57th Annual Snow Festival
Talk about tired… just getting back into the groove again with school after coming back from HOKKAIDO! Hokkaido being the northern most island in Japan plays host to the annual Snow Festival. Krystal and I made it a point to go there before we left Japan for good and it was one of the craziest experiences of our lives.
We took vacation leave last Friday so we could have an extra day in Hokkaido. We had to get up at 5 in the morning to make it down to the airport by 8. Everything pretty much ran smoothly until we got to Hokkaido. We were really surprised to find out that Japan as well as Hokkaido was having a record-breaking winter being the coldest it has been in the last 100 years or so. We arrived in Sapporo around 1 in the afternoon with the temperature reading about –7 degrees Celsius.
Sapporo is known for of ‘course, their Sapporo Beer. As soon as we made it on the train heading for the main station we made sure that we also did a “First Sapporo in Sapporo” compai. The beer going down was so good even with the crowded train of Japanese gawking at the foreigners.
The Snow Festival starts on Feb 6th and goes until the 13th. We got there on the 4th because the festival is so popular that during the actually festival times, plane and accommodation tickets can go up as much as 400% the original cost so we went a little earlier. Although the lights weren’t up yet or some of the ice and snow sculptures not finished we still had a good chance to see a majority of them. I’m not just talking about small little ice sculptures you see at banquets but massive works of art that need tens of people, chainsaws, and sometimes even cranes. The one I was most impressed with was the “Narina” display they made of the White Witch being pulled on a sleigh by polar bears. There were so many sculptures and of so many different sizes. You had small ones about 10 feet tall where they had a single character or theme. We saw some Star Wars ones as well. They had a big one of just Darth Vader’s head and one with a huge R2D2. You also found some famous characters like Doraemon, Anpan Man, and Pekochan.
They had some really huge ones like some kind of building in Cambodia. Sorry that was so anti-climatic but I have no idea what the building was called and one of our friends was obsessing over that one forever and couldn’t find it. Later we came to realize we did indeed see it but she didn’t think that was it. They also had a huge temple made out of snow. It was a good three stories high. I think I could have enjoyed the sculptures more but like I said this past weekend was the coldest and snowiest days of the year. It was cold. At first I was ok in my snow jacket but then the scarf I was wearing couldn’t really shield my face, then my fingers started to go numb (even in gloves), and lastly my toes had a searing pain from being so cold. Krystal too was suffering a bit and at one point couldn’t walk as much because her feet were so cold. And this was only the first day…
For lunch we decided to get some Hokkaido Ramen, which is a specialty because of the cold weather. Our friend Amie’s husband had been in Sapporo before and told us of a street that only had ramen shops. We had some trouble looking for the street but with some directions from the locals we were able to find the street and recharge our bodies for more walking in the cold.
We decided to call it a day and wanted to find something indoors. It was a perfect time to go to the Sapporo Brewery. How nice was it that we could be out of the raging snowstorm and drink freshly brewed beer? Man it was AWESOME! We even got the all you can drink special for only 12 dollars! The all you can drink only lasted for 100 minutes but that was long enough to get us drunk. So what do drunken guys do in a snowstorm? We have a snowball fight. I think this was my first snowball fight and it was intense. At first it was like “I hit you with a snowball…. Nah nah nah nah nah na.” But it quickly came DIE DIE DIE!! In front of the brewery there was a huge hill of snow. Originally it had been the area where the snow was pushed so that the walkway would be assessable but now it was our battle arena. At first we just tried to get people to fall into the wall of snow but then the missile projectiles came into play. Then for some reason I was the target of 4 people. I was getting whacked all over when I found the closest guy to me and threw him into the snowy ground. He wasn’t too happy so he got up and pushed me back. I was a lot closer to the edge and fell off totally backwards. I landed hard in the frozen base of the small hill and was a little woozy when I was pelted with more snowballs from above. When I fell I think I landed awkwardly on my right wrist because it was starting to hurt. But because I was being pelted constantly by snowballs I decided to “cry wolf” that my arm was broken. This plan worked, because I was A) not on the cold ice floor B) wasn’t being pelted with snowballs and C) being attended by guilty attackers. As I got back into the safety of the restaurant waiting area I reviled that I was in fact not hurt and pissed a few of them off. I guess it was a dirty trick but I was REALLY hurt in the arm and needed them to stop throwing snowballs so I can retreat. Anyway I didn’t hear the end of it for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gotten hit in the face we decided to do something more “indoors” and head for some karaoke. I was completely wet from my waist down. (I had on jeans) But I still decided to join the karaoke festivities. After about three hours we decided to call it a night for we had more sculptures to see and a whole day out in the blistering cold the next day.
