Sapporo Festival Highlights

Sapporo Festival Highlights

On February 12, 2018

In Japan, Sapporo, Sapporo Snow Festival, Snow

Besides the amazing snow sculptures, another highlight of the Snow Festival was watching skiers and snowboarders at the Air Park. The Air Park has two areas, one for jumping and one for moguls.

Friday night we enjoyed watching the mogul competition. It was impressive to watch considering the size of the arena.

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I took a couple of short clips of the different riders. The tandem jumpers were really cool to watch.

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Three riders are impressive. But, how about six!

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We returned on Saturday to catch some of the jumping during the daytime. The riders were practicing their jumps and despite their falls, I remained impressed.

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How about backwards!

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Or on a snowboard!

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It was fun to watch the athletes. They seemed to be having a great time.

Another fun attraction was visiting the Sapporo TV tower.

We were able to go to the observation deck. From the observation deck, we had a fantastic view of the festival and the city of Sapporo.

We rode the elevator to the top and took the stairs down. The signs cracked us up!

We posed for a couple of tourist photos… because that’s what we are! The first one is of me and the Sapporo TV Tower mascot.

One last video from the weekend. We had lunch on Saturday at a sushi restaurant in Sapporo. While we ate, we had a great view of the fish monger preparing the fish. I could have watched him all day. He truly was a professional.

We made it home on Sunday without issue. The Snow Festival was better and the trip was more fun than I ever expected. The experience was fantastic. Thanks for reading about our adventures!

Snow Festival Saturday

By wabisabisole

On February 11, 2018

In Japan, Sapporo, Sapporo Snow Festival, Snow

We spent Saturday walking around the Snow Festival and enjoying the sculptures. The size was still impressive.

With less crowds and daylight, we could take our time walking around the festival and sculptures. I found this information about the construction of the final Fantasy XIV snow sculpture. Even though the explanation is in Japanese, if you look at the pictures, you can get a better understanding of how they are constructed

Daytime events seemed to be catered more towards kids and families. At the building, they had kids on stage shooting baskets. I loved how the building looked blue in the daylight.

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At the Pacific Music Festival sculpture, kids were performing traditional dance.

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Speaking of kids, I couldn’t get over all the little cuties in their snowsuits. Adorable.

We quickly figured out the favorite sculpture for kids. The Cup Noodle. It was actually an ice slide!

My favorite was still the Temple. It is a replication of the Great Lecture Hall at the Yakushi-ji Temple in Nara. The building was created using ice blocks. A team of 3,800 people completed the structure in 28 days!

At the other large building structure, a lady was singing. Notice she is holding a clear umbrella to keep her dry as the snow fell. So, cute!

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It was fun to walk around the snow sculptures during the day and learn more about how they were constructed and see the kids enjoying them. Dave and I both agreed they seemed “cooler” at night with the lights.

Otaru

By wabisabisole

On February 10, 2018

In Japan, Otaru, Sapporo, Sushi

A friend of Dave’s suggested we take a side trip to Otaru during our visit to Sapporo. He highly recommended Otaru for amazing sushi. We didn’t need to be told twice! Otaru is a coastal town about a 40 minute train ride from Sapporo Station.

We arrived in time for lunch. We walked down to the canal street known as sushi row.

We were told to sit at the sushi counter and ask for “omakase” or chef’s choice. As a result, this magnificent plate of sushi arrived.

I ate everything. Even the sea urchin. I cheated a little bit and picked off the sea urchin and swallowed them whole so I didn’t taste them. Then I ate the rice. The rest was delicious. The tuna was of course my favorite and maybe the best piece of tuna sashimi I’ve ever eaten. I would rank this sushi plate in my top three.

After lunch, we walked around the town and many shops. There was so much snow. I couldn’t get over all of the snow. There were piles everywhere.

Look at all the snow fences on the hills to prevent avalanches.

And icicles!

In true Japanese fashion, many shop owners and residents made kawaii snow sculptures. They were an adorable addition to the winter wonderland.

Plus, a few snowmen.

How great is Dave’s new face mask!?!

We headed back to Sapporo in the middle of the afternoon. I’m glad we took the suggestion to visit Otaru for the sushi. Plus, we had a chance to see a little bit more of the area.

Nighttime Sapporo Snow Festival

By wabisabisole

On February 9, 2018

In Japan, Sapporo, Sapporo Snow Festival

After getting checked into our hotel and changing into our warm clothes, we headed out to the actual Sapporo Snow Festival to see the snow sculptures. Some of the sculptures were HUGE! I took one picture without people and a second one with people to give you a perspective of their massive size.

