Sapporo Snow Festival & Otaru Snow Gleaming Festival

From Furano I took a rather painful (still couldn't sit for long periods) bus ride to Sapporo before catching a train to Otaru. My first experience of a big Japanese station, Sapporo station was a bit overwhelming. As expected, no English in sight so finding the right train was a matter of matching kanji symbols. I stayed in Otaru for the few days of the Snow Festival rather than Sapporo because it was cheaper. I got a really good deal on the Otaru Hilton which was right next to the station and above a big outlet shopping centre with the coast on one side and the mountains on the other. It also gave me the chance to check out Otaru which I may not have done if I stayed in Sapporo.

Otaru is a lovely little city which specialises in glass crafts and has some good shopping. I was there for the beginning of the Snow Gleaming (Snow Lantern) Festival, which is much smaller in scale and more atmospheric than the big Sapporo festival. It was also good to be there a few days before the festival started to see some of the preparations.

Of course the Sapporo Snow Festival was also very impressive. It is unbelievable how detailed some of ice and snow sculptures are and the main snow sets are nothing short of awesome. I had a walk around the festival during the day which was good but I think it was most impressive at night when lighting shows were also incorporated.

Sapporo itself was not as 'Japanese' as I expected - many of the historical buildings are 'American Colonial' in style. Sapporo saw most of its development in the mid-late 19th Century under the influence of American pioneers which explains some of the architecture. An interesting outdoor historical village located in the Hokkaido Nopporo Forest, just on the outskirts of Sapporo, focuses on these pioneering days with various re-created buildings spread over nearly 50ha - I found it really interesting and spent the better part of a day there.

I also took a day trip Jozankei Onsen, about an hour bus ride from Sapporo. Jozankei is basically a spa town situated in a beautiful gorge with lots of hot natural springs. I didn't end up actually going to any of the onsens but I did have a wonderful hot foot bath with some locals before cooking some eggs in the ultra hot well. Took about 20 mins for some perfectly boiled eggs! Little bit of difficulty eating them on the bus ride back to Sapporo though....

Food highlight for this part of the trip was some great crab and prawn sushi from the food market below my hotel!

Sapporo Snow Festival & Otaru Snow Gleaming Festival

Otaru, Japan