layer on top of it, the ventilation is restricted as well as the possibility of bugs or as I now realized, rain, could enter.
I got up feeling quite grouchy. I hadn’t slept well for the second night in a row, it was raining and I really wanted to pee. It was about after 7:00 in the morning and I decided I would start my devotions. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are accountable not only for our actions but also what we say. People not only judge an individual, but tend to use one or a few experiences to characterise a group. So me being a Christian means I am judged as such. Or as a foreigner living in Japan, I become a representative of a foreigner, a person of colour and a Jamaican. And so Ephesians 4:29 KJV says, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” https://bible.com/bible/1/eph.4.29.KJV. I chose to become a follower of Jesus Christ and this therefore makes me responsible for my actions that others will observe. As soon as I finish my devotions, I put on my raincoat nice and new, changed from my sweatpants, as I didn’t want it to get wet, into small shorts and then went to pee. Once I was outside that is when the front section where I open to exit and enter my tent, started to get wet. It requires some careful acrobatics to come out of the tent without pulling it all down. And it seemed that my first time going out in the rain just cause me to become comfortable going in and out, not caring how much the rain was falling. So much in fact that I went and reheated the soup I had made the night before under the bug open tent, and then returned to my tent and had my breakfast. It was really nice to have something warm as the rain was falling and I was quite amused. I hadn’t taken off my raincoat when I re-entered my tent and this might have been a mistake, because I caused those areas of my tent to get slightly wet. I was still trying to figure out the dynamics of it all as there wasn’t a specific place for me to put the raincoat where it would remain in a usable position that was not external to the tent. I eventually did take it off and resorted to using my umbrella which I put outside.
As my mind pondered all that had been happening on this camping weekend, I remember my friend had said that we should always have some food, like snacks and clothes inside our tents. This was very useful information, because had it been raining much heavier it would be quite a nuisance to go in and out of the tent to get food. I also realize that because I had brought a sleeping bag, I didn’t need a blanket at all. This would have significantly reduced the bulk that I had with me, because the blanket was thick. I ended up using it as a pillow. On the other hand I also realized that for more comfortable sleep I should have opted to use only the cot with my sleeping bag instead of trying to use the mat on top of the cot which didn’t work. But I didn’t have another night to try what I had figured out. My friends, having been on multiple camping trips, by no new that an air mattress was the way to go. And this is what they slept on using a blanket, inside their tent. They had told me to bring a blanket because it might have gotten cold. This was no doubt from their experience. However they had not used sleeping bags. And so ideally for my next camping trip, I need some sort of air mattress or a cut or something that is elevated from whatever surface we might be on. My friend told me that we were on a rocky and sandy surface, but there are many other types of surfaces.
My friends had been awake for some time also I could hear them bickering between themselves. What I knew about camping had mostly been from TV, seeing families or some specific groups like a school, partaking of such activities. I’m so there was some amount of loneliness during the time of the rains when everyone was inside even though it was daylight. But make no mistake I had a lot to do in my tent with all my bags and pans. I was hardly able to keep up with my blog entry and I hadn’t the chance to do any sudoku puzzles. I was just observing things and the atmosphere of camping. Another thing that I had observed, was that the three-legged chair that I had was not ideal for sandy soil. In fact it was such a nuisance as one side or the other kept falling into the sand. My friends on the other hand had camping chairs with four legs, a back support and little holders to put your cups. It was a wonderful learning experience all in all.
I hadn’t spoken to Mom this Saturday morning and so I decided to call her as agreed on Sunday morning. We talked just as though I was at home, catching up on the weeks highs and lows. She was getting better at the new system recently implemented at her office and finding ways to make it more practical. Her company had found a way to arrange vaccination for its employees so mom doesn’t have to deal with the stress so common to many, to get the jab. She had also finally gotten some work done around the house which had required some monetary investment. Everything is a balancing act in this life. And as always, I had to tell mom to fix her face at a proper angle so I could get a good screenshot. She has certainly come a long way though. We said our I love yous and hoped for the best upcoming week for each other.
