Summer Camp Went to Japan and Now They're Dating

At least that's what singer Elizabeth Sankey thinks... no word on Japan's feelings for Elizabeth. Here's their Japanese tour diary.

by Elizabeth Sankey

March 13, 2014, 3:15pm

We like Summer Camp a lot. Actually, scratch that, we love them. Tyler, The Creator also has a boner for them. He's been tweeting about them for at aggges. They're a duo from London—made up of Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley—and they're in love. Where the first album, a quasi-concept album called

Welcome to Condale

sounds like the score to a forgotten John Hughes film where the nerd eventually gets the girl (duh—yay nerds!), this new record is high-def. It sparkles. Listen to their self-titled second opus (below) or watch the video for "Crazy." Speaking of the video above, Sankey plays a girl driven insane with with love. She looks good in asylum orange. The fact that Summer Camp have a sense of humor makes them even more awesome.

Sankey writes for Noisey pretty regularly. Like that time she waxed poetic about the music and style in Clueless, or that time she really got involved breaking down her love (and the music and fashion) of Empire Records. So when Summer Camp absconded to Japan recently we made her take a bunch of pictures and write about their experiences. Weirdly, even though she's married to Jeremy she started imagining Japan as a dude and began having this weird love affair with him… Like we said, asylum orange suits her.

Recently we played our first ever show in Tokyo. I'm a big fan of Japanese culture, food, fashion, and pop music (please

watch this video

, especially if you've ever wanted to see a pop star do a strawberry poop) and was slightly nervous that the city wouldn't live up to my high expectations. It was like preparing myself for a blind date with someone I'd stalked endlessly on Twitter, Facebook, and Tinder. I'd already decided we were going to be together forever and have loads of babies which was kind of unrealistic. (I don't think many people have had babies with cities. Maybe, like, one.) All of this placed a lot of pressure on my date.

Well guys, he didn't disappoint. We fell madly in love and now we're doing the long-distance relationship thing, which is very hard, but we just try and talk on the phone a lot. I just hope he isn't cheating on me. Anyway, here is a photo diary of those very special days in February. Jeremy is in some of the photos too, it's kind of a ménage a trois.

I guess the first thing I should tell you about my new love is that he's an amazing cook. This is the first meal we had together.

WAY TO MAKE AN ENTRANCE, AMIRITE?
Jeremy and I are very into the matcha/green tea flavoring thing. We started off tentatively but pretty soon we were mainlining these emerald-hued lattes daily.

And Jeremy bravely devoured some matcha ice creams despite the snow and cold climate. So brave.

The show itself was wonderful. We played at O-Nest in Shibuya, and the crowd were lovely. Shout-out to Yoshi, who gave us all flowers and beer after the first song, and also special mention to our friends who brought us gifts after the show. One girl made us a stuffed spaceship that smells of lavender and is decorated with drawings of us, a cat, and some roses. I think we can all agree that she is an awesome human being.

Here is Jeremy hanging out backstage before we played. He must have been desperate to go and tune his guitar or something. This is his, “Urgh no photos right now OKAY?!” face.

We stayed with our true love for a couple of days after the show which gave us the chance to visit Tokyo Disney Sea. I'd heard it was tremendous and can now confirm that yes, it is the best place in the entire world. It's what Belinda Carlisle was singing about all those years ago. I've been on a horrible comedown ever since we left—staying in my room, eating take out food and sobbing over vintage Disney cartoons. For a change.

Of all the theme parks in the world, it was the most expensive to build, and it shows—it's pretty darn lush. When we arrived Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, and Daffy were riding around the harbor on huge boats, wearing white and gold suits like fuckin' DONS and singing, “It's the year of happiness.” Then the volcano exploded. Yes, VOLCANO.

And this is one of the tiramisu ice cream sandwiches we bought to eat at 10am in the morning to refuel after the strenuous activity of buying our Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears. Well, Mickey Mouse woolly hat in Jeremy's case.

The entire park is pretty much perfect, but my favorite area was the section with the Little Mermaid tributes. Even if the bronze version of Ariel does look slightly freaky. Nice bewbs though.

This was also the place that two Japanese schoolgirls asked to have their photo taken with us. They couldn't have known the band, so I think it was just because they thought we were REALLY RAD. They had “Cali Girls” written on their cheeks in eyeliner.

Desperate for another dose of cartoons-inspired architecture the next day we travelled to the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka in search of the Studio Ghibli Museum. (Studio Ghibli have been making beautiful animated films since 1985, and I strongly recommend you watch all their releases.) If you know the work of Hayao Miyazaki et al then you will find Jeremy's impersonation of Totoro below highly amusing.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the museum but I will allow our faces below to act as a review of what we thought of the delights inside.

Now of course as with any new lover there are certain things about Tokyo that I find wonderfully unusual and different. It's these little quirks that make him all the more special to me.

For example the way he puts these gigantic strawberries in individual cases, and fills his food shops with these enormous, perfectly presented apples and oranges—which cost about $50 each, by the way.

I was also slightly surprised by this mural of Brian Littrel's head (he of popular vocal harmony group Backstreet Boys), painted onto a snake's body. Serpent Littrel appears to be hanging out with a dog who likes blue lipstick and an orange-eyed little bird. Which is fine.

And finally, while I completely love this splendid packaging of girls crying on each other/boys, I'm not sure how successful it is in selling what appear to be facemasks. Is the idea that wearing a face mask makes you less stressed? Actually I can see how that would work—after all it's what women are always doing in 90s rom-coms, normally while wearing slouchy socks and eating ice cream. Okay I've changed my mind, this makes total sense. See, that's the great thing about being with someone new: you learn, you grow, you evolve.

And look how babe-ing these cherry blossoms he got me are. It's not even my birthday!

As our time together drew to a close we spent a few bittersweet days walking around the city, soaking each other in. Learning each other's stories. He told me about this really cool band he's into who like to send trucks around the city playing their songs really loud. They're also very big fans of the film Goldfinger.

In return I took him to a great shop I'd discovered which was dedicated to everyone's favorite model, Barbie. Although she was weirdly camera shy for a professional. I wasn't allowed any photos inside the store. Chill out babe, you're not Beyoncé.

This was also the day Jeremy found a plant which must be related to his jacket sleeves. He was very pleased. It was a great moment for us all.

But now our amazing holiday is over and I'm back in London feeling lonely and lovelorn. What does the future hold for me and Tokyo? Will we ever see each other again? Has he moved on to someone new? Did he get my last snapchat? It says it's been delivered but he normally replies straight away. Should I have put two kisses on the end of my last text instead of six? How will Jeremy cope when we run out of our supply of green tea Kit Kats? So many emotions.

Hey, Tokyo. Call me.