The last weekend in July, I went to Fuji Rock – a 3-day music festival in Japan. The old me probably wouldn’t have been for it, but the new me is like, why not. I have pretty daggy taste in music so I’m usually not the best companion for music festivals.
Fuji Rock is held over 3-days on the ski slope mountains of Naeba. The proper experience is to camp there for the 3 days which we did. Although some friends stayed at lodgings instead.
Had read a lot of stuff online about the crowds and traffic to get there.
With the first day of the festival kicking off on Friday (took the day off work), we decided to leave on Thursday night after work. We got the bullet train to Echigo Yuzawa that left Tokyo after 8pm. And we were at Echigo before 9:30pm. We braced ourselves for the crowd outside Echigo Yuzawa station but it wasn’t so bad.
We lined up for the free shuttle bus that takes you to the Fuji Rock site. We only had to wait about 15 minutes. So far so good. Boarded the free bus. The bus ride was kinda long. About 45minutes.
Upon arrival at the site, we exchanged our tickets for wrist bands and got our camp wrist bands and set off in search for a spot to pitch our tents. Mind you, the campsite was on a ski slope so you were a little hardpressed to find flat ground, especially since a lot of people got there on Thursday during the day. It was now close to 11pm and we had to pitch up our tents. Our spot was on a slight slope, but it wasn’t too bad. Weren’t able to get a shady spot either. Highly recommend a spot under trees if possible. We ended up roasting every morning. By 7am it was a sauna in the tents in the blazing summer heat and humidity. We were literally smoked out of our tents come sunrise.
As we were traipsing around at night in search of a tent spot, I saw Mick Jagger!!! My only regret of the weekend was not getting a photo with him. I turned to my friend and said “I swear to God that looks like Mick Jagger”. Friend turned around and said “It sounds like Mick Jagger”. Holy crap, it is Mick Jagger. He was with another ageing rocker friend. He even spoke At me. Something to the effect of ” fark, look at her, she’s got a head torch”. Yes, ever so practical me was wearing a head torch. 11pm at a campsite trying to pitch a tent.
We were laden down with big packbacks, tents, bags etc wandering through a campsite. It was not the time for selfies for Mick Jagger. #bigregret. Oh well.
Tents assembled. Try to get some sleep.
I love my tent: Best 40 buks ever spent.
But I did have some tent envy:
Coolest tent ever:
This was probably the not-so-coolest tent ever:
I’d say it was pretty baaaad (see what I did there):
This tent on the other hand, had a more “homely” feel to it:
Tents galore on the Naeba ski slopes:
Friday – Day 1 of Fuji Rock, was looking to be a beautiful day. Fuji Rock is notorious for bad weather. Rain and downpour is the norm.
Free water and sink facilities:
Everything rocks. Even the lockers!
Fuji + Rocks = Fuji Rock!
There’s a helluva lot of people that attend Fuji Rock. Literally tens of thousands. But it was such a well-organised event with such a cool chilled vibe.
It’s a joke-free zone:
And perfect weather for it:
The men’s facilities:
There are several stages and it’s a bit of a hike between them. About 30min walk through forest and trail to get to some of them. A lot of walking was done that weekend.
Weather was so hot. But there was a beautiful stream river where people could cool off and chill out.
It got really crowded here over the day:
This guy totally had the right idea:
Highlight act of the day was….
The festival featured cool music and also some great food.
Paella:
Got to have me a meat pie: So good.
Butter chicken:
Pancakes:
(Note: this was consumed over the three days, not in one sitting).
Weiner lollipop, anyone?
Or perhaps, you prefer this:
(A mis-translation of “Dragon Tacos”)
All kinds of good imaginable – ramen, pizza, green curry, lamp chops, hamburgers, fish and chips, and beer, lots of beer.
And everyone BYO’s chairs. We missed that memo.
Complete with cup holder and canopy: The Rolls Royce of picnic chairs.
The Blue Mile:
Plenty of bad iPhone shots taken:
Day 1 of Fuji Rock was a lotta fun. But hella tiring. Feel like I had aged a hundred years. Hell of a lot of walking, and being around in the sun. And so much walking and being on your feet and then a few hours sleeping in a tent. Hadn’t had a shower in over 24 hours either so was feeling major skanky. Get to do this all over again the next day.
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