The Anabuki River is famous with locals and families for camping and swimming. In summer it can get quite busy there during the days as people come to bathe, play, swim 'laps' or cook BBQs. On Saturday afternoon, despite a wild weather warning in place, 20 of us met up at the Fureai Hiroba Park by the river to get our camp on. At first the weather was so bad and the rain so heavy that as we huddled together under the small shaded area talk focussed around the possibility of having an impromptu apartment party instead. After about an hour or so though, the dark clouds passed and the rain eventually slowed to a halt and those attendees that had been on the fence, at their homes awaiting news, were called down to play. We unpacked cars, set up tents, collected firewood, went food shopping, went swimming and finally cracked our drinks...
Swimming in the Anabuki River - image courtesy of Kristin S.
As the sun was setting, the BBQs were set up and the campfire was lit. The smell of charcoaling meat wafted along the riverbed as groups of people sat talking and chilling to whoever's playlist happened to be pumping through the speakers at that point. A dozen or so gathered in a congo line around the campfire to perform the "moon dance" to a Lion King track, while the rest of us watched and poured ourselves another drink. Soon after, a group of Japanese musos came down (one of the Tokushima JETs, Greg, had befriended them up by the tents and led them down to the beach area to entertain us) and began playing their instruments. The crowd gathered around them and soon we lost ourselves, listening to the beat of the drums in the darkness. Once the boys had finished jamming, fireworks were passed around and the next half hour passed in a haze of smoke and sparklers.
You can't see anything in the darkness, but the sounds of the impromptu drum concert come out fairly clear in this vid...
Despite the late hour, some brave folks decided to go swimming again and I tentatively joined them on the edge of the freezing waters. One of the new Kagawa JETs, Saad, had other ideas and promptly crash tackled me into neck deep water until I was shivering and ruing my decision to swim. Luckily the campfire had been taken of all night and the swimmers huddled around the fire trying to dry off and get warm. Photos were taken, marshmallows were passed around and more laid-back beach-vibe beats were hooked up to the stereo. As midnight approached, people slowly started making their way to higher ground, seeking out their tents and the warmth of bed. By 1am there were only a handful of us left awake - staring into the campfire and letting the conversation meander as it pleased. The next few hours saw us down countless drinks, sing along to some awesome music and watch the boys go collecting firewood while us girls went for a sneaky skinny-dip under the light of the full moon. By 3.30am I was ready for bed though and it was then that I finally staggered up to the tent section to pass out on my futon.
Folks started waking up around 8am and as many of them had to get back to Kagawa in time for the annual English Speech Competition at midday, they began packing up their tents. The weather was full-blown glorious by this stage and as I watched them folding their tents the temperature in my own began to skyrocket. Soon, it was more than my hungover little head could bear and so I followed everyone down to the beach for some more swimming. Throwing the frisbee and nerf ball around in the cold water helped the hangover a little, so Colin and I decided to fire up the BBQ again and get our breakfast on. This time we'd remembered to pack a frying pan (and therefore didn't need to cook our eggs in the torn off bottoms of Asahi beer cans ala Beach Party last weekend) and got to cooking the bacon, eggs and toast that we'd had the foresight to bring along. I'm not sure whether the bacon and egg sandwich really helped my cause though, for shortly after I was ready for a nap and happily crawled into the "bang van" alongside Sarah for some sunshine dozing in the breeze.
Dozing in the "bang van" the day after - image courtesy of Ayumi A.
At about midday we were ready to call it a success, so Greg and I began packing the car to head home. We said our goodbyes to the cool Kagawa crew, promising to catch up again soon and headed off in the direction of Maccas for a greasy pick-me-up before crawling into bed for the afternoon. All in all, it was an amazing weekend spent with some really chilled out, no bullshit kinda people. It was lovely to relax and let my guard down and just be myself and have fun for a day or two. I'm definitely looking forward to the next catch up with Kristin, Sarah and crew!
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