When you are handed a piece of juicy, crispy chicken on a stick, dripping delicious tare or sprinkled with shio, no good manners are expected. In Japan, the land where cleanliness and order is revered, having a hearty meal of yakitori can be soul repairing.

The morning sun and the humidity forced us to wake up before 8 am on a Sunday. We came out of the tent and as we stepped out barefooted into the wet grass, we were welcomed by vistas of lush green mountains, the scent of the ocean in the air, and an army of multicolored tents whose residents, like us, had come to spend a long weekend at Nijima.