The Soul of Summer - Fujirock Festival 2025

Where mountains sing, strangers become family, and music melts into mist

The Naeba Ski Resort in July is a study in alchemical transformation. By winter, it’s a snow-laden wonderland; by summer, it becomes Japan’s sacred ground for music pilgrims. 

As I stepped off at the Echigo-Yuzawa Station—the 90-minute Shinkansen ride from Tokyo already feeling like a ritual—I felt it again: that  tingling sense of homecoming . This wasn’t just a festival. It was a reunion with a valley that breathes music.  

The Stage Is Set: Mountains, Music, and Mist    

Fuji Rock’s irony is legendary: it hasn’t been near Mount Fuji since 1997. After a typhoon-battered debut, it found its forever home in Naeba’s emerald embrace. Here, the Dragondola gondola; the world’s longest) soars over forests, stages nestle between rivers, and the air hums with anticipation. With 12 stages hosting 200+ artists, the 2025 lineup was a masterclass in curation:  

-   Fred Again (Green Stage, Friday) opened with seismic waves of electronic soul  

-   Vampire Weekend   (Green Stage, Sunday) closed with sun-drenched indie anthems  

-   RADWIMPS   (Green Stage, Saturday) fused rock with orchestral grandeur  

-   Field of Heaven, my sanctuary, hosted  Ezra Collective’s  jazz explosions and   Ego-Wrappin'  ’s smoky reveries  

💡  Pro Tip: The Red Marquee hosts secret raves until 5 AM. Follow the neon glow.   

The Real Magic: The Fuji Rock “Tribe”    

I’ve traveled to festivals worldwide, but  nowhere breeds connection like Fuji Rock. This year, our ragtag crew—forged via Jimmy’s legendary WhatsApp group—became a microcosm of the festival’s spirit:  

-   David, (a LA Dad): Our “den father,” handing out anecdotes and dad jokes in equal measure with his ready helping hand and a camera 

-   Amman & Sam (Malaysia/Spain BAs): Masters of crowd navigation. Sam’s “conquest chronicles” (a la Jimmy Olsen) fueled late-night laughs, while Amman cracked us up with quips. 

-   Sooyeon & Ashley (California Design/Dentistry Duo):  drew our crew and kept our smiles bright—literally.  

-   Mai (Tokyo): Our “Golden Ticket” guru. She’s stayed at Naeba Prince Hotel for 8 years straight via lottery wins. Her genuineness was priceless.  

-   Mark (Canadian Teacher): A fellow music nerd, kept the conversation alive with meditation and etymology and NewDay supply runs 

- Evan (British Exchange student) : Another kindred spirit and a festivals nomad, with a cute smile and kind eyes, happily regaled with music stories and helpfully lent me his power bank

- Iresha (an Australian startup techie) : a fellow boarder at the mountain cabin, with whom i shared stories on kangaroo fights and dating perils. Very kindly tagged my teen along on a shuttle 

-   Jimmy (Festival Patriarch): Admin of the 100+ member Reddit/WhatsApp community. His 15-year Fuji Rock streak is a masterclass in joyful curation.  

We were architects, dentists, students, nomads, bankers - united by Naeba’s pulse.   

 A Mother’s Moment:

As a solo parent, am always bracing for teenage eye-rolls. Instead, my 15- year-old was absorbed into the fold with breathtaking grace . Sam and Clara hung around with him.  When crowd packed the White Stage on Saturday, David materialized to get him to the group, “Dads instincts”. At 2 AM, as the Red Marquee throbbed and I was catching a shut eye in the car, the group just took care of him, treated him as one, ribbed him for being tallest and youngest with a kid’s wristband.  No ask, just instinct.  

This is Fuji Rock’s secret sauce: communal care.   It’s why 17,000+ camp on golf-course-turned-campsites, ship tents ahead, or book lodges years early. You’re never truly alone here.  

Survival Secrets & Spiritual Sustenance    

Logistics  matter in this mountain paradise:  

-   Sleep  : Camp (¥5,000) for camaraderie, or book  now  for 2026 lodges (Mitsumata/Shuttle Stop 3 is quieter).  

-   Eat  : Follow the curry bread scent to “Oasis”—30+ global food stalls. The Hokkaido crab soup revived me daily.  

-   Move  : Shinkansen + shuttle bus (¥6,790 + ¥2,000) beats traffic. Parking is ¥5,000/day.  

-   Pack  : Waterproof boots (mud is biblical), reusable bottle (free water stations), and an open heart.  

But beyond practicality lies  something sacred  :  

- Soak your feet in   Kaikake Onsen’s   hot springs as the sun sets.  

- Wander the  “Crystal Palace”   woods for impromptu DJ sets.  

- Dance barefoot in the creek near   Field of Heaven   while Galactic’s horns echo.  

Why Fuji Rock, Indeed?    

In a world of hyper-curated festivals, Fuji Rock remains  wild, organic, defiantly human. It’s where:  

-   Sustainability   isn’t buzzword—it’s policy (“cleanest festival” ethos).  

-   Kids under 15 enter free because music is birthright.  

-   Rain becomes a bonding agent, mud a badge of honour.  

As T.S. Eliot wrote, “To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

As I hugged Jimmy and the others goodbye at 3:30 am on 28th Jul,  under the red and green of Crystal Palace; already plotting 2026—I realized this valley doesn’t just host music. It weaves temporary families  from Tokyo commuters, Malaysian analysts, Spanish ‘chick magnets’; California dentists and Graphic Designers and Canadian teachers. 

We arrived strangers. We left as keepers of a shared story, written in guitar riffs, downpours, and the stubborn belief that  joy is best multiplied 

Fuji Rock doesn’t just rock. It reverberates in your bones.   

