We stayed at the Asobuba Shiraoi campsite for our first night of our 2 week road trip around Hokkaido. As we hired a campervan we didn’t necessarily expect to stay much at campsites. However, as this was our first night we wanted to be eased into van life! As our trip began around the start of the Obon holidays we booked this campsite in advance.
Cost
We booked on the Nap site which was cheaper than booking direct. The total cost for an auto site was ¥6,500 and on the official website it would have been ¥8,000. You need to be careful because a lot of campsites charge for the site itself and then extra for each person. In this case, the official website charges ¥4,000 per vehicle and ¥2,000 per person so it would have been ¥8,000.
Power vs No Power
This site didn’t have access to power which we would come to realise makes a bit difference! As our van had AC we didn’t really think about needing power. However, without being connected to power the AC would only run for max 3 hours on a full battery. Which of course wouldn’t last the whole night. So we tried wherever possible to get a space with power. Although that wasn’t always so easy.
In the Japanese summer it became quite hot at night. So AC was invaluable. We could often sleep fine with the windows open if there was a breeze. But we soon realised it was much more comfortable with AC! We preferred to use the upper bunk which allowed us to all sleep together but as it was in the roof hot air rises and without AC it was really hard to sleep up there!
Facilities
The campsite has flushing toilets and showers which were very clean and nice, probably some of the nicest of the trip. The showers also looked great although as we had just arrived we didn’t use them.
There was also a shop onsite that you could buy things that you may have forgotten about or ran out of such as charcoal, firelights and even beers and some food. There was a small childrens playground also which was perfect for those with kids and there was so much space to just walk around with your dog it was really nice, if not for the weather.
The site we were given was A6 which happened to be the furthest away from the toilets and the showers. Whilst we did have a toilet in the van, it wasn’t plumbed in, so it was pretty much a bag in the toilet that you had to dispose of. So wherever possible we’d always prefer to use a flushing toilet. So for us, this campsite wasn’t really the best. Given that it was raining heavily it wasn’t very pleasant walking so far to the toilets.
As it was raining heavily we didn’t really get a chance to explore the campsite. There was a river running nearby that would have been nice to explore. However, we didn’t get a chance to. So I guess it’s hard to fully rate this campsite fairly. There wasn’t many people at this campsite either, which given the Obon holidays was surprising. Maybe only about 4 or 5 other sets of campers.
Conclusion
Given some of the other campsites we stayed at during our trip, this was one of the most expensive and we didn’t even get power. There was nothing that stood out that made it worth the extra money, so for that reason I would have to rate the Asobabu Shiraoi campsite quite low.
You can check out all the other campsites I stayed at during my trip on my Hokkaido roadtrip page here. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Woof woof, Wylie x
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