Fuji Rock 2006

America has it's Lollapalooza Canada has Edgefest, Australia has Big Day Out, England has Glastonbury, Scotland has T in The Park, and Japan has FujiRock. I was fortunate enough to be living in Niigata Japan, where the biggest Japanese & international 3 day music festival takes place.

The day started nice and early with me rushing around, trying to pack my bags and catching a shink to Echigo Yuzawa station.　(One must remember that not all trains stop at Echigo-Yuzawa, in which I learnt the hard way) At the station, hundreds of people were already in line waiting for the shuttle bus up to Naeba which is an area known for it's ski resort. Even though I got there by 9am on Friday morining, from afar the side of the ski slope was already covered in thousands of tents. I must say that overnight music festivals in Japan seem to be a bit more civilized than N. American & Europeans music fests. This is not to state that they're dull here in Japan. Just cleaner and very organized. Trash is collected, almost everything is recycled, no fighting, people not claiming each other person's picnic space, and hardly any illegal activities. (I didn't say none... just hardly) Plenty of great acts to see here. And also, plenty of great international cuisine to try out as well. It's a nice change from the cuisine you find at a small Japanese city. Plenty of asian, european, and other ethnic foods. There were also a great number of Niigata JETs here as well, and we created our own little tent city. And I must thank Sam for keeping a spot for me and the two Phils.

The day started nice and early with me rushing around, trying to pack my bags and catching a shink to Echigo Yuzawa station.　(One must remember that not all trains stop at Echigo-Yuzawa, in which I learnt the hard way) At the station, hundreds of people were already in line waiting for the shuttle bus up to Naeba which is an area known for it's ski resort. Even though I got there by 9am on Friday morining, from afar the side of the ski slope was already covered in thousands of tents.

I must say that overnight music festivals in Japan seem to be a bit more civilized than N. American & Europeans music fests. This is not to state that they're dull here in Japan. Just cleaner and very organized. Trash is collected, almost everything is recycled, no fighting, people not claiming each other person's picnic space, and hardly any illegal activities. (I didn't say none... just hardly)


Plenty of great acts to see here. And also, plenty of great international cuisine to try out as well. It's a nice change from the cuisine you find at a small Japanese city. Plenty of asian, european, and other ethnic foods. There were also a great number of Niigata JETs here as well, and we created our own little tent city. And I must thank Sam for keeping a spot for me and the two Phils.

Well, here's a wee list of the few acts I was able to catch:

Akiko Yano
Anaïs
Asian Kung-Fu Generation
Blackalicious
Broken Social Scene
DJ Papa-Q
Flogging Molly
Franz Ferdinand
The Hives
JET
Junior Senior
KODO
KT Tunstall
Kula Shaker
Mogwai
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Refugee All Stars of Sierra Leone
Saigenji
Shuya Okino (Kyoto Jazz Massive)
Scissor Sisters
Snow Patrol
Sonic Youth
The String Cheese Incident
電気グルーヴ

and much much more... I can't remember the names of all of the acts. Let's just say that it was a busy and long 3 days weekend. We got rain, sunshine, fog, cloud cover, cold days and even hot days. We pretty much had it all.

I really didn't know what to expect, but amazingly the act which I enjoyed the most was Scissor Sisters. It was totally unexpected, and I wasn't even planning to catch the act, but I was going by the venue, they were on, and I must say that they were probably the most energetic act I saw during the 3 days. I was especially impressed with Ana Matronic the female vocalist, with her witty comments and her amount of knowledge of Japanese phrases.

All in all, a great weekend. We had all kinds of weather out there as well. Sunshine, hot, cold, rainy, wet... makes for an interesting weekend.

At times, the paths bewteen the various stages got pretty crowded. And since it's japan, you don't have to worry about people pushing and shoving you.

Some nifty illumination during the nights. Mirror balls in the forest!
Yep, you got it. Crap loads of campers
What the freak'n hell are you?
Even the riverbed rocks are smiling at me.

By Day2, plenty of people were sleeping everywhere & anytime.