Houjo Auto Campsite - Campsite

The office staff member was a really nice guy and very helpful. The campsite itself is clean and well equipped, with a washing machine, dryer, and gas cookers. But the location made my stay difficult: there’s a building site next door for a future freeway overpass, and highway trucks go by around the clock. It’s seriously noisy, bring earplugs. Maybe it’ll improve once the overpass is done and trucks no longer have to stop and accelerate.

The showers unfortunately weren’t working, though the bathrooms were quite clean. Still, it’s a beautiful place to camp among the pine trees right by the beach, with a fresh udon restaurant and a vegetable market on site. It reminded me of France.

I stayed at auto-camping site 27. The beach is within walking distance and has wonderful views, and sites 25-27 are handy for the toilets. The grounds are spacious, with a sink, power, and parking at each site, so pitching a tent is easy. Management is excellent, although check-in starts a little late, at 3 PM. There are plenty of other campers, which felt reassuring. Still, road noise from the national highway was a significant drawback for me, and the sea’s waves sound artificially muted, which I couldn’t understand in such a nice setting. Trash disposal costs 100 yen per person.

The sandy ground makes pegs come loose, so bring extras and try driving them in at an angle to make a V. I used two extra guy-line pegs and four main pegs for the tent’s main poles. At 8m/s, the wind felt a bit dangerous and blew the tent sides away. The windmills can also be loud in strong wind, and that’s the one thing I’d take points off for. We stayed during Golden Week, when it was cold, with a low of 8 degrees Celsius, but there were no insects. The stars among the pine trees were beautiful, and you can dispose of rubbish there. At the auto-camping sites, the power outlets come down from inside a box, so the outlets themselves are sheltered from rain and less likely to short out. Just keep the extension cord out of the rain.