[Backpacking Shelter] Record of a two-day trip with CLASS EXPOSITIONS, one-night trip with Kitamura, Part 1 [Garage brand visit]
"Our mission is to create beautiful things"
Do you know any brands that are currently producing outdoor gear based on this concept?
The name of the event is CLASS EXPOSITIONS, which translates to class exhibitions. The origin of this name will be explained in a later post
Previous visit
After leaving the town of Chino, mountain equipment, and Cafe Eight Door behind and spending the night, we head to where Kitamura, the representative of CLASS EXPOSITIONS, is waiting for us
And then we arrived at the atelier. This may come as a surprise, but this was the trigger for my visit today, and it's the piece of gear that I'm personally paying close attention to: the Backpacking Shelter! To be honest, it's amazingly functional. I'll save the detailed details for the final installment of this report
Takeshi the representative of CLASS EXPOSITIONS. He's young! But he's so reliable, I'm dizzy at how useless he is now compared to when I was younger (wry smile).
And her smile is wonderful
I met Kitamura at THE FLAPPERLAND DOORS, an outdoor event held annually in Nagatoro Town, Saitama Prefecture
Official website : http://flapperland-doors.com/
Going back a year, they had a booth at the Spring 2023 event, and at the time I wasn't affiliated with Geargin yet, so I just happened to drop by the venue and found it. The shelter on display was a tiny square pyramid-shaped shelter that looked like it was for dogs, and when I asked them how to use it, they replied that you just sleep in a "U" shape, which I remember being thrilled by (lol)
A long time later, a strange coincidence led to this visit
The studio is also very well organized, which I was impressed by
Without going into too much detail, we decided to head to a nearby mountain, so we quickly looked up a mountain range that we could easily reach and headed there
In between, we were also shown some one-off items that had been made in the past but are not currently planned for commercialization
And we arrived at the bottom of a certain mountain, just over an hour from the atelier
I'll just do a little preparation and let's go!
After about 30 minutes, I was exhausted from the long distance travel and hard work that had been going on for days, and I collapsed. I kept taking short breaks, wondering if I could move, but it seemed impossible, so I gave up
We were almost at the summit, so I asked Kitamura to go and I headed down the mountain
The photo from the summit that Kitamura-san gave me looks like it was quite beautiful. However, as long as you're alive, there are plenty of opportunities, so don't push yourself too hard on the mountains
Once again, I was saved by Kitamura-san's smile, but I managed to make up for this pitiful feeling later on by taking a full-scale two-day, one-night hike using a backpacking shelter, separate from this series of events. I will report on this later, so please look forward to it!
After a disappointing descent, we went to a hot spring, drenched in sweat as the end of the still-hot summer of 2024 came to an end
After thoroughly washing off the sweat here, Kitamura had arranged for us to go to a campsite on the mountain that we could reach by car, so we spent the night there receiving a lecture on backpacking shelters
The full picture will be revealed little by little next time, so please continue to stay tuned!
To the second part
Yans
A person who has grown into a gear lover and finally ended up writing on Gear Gin. He has been a tough gear enthusiast and loves modifying and making his own gear, and also loves outdoor events. We would like to place emphasis on brand exploration and shop reviews.
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