2015 A year of Matsuri-ies: Sapporo Slush Festival, February 8-10

Baba and Grandma arrived in Tokyo on February 5th. Bean and I met them there and spent a few days frolicking around and hitting the highlights before we flew to Sapporo for the 66th annual Snow Festival.  

Here are some snapshots of our time in Tokyo: 

Starting our journey to Tokyo!

Tokyo travel with baby in tow - lots and lots of stairs; not lots of elevators.

Soaking up the Bean. 

Shibuya

Meiji Jingu Shrine

Awesome Ramen shop near Harajuku

    

Outside a store named for my mom's nickname for Bean. 

In Asakusa at my favorite (free) observation deck!

Senso-ji Temple - Asakusa

Cone head at Senso-ji 

Sapporo's snow festival is one of Japan's largest winter festivals and attracts nearly 2 million people to the city each year. It is a seven day celebration of all things frozen, but is known primarily for its GIANT (some as big as 50ft tall & 80ft wide) snow sculptures. Attending this festival was high on our Japan bucket list and my parents planned their trip to be able to experience it (well, that and the Bean's first birthday). I had done my homework by googleing and talking to people who had attended in years past, and determined that we all needed to be prepared for a few days in the tundra.

I ordered snow pants for all of us and my mom bought enough hand warmers to warm a lot of hands. We arrived in Sapporo to find that it was actually quite balmy (by Sapporo winter standards). It was so warm, in fact, that the snow sculptures (especially the smaller ones) had suffered meltage. The ice sculptures had melted and refrozen so instead of being clear, they were frosted. Despite being a little disappointed that the snow was melty and the sculptures were slumping, we were pretty happy not to be uncomfortably cold for the three days we were there.

Sapporo Brewery

Eric flew from Aomori to meet us in Sapporo (on the island of Hokkaido - the northernmost island of the main islands of Japan). We checked into our hotel and hit the ground running! On our first night there, we made our way to the Sapporo Brewery and Beer Garden and got Genghis Khaned. Genghis Kahn Hall is a giant old brick building, which Google tells me was built in the 23rd year of the Meiji era and was initially used for official business by the pioneers sent to Hokkaido by the Japanese government. Today this building houses tables with fire pits in the middle around which diners gather to cook massive meals of lamb and vegetables and drink beer to their heart's content.

We walked into a smokey room with high ceilings. We were handed plastic bags and were ushered to our table. We learned they provide the plastic bags so that you can stuff your bulky winter gear into them to protect them from smelling like meat smoke. The plastic bag technique only slightly worked...we still spent the rest of our time walking around Sapporo smelling slightly like charred lamb. Mmmmmm.

We drank too much beer, ate too much meat, and had a fabulous time. Eric and my dad shared a grill and my mom and I shared a different one. It was evident that these partnerships were mistakes when my mom and I had to ask for extra lard to be brought out to keep our grill greased. Eric and my dad managed to maintain a perfect fat reservoir on theirs while ours gunked up and overheated. We never really could figure out what we were doing differently. Eric asked me to say that men are better at grilling that women, but I refuse to say that...

You don't eat meat? That's okay. I make lamb. 

Genghis. Khaned.

After dinner we went back to our rooms to crash into food comas and rest up for the next day in the snow!

Day two was Snow Festival day. The festival is divided among three sites: Odori, Tsudome, and Susukino. We decided ahead of time that we were not going to attempt to visit the Tsudome site. Our understanding was that this area was primarily geared toward children (with massive snow slides and snow rides) and since our only child was not yet walking, those types of activities were not really in our realm of possibilities. Instead, we decided to dedicate our time to Odori and Susukino. We wanted to see the sculptures in Odori park both during the day and at night because at dark they are illuminated. We planned to see the ice sculptures in Susukino only while they were illuminated at night.

