Volume 13　アウトドアの楽しみ


Outdoor Activities

Ann Slater: Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of Cultural Crossroads for July. This is Ann . . .

Michael Rhys: And this is Mike.

Ann: And we're very glad to be with you again. So Mike . . .

Michael: Yes.

Ann: Our topic for this month: outdoor activities. What do you think about that?

Michael: OK, well to be honest with you, m-I have a preference for outdoor inactivity.

Ann: Ah.

Michael: I'm not a very active person but I do like to be outdoors, and especially this time of year.

Ann: Not too hot for you?

Michael: Not too, I love the heat.

Ann: Oh, that's right.

Michael: I do love the heat in Japan. But in the U.K. as well, this time of year is a beautiful time as we've talked before. The days are very, very long. So it doesn't get dark till 9, 9:30 at night. So you've got that wonderful long day where you can do lots and lots of things. But me, I prefer to just lie in the grass and enjoy the sun. How about you?

Ann: Well, let's see. I, thinking about when we were growing up, we did quite a lot of things. I think partly because it was in California, which has the climate, and it never really gets that cold, and where I lived it didn't snow. So we did things like, uh, in the winter we would go cross-country skiing. And at some point, I do remember doing snow camping, which I don't really ever care to repeat, ha-ha.

Michael: Ha-ha.

Ann: It was cross-country skiing all day and then camping at night. Have you ever camped in the snow?

Michael: No. Never, never, never. But we would always go camping when I was growing up, and I have lots of memories of camping. And camping in the U.K., back then at least, was pretty basic. You didn't have all of the facilities you have now. It was like, "Where's the toilet?" "It's over there behind that bush." You know, that's very, very simple. But we loved it as kids. And now I have a tent, so my family, we like to go camping. But it's not quite the same in Japan. 

Ann: Why?

Michael: Well, they like to have all, all the amenities that you have. The toilets are there. There's the shops where you can get all your supplies. There's all the, the running water. There's . . .

Ann: You're not roughing it?

Michael: You're not roughing it, and that's not camping.

Ann: Although I imagine with small children it may be easier, ha-ha.

Michael: It makes it, ha-ha, it does make it a bit easier certainly. But when the kids are older then it'll be nice to go and find a, a slightly more remote and, uh, little out-of-the-way place and take them camping.