Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

Snow Festival Day!

This post is coming a little late..

I went to the first day of the Snow Festival on Monday (5/2). Which was brought in quite naturally by snow, and lots of it. In fact it snowed all day and it was freezing.

The Sapporo Snow Festival or Sapporo Yaki Matsuri is a world renowned festival that takes place in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan for one week in early February and is the reason why I am here. This year it is taking place from 5/2-12.2 and is held at three locations in the city.

The first and main location is Odori Park. A 1.5km stretch of park that divides the city of Sapporo into North (Kita) and South (Minami). This is the biggest of the three locations.

Here is where they have the biggest snow sculptures, one this year being a huge sculpture of Final Fantasy, which I know nothing about except that it’s a roleplaying video game, but the sculpture was really cool. I went back at night to see it all lit up.

They also have a worldwide snow sculpting competition where a number of other countries come to Sapporo to compete. I checked out Australia’s while I was there and got to listen to the head sculpture explain to a Japanese lady what exactly the sculpture was. To be fair it was only about ¼ completed at the time, but they all have pictures or a smaller sculpture made of wood next to them so you can get the idea.

He told her that it was the combining of two cultures; whale turning into a wave with Mt.Fuji in the middle. He said that it was related to a famous Japanese painting - 'The Wave off Kanagawa'.

There is an abundance of food stalls lining the sidewalk as you walk down, one way only; otherwise you get forcibly told that you’re going the wrong way. My first stop on the food journey was at a shop selling deep fried cheese sticks as their main dish. As tempting as this was, I was feeling like sweets and opted for the deep fried apple stick with cinnamon and icing sugar. I was not disappointed. This cost me about 500yen which is about $5 which is pretty standard for any type of festival.

My next stop was at a Bacardi stand, where they were selling hot mojito, hot ginger mojito and hot buttered rum. I went with the rum, eager to see what it was like. Turns out it looked better in the picture, and for someone who doesn’t really drink that often it tasted like straight rum with a knob of butter and quite watery as opposed to creamy like I was expecting. That cost 600yen which is about $6-7.

My last stop was at a stall that was completely in Japanese, but the little sweet had a little face on it so how could I resist. I ended up getting a matcha flavoured pancake thing. It was baked on panfried on the outside and gooey in the middle filled with adzuki (red bean paste). I’d say it was close to a mochi, but not quite. I didn’t get the name of it. I’ve also seen them making them in the basements of shopping malls, but still everything is in kanji.

This site also has a snowboard jump, a structure that when I first saw it I thought was a giant slide. Turned out not to be the case when I was making my way back to the station and passed by only to see a huge group of people standing around watching famous snowboarders take turns doing tricks down the slope.

Oh and a giant sculpture of a noodle cup tipped on its side with all the noodles spilling out. It was actually a slide for children and probably my favourite sculpture there.

As I was leaving I was pulled aside by a lady with a clip board, who was the first real English conversation I’ve had with someone since I got here. She was conducting a survey on the festival and asked me to fill out some questions about Sapporo as a whole and if I was just here for the festival or travelling around. I was happy to tell her. Afterwards she gave me a packet of onion soup and I was on my way.

I ended up leaving soon after, taking the underground walk ways to get back to the hostel as it got way to cold and the snow got too heavy.

I did end up going back at night, for the illumination and more yummy treats.. okay just one.. Pork belly and Hokkaido cheese in a little bun. delicious.

The second largest location is the Tsudome site with has slides and eateries and more family orientated. Unfortunately I didn’t make it to this site, but I wasn’t interested in sliding in the snow anyway. The weather got too bad towards the end of my stay making it miserable to go outside.

The third and smallest location is the Susukino site – dubbed Susukino Ice World. This site was very small indeed, only stretching a hundred meters or so down the middle of a street in the heart of Susukino. Down the middle of the street they have ice sculptures that they light up at night. Personally I like these better than the snow sculptures, the glass like appearance makes them look more intricate.

I had my first experience in a coin laundromat today. Glad that I googled how to use the machines before I went cause once again, no English. But I was fine. I decided to leave everything until the end so I’m fresh for Hakodate tomorrow.

Speaking of which, I’m catching a train around lunch time that will get me to Hakodate in about four hours or so. I was tossing up between the highway bus and the express train, and while the bus is immensely cheaper, it takes double the time and there are a lot of road closures due to the snow, and I don’t really want to risk that right now.

Anyway, I haven’t really done that much in the last day or so, because congratulations to me, I’m sick… Which is an incredible feat in just eight days and I don’t know how it happened, due to all the clothing I’ve been wearing, but I might have to invest in a mask and drugs before I head off tomorrow…

Until then I have corn soup, which I’ve been having for breakfast every day and I room to myself, so no one is disturbed by my hacking.

Also to do with that, I was supposed to move into a mixed dorm room on the six from my female dorm room that I had been staying in. But they told me the day before that they didn’t have any mixed dormitories, so they were giving me a single AND NOT CHARGING ME EXTRA. Fantastic if you ask me.

Anyway,

Until Next Time,

ごきげんよう!

….The food is really salty here. Annnnd they don’t take the bones out of their fish in their bentos, which is awesome when you’re trying to eat it..