"Yuru Camp" drama: Episode five recap

 

 Air Dates: January 9th to March 26, 2020 on TV-Tokyo, Thursday nights at 12:25 am

Subs were mostly done by EcoTV but another team did at least the first show, you'll notice the font difference and the title roughly translates over to laid back camp.

Main Cast: We'll seldom see anyone besides these five, had only watched the first two episodes before writing the character info so may edit things as time goes on. The setting is Nanbu in Yamanashi prefecture which is a little over thirty miles away from Mt. Fuji. Like so amy dramas it's based upon a manga and anime.

 Haruka Fukuhara as Rin Shima.... Main star of the show and she's an avid camper. However she has only done it alone as she'd rather not have others spoil her fun. So instead of joining the Outdoor Club at high school Rin is in the library club but that may not last for much longer.

 Yuno Ohara as Nadeshiko Kagamihara.... New girl at high school but had met Rin a few days before her first day. Nadeshiko had no clue about camping until meeting her but quickly became such a fanatic and joined the Outdoor Club on her first day at school.

 Momoko Tanabe as Chiaki Ogaki ... President of the Outdoor Club who had just two members until Nadeshiko joined. They weren't much of a camping club until then and it's located in a very tiny room until they can get to five members.

 Yumena Yanai as Aoi Inuyama.... The other member of the Outdoor Club. To date they've never taken a camping trip but do have various equipment, they spend most of their days burning leaves and keeping the school grounds tidy.

 Sara Shida as Ena Saito.... Rin's best friend who in these first few shows doesn't show much interest in camping though does love nature and animals. She is one kawaii young woman!!!!

 Once again my current drama selection is a semi oldie but once again the subs weren't completed until well after the series finished. Someone had started the project and subbed the first show, worst ones I've ever seen. But eventually it was picked up and am so glad as Haruka is one of my top faves and try to watch all of her dramas.  This is the second part of a story, noticed they've been happening in an odd way, say episode's four and five versus three and four if that makes sense. But for the most part shows tend to be stand alone ones, may help to read previous recaps though it's not essential.

 Want to add in all of this 'action' is real as the cast did travel to Yamanashi to shoot the drama as you can tell by the screenshots and they did actually camp overnight many times.

 This will pick up from the last recap which was of two separate outings, one with Rin who I'll get to later but to lead off it's the first camping trip for the school's Outing Club. That's comprised of the trio above, from left to right is Aoi, Chiako and Nadeshiko, kind of odd that's always the order when the three are in a screenshot. For their first camping trip the location was the Hottarakashi camp grounds which was quite close to their home. Didn't start off as much of a camping trip as the first thing the gals did when they were close to arriving was to treat themselves to some yummy ice cream. With there still being 2 km. to go before making it to the camp site there was another diversion for the trio.

 That was of the area's famed Onsen(hot spring) which you can see in the top screenshot though it did have a nice view of Mt. Fuji, they're about thirty miles from it. Did seem as camping was the least of their intentions as after that there was another diversion... this time to eat Deep Fried Eggs and that's a dish I've never seen before but did look so delicious. But after lounging in a hot bath and devouring food what usually happens is you fall fast asleep which is what occurred and looked like the girls would miss making it to their camp site. But they were saved by Rin who had made a call to Nadeshiko, it was approaching 4:00 pm and the Outing Club needed to get it into high gear. Which to their credit happened, that bottom screenshot is of them at the camp site which overlooked their home town.

 Once again for a trip Nadshiko brought her trusty hot pot and she can make anything with it. The main meal for the club was three different kinds of curry, hard to tell in screenshots but when they eat together it's a bit hilarious. But with their late arrival there wasn't much time to do much else so it was off to bed and the girls were able to erect two tents with very few problems. Two tents but none wanted to sleep alone so they were packed like sardines in one but that didn't work out so well. It was chosen that Nadeshiko would take the empty tent but she just couldn't sleep as to her it was too early. So she ended up texting her new best friend(!) Rin for a while and soon the pair were up and about. Both began sending each other pics of the local area but of course to Rin she knows what her hometown looks like.

 So on to Rin's adventure which was once again a solo one, her travels brought her to Nagano. That's about sixty miles from Yamanashi and for that trip Rin had to ditch her bike and use a motor scooter. In Nagano the destination for Rin was the Quasi National Park which overlooked Yatsugatake lake, I have been learning about so many locations and the country's geography. But to Rin's dismay it was past the peak time for camping so the main office and hot springs were closed but that wasn't going to stop her from camping outdoors. Nagano is 139 miles from Tokyo though on a map it looks closer, in dramas all we ever see is the huge metropolis but there's much more to Japan than that city.

 The entire drama was shot on location and there have been some impressive views as you can see above. Rin may be a semi expert at camping but one thing to date she hated to do was cook. For the two outings the only dinner food she brought was instant noodles but was bailed out the second time by Nadeshiko. This time around though Rin is going all out and will make her first regular meal and not really sure if it had a name. What Rin created was a pot of pasta, meat, vegetables, sauce and a few other ingredients. Rin did mention something I would have not thought of which is that food needs to be cooked longer the higher in elevation you are, the mountain she was on overlooking Nagano was close to a mile high.

 Rin's first attempt as making a regular meal for a camping trip was a rousing success and she had wished she had made more as it was so delicious. It's about the third week of November so of course he days were much shorter, Rin had walked a long way up the mountain so like the Outing Club girls she decided to turn in earlier than usual. She too couldn't sleep and though Nadeshiko was such a 'weirdo' the first few times they met these days Rin is often pleased to hear from her. That's what happened as mentioned above as Nadeshiko sent Rin a few messages and before long the pair were taking pics of their locations though to me they looked so much better in the daylight. An episode is just 23 minutes in length and that final scene wrapped up the fifth show.

 Every episode is just a tad better than the previous one and I'm truly enjoying this series. Was lagging on viewing the episodes as it took a week to watch the first pair but now in two days have viewed four. Once again didn't take that many screenshots but that didn't mean things weren't interesting for they were and if this fun pace keeps up it'll end up being one of my top dramas for 2020.