First the characters are really interesting, and cute. The show is really funny, and cute. But most importantly, it's really informative, and cute!
This post is not a review of Yuru Camp, but a talk about the power of anime, and in this case, the selling power of anime.
As you all know, I live in japan now, so I can see first hand how Yuru Camp has affected people here, but I can't say how it affected people outside of japan, so this post is only about Japan. I also have no numbers to base this on, this is all speculations from what I personally observed, from people directly, or on twitter from many Otaku groups, as well as from asking people in Yamanashi directly (and also some from other people asking, in other blog/reddit posts).
Very often, anime have at least 1 product that they put forward in one way or another, you can think about Lucky Star and the Choco Cornet, Shakugan no Shana and the Melonpan, Naruto and the ramen, this can also be an activity, like Amanchu and diving, K-On! and music, and of course, Yuru Camp and camping. Sometimes these are chosen randomly, just as a thing to help identify with the character, but sometime they are made specifically as promotion for the item/activity, and this is the case with Yuru Camp. But in Yuru Camp's case, the product isn't camping, it's the Yamanashi prefecture. Yuru Camp is a Yamanashi prefecture advertisement, and it's the best advertisement ever. When created, the Yamanashi residents were asked by the tourism board to scout for locations and places of interest, to show the beauty of the prefecture.
The tourism board even has a special website and a map up for people who want to visit all the locations from the anime.
This advertisement worked, a lot. The only numbers I have are from the lake Shimarin and Nadeshiko meet at in the first episode, their visitors tripled because of the anime.
On twitter you can see Otakus from everywhere going to camp for the first time, and obviously the location of choice is the Yamanashi prefecture. Groups of Otaku from Oarai (mainly GuP fans) were seen posting on twitter pictures of themselves with brand new camping gear, camping in Yamanashi, eating at the restaurants in the prefecture, and eating the manjuu from the anime. Same things from the Washinomiya fans(lucky star fans). This anime reached a lot of Otaku, it's super popular, it got people into camping, and since camping is the perfect activity for moving to another prefecture, it got people to go to Yamanashi and spend money there.
Of course, myself being an Otaku with absolutely 0 will power, I bought for about 1000$ in camping gear, and started camping because of Yuru Camp. And of course, I did a camping trip to Yamanashi, and went around the locations of the anime. This is my blog, and this is the kind of post I do, sio here's my own report on my Yuru Camp Camping trip!
Me and a friend (who had not actually seen Yuru Camp, but I still convinced to come camp with me anyway) left from Tokyo Saturday morning, destination Fumotoppara camping site, in Yamanashi, Where Rin and Nadeshiko share a nabe in episode 2 and 3.
It's a 4 hours drive (avoiding the highway because fuck the overpriced tolls in japan) and I took my motorcycle to go there, while my friend rented a car. 4 hours on a Bike is a bit much so we planned a couple of stops along the way, first one being the Suwa shrine in Aonohara.
It's a nice little shrine, but I wouldn't really recommend anyone to go out of their way to go see it.
Next stop we planned was at Lake Yamanaka, but we actually stopped in the middle of the Doushi Road, at a driver's rest place, filled with motorcycle. We didn't plan for this, but the Doushi Road is actually a famous scenic view that is really fun to ride trough on bike, with lots of nice turns and a super cool view. There was a lot of people on motorcycles there, was pretty cool. I actually filmed parts of my ride, it's a pretty long video, you can just skim trough it to check if there's anything you'd like to see. Lots of interesting sceneries, the Doushi Road part starts at 15:14.
Next stop was at Lake Yamanaka, unfortunately there were clouds over Mt. Fuji, but the view was still really nice.
Next stop was in a Houtou restorant. Houtou is the meal that Ogaki prepares to Nadeshico and her family when Nadeshiko is sick. It's a Yamanashi specialty. The shop I went to had bear Houtou, so I tried this. It was delicious!
Finally the next and last stop of the day was Fumotoppara's camping ground. Once we got there, it had been raining a bit, so the camp was pretty soggy, and there were clouds all the time we were there preventing us from seeing the Mt. Fuji. It was still a pretty nice camp, super big, toilets are nice, clean, and in relative proximity of everyone. Running water near every camp spaces. There's nothing really to see except for Mt. Fuji there though, so nothing much to visit.
Because my friend was camping for the first time, he had no camping gear, he planned to rent it at the camp, but all their rental items were already handed out. So we had to getho camp, and he slept in his car, we also had to do a weird setup with a picnic tarp to cover the rain, but it was still really relaxing and a lot of fun.
We ended up making some curry while watching Yuru Camp on my tablet.
On the morning of the next day, my friend had to go back to Tokyo because he had to bring back the rental car. So I stayed in Yamanashi and did a visit of a couple of the locations from the anime. I used the map provided by the Yamanashi Tourism Board on the website I linked to before. The map also has other interesting points of the region like restaurants and onsens. I met a lot of other people doing the pilgrimage while going around too. was pretty cool.
First stop was Utsubuna station, the station that Nadeshiko uses to commute to school.
Around the station was a super good yakisoba restaurant (recommended on the map) which was also super cheap!
Next stop was the Manjuu shop where Nadeshio, Ogaki and Aoi go after going to an outdoor shop (the outdoor shop itself doesn't have a real model from what I understand).
The manjuu was delicious, and the staff at the shop was super nice. went to the bench where the girl ate their manjuu too, but it was too hot so I just ate mine inside the shop haha.
Next stop was The supermarket where Aoi works, next to the Liquor store where Ogaki works. The liquor store seemed like there was no store in the building, but the supermarket was as in the anime.
Next stop was the School used as the model for the School the girls go to in the anime. I went from memory on which spot to take pictures of, and I didn't go pass the gate. Apparently the school is closed now, so I should have went inside maybe...
The last stop of this trip was the first camp in episode 1, where Nadeshiko and Rin meet for the first time. I couldn't go on the beatch itself since there was some kind of event and I wasn't there to camp. I'll be sure to go camp there next time. They still let me on the camp site after I asked nicely and was able to get some nice pics of the place, and the most important part, I saw the toilet stall when Rin first saw Nadeshiko sleeping in the middle of the day!
That concludes my first, but certainly not last, trip to Yamanashii. Next time It'll probably be for winter camping!
The full album with all the pictures from my trip can be found here.
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