Day two began in Odori park, which is a stretch of park through the city center and also the main site of the festival. Over 100 snow and ice sculptures of all sizes line this (about a mile long) stretch of park. There are massive crowds of people, tons of food vendors, and even a man-made ski slope where snowboarders gather to show off their tricks. We spent the better part of the day in Odori. For lunch, we took a break from sculpturing to eat a smorgasbord of festival food while huddled around an outdoor table. We didn't use them, but there were warming areas throughout the park. We found that as long as we stayed on the move, we were pretty comfortable temperature wise.

Kisses from Baba! 

Her game face during all three days in Sapporo. 

Just look at those sweet faces... 

Kanpai!

The Bean digs it! 

We took a break from the elements so that Bean could nap in the hotel and the rest of us could gear up for a night in the cold. Once we were all well rested, we hopped on a train and rode to the stop closest to Susukino. We exited the station and started walking...we walked and walked...and asked for directions and walked. No ice sculptures to be found. Somehow...we managed to follow people's directions all the way back to Odori park!

Since we were all the way back at Odori anyway, we decided to check out the illuminated snow and ice sculptures there before making our second attempt to find Susukino. Once we realized how close in proximity Odori and Susukino were, we skipped riding the train and just did a lot of walking. One of the coolest things about Sapporo are the underground walkways. You can get almost anywhere in the city without having to walk above ground in the cold! We re-emerged from the subway station nearest Susukino and this time turned the opposite direction. Would you believe it? The ice sculptures were RIGHT THERE! In our faces.

The ice sculptures took the hardest hit from the balmy temps. The first thing we saw was an ice wall with fish and other sea creatures frozen inside. Apparently, it had gotten warm enough that, along with the ice melt, the fish began to thaw. And as they thawed...so did their blood. What should have been a cool frozen fish display looked more like a gory horror scene. The rest of the sculptures were cloudy rather than crystal clear. Despite these technical difficulties, "Ice World" was worth seeing. One of the benefits of the melty ice was being able to see some of the sculptors hard at work on restoring their artwork. Deep into the night, dedicated artists worked on fixing the sculptures with saws and power tools.

Rough translation: ice melts in warm weather. Noted.

By the time we saw all the sculptures we wanted to see illuminated at night, it was pretty late and we were STARVING. We had a bit of trouble finding a restaurant, but eventually ended up at an Italian place. We took the chill of the night off with pizza and wine before crawling back to our hotel and sinking into a carb coma sleep.

For our third and last day in Sapporo, we had compiled a pretty lengthy list of possible activities, which was ultimately trimmed down quite significantly. We stayed committed to our walk everywhere approach by walking from our hotel back to the Sapporo brewery...I don't remember the exact distance, but it was a long flipping walk made longer by the fact that we had to cross back and forth across the road to stick to the sunny sides of the street...where the ice had melted down to concrete. We toured the brewery (which was high on Eric's to do list) then hopped in a cab and asked to be taken to Ramen Alley for lunch.

Ramen Alley is exactly what it sounds like- a narrow alley of ramen shop on top of ramen shop. Most of them not consisting of more than a few stools at a bar. We walked the length of the alley and then crossed the street to actually eat in a ramen restaurant on the outskirts of the alley. This particular restaurant was less crowded and had a little more room to accommodate our party of four plus baby.

The guy (owner?) of the restaurant was less than thrilled to see us, but eventually warmed to us. It was one of those order at a vending machine type restaurants (no English or picture menus available) and two very nice men helped us accomplish this. We tried to gift the two men lunchtime beers, but they graciously (and regretfully) declined telling us that they were a bus driver and tour guide and could not drink on the job. The ramen was delicious and was just what we needed on a cold day.

Baby steps walking to the brewery.

Ramen Alley

We were not left with enough time after lunch to do much more than make our way to the train station so that we could make our way to the airport. Our time in Sapporo came to and end before we were able to see and do all we wanted, but we sure did a lot with our short time there. The Bean was a trooper, the beer was cold, and the snow festival was definitely worth the hype...even on a year where it was more like slush than snow.

Take us back to Misawa. We're pooped!