My friend’s husband had gone to the vehicle while she had also spoken to her mom on the phone By the time she came out of her tent, she was like a hungry animal after hibernation. LOL. It was still raining and I busied myself inside my tent trying to sort and pack away things which I hadn’t needed. There was no departure time which was a bit of an annoyance for me more keen of specific details. Mi a learn. My friend wanted to make a fire, but her husband didn’t think she should because of the rain and the fact that she was hungry. I also thought that since she was so hungry, that she should just eat something that didn’t require cooking. In any event she did make the fire underneath the huge tent, so they were still ventilation but the fire was protected from the rain. Every and anything that could go on that grill was placed on that grill. I had a second breakfast, even though I wasn’t really hungry. This was also something else that I realized on this camping experience. There always seem to be a lot of eating. I was in observation mode for most of the camp even though I experienced it in part. I realized that with the effort that it took to make a fire, it should be fully utilized. And so my brain was always going about what could we put over the charcoal or over the wood fire that had been prepared. I was able to make hot water and put in my hot water bottle which I have brought with me. This has served us well the previous night in having hot cocoa while we played backgammon.
As afternoon came we decided to play cards, all three of us. This didn’t last very long however as one person left. But the two of us that remained had a nice game of backgammon. While it has been easy to relieve myself by the river in the sand somewhere, I needed to go and so I made my way up to the portable toilet on the road level. I brought toilet paper with me, but to my surprise there was toilet paper in the bathroom. This was a squat toilet however with a less than favourable smell, and so it did not make for a comfortable stay. I did my business as quickly as possible and got out of there. There were several bottles of water available, which might be for washing hands, but I wasn’t sure. In any event I didn’t use any of them after I stepped on the ‘flush’ pedal. I made my way down to the river got some soap and washed my hands there. We always took care not to allow too much soap to get into the river itself, especially when washing up the dishes. There was still no announce departure time and it was getting late into the afternoon, but I could tell that we were winding down. My friend was washing up all the large items by the river and so I also started to make preparations. I had already pulled down the cot earlier that morning inside my tent before my devotions and so I brought that out and put it in the designated bag. And then proceeded to cut the ropes and strings that held the additional tarpaulin above the tent, shake it a few times and put it somewhere to dry.
The rain had stopped, but the sky was still very cloudy. The more I pulled down the more I pray to God to hold the rain. Before I removed the second layer of the tent, I changed into what I’d be wearing home, jeans and a top. I realised at that time that I hadn’t brought a belt with me for my pants. But then I remembered my friends very craftily made belt from the first day and asked her to tie one for me as well. It was actually quite fashionable though the functionality was more important to me. I then removed the outer layer and also put it somewhere to dry. The place was damp and cool and so nothing was really drying. But it was still a good idea to allow everything to air out. I used towels to remove excess moisture from off the tents and the tarpaulins as well as by shaking them off before placing them on the rocky ground. We cleaned and consolidated and started moving things to the foot of the ascend towards the vehicle. By the time we took up the last remaining items we all had our head lights on.
With all the bags finally packed inside the vehicle and a double, triple checking to make sure nothing was left behind, including garbage, we set off first for my apartment. God had held back the rain, except for an ever so slight drizzle almost toward the end of packing up. As we drove home, we spoke about the highs and lows of the camping experience for us as well as what our expectations had been. It was a very useful, honest and heartfelt talk. The rain had evidently been falling in central Japan and the drizzle remained with us all the way to my apartment. They helped me take out my bags and pans and we hugged goodnight. I thanked them for an unforgettable experience as I dragged myself and my bags several trips inside. I got home after 20:00, tired but thankful. I ended the night with a warm bath. My body ached all over from two rough nights of sleep. As I was about to call it a night, I wanted something from my cooler box. It was then that I realised that it, along with another bag had been left outside. I fell asleep propped up on my bed, but managed to get up to go and brush my teeth and then pass out on my bed. The camping life experience I tell you. LOL.
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