In June, I sent a quick email over to Dylan...
"This would be so awesome!"
http://www.smash-uk.com/frf10/
Who knew that we would book a last minute trip to Japan and make our way over to rural Niigata for the Fuji Rock Festival. I've been wanting to go for years, but timing, weather and the thought of camping in Japan never really enticed any of my friends. Thank God I married someone like Dylan.
After a couple of nights in Tokyo, Dylan and I grabbed our backpacks and our $29.95 tent from Target and made our way northwest.
It only took 75 minutes to get from Tokyo to the Echigo Yuzawa train station on the shinkansen.
After arriving to the Echigo Yuzawa station, we had to stand in line to hop on a 45-minute shuttle to get to the Naeba Ski Resort where the Fuji Rock Festival takes place.
Like thousands of others, we arrived to the Fuji Rock Festival a day before the actual festival commenced in order to get a nice, cozy and FLAT spot for our tent. That's us, the red $29.95 tent from Target. Dylan managed to pitch our tent within minutes under pouring Niigata rain. Thanks Dylan.
Within a couple of hours, prime flat land has been taken and all that is left are spots on a slope.
If there's any music festival to go to, Japan has to be the cleanest. There were "WOMEN ONLY" toilets and they NEVER smelled.
Don't forget to store your valuables in the Coin Rocker.
After pitching our tent, Dylan and I took a long nap during some of the heaviest rainfall that weekend. We woke up around 10pm, totally dazed and confused. It was still pouring, but we were both extremely hungry.
Thank God the food stalls were all up and running. Ramen in the rain!
The next morning we woke up to this, beautiful forested mountains.
My favorite breakfast, simple donburi with an onsen (boiled for 30 seconds) egg.
On rainy mornings, Dylan would run out and fetch breakfast. There's nothing like breakfast in a tent.
Dylan made a some new friends working the stands. This kid Daisuke is Tupac's biggest fan.
Off to the Fuji Rock Festival!
This is seriously the cleanest festival in the world. Everyday they would pass out these bags (made from last year's PET bottles) to help keep the forest clean. D and I used it to lie down on when we needed to pass out on the lawn. Everyone passes out at the Fuji Rock Festival.
Even smokers are clean. Portable ashtrays!
Like I said, you'll never go hungry at Fuji Rock.
Some of the best chicken sausage I've ever had.
This is the salt they used to season the sausages.
Yakitori all day long.
Freaky pinwheel sausages.
Cheapest snack for 100 yen. Cucumber & miso.
Wood-fire pizza.
Tons of ramen.
Of course, if you want to save money, you can bring your own portable bbq and bincho.
When we weren't eating and catching performances, Dylan and I cooled down by the river.
Every now and then, we would stop and say, "Wow, I still can't believe we're here."
The greatest part of the Fuji Rock Festival and our main reason for coming is to watch some of our favorite bands in another land. We had an amazing time partying with the adorable Japanese fans.
Local Natives
LCD Soundsystem
Vampire Weekend
Dirty Projectors
Them Crooked Vultures
Atoms For Peace
You'll find that after long nights of partying until 6am, people get sleepy.
After four rainy and muddy nights, Dylan and I were ready to head back to civilization. We survived our first international music festival and four nights of marriage in a cramped tent. High-five.
Special thanks to these portable chairs. They saved our lives.
Last goodbyes to friends we made.
Goodbye to our local drinking friends.
Back on the bus at 5am.
Heading back to Tokyo and then off to Hokkaido...
Thanks for reading!
Risotteria came highly recommended on Yelp. We've been lucky that none of the Yelpers had steered us wrong, and this is also a good recommendation. They are a full fledge GF serving restaurant. The place is little, can seat about 24 people or so, and that's already too tight. They don't take reservation, so time yourself, if you're super hungry during peak dining hours, this is probably not going to work.
That said, you can pick up some desserts for later. We came here really for their GF Black and White cookie. We're big Seinfeld fans and that's our thing. It's hard to find B&W cookie, little to say that it's GF. 
It does take a bit of driving around to find them. Alright, let's see if Pennsylvania's sushi measures up:
Everything looks good except one, can you find it? Hint: it wasn't the Unagi Handroll.
This is their version of the Tokyo Roll, which has salmon, tuna, bass, and cucumber. The flavor and fish goes well together. You can really see how generous they were with the cucumber... wish they were more generous about the fish, which is what I'm really paying for. 
The other offender was the chopped scallop. This is the first time I've ever had them literally cut the scallop piece and place it on top of rice. Usually, chopped scallop is mixed in a sauce, and then placed on top with roe. That way, when you pick up the sushi, everything holds together because the sauce acts as a bonding agent. This way, it's like trying to eat confetti.