Driving along Sandridge Road, on the southern end of the Long Beach Peninsula, you might notice a building unlike any of the houses surrounding it. It’s sleek and modern — all sharp corners and clean lines — but in an understated sort of way.

The construction is wood and glass and concrete. The color scheme is black and amber, against which the signage, in a white, serif font, really pops: snow peak / CAMPFIELD / Long Beach. Beside the text, an asterisk-like logo calls to mind a minimalistic snowflake.

If you pull over out of curiosity and inquire at the front desk, you might learn that the building’s siding wasn’t painted black. Rather, it was burnt in a centuries-old Japanese process of hardening and preserving wood known as “yakisugi.” “Yaki” — charred. “Sugi” — cypress.

You might learn that Snow Peak itself is a decades-old Japanese outdoors brand and maker of high-end camping gear, and that the company first entered the U.S. market in Portland, where it still has a flagship store.

You will certainly be invited to explore the rest of the 25-acre property, which used to be a run-down RV park.

Four years and $20 million worth of construction and wetland restoration later, it has become a campground unlike any other in the country — a manifestation, like several other Campfield locations in Japan and Korea, of Snow Peak’s vision for a more open and communal way of spending time outside.

The camp store combines a cafe, taproom, mini-market and outdoor store into a single space where guests and the general public alike can gather and relax.

The ofuro spa, modeled after a traditional Japanese bathhouse, is similarly available to both overnight guests and day-pass-holding visitors.

Its heated, deep-walled tub is covered but open to the elements, so that while you soak, you can still hear wind, rain and wildlife — still see rows of alders lining the creek that flows through the middle of the grounds.

The most private and luxurious way to stay at Campfield Long Beach is to book one of the jyubako, which translates literally to “living box.”

These minimalistic, tiny cabins, which come outfitted with a kitchenette, queen-size bed, living area and shower, are Snow Peak’s way of bringing the comforts of home outdoors and demonstrating that its wares are as elegant as they are functional.

But the tent sites are perhaps even more emblematic of the company’s ethos, which holds that the outdoors are a place of communion — not just with nature, but with each other.

At Campfield Long Beach, Snow Peak wants you to visit with your neighbors and not just your closest friends or family. To embrace the idea that nature is most restorative when you don’t just escape to it independently, but rather exist within it communally.

There are two kinds of tent sites available — field sites where you can pitch your own tent, or tent suites that come outfitted with a Snow Peak sleeping shelter and a full camp kitchen. And everything about the design of both is intended to encourage free-flowing interaction.

For one, they are placed much closer together than in typical campgrounds, with little to delineate the boundaries between them. Additionally, there are no spaces for cars. You park in the lot out front, and then cart all your supplies into the campground.

And to get anywhere, you have to walk directly past neighboring tent sites, which Snow Peak hopes encourages you to stop and chat. Or even better: to pull up a chair for “takibi” — bonfire — time. Each site has a complimentary fire pit and table-and-chair set for this very purpose, and additional “takibi” kits can be rented for an enhanced campfire cooking experience.

If all this sounds different from your typical camping experience, that’s because it is.

There are grittier, cheaper and less curated ways of getting outside, if that’s what you’re looking for. But Campfield Long Beach is its own thing. It’s refined but still subtle. Organized, but still organic. It’s distinctly Japanese, but doesn’t clash with its Pacific Northwest environs either.

Since it opened in mid-June, guests from all over the United States and Canada have visited, drawn by the brand’s values and heritage.

All of which is to say: if you visit, chances are you’ll meet somebody new, from somewhere far away. You’ll spend time with them outside and in close quarters, around the fire and beneath the stars.

Snow Peak Campfield Long Beach

Snow Peak Campfield

Camp store hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Ofuro spa is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Offerings include a camp store and cafe for sundries, Japanese groceries and beverages, coffee, beer and outdoor gear; the ofuro spa, with a soaking pool, sauna, and cold plunge; and wash house with private showers, restrooms and a sink station

www.snowpeakcampfield.com