It's Fuji Rock season again. This weekend, an assortment of folk will gather at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture to enjoy music courtesy of Chemical Brothers, Sia and The Cure, as well as the mix of rambling disorder and creativity that is the summer festival in Japan.
Fuji Rock will be bustling with music lovers of all types: rockers and ravers, the young and old, sober fans and the dazed and confused. The preshow hype got me thinking about my own trip to the festival three years ago: I am a blind Scotsman and Fuji Rock was my first-ever music festival. I was accompanied by a friend, the able-bodied Aussie Nick. He doesn't even need glasses.
If you have a disability or face some other kind of challenge when traveling (maybe you have kids, maybe you're pregnant) I can declare that Fuji Rock shouldn't be as difficult as you might imagine. At the risk of beginning with a spoiler, though, one of my tips would be never to leave the details of your trip up to someone like Aussie Nick.