A Must-Read for Camping Beginners! Two Carefully Selected Gear Items I Wish I'd Bought Sooner
Hello everyone. This is Tsugui from WAITER-U.
I manage a cafe in Shimokitazawa that resembles a campsite. In this program, I'd like to encourage those who want to start camping but don't know where to begin, or are worried if they can truly camp alone, spend a night, and return safely. I want to reassure you that there's no need to worry.
Today, drawing from my experience since I started camping around 2020-21, almost four years ago, I'll introduce two gear items that I wish I had bought from the beginning. In other words, these are carefully selected items that would have saved me redundant purchases and unnecessary expenses if I had bought them first.
Essential Camping Gear
The basic equipment needed for camping is as follows:
- Camping chair
- Table
- Sleeping bag
- Cot (placed under the sleeping bag)
- Tent
- Fire pit
- Cooler box
- Lantern
With these, you can enjoy basic camping. After that, you can move on to improving efficiency or upgrading your cooking tools.
1. Camping Chair (Helinox Chair One)
Among the basic gear, the first item I want to introduce is a camping chair.
Initially, I used inexpensive chairs, but the problem with cheap products was that while they were easy to assemble, they often required "unnecessary effort."
Camping chairs typically consist of assembling wired poles and attaching the fabric seat to the vertical poles. You complete it by hooking all four corners, but I often experienced that while the first three corners went smoothly, the fourth one required a lot of pulling force.
The Helinox Chair One completely resolved this issue for me.
Helinox is a well-established, top-tier high-end brand in the camping chair industry. At just under 20,000 yen, the price is not cheap, but after trying various inexpensive products, I found that buying this one from the start and using it for a long time was ultimately more economical than arriving at it after many trials.
Helinox's strengths:
- No unnecessary effort needed for assembly
- Extremely durable
- Comfortable to sit on
- High-end brand's meticulous seat manufacturing
If you're buying now, I recommend purchasing a Chair One or Chair Two and using it for a long time.
2. Cot (Helinox)
The second item is also a Helinox product: a cot. This is a raised bed that you place under your sleeping bag, serving a role similar to a mattress for a bed.
The reason I recommend it is the same as the chair: its "ease of assembly." Because it doesn't require unnecessary force, not only is assembly easy, but tidying up is also extremely simple.
When tidying up becomes easy, camping becomes dramatically more enjoyable. Especially when you're cleaning up with a hangover from the night before, this difference is very noticeable.
About the Helinox Brand
Today, I recommended two Helinox products, so I'd like to briefly explain this brand.
Helinox was not originally a brand that made camping goods. It has a history of being a Korean brand that manufactured aluminum frames, which form the core of their products, and then applied their lightweight and strong technology to camping gear.
Initially, I thought Helinox was a French brand due to its name, but after researching, I found out it's a Korean brand.
The Appeal of Korean Camping Gear
Currently, Korean camping gear is attracting a lot of attention. There are many stylish, sophisticated, durable, and high-quality brands.
On social media, especially Instagram camping accounts, I often see posts using Korean hashtags (camping in Korean). Korean brands are currently very strong in the camping gear industry and continue to grow.
Even when I started camping around 2021, many people were already saying, "This Korean stove is great."
I would like to research more about Korean camping styles and overseas camping trends in the future. My impression is that they enjoy camping in relatively well-equipped environments, but I believe the best way to camp is in a way that makes you feel comfortable and happy.
In Closing
In this program, I will continue to regularly talk about camping-related stories, events that happen at The Camping Lounge Waiter U in Shimokitazawa, and trending topics.
Thank you for your continued support. See you next time.
