I was in Japan once, and I camped in about five degrees [Celsius] or two degrees at night, or maybe less. All around, it was just snow, and inside my tent, the ice formed –the kind of snow(flake) flower ice – all over inside the tent. Beautiful! Maybe I wasn’t equipped enough. I didn’t have a sleeping bag. I just used a normal Japanese blanket, the cover? Cotton cover or something like that – thick but not warm enough, not insulating enough. Maybe it wasn’t a very good idea, but I survived for one or two weeks – two weeks something.
It was just a really happy time. So even then, afterward we had land, we had more stable tents, more stable land, more stable caves, or a more stable house even, I never felt as happy.
In case you do that in the forest anywhere, you have to use a big, clear area. And always water afterward to extinguish any hot coals underneath until no more smoke’s coming out of that, under the ash; then you know it’s gone. Otherwise, sometimes it’s just a little coal underneath, and then it will glow more and more, and then glowing, then it will fly away, and then the forest can be burnt in no time. You better be careful.
Water and wood – that’s all we need, really. You can keep warm by that, and you can cook, you can wash yourself. Or just go without food, then it’s fine, but it will be a little more boring. The whole day… whole day, not much to do. Wow, it was so nice! Maybe one day it will happen again. Who knows?