The hotel we stayed at was pretty nice. They had an English speaking staff and a very western feel to the hotel. What was most surprising was that each couple had a room to themselves. The room that Krystal had could easily fit another couple. The place was really nice. The bathroom was all western style and had a huge bathtub. Another cool thing about the hotel was that they gave everyone two free breakfast meal tickets. The ticket would let us into their restaurant and partake in their breakfast buffet which was both western and eastern food oriented. With the free breakfast tickets we didn’t have to worry about going out early for breakfast and being too tired.
On the second day we decided to get better equipment for walking in the snow at a sporting goods store in town. We had gone in the first day to look around but it was just to browse. On the second day people had decided to beat the cold by getting “upgraded”. My friend Kevin got a mask to wear so that only his eyes were exposed to the weather. Evidently he had his eye on a Spiderman mask and was known as Spiderman for the rest of the weekend. Krystal bought a new scarf, Pat got new shoes, Lliam got a new hat, and I got a Face Fucker. A face fucker is what they called a face snow guard. It can double as a neck warmer or you can pull it up so it looks like a ninja mask. It was pretty useful and not as bulky as a scarf.
Now it was off to the Snow festival! We finished the other 6 blocks or so of snow and ice sculptures and decided to take a break from the weather. Some people went to the spa to get massages and others went to an onsen. Krystal, Kevin, Val, and I went for sushi. Seafood is also a big specialty that Hokkaido has, especially the crab. We wandered around for a while and found a regular kaiten sushi place (sushi on the track i.e. Genki Sushi). This is supposed to be considered mediocre sushi but because it was in Hokkaido it was CRAZY GOOD! It was a lot better than any of the sushi I had back in Hawaii as well as up to par with the fancy sushi restaurant that we go to in Kyoto. It was completely out of control.
After a few hours we met up with everyone and decided to get some dinner and the menu called for CRAB. This is where it starts to get weird….
Anyway the spa place where people went to get massages and relax at the onsen had many advertisements for All You can Eat Crab dinners. We followed the signs to the top floor and when we got there the staff worker told us that they didn’t have a restaurant up here and that we needed to go to the front desk. So we went to the front desk of the Spa and asked if we could get the All You Can eat Dinner. They said it was all right but we had a vegetarian in our party that can’t eat Crab so we asked if it had to be an “everyone or no one” kind of deal. They said it would be ok but then there was a misunderstanding so we left. As we left the building, there was another restaurant that was directly next door that also had crab. We went in only to find out that the menu was really expensive. So we left that place. Trying to decide whether or not to go somewhere else, we all just want to get some crab so we went back to the front desk of the original place. It was weird placing our dinner orders with the same people that made reservations with massages and onsen visits. Anyway we were treated the same and told us to go put our shoes in lockers and told to go down the elevators.
Remember the misunderstanding I told you about? Well the misunderstanding was that if you wanted a crab dinner it had to be an All You Can Eat dinner, but you couldn’t order just one crab. Some people not being really hungry originally wanted just a few legs or something but by doing that it would be more expensive to get an ala carte dinner. So everyone sucked it up and got the all you can eat dinner. Anyway we were told to go down stairs and wait in the restaurant lobby. When we got there it was the exact restaurant we walked out of after seeing the really expensive menu! It felt like the Twilight Zone! Everyone thought that they we crazy. We finally got our chance to eat Hokkaido Snow Crab and it was a FEAST!
