Happy Belated Ocean Day!  A couple members of my team, clients and I were stuck in the Valley of the Dragons for a couple of days!  Currently, I am leading a private Japan photo tour, that looks like it will turn into a Hokkaido photo tour in the coming days, as we are almost ready to set sail by ferry across from the mainland of Japan to Hokkaido.   At our high alpine camp in the valley of the dragons when it was not torrential raining the fog was so very-very thick that I had to tie a lifeline from our tent to the SUV.  Anyone with any knowledge of life in the backcountry will tell you “never leave your food or even toothpaste in your tent,” it might attract something worse then a Dragon, or Tengu/MothMan, you might meet up with a real live brown bear and we have lots of them in Japan.  Oh, I even think I bumped into one when photographing in the fog?  I hope you had a beautiful Ocean Day, and next year I will try and not to be stuck in one of Japans highest Alpine camping grounds off the beaten track in Akita Japan, but I will be enjoying a BBQ with my family at our Oceanside beach house as usual.  But to be honest I love camping in the torrential rains and typhoon, and that is why I only purchase four season tents, that can withstand around 150km winds (93mph.)  Currently, I use Mountain Hardwear Trango tents, they are sturdily built.  For camping stoves I recommend white gas stoves especially for cold weather, such as the MSR XGK EX Stove; I also, have one of the first WhisperLite International stoves it’s a great stove with locking legs and it can use almost any gas including diesel fuel, as with my XGK EX Stove.  But the new (WhisperLike International) does not have locking legs and I am not all that impressed by its build.  For base camp lanterns I recommend Coleman for high altitude or backpacking I recommend bees wax candles and a good headlamp such as Petzl.