The Second Day of a Family Camping

It was fine on the second day of our family camping this summer.
My two sons got up early to find beetles in the woods but they did not find a lot of them.
My wife and I made breakfast; bacon, fried eggs, salad, miso soup and rice. I think having meals outdoors is the most delightful thing with camping. I love doing that very much.
After breakfast, my sons went swimming and played in the river which was across from the campsite. I fell asleep and I took a nap for a while.
Then we checked out of the campsite and had lunch at a restaurant in Kakeya and then we went to Yakumo Wind Cave where a very cool wind blew up from underground. We went down into the cave. The temperature was over thirty degrees Celsius outside that day but in the cave it was ten degrees celsius. I was almost frozen! The cave used to be used as a natural refrigerator for storing some agricultural crops in the summer for neighbors.
After that we went to a hot spa and bathed there then had dinner.
We enjoyed the two days of camping. I hope we will go camping in the winter next time. I think the idea of camping in the snow is really great.

The First Day of a Family Camping

Our family has just returned from camping. We went camping at Ogidani Campsite.
We went there for five years in a row.
It was the first time that we used a rented log bungalow; we used to use our own tent before. That was more comfortable using a log bungalow than I expected. The interior was wide and cool and my two sons loved the loft-style bed.
The weather was fine through the days we were camping and the air was cool.
I enjoyed playing tennis and volleyball with my older son there and I lost a tennis match 4-2 with him because he had learned to play tennis two years ago.
My younger son swam in the river which was across from the campsite. The water of the river was clear and crisp. He caught six rainbow trout in the river when the children's fish catching event was held there and we ate the fish at a barbecue. He even caught some dragonflies, beetles and cicadas. He looked very happy.
Before we had our barbecue, we took a bath in a Rotenburo, a Japanese style outdoor public hot spa. I think it is a luxury to take a bath outdoors when it is light.
We took a walk under a starry sky at night and we could see the Wain very clearly and big in the north. Then we played Uno, a kind of card game, until we went to sleep.

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Family Camping

My family, my wife, two sons and I, go camping every summer. Before my sons were born, my wife and I went camping alone together.
We are going to go camping in Ogidani Camp Site, Hiroshima Prefecture next week and we are all looking forward to doing that very much.
Ogidani is our favorite camp site because it has a river, a mountain, woods and open fields. We can swim and catch fish in the river, we can hike in the mountain and the view from the top is amazing. We can find beetles in the woods and we can play baseball or other ballgames in the fields.
My older son would be eager to play volleyball because he began to play that this April. My younger son is studying where he can find beetles in the woods. My wife is looking forward to having a barbecue. I will be happy when they feel joyful in the camp.
The camp will be only two days because of my job but I wish we could go camping for at least one week.
The whether forecast said it will be fine there on the days we are there so it is quite certain that we will have a good time at the camp.

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A Birth of a Swallowtail Butterfly

My younger son keeps many kinds of insects. He even keeps caterpillars and one of them changed to a swallowtail butterfly this morning. The butterfly was beautiful in yellow and black. My son looked forward to watching the birth of a butterfly from a pupa but he missed out on the chance to watch that because the birth happened so early in the morning. He despaired at that and I felt for him. When a caterpillar becomes a pupa next time, he will get up early.

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Sunfloewr

I saw some sunflowers blooming in my neighbor's yard. I realized that when I rode my bike for work this morning. I do not know why I did not notice until today, though I pass the side of the yard every day.
The flowers are small, the height is about 30 centimeter, but the color of yellow is bright and beautiful in the yard. Probably, the small sunflowers might be displayed in a vase in my neighbor's living room or hallway in a few days time. I also think it is quite early for sunflowers to bloom. It is still in the rainy season now and the sky has not been clear in recent days.
In my childhood, sunflowers meant tall flowers and they symbolized very hot summer sunshine. When I was in elementary school, we were raising sunflowers in the school yard. We had to go to school several times to water them during the summer vacation. We would hate doing that because no one liked to go to school in the summer vacation. To tell the truth, I skipped doing that in secret. Forgive me. That is all history now!

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Ladybirds

My eight- year- old son is very interested in insects. He likes many kinds of insects; ants,butterflies, crickets, dragonflies and so on. I think he likes praying mantises the best because they are strong.

Now finding ladybirds turns him on because he is taking part in a survey which is conducted by Shimane Prefectural Museum. When he find any ladybird, he notes the date, the place, the size and the pattern. He will send all of the data to the museum in September and he will get some special goods for help doing the survey.

A few days ago he found twenty-five ladybirds. How many ladybirds will he be able to find at the end?

Fireflies

Fireflies have come to a small river which is in my neighborhood again this year. The number of fireflies is not large so few people know they can be seen there. Only my two sons and I were watching them tonight. We were fascinated by the pale glows for a long time and we had a rich time alone together tonight.

Many Japanese are looking forward to watching the glow of fireflies as their annual event even if they have to go far away to watch them. In contrast, we are quite a lucky family because we have the spot for doing that in our neighborhood. I hope we can watch the beautiful glows here forever.