On our way out we had yet another dilemma. Some of the people that went to the Onsen earlier wanted to go again. I wanted to get a massage because I couldn’t get one earlier and others wanted to go back to the hotel. After about 30 minutes of deliberating in the lobby the girls went back to the hotel and the guys went to the Onsen.
The Onsen is like a giant public spa where you can relax in different types of mineral pools to rejuvenate your body. Only thing is that you and everyone else in there are naked. I’m not really comfortable about being naked in front of everyone but I decided that it would be a chance of a lifetime to visit this particular onsen. Their main “attraction” was an outdoor bath that was open to the sky so you could be in a bath while snowflakes fell all around you. The whole process was like an amusement park, where you needed to walk in a straight line to certain doors and follow all the rules.
First you needed to “de-robe” and walk to the shower room. Sounds easy huh? The lockers and the shower rooms were on different floors. So we went down the stairs and to the shower room. The shower room was pretty nice with black walls with a real modern feel. After you shower you head towards the glass doors to a well that has the Onsen water. This is the water the whole place uses that is rich in minerals that helps your body relax. You douse yourself with a small bucket to get your body ready to go into the baths. This also may sound easy but as well as being all by yourself and seeing naked old guys everywhere you’re also in close proximity to the group of friends that came with you. All I can say is that it was all about eye contact and not letting your eyes wander. You do have a little towel that you can use to cover your “manly parts” but that thing can only cover so much. Pat and Lliam were perfectly fine being naked and didn’t even use the towel to cover up, I on the other hand, clung to my towel as it were a life or death situation. First we went to the outdoor bath and I would have to say that it was one of the most serene places I have ever been. You’re in this bath that it tempered at 47 degrees Celsius while there is snow falling all around you. It was so cool to sit there talking about whatever and enjoying the ambience. Then we went to “Death Baths”. Its actually called the Jet Baths but I thought my friend said “death” because the tubs were full of red water. There were about 6 baths all next to each other with red water filled to the rim. I’m assuming it was the certain mineral that was in the water that made it red. Anyway you lie in the tub and choose the intensity of the jets. At first everyone was talking but everyone got so into it that everyone pretty much shut up and just relaxed. After that we went into the steam room. It was a big glass room with steam pouring from the ceilings. The steam room was too much for me. You could barely breath in there, so I left for a really nice pool of green water. The green pool was round like a Jacuzzi and had bubbles. Not the bubbles like the Jet bath where it gets all frothy but big bubbles, like in a potion. That one was really relaxing, it felt like sitting in a witch’s cauldron without the pain and terror. I guess the guys thought the steam room to be too much because they joined me in the “cauldron” minutes later. Next stop was the sauna. We figured since we were here might as well hit up the sauna. The sauna wasn’t anything special except that had a TV showing soap operas. We didn’t stay there too long and decided that our last stop would be the outdoor bath.
After that we went and got our bathrobes and headed for the “Dressing Room.” Basically it was huge room with mirrors so you could make yourself all pretty. They had toothbrushes, brushes, combs, cologne, hair supplies, razors, and everything you would need in a fully equipped bathroom. There was even this box thing with a shelf that you can put your foot on and clip your toenails. After coming out of the baths, you feel unbelievably relaxed. All you want to do is sit there and lounge. I could barely lift my arm to brush my hair. Anyway we had to leave eventually so we got dressed and left the spa building for the fourth time that day.
The next morning we only had an hour or so to get ready and take some last minute picture before heading back to the airport. We were a little worried since it had been snowing for almost 36 hours and the scene at the airport looked bad. But lucky for us the flight was only delayed 15 minutes and we were on our way home.
We got home around 6:30 with no dinner plans so Krystal and I decided to get some curry delivered to us and spent the last few hours of the weekend catching up with LOST. I couldn’t of had asked for a better winter vacation with Krystal, Kevin, Val. Amie, Pat, Lliam, and Colleen. Hokkaido is F’in AWESOME!!!!
