Sapporo Snow Festival

Thursday 9^th – Sunday 12^th February

"Wooden Dreams" Entry from Latvia

Did I mention I enjoyed Hokkaido?
Little over a month since I had been there with Henry and I found myself back in arrivals at New Chitose airport.

My old flat mate Martin was visiting from Osaka (where he is based as an ALT) with our mutual friends Judy and Liam. The trio in question were to be located in a local Ramen bar, indulging in the famous Hokkaido miso ramen and Sapporo beer.

We ventured into Susukino, climbing several flights of stairs to reach ‘Lime Bar’ where a very genki bartender served us boozed up hot oolong tea.

After a leisurely start on Friday morning (Marty & co.’s holiday mode turned out to be very different from mine and Henry’s) we caught the train into Sakaemachi to visit the snow dome and festival antics there. The dome sported a number of food stalls (and coffee – thank god) as well as a number of activities for kids, giant Pikachu bouncy castle, the entrance for which was in a questionable location…

Outside the lads had a go at manoeuvring Honda snow blowers before we indulged in the more childish pastime of building snow castles with the buckets and spades provided.

Back in the city we hit the main event.

After a couple of epic snowball fights had left hands cold and gloves damp we retreated into a coffee shop to warm up. It had warmed up since Henry and I had been there, the main roads were almost completely clear of ice and the snow that was around was solid and icy compared to the lovely soft fluffy stuff that had been there in December.

Mostly defrosted, we returned to Susukino for the Ice sculptures before finding a bar which served Shochu – sweet potato sake.

Marty Judy and Liam all left on Saturday morning, which gave me the best part of two days to myself.

I strolled from Nakajima koen to Sapporo station where I eventually found a locker to stash my trundle bag and stumbled across a café that served bacon and eggs (or as close to it as I’m going to get here).

After returning to the snow and ice festivals I indulged in a visit to the likes of H&M and Forever21 (the closest H&M to Akita is in Sendai). I then headed out of the city to Little Fort Coffee where I met Karyn, an Aomori JET who I was on a university trip to Japan with back in 2012. As the only remaining Kiwi in Aomori I think she enjoyed having someone to relate to about kiwi life and missing Wellington (and Wellington coffee…).

Ice Sculptures down Susukino

Having been unable to find affordable accommodation in Sapporo for that night, I had booked into a hostel out in Chitose. Wandering around the snowy streets trying to find something for dinner came with a sense of deja vu as Henry and I had done exactly that, though as it turned out it’s a lot less fun when you do it by yourself.

I had planned to bus out to Lake Shikotsu on Sunday and by sheer fluke there was an ice festival there. The caldera lake is the second deepest in Japan (after our own Tazawa) and the blue grey waters were indeed similar tones to its Akitan counterpart.

Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

The ice festival really was something else. Structures that you could would in, on and around had been set up, a makeshift ice skating rink for kids, a frozen aquarium (had to feel a bit sorry for the fish…) a cave in which branches of pine had been laid into the ice so that the whole path smelt like Christmas…It was quite magical.

I had my first proper tumble in the snow and ice making my way back down from a look out, the path was so slippery that I considered not trying to stop and just letting myself slide the rest of the way down the hill side…

This trip has certainly confirmed that I have a soft spot for Sapporo.