Sapporo Snow Festival!

This weekend I flew with a bunch of other JETs to the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido. It was the Yuki Matsuri, or snow festival, where they make a whole bunch of sculptures out of snow and ice, really beautiful stuff. There was a massive ice version of a Japanese castle and various big artworks with stages in front, as well as smaller ones made by students and (seemingly) normal people (including lots of characters like Ghibli stuff, Doraemon, Anpanman, kitty etc). There were ones to represent each country as well, the dragon below represents HK, and the description of the American one made me laugh:





There were lots of stages with things going on, including right outside where we got some hot cinnamon wine, a J-pop band miming along to their latest cheesy release. Fun!



We wandered round the snow sculptures, then down to the Sapporo TV tower where from the top you can get a great view of the main street. The queue for the lift was 40 mins, so we decided to... run up. 100 metres or so up you get a beautiful view of the city.



From Sapporo's official website:

In the towns and villages in whole country about 3000 Sapporo was the 5th Japanese city in only 130 years. Why would it be able to achieve such thing? Sapporo is the city filled in mystery and a romance. Wouldn't everyone like to explore Sapporo, which floods such charm?

Then we were well hungry and it was off to an izakaya to drink special Sapporo Classic beer and eat. After this, we headed over to the ice sculptures in Susukino, which is also the going out part of town. You would not believe how many girls, in temperatures below zero, are still going out with shortish skirts. Japanese dedication to fashion is unbelievable. Looked at the sculptures (unfortunately the ice bars had already close) before heading to a commercial hiphop/reggae club amusingly called Booty, which I'm happy to say is not a misrepresentation of the place. Stumbling back to the hotel at 8.30 next morning, it's safe to say Sapporo is a lot of fun :o)

(Even though I lost my favourite Comme Ca hat in some bar, or I have a niggling feeling I may have given it away a la Benny Sings in No More Drinks For Me.)



Next day, headed to snowland or something, on Alex's suggestion. Was okay but nothing really special. I don't think we teased him enough for taking us there. Check all these little snowmen the kids were making there.



Went to eat some Sapporo ramen in 'ramen alley' (they've got they're own style here, buttery and heavy, delicious) and apart from a slightly scary restauranteur, was wicked. On the way back to the hotel in a taxi, saw this massive (easily more than 2m square) logo on the side of a building and took me a while to realise what it was.



Ski lodge place was cool, rediscovered how shit I remain at pool, and the next day went snowboarding. Just wow. So much fun! It was an amazing place to learn cos there was SO much power, even falling heavily didn't really hurt. I only had one reeeeaaallly bad fall, when my legs went over my head and sort of twisted the wrong way and I landed on my upper back heavily, and I know thats the nature of the sport, but it was pretty exciting (though scary at the time) to be thinking, if this was on a street I'd be severly injured. Beautiful mountain views, and Japanese fashion dedication extended to the slopes, with dozens of well turned out young boarders, including what we dubbed 'cute girl ski group' of 6 boarders all in perfect makeup at the end of a long day boarding. Respect! The love of lounge music here extended to the music being piped out of the skilifts and over the mountains a bit, which I loved, and brilliantly during the day I heard both Stevie Wonder's Superwoman/Where Were You Last Winter and Jazztronik's Love Tribe. Still so impressed with Japan's love for decent music.


Went for some night boarding, with the slopes moodily lit (not amazing visibility but such a great atmosphere) and with so few people around and so much powder, was sublime. Towards the end, riding over freshly fallen snow towards the meeting place, it was rippling around the board just like water in a pool, absolutely breathtaking. Back in the lodge, it was almost like being out of Japan, run by canadians and everything western style, roast chicken and veg for dinner, watching Zoolander on the big screen playing pool, like we had gone to a different country.



Next day though (and even more today) my legs ached SO BAD, I couldn't walk properly. Came back to Kansai, remembering to buy this little chocolate you can only get in Sapporo for the other teachers. At Chitose aiport in Sapporo, saw THIS plane: (I imagine it only takes you to really fun places)