Head in the Clouds: The Dragondola Sends We High
The best views of the fest are hands-down from the Dragondola, the cable-car system owned by the Naeba Prince hotel. FujiRock takes place on an off-season ski resort, so the ski lift offers a bird's eye perspective on the revelry happening below. Here's the White stage:
And once you get past the stages and helicopters buzzing past (no kidding − they're offering rides this year), then it starts to get quiet. The cable zips over peaks and valleys out of a postcard.
Then hovers mere meters over a river.
I could hear birds chirping as I approached the top. But I didn't expect to see people in animal costumes playing "Red Rover" in the lawn there. Amongst the concertgoers were a panda, lion, mole raccoon and a kappa the mystical hal-turtle, half-man from Japanese folklore.
I seemed to be the only one wondering what these Amusement Park hangers-on were doing here. Not that I minded. Their rapport was impecable.
They were courteous, cheerful and play well with others. Who could ask more from our furry friends?