We took vacation leave last Friday so we could have an extra day in Hokkaido. We had to get up at 5 in the morning to make it down to the airport by 8. Everything pretty much ran smoothly until we got to Hokkaido. We were really surprised to find out that Japan as well as Hokkaido was having a record-breaking winter being the coldest it has been in the last 100 years or so. We arrived in Sapporo around 1 in the afternoon with the temperature reading about –7 degrees Celsius.
Sapporo is known for of ‘course, their Sapporo Beer. As soon as we made it on the train heading for the main station we made sure that we also did a “First Sapporo in Sapporo” compai. The beer going down was so good even with the crowded train of Japanese gawking at the foreigners.
The Snow Festival starts on Feb 6th and goes until the 13th. We got there on the 4th because the festival is so popular that during the actually festival times, plane and accommodation tickets can go up as much as 400% the original cost so we went a little earlier. Although the lights weren’t up yet or some of the ice and snow sculptures not finished we still had a good chance to see a majority of them. I’m not just talking about small little ice sculptures you see at banquets but massive works of art that need tens of people, chainsaws, and sometimes even cranes. The one I was most impressed with was the “Narina” display they made of the White Witch being pulled on a sleigh by polar bears. There were so many sculptures and of so many different sizes. You had small ones about 10 feet tall where they had a single character or theme. We saw some Star Wars ones as well. They had a big one of just Darth Vader’s head and one with a huge R2D2. You also found some famous characters like Doraemon, Anpan Man, and Pekochan.
They had some really huge ones like some kind of building in Cambodia. Sorry that was so anti-climatic but I have no idea what the building was called and one of our friends was obsessing over that one forever and couldn’t find it. Later we came to realize we did indeed see it but she didn’t think that was it. They also had a huge temple made out of snow. It was a good three stories high. I think I could have enjoyed the sculptures more but like I said this past weekend was the coldest and snowiest days of the year. It was cold. At first I was ok in my snow jacket but then the scarf I was wearing couldn’t really shield my face, then my fingers started to go numb (even in gloves), and lastly my toes had a searing pain from being so cold. Krystal too was suffering a bit and at one point couldn’t walk as much because her feet were so cold. And this was only the first day…
For lunch we decided to get some Hokkaido Ramen, which is a specialty because of the cold weather. Our friend Amie’s husband had been in Sapporo before and told us of a street that only had ramen shops. We had some trouble looking for the street but with some directions from the locals we were able to find the street and recharge our bodies for more walking in the cold.
We decided to call it a day and wanted to find something indoors. It was a perfect time to go to the Sapporo Brewery. How nice was it that we could be out of the raging snowstorm and drink freshly brewed beer? Man it was AWESOME! We even got the all you can drink special for only 12 dollars! The all you can drink only lasted for 100 minutes but that was long enough to get us drunk. So what do drunken guys do in a snowstorm? We have a snowball fight. I think this was my first snowball fight and it was intense. At first it was like “I hit you with a snowball…. Nah nah nah nah nah na.” But it quickly came DIE DIE DIE!! In front of the brewery there was a huge hill of snow. Originally it had been the area where the snow was pushed so that the walkway would be assessable but now it was our battle arena. At first we just tried to get people to fall into the wall of snow but then the missile projectiles came into play. Then for some reason I was the target of 4 people. I was getting whacked all over when I found the closest guy to me and threw him into the snowy ground. He wasn’t too happy so he got up and pushed me back. I was a lot closer to the edge and fell off totally backwards. I landed hard in the frozen base of the small hill and was a little woozy when I was pelted with more snowballs from above. When I fell I think I landed awkwardly on my right wrist because it was starting to hurt. But because I was being pelted constantly by snowballs I decided to “cry wolf” that my arm was broken. This plan worked, because I was A) not on the cold ice floor B) wasn’t being pelted with snowballs and C) being attended by guilty attackers. As I got back into the safety of the restaurant waiting area I reviled that I was in fact not hurt and pissed a few of them off. I guess it was a dirty trick but I was REALLY hurt in the arm and needed them to stop throwing snowballs so I can retreat. Anyway I didn’t hear the end of it for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gotten hit in the face we decided to do something more “indoors” and head for some karaoke. I was completely wet from my waist down. (I had on jeans) But I still decided to join the karaoke festivities. After about three hours we decided to call it a night for we had more sculptures to see and a whole day out in the blistering cold the next day.
