12
Feb
The 58th Annual Sapporo Snow Festival
Topic: Family and Friends, Japan 2007
The Antarctic - I thought this was the best snow sculpture. It features "…the Japanese Antarctic expedition ship Soya on the left and the Sakhalin Huskies Taro and Jiro in the center along with a whale, penguins and seals." http://www.snowfes.com/english/place/oodori/index06-10.html
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![Old Hokkaido Government Building - "When completed [in 1888], it was one of the largest and tallest buildings in Japan and symbolized the prestige and importance the Meiji Government placed on the development of Hokkaido...Why the popular name akarenga? [akai=red, renga=brick] The building is constructed from 2.5 million or so red bricks that are laid in the French style. Brick buildings are rare in Japan - great big red brick buildings are bound to attract some attention."](http://lh5.ggpht.com/michaeltoppa/R5nz9rtpomI/AAAAAAAABzI/1SDL2qhWqNM/200702b%20040.jpg?imgmax=800 "Old Hokkaido Government Building - \"When completed [in 1888], it was one of the largest and tallest buildings in Japan and symbolized the prestige and importance the Meiji Government placed on the development of Hokkaido...Why the popular name akarenga? [akai=red, renga=brick] The building is constructed from 2.5 million or so red bricks that are laid in the French style. Brick buildings are rare in Japan - great big red brick buildings are bound to attract some attention.\"")
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Our trip to the Snow Festival is one of three major ventures we planned for outside of Tokyo while we’re here (the other two are Kyoto and Okinawa, in the spring). Overall it was a great trip, and as you can see from the photos, the snow sculptures were amazing. I don’t think Kai has ever had so much fun, and, unfortunately, I don’t think Eidan’s ever been so miserable. He had a good 24 hours before we left, having just recovered from the stomach flu. But, as we discovered in our first night in the ryokan, the disruptiveness of the travel triggered a relapse (let’s just say this “discovery” entailed an extra cleaning charge for our room).
But first let me tell you about the 90 minute flight from Tokyo to Hokkaido. This was the second time I’ve flown on ANA airlines, and both times have been a real pleasure. The discomfort and general unpleasantness of flying on US-based airlines is not something you’ll experience on ANA. They retain an emphasis on service that doesn’t make you feel like cattle when flying coach. I should point out that my evaluation of the experience may be biased by the fact that the all female flight crew looked like models. I imagine they are all “promoted” in some way or other before they hit 35 (see this “Ask the Pilot” column for more on how many Asian airlines still have attractive-women-only policies for flight attendants).
A few other differences I noticed: At Tokyo’s Haneda airport, for carry-on liquids, they have scanners that somehow detect whether they’re dangerous or not. I haven’t seen these in the US yet. There’s security at the baggage claim - you have to show your claim ticket before you can leave with your bags (I’ve always been amazed that the baggage claim areas in the US are completely open to the public). The only negative is that you can’t claim a stroller at the gate - you have to carry your kid to the baggage claim area.
Sapporo is Japan’s 5th largest city. I’d say that I really liked it, if it wasn’t so mind-numbingly cold (it’s on just about the same parallel as Russia’s Vladivostok, if that helps you place it). It’s not nearly as overwhelming as Tokyo, but has enough “big city” attractions to still have some dazzle. We were there for three days, and taking in the Snow Festival dominated our time.
The first nine pictures are from Odori Park, which was where all the large snow sculptures were on display. I’d never seen anything like these before. The Japanese Army is a big player in the festival, as they built several of the largest sculptures. The Park is a long, narrow strip that divides the north and south sections of the city. There were some ice sculptures there as well, but they weren’t in very good shape, as it had been a bit too warm in the days before we got there, and their details had melted away (but it was plenty cold on the days we were there!). From what I read, they were able to fix up the snow sculptures after the warm weather passed by packing new snow on them and re-making the finer details, but that’s not possible with ice.
Kai was thrilled just to be in the snow. Everywhere we walked, he and I were having a running snowball fight, or - when there were too many innocent bystanders around - he was building little spaceships out of snow and then crashing them into the ground.
We stayed in the Nakamuraya Ryokan, which I highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Sapporo. It’s not too expensive, and not too fancy, but the rooms are comfortable and the food was very tasty. Maria was smart and booked the room back in November, as the Festival attracts about two million visitors that overwhelm the local hotels.
The next sequence of pictures is from Satoland, which was on a field in the outskirts of town. This was the snow playground area for the kids, with ice slides, a snow maze, and lots more. It ended up not working out too well, as there were waits of up to an hour for just about everything - lines that were too long for two little boys to stand in the cold. We probably should have gone on a weekday instead of the weekend, to avoid some of the crowds. Nonetheless, it was cool to see it, and Kai enjoyed chiseling his own cup out of a block of ice, and taking it to an ice bar for a kiddie drink (this was one of the few activities where there wasn’t a long wait).
We visited Susikino, which was the part of Sapporo where they had a 5 block long display of ice sculptures. Like the ones in Odori Park, the warm weather in the days before we arrived was not good for them, and sadly, they were no longer much to look at. But this put us near ramen alley, where we had an excellent ramen lunch in a shop that had a dining area about as big as a large bathroom (it had just enough room for two small tables). The staff consisted of a middle-aged couple - a true mom and pop shop.
We also spent some time in Sopporo’s two enormous underground shopping malls. It makes sense in a place this cold to put the malls underground. The two malls are laid out in long, narrow strips perpendicular to each other, which makes them a nice way to get across town without having to walk in the cold outside (a big plus with kids). While walking through, I had the surreal experience of hearing a Japanese cover version of the Skids’ 1978 song “The Saints are Coming” being piped in (but I imagine it was probably inspired more by the 2006 U2/Green Day cover than by the original).
Thankfully, Eidan was feeling better by the time we returned to Haneda airport last night, and he’s eating well again now for the first time in about a week.
I’ve included a lot of commentary in the photo captions, so you’ll find details on the sights there.
I told Maria that if we ever come see the Snow Festival again, we should stay for the day after it as well - it’d be fun to watch these things get bulldozed.
February 13th, 2007 at 1:16 am
I have great memories of visiting the yuki-matsuri with my folks when I was a kid. Most of the exhibitions had giant slides for the kids and there were lots of scale model ice sculptures of things like the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower. The last time I went was as an adult to go snowboarding with a friend who had relatives living in Sapporo. We drove to Aomori and then took the car ferry for a nausea inducing overnight trip (winter seas are pretty rough) We hit about 5 different ski resorts and the snow was exceptional, with the exception of the Teine Highlands (site of the 1972 Winter Olympics) which was cold, windy, and icy.