The final Yuru Camp for a while starts on a somewhat foreboding note, as Chiaki, restless on her first night of solo camping, has to pee, but hears rustling sounds outside and fears it’s a bear. Last month when I was camping in California, it definitely sucked leaving the warmth and relative safety of the tent to relieve myself, but at least I was rewarded by a truly stunning view of the Milky Way in the sky.
Chiaki may be all alone at the campground, but Aoi checks in via a link to a webcam of one of the mountain fire symbols. She shoots the breeze with Chiaki, who discovered that the rustling was from cats, to her relief (and relief). There’s a coziness even to the expansive vista Aoi is treated to, thanks to the contrast between the calm lights in the distance and the brighter street lamps.
In the morning, Chiaki is joined by everyone else, including Aoi’s sister Akari and Toba-sensei, who has brought both marinated lamb and pork for jingisukan yakiniku, which is supposedly the perfect meal for cherry blossom viewing. She also took a little risk and bought some frog meat, which the girls make into karaage so it looks less like frog. It tastes like chicken, but they’d also have preferred chicken.
Hey, frog isn’t for everyone. I know; it’s not for me! That said, I have had snails, alligator, and even emu before. As for the yakiniku, when Aoi and Akari taste the lamb jingisukan , it tastes unfamiliar, while the pork jingisukan tastes exactly like their grandmothers. Aoi calls her gran in a panic, and her gran confesses—their family has always used pork, not lamb. Will Aoi and Akari ever learn to trust their family again? That’s for another Yuru Camp!
Once the food is scarfed down and the dishes are cleaned, the camp girls bundle up in their cozy-looking patterned blankets, put their lanterns together to illuminated the cherry blossoms from below, and lie together on a tarp for some night viewing.
They take some photos, then compare their favorite cherry blossom photos from their phones. At first everyone is confused by Nadeshiko’s photo of a tree with no blossoms, but she keeps swiping to reveal she’s taken a photo of the same tree since March, including when it finally exploded with pink blossoms.
Everyone shuffles off to their tents to sleep, and when Nadeshiko emerges yawning and dreary-eyed, Rin is already up, and offers her a mug of cocoa. Mornings just might be my favorite part of camping, and this scene illustrates why; it’s just so calm and serene.
Rin is still trying to find the right time to invite Nadeshiko camping, but Nadeshiko beats her to it, asking her where they’re going next. Ultimately it doesn’t matter who asks who, there’s no keeping these girls from camping together. And when everyone’s back to school, Nadeshiko, Chiaki, and Aoi are eager to recruit new members and make the OutClub official.
With all that material for future episodes, there’s no reason Yuru Camp can’t just keep going on. I also realized that they’re merely second-years, not third-years, so there’s still plenty of time for these resourceful camp girlies to build the club and experience more of the great outdoors together. I eagerly await their return.
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