The hotel we stayed at was pretty nice. They had an English speaking staff and a very western feel to the hotel. What was most surprising was that each couple had a room to themselves. The room that Krystal had could easily fit another couple. The place was really nice. The bathroom was all western style and had a huge bathtub. Another cool thing about the hotel was that they gave everyone two free breakfast meal tickets. The ticket would let us into their restaurant and partake in their breakfast buffet which was both western and eastern food oriented. With the free breakfast tickets we didn’t have to worry about going out early for breakfast and being too tired.
On the second day we decided to get better equipment for walking in the snow at a sporting goods store in town. We had gone in the first day to look around but it was just to browse. On the second day people had decided to beat the cold by getting “upgraded”. My friend Kevin got a mask to wear so that only his eyes were exposed to the weather. Evidently he had his eye on a Spiderman mask and was known as Spiderman for the rest of the weekend. Krystal bought a new scarf, Pat got new shoes, Lliam got a new hat, and I got a Face Fucker. A face fucker is what they called a face snow guard. It can double as a neck warmer or you can pull it up so it looks like a ninja mask. It was pretty useful and not as bulky as a scarf.
Now it was off to the Snow festival! We finished the other 6 blocks or so of snow and ice sculptures and decided to take a break from the weather. Some people went to the spa to get massages and others went to an onsen. Krystal, Kevin, Val, and I went for sushi. Seafood is also a big specialty that Hokkaido has, especially the crab. We wandered around for a while and found a regular kaiten sushi place (sushi on the track i.e. Genki Sushi). This is supposed to be considered mediocre sushi but because it was in Hokkaido it was CRAZY GOOD! It was a lot better than any of the sushi I had back in Hawaii as well as up to par with the fancy sushi restaurant that we go to in Kyoto. It was completely out of control.
After a few hours we met up with everyone and decided to get some dinner and the menu called for CRAB. This is where it starts to get weird….
Anyway the spa place where people went to get massages and relax at the onsen had many advertisements for All You can Eat Crab dinners. We followed the signs to the top floor and when we got there the staff worker told us that they didn’t have a restaurant up here and that we needed to go to the front desk. So we went to the front desk of the Spa and asked if we could get the All You Can eat Dinner. They said it was all right but we had a vegetarian in our party that can’t eat Crab so we asked if it had to be an “everyone or no one” kind of deal. They said it would be ok but then there was a misunderstanding so we left. As we left the building, there was another restaurant that was directly next door that also had crab. We went in only to find out that the menu was really expensive. So we left that place. Trying to decide whether or not to go somewhere else, we all just want to get some crab so we went back to the front desk of the original place. It was weird placing our dinner orders with the same people that made reservations with massages and onsen visits. Anyway we were treated the same and told us to go put our shoes in lockers and told to go down the elevators.
Remember the misunderstanding I told you about? Well the misunderstanding was that if you wanted a crab dinner it had to be an All You Can Eat dinner, but you couldn’t order just one crab. Some people not being really hungry originally wanted just a few legs or something but by doing that it would be more expensive to get an ala carte dinner. So everyone sucked it up and got the all you can eat dinner. Anyway we were told to go down stairs and wait in the restaurant lobby. When we got there it was the exact restaurant we walked out of after seeing the really expensive menu! It felt like the Twilight Zone! Everyone thought that they we crazy. We finally got our chance to eat Hokkaido Snow Crab and it was a FEAST!
