Sapporo Snow Festival
After dropping off our luggage at our hotel, we quickly head to the Sapporo Snow Festival. It’s the last day of the festival and we want to try and experience as much of it as we can. It’s the Sister’s first time at the Sapporo Snow festival but the second for me. Experiencing it in heavy snowfall though is pretty unique in its own right!
Scultures
One of the standout draws of the Sapporo Snow Festival are the numerous snow sculptures on display throughout the Odori site. There are sculptures of all shapes and sizes and themes. The Sister and I enjoy walking through the “garden” of sculptures and trying to see if they’re familiar to us or are completely “out there” artistically.
Sapporo Snow Festival Food
Another great standout feature of the Sapporo Snow Festival is the food! Similar to other festivals there is no shortage of stands and stalls offering international and local foods. As we stop by different stands we start to avail ourselves of different local items like Sweet Sake, Local scallops and milk scallop soup.
Sapporo Snow Festival Entertainment
A few of the massive ice sculptures also act as stages where different entertainment acts can perform for visitors. Last year I remember watching a piano recital like setup where different performers would play in this ice cube looking setup. And they have the same thing again this time!
What did give both the Sister and I pause though is this Japanese girl group having to perform on stage for upwards of half an hour. As you can see they’re not dressed for the cold weather and the poor girls had to perform pretty enthusiastically for their entire set. My only hope is that their dance routines kept them somewhat warm. You could tell by the end they were chilled to the bone!
Ramen Teshikaga
After walking through the entire Odori site, we head back to our hotel to check in. We rest a little before heading out to Ramen alley for dinner. There are several stores with lines and we end up lining up for Ramen Teshikaga and waiting about 20 minutes before being seated. We order ramen with some karaage and gyoza to share. After a long day out in the cold, some tasty tasty ramen really hits the spot.
Susukino Ice World
Right by ramen alley is the Susukino site of the Sapporo Snow festival. This is mainly a street site that displays all the ice sculptures of the different artists. The Sister and I spend some time exploring the different sculptures and even watching some of the artists still making sculptures even though the festival is almost over! The Susukino site isn’t very expansive so after about an hour we get through most of it. We then head back to the Odori site because we want to see some of the snow sculptures at night lit up.
Odori Venue at Night
Upon returning to the Odori site, we once again start strolling through the different sculptures. We observe how it can be a bit more magical at night with different coloured lights illuminating the massive sculptures. It gives some of them a bit of a different feeling of atmosphere even. We spend our remaining time trying to soak up as much of the Sapporo Snow festival as we can before making our way back to our hotel. We’re both super tired after a super long travel day but also very glad we get to catch the last half day of the festival and now have a full lazy day in Sapporo to rest.
Lazy Day in Sapporo
After a much needed sleep in, the Sister and I head out onto the streets of Sapporo to find a relatively sunny morning. It’s a stark contrast to the very snowy afternoon of the day before at the Sapporo Snow Festival so its a pleasant surprise!
We don’t really have much of a plan today. We figure that after a very hectic two days of travel and festival we’d be pretty tired today. So after taking our time to wake up, we simply want to wander and see where adventure takes us! The first interesting stop is Ice Cream! Hokkaido Ice cream is legendary in its own right and it’s always on my list whenever I’m in the region. So seeing a store that has it on offer, we quickly stop in and have it as our first “meal” of the day!
Nijo Market
After a bit more walking we find ourselves at the Nijo Market. This fish market near Odori park and has been around for the past 125 years. Along the outside are a lot of stores that have lots of different seafood options on display. However, a majority of it is now restaurants looking to lure hungry patrons in with the promise of tasty seafood eats.
Donburi Chaya
Both the Sister and I are two such hungry patrons as we line up for Donburi Chaya. We order an assortment of different seafood offerings on rice and not long after we have some delicious looking seafood on rice offerings in front of us. The food did not last long in front of us and we devour it as quickly as it appears! Japan may be known for its seafood, but Hokkaido is where it’s at for sure!
More Sapporo
On our way out we spot another Hokkaido Ice Cream shop, so almost as a rule we need to partake. With our ice creams we walk along the Sosei river and head towards the Odori site of the Sapporo Snow Festival. We want to see what the aftermath of the festival really looks like.
Sapporo Snow Festival Teardown
There were rumours that the Japanese are ultra efficient when it comes to the tearing down of the Sapporo Snow Festival. The Sister and I didn’t believe it but once we arrive at the Odori Site, or what’s left of it. We are now believers. What was once massive ice sculptures not just 18 hours ago are now just piles of snow! Talk about efficiency! It’s wild to me that the amount of effort and care that goes into building such elaborate and beautiful snow sculptures are so quickly and ruthlessly taken down so quickly! The Sister and I even get to witness a buldozzer demolishing one of the last remaining structures. And I have to admit, its almost as interesting and entertaining as any of the acts and shows of the actual snow festival itself!
Lazy Afternoon
After spending a bit more time watching the destruction of what was left of the snow festival. The Sister and I head into a few stores to do a little shopping. After shopping we pop down to the bottom floor of the department store where we pick up some ready made food items and head back to our hotel for an afternoon snack! We spend the afternoon lounging and napping still reoperating from the day before.
Sapporo at Night
In the evening our thoughts turn to food once again. We set out towards the Susukino area which is the large entertainment district in Sapporo. Again, if you weren’t here the night before you wouldn’t know there were ice sculptures here! Now its very much a bustling “Time Square-esque” area!
Chutta
One of the cuisines we want to try whilst in Sapporo is Soup Curry. It’s unique to this area and we find a highly regarded one named Chutta! It’s a small shop that seats 8 or so customers and is run by one older lady. I order a grilled chicken soup curry with moderate spice and its delicious! At first I didn’t think I would be a fan of soup curry. But after having this dish, I am happy to be wrong. It’s not as thick as regular curries and the combination of the soup and crispy skin of the chicken makes this a very tasty dish! I would not hesitate to recommend this again!
After polishing off our dinners, the Sister and I head back to our hotel and do a bit of packing. Well be heading to Otaru tomorrow and spending an evening there. But we’ll also be meeting up with our friends Photos (from my Australia trip) and his wife Dessert Fiend!