Sapporo’s Yuki Matsuri
So about a week or two ago I decided to go to Sapporo city on the Northern Island of Hokkaido over the weekend to see the famed “Sapporo Snow Festival.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the festival it’s simply the biggest winter festival happening every year in Japan. So famous that if you just said “yuki matsui” (snow festival) to anyone in Japan chances are good that they would know exactly what you were talking about.
What makes it so famous then? It’s that this particular festival is huge! it takes up the entire city with snow and ice sculptures. Some in Odori Park (Sapporo’s central park area) get as big as a two or three story buildings. Additionally there is also ice sculptures in Susukino (Sapporo’s drinking district) that are as elegant as marble statures one might find in London, or Paris.
Suffice to say that if you’ve never been to Sapporo’s Yuki Matsuri its just a fantastic event. Unfortunately it happened this year in a bad time and probably will happen again next year at a bad time as well. February has sort of been the month with little to no breaks. There was one holiday (a Thursday) a while ago we had off, but no holidays during the festival that could warrant me more then a weekend. Luckily I could get to Sapporo in a day, but even so I had more or less than 20-24 hours to see everything before having to go home which sucked.
During my stay I was very lucky to reconnect with my host mom from back when I last stayed with her and my host family in Hokkaido as an overseas student at Hokusei Gakkuen University. It was good to just reconnect and catch up on all that had happened in the last four years (which was a lot )
Overall I was surprised at how much everything had changed since I last lived there. There’s some landmarks I still remember… mainly Odori Park, the TV tower, and the giant 100th anniversary monument out in the distance. However, Sapporo seems to be trying to spruce up its image and make itself more of a high class city. Somehow they’ve got an approval to put in a bullet train from Hachinohe (the current end of the bullet train line) through Aomori city which is remarkable. I saw in Sapporo they were even building a big Bullet Train Station. I think it’s good the city is trying to get more connected with the rest of Japan. It’s good for the economy of Hokkaido and will probably bring a new source of business to the area…
I still like Sapporo, but lately I don’t feel like I’d want to move there for good. Lately I’ve been thinking somewhere more south would be a better transition from… cold old Mutsu. Somewhere like perhaps Osaka or Kobe? Or Fukuoka… ahh now there’s somewhere warm…
Good Trip… Good Trip… Very nice weekend get away… well worth every yen spent.
~J out