On our way out we had yet another dilemma. Some of the people that went to the Onsen earlier wanted to go again. I wanted to get a massage because I couldn’t get one earlier and others wanted to go back to the hotel. After about 30 minutes of deliberating in the lobby the girls went back to the hotel and the guys went to the Onsen.
The Onsen is like a giant public spa where you can relax in different types of mineral pools to rejuvenate your body. Only thing is that you and everyone else in there are naked. I’m not really comfortable about being naked in front of everyone but I decided that it would be a chance of a lifetime to visit this particular onsen. Their main “attraction” was an outdoor bath that was open to the sky so you could be in a bath while snowflakes fell all around you. The whole process was like an amusement park, where you needed to walk in a straight line to certain doors and follow all the rules.
First you needed to “de-robe” and walk to the shower room. Sounds easy huh? The lockers and the shower rooms were on different floors. So we went down the stairs and to the shower room. The shower room was pretty nice with black walls with a real modern feel. After you shower you head towards the glass doors to a well that has the Onsen water. This is the water the whole place uses that is rich in minerals that helps your body relax. You douse yourself with a small bucket to get your body ready to go into the baths. This also may sound easy but as well as being all by yourself and seeing naked old guys everywhere you’re also in close proximity to the group of friends that came with you. All I can say is that it was all about eye contact and not letting your eyes wander. You do have a little towel that you can use to cover your “manly parts” but that thing can only cover so much. Pat and Lliam were perfectly fine being naked and didn’t even use the towel to cover up, I on the other hand, clung to my towel as it were a life or death situation. First we went to the outdoor bath and I would have to say that it was one of the most serene places I have ever been. You’re in this bath that it tempered at 47 degrees Celsius while there is snow falling all around you. It was so cool to sit there talking about whatever and enjoying the ambience. Then we went to “Death Baths”. Its actually called the Jet Baths but I thought my friend said “death” because the tubs were full of red water. There were about 6 baths all next to each other with red water filled to the rim. I’m assuming it was the certain mineral that was in the water that made it red. Anyway you lie in the tub and choose the intensity of the jets. At first everyone was talking but everyone got so into it that everyone pretty much shut up and just relaxed. After that we went into the steam room. It was a big glass room with steam pouring from the ceilings. The steam room was too much for me. You could barely breath in there, so I left for a really nice pool of green water. The green pool was round like a Jacuzzi and had bubbles. Not the bubbles like the Jet bath where it gets all frothy but big bubbles, like in a potion. That one was really relaxing, it felt like sitting in a witch’s cauldron without the pain and terror. I guess the guys thought the steam room to be too much because they joined me in the “cauldron” minutes later. Next stop was the sauna. We figured since we were here might as well hit up the sauna. The sauna wasn’t anything special except that had a TV showing soap operas. We didn’t stay there too long and decided that our last stop would be the outdoor bath.
After that we went and got our bathrobes and headed for the “Dressing Room.” Basically it was huge room with mirrors so you could make yourself all pretty. They had toothbrushes, brushes, combs, cologne, hair supplies, razors, and everything you would need in a fully equipped bathroom. There was even this box thing with a shelf that you can put your foot on and clip your toenails. After coming out of the baths, you feel unbelievably relaxed. All you want to do is sit there and lounge. I could barely lift my arm to brush my hair. Anyway we had to leave eventually so we got dressed and left the spa building for the fourth time that day.
The next morning we only had an hour or so to get ready and take some last minute picture before heading back to the airport. We were a little worried since it had been snowing for almost 36 hours and the scene at the airport looked bad. But lucky for us the flight was only delayed 15 minutes and we were on our way home.
We got home around 6:30 with no dinner plans so Krystal and I decided to get some curry delivered to us and spent the last few hours of the weekend catching up with LOST. I couldn’t of had asked for a better winter vacation with Krystal, Kevin, Val. Amie, Pat, Lliam, and Colleen. Hokkaido is F’in AWESOME!!!!
posted by Chris at 11:54 PM
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