The Hunger Games
Being Vegetarian at Fuji Rock
As we gear up for this year’s fest, starting in just over 24 hours, you’re most likely looking at your belongings and wondering what to chuck out and what to add in. For most of you this will include some kind of snack, likely protein, and probably made of meat. However, for those who opt out of meat-eating, we need to have a little chat.
A number of folks have approached us with concern about what food will be available at the festival, particular that catering to vegetarian and vegan Fujirockers. Japan has been slow to recognize vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, and while the number of restaurants catering to this clientele is increasing, festival food tends to lag behind. As opposed to the bountiful selection of veggie food available at many European festivals (last year I stuffed my face with crumpets, falafels, veggie burgers, and vegan sushi rolls at a UK festival – I even had a full-English breakfast with halloumi instead of bacon and it was a thing of glory and mid-morning food comas), in Japan your options are more limited and may contain bacon, as some folks don’t seem to consider bacon to be a meat, or to come from an animal…no, really. In fact, get into the habit of checking what’s in everything – very often you may find a soup laced with chicken stock, a cheeky bit of pork in that fried rice dish. And bacon. Bacon in everything.
A quick sourcing of vegetarian Fujirocker buddies confirmed our suspicions – we could only think of three or four regular sources of meat-free food. While many food vendors return year after year, others make a one-time appearance and those matcha green tea scones you ate for breakfast last time you came will be just a fading memory in your gurgling stomach this Saturday morning. The Oasis is the largest food area and in previous years we’ve found margherita pizza, penne arrabbiata, falafels, and spinach and paneer curry with naan bread. So, if you’re gluten free, good luck with that. Further up the mountain, near Field of Heaven, we recalled a vendor who sells “tacos” which are shown a few black beans and salsa, and the pizza place with the massive queue.
And that’s it.
We will be scouting Oasis on Thursday night to bring you a run down on what’s available and updating throughout the weekend. We would also welcome tip-offs from yourselves if you find anything good (a juice bar would be something good, for example). You can also keep up with the J-team’s dedicated group of festival foodies at Fesgohan on Twitter (Japanese only, but we’ll translate the best ones for you).
In the meantime, we recommend stocking up on nuts, seeds, protein bars, cereal bars, fruit and other things to keep your stomach occupied while you hunt down something to eat.
And remember: always check for bacon.