Copyright©Neer 

Chasing Fireflies

One, two, three, four, five, nine... and now thirteen” - all I did was, blink...

 

And just like that, I can feel the way things are changing. His boyhood and with it an entire chapter of parenthood  (insert a hood joke here) was a solid colour, different shades but the same solid colour. Now, comes the splintered spectrum, various frequencies and wavelengths colliding, converging, diverging. Am already witnessing it - now a sweet giggly child, now a 'disgusting' teen boy, now a glimpse of a man he is becoming and a peek into that beautiful complex mind of his.

This separation, of his personhood; it's a complex terrain of emotions. There is getting to know this person he is becoming, beaming-faced,  hilarious, sensitive, full of empathy, resilient and above all a man with integrity. 

Parents Teachers Conferences are a delight and so is watching him throw himself into whatever he chooses to do with full gusto. Being an elder brother to baby cousins or a digital artist or prepping for student council meeting as it's President

It’s not something I expected or even considered: That it would feel this way to be here, at the other side of boyhood:  Bittersweet. The kid with hair in his eyes, monkeying  around the house on a self confessed no-sugar sugar high slowly metamorphosing into this beautiful teen -  slightly vain, lots of cheekiness.

The world narrows so much when you’re in the thick of parenting in the first decade and then suddenly the aperture shifts, and they're taller than you - talking about climate change and planning parties in the same breath.

How to do this gracefully? 

This part where I try to stop calling my baby “my baby?” Because "am not a baby any more, Mummy!" 

My love,

I am in awe today as I look at you, a boy who is closer to being a man I have not met than to being the baby with head full of raven hair and eyes so wide and toothy grins.  It is impossible to record all of those memories, all of the milestones and parties and vacations, the field trips and sporting events and spontaneous funny things that you have said.  But you should know that those memories are like jewels to me.  They are gems stored away in the treasure chest of my mind. You my love, are your own wonderful blessing.  The fact that the Universe chose to make you my legacy, is a cherry on the top! 

                                               

              

This day, when you enter the ages you've always wanted to be in. Wrapping up all that we talk about in a  few tenets, the touchstones to chart the course of your life with:

1. Be the kind, generous, respectful person you are 
2. Trust yourself, your gut, your intuition
3. Live in the now and Make mistakes - there's strength in learning from them
4. Work Hard - there's no substitute for it
5. Play Hard - there's no substitute for it
6. Know when to lead, when to follow - find your voice and help those who are ready to find theirs - you will know when, trust your gut 
7. If they make you better - they are for you. 
8. If it makes you better - it is for you. The barometer for everything is - does it make you feel good about yourself 
9. Your words matter 
10. Your dreams matter and working for them define your destiny
11. All emotions are part of you - it's good to feel, the price of living a full life is to get hurt, get up and live again. You always have a choice!
12. Put the phone down - connect in-person 
13. Above All - Know that you are LOVED and Cherished Always!

Happy Birthday, Jana! 

Love, Mummy!

Copyright©Nee

The First Double Digit Prime

I remember the way I loved each day of your infancy and toddler years; even the really hard ones or perhaps those more, in hindsight of course;  the way your smiles exploded my heart; the way I felt always a little high with helium wonder watching you watch the world.  

You are hilarious. You are empathetic. You are shy and boisterous in turns. You love to get lost for hours in your art and storytelling. You have discovered the sheer joy of reading and more than that writing. Your staunch fascination with mythology and history and space science and geology and archeology and art and music and ability to build your imagination out of LEGO blocks, all by yourself – fascinates me no end! Am full of wonder and awe; and am grateful in being your Mother!  

You love to sing. You love cuddles. You love a good story and good food.  

And every morning you find me while you are still half asleep, and I am still half asleep, and together we doze for fifteen or twenty minutes, curled into each other, our cheeks and noses touching, and then we have breakfast together and you tell me your amazing dreams. Some of them more your imagination than dreams really and I haven’t even had my tea and I want to be quiet but you drone on and then you see my face and go ‘you want me to quiet, don’t you?’ Haha! You rascal! 

You have taught me contentment. You test my patience. You are pure poetry of love in motion. 

And, tonight as I sit here reminiscing the last decade and this past 9 months; which you will remember and talk of being extraordinary in hitherto unknown ways; I can't help but feel a twinge of nostalgia for these last ten years and next ten and more to come...  

My Love, as you move through your tween years into young adulthood, I hope you will keep these things that we often talk about;  in your heart and mind. 

Keep your silly storytelling creative spirit. Happiness comes from within and as long as you can keep filling your life with lots of those moments of satisfaction and belly laughs, you’ll always be peaceful 

Remember that you can only give what you have. Your kind heart and your personality light up a room, just remember that every person in that room deserves to feel like that too. 

Remember that it’s okay to fail. It’s what you do next that matters. Here goes my broken record again. If you never fail, if nothing bad ever happens in your life, if you never have to struggle – then you can never know what it feels like to succeed. Those moments when you have to look deep inside and start fresh are the moments that your drive will lead you to new heights. Remember, your only competition is yourself, so challenge yourself to cross your own personal finish lines! #CrossYourFinishLines 

Be curious Always. That’s your gift. The never ending why’s and why nots? The hows and the whats? And then the twinkle in your eyes when you figure things out. It makes you who you are. Never lose that.

Appreciate Life and always follow your dreams. I hope I lead by example and this needs no further explanation. 

I’ve often said to you that I’m your mum and your dad and your best friend. Like you say, it’s in the job description to guide you through the tough waters ahead, keep you safe and help you grow into the man you’re destined to become.  

And no matter what, I love you unconditionally and nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever change that. 

Happy 11th Birthday, pugs! 

I love you! 

Mummy 

Copyright © Nee