Earlier this month, along with Sheridan,
Myra, Simona and Chase, I headed to Sapporo to see the famous snow festival. The highlights of this festival, which takes place in the northernmost
prefecture in Japan, are the intricate snow and ice sculptures in abundance
within the city.
The evening we arrived we ate some of the
famous miso ramen in Susukino, which I have to say was the bomb. Definitely
would recommend that to anyone arriving and facing -11 degree weather like us. I discovered a quirky little parfait bar too which we went to shortly after.
Yes you read that right, parfait in -11 degrees, but Hokkaido is famous for its
milk products, so it would be rude not too. Something I learnt from Simona this
trip was that parfait can be eaten anytime, anywhere, and that this girl has a
soft cream problem. This was cemented firmly after meeting us in a café and
quote: “I was only going to order a tea”, but yet again, having ice cream in
front of her.
Our first day was fun filled, we visited
Odori Park to see the intricate snow sculptures that the festival is so famous
for. My favourite was a Cup Noodle ramen themed slide that children, whose
expressions varied between those of joy and pure horror, sped down with great
encouragement from everyone watching.
I was a little disappointed that the main
spectacle was something Final Fantasy themed, as I’m not a fan, but that didn’t
mean I couldn’t appreciate the work the Defence Force had put into creating it.
Food and alcohol stalls lined every corner of the park, so the drinking started
early with some mulled wine. This, accompanied with Minions galore and a rather
sinister Winnie the Pooh made from snow, really created a winter wonderland.
In the evening we visited Otaru, a small
harbour town about 40 minutes to the west of Sapporo that looks out onto
Ishikari Bay. During the snow festival the canal is adorned with floating
lanterns, along with walk ways glowing in light from wax candles with petals or
leaves inside. The atmosphere it created was just beautiful, and despite the hordes
of tourists (admittedly I was about to punch the next person who smacked me
with their selfie stick), you could appreciate the hard work that goes into
creating something so magical.
Our final full day was more relaxed, with
us heading to an onsen and afterwards heading to an ALT enkai organised with
ALT’s from all over Japan. The onsen was a learning curve in itself, since it
was the first time I’d onsen-ed since getting my tattoo. Sheridan was in the same
position and we bought some skin patches to hide them. Hers worked well, mine
on the other hand… let’s just say my skin wasn’t pink like she thought, and I looked like I’d had a skin graft from
a deer.
Whilst I loved my trip to Hokkaido, there
were so many more places I wanted to visit, but the time scale and snow made it
a little impossible. I've promised myself that I'll go back in summer one year,
to visit the local Ainu areas and to discover more about the indigenous people
who once thrived on the island. Visiting some tiny craft stores in Otaru, I was
surprised at the somewhat similarity between Ainu and Native American
jewellery. A kokopelli wouldn't have been too out of place, and that only
intrigued me even more.