A selfie for good measure.

I took a couple pictures of the back. Again, for perspective. These sculptures are incredible and massive. The second one I took looking across the street. It shows cars, people, and the back of the sculpture.

This sculpture was sponsored by the Pacific Music Festival.

Our timing was perfect as we approached this sculpture of a building. We had a chance to watch the a live performance.

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Again, I could not get over the size of the sculptures. They were massive. I loved watching the lights change colors.

The ice shrine sculpture was my favorite.

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I took several more pictures to show the details.

The Cup Noodle sculpture deserved an honorable mention.

After the professional massive super snow sculptures, there were a plethora of sculptures from other countries.

The next group of sculptures appeared to be created by local groups. There were so many. I couldn’t possibly share them all with you. So, I’ll share a few of our favorites.

I knew this would be an impressive event. For my VB friends who are familiar with the Neptune Festival, I was expecting to see sculptures similar to the sand sculptures. The ones created by local artists were similar in size to the sand sculptures. The ones created by the professionals were beyond anything I could have imagined. They are larger than life size! We spent the evening walking around and the viewing the sculptures. We were bundled up and had strategically placed heat pads in our pockets and boots. I found the hot sake also helped to beat the cold!

We had fun people watching and snacking on festival food. Just when you think you have seen it all with respect to how the Japanese spoil their puppies, you see a dog on a sled!

Thanks for reading! I’ll have daytime Snow Festival pictures for you tomorrow.

Susukino Ice World

By wabisabisole

On February 8, 2018

In Japan, Sapporo, Sapporo Snow Festival

As we were on the train heading to Sapporo it started to snow. Instead of taking the local train to our hotel, we decided to grab a taxi and avoid dragging luggage through the snow. I was absolutely giddy to see the snow as we drove through the city.

We arrived at our hotel before the 1500 check in. So, we dropped off our luggage and set out in search of lunch. We found a cozy ramen restaurant just a few blocks away. Several friends told us to try Hokkaido ramen. It exceeded their recommendations and our expectations. It was as delicious!

Once we finished our lunch, we started to return to our hotel and then realized the Susukino Ice World was only a block away.

So, we walked through to check out the ice sculptures. There were so many!! Easily 30 plus. I took a picture of most of them. The titles would crack us up!

Check out the guy cleaning off the snow on the Hawaii 808. Proof that it was snowing like crazy when we first arrived.

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There were so many ice sculptures! They were all amazing!! I had a couple favorites. The cat and dog, of course.

And the “Supple Woman.”

Let’s not forgot- this is Sapporo!

We walked the sculptures during the day and then returned after we changed into our snow gear. They sculptures were cool at night as well.

Plus, the ice bar was open and serving champagne. Yes, please!

I’ll wrap up this post here for now. So far, it’s snowed all day, the ramen was delicious, I’m wearing my hot pink snow pants (all weekend), the ice sculptures were too cool, and I enjoyed champagne at the ice bar. Sapporo Snow Festival is exceeding expectations even before we visited the actual Snow Festival!!

Sapporo or Bust!

By wabisabisole

On February 8, 2018

In Japan, Sapporo, Sapporo Snow Festival, Train

This is a first for Team Dwyer. A winter vacation! Normally, we want to escape the cold. We typically plan a trip where packing involves bikinis and board shorts. This is the first time we have ever packed snow pants and parkas. When I mentioned this to Dave he said this will probably be the last time as well!

We are flying out of Haneda Airport. We took the train from the station by our house. I planned our trip so we didn’t have to switch trains. A very nice convenience when pulling luggage. Here was our train route.

The flight to Sapporo takes about 1.5 hours from Haneda. Sapporo is located on the northern island of Hokkaido. It is due north of our location on the main island. Here are a couple pictures to help you identify where we are and where we are going. We are the blue dot near Tokyo.

Once we arrive in Sapporo, we will have about an hour train ride to our hotel from the airport.

Our hotel is about a 5-minute walk to the Sapporo Snow Festival.

According to my research, the first Sapporo Snow Festival was in 1950. In the town center, teenagers created six large snow sculptures. Over the next few years, more entertainment and food vendors began to organize and create a festival atmosphere. The size and complexity of the snow structures also improved. The Sapporo Snow Festival soon became a world renowned event. To date, the festival attracts more than 2 million visitors every year coming from all over the world and Japan.

We put the Sapporo Snow Festival on our Japan bucket list shortly after we arrived our first summer. We’ve been planning this trip since April! Needless to say, we are excited! I’ll be back soon with more pictures of the festival.

Finding Beauty with Imperfection

Category: Sapporo