Sapporo, Japan

Jennifer
Feb 11
6 min read

Updated: Feb 17

There are four main islands of Japan and thousands of tinier islands amidst the Japanese archipelago. David and my first trip revolved mostly around Honshu, which is the main island where Tokyo resides, and Shikoku, which is off of the coast of Hiroshima. This year we decided to explore more chaotically (as we are known to do) and visit the northernmost main island Hokkaido and the southernmost main island Kyushu. As a bonus, we will also be visiting one of the most southern islands, Okinawa, but we’ll get to that later.

Why did we go from the warm and wonderful New Zealand summer to the harsh cold of Hokkaido you ask? Well, because there’s a famous snow festival, of course! This is another one of those things jumbled up in the drawer of The Great Backlog of Things I Must Do Before I Randomly Die Doing One of these Things, and I’m not entirely sure where it came from. I think a documentary about the snow festival may have played on TV once when I was younger. Over the many years the festival has been hosted, advancements in technology have allowed for bigger and bigger snow sculptures. In 1972, the largest sculpture they’ve ever had was created – “Gulliver, Welcome to Sapporo” at a height of 25 meters (or 82 feet)! He was created to welcome in the Winter Olympics that year.

I had bugged my ex to go many years ago when I at least lived closer, but he seemed to think the logistics were impossible. And he wouldn’t be entirely wrong; hotel prices increase dramatically around this time of year. A friend of mine even said they were exceedingly worse this year in particular because idol fans were flocking to the area for a very specific sculpture. However, flight costs within Japan remained reasonable and I acquired accommodations many, many months in advance. Then it was just a matter of getting to Odori Park, which it turns out is the literal center of Sapporo. The entire city was designed in a grid pattern around the park, so the logistics of the operation were a lot smoother than originally thought.

So, David and I decided to risk thermal shock and travel north to the land of ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶R̶i̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶S̶u̶n̶ The Falling Snow for Sapporo’s 2025 Yuki Matsuri. This year’s theme was “Enjoy the Ice” and there were three sites to see – Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome. Odori Park is the original site of the festival and where the largest snow sculptures are. Some range in size of 50 to 80 feet tall. There’s also an ice stage with free events, and on the east end is the Sapporo TV Tower, which individuals can go up in to see the festival from above. The Susukino site is a bit different. It’s actually a closed down section of streets in the Susukino neighborhood, a place known for food and nightlife. The street is adorned with large, intricately carved ice sculptures. There’s an ice carving competition, which we didn’t see live but we did see the winners of. I would say Susukino’s sculptures had incredible detail, while Odori’s sculptures had incredible scope and size. Tsudome, the last site, is literally a dome and has indoor and outdoor sections. There’s rafting, a maze, food stalls, and an event stage. However, it is heavily geared toward kids, so we didn’t make it out that way.

The festival first began in 1950 when high school and middle school students, overseen by their teachers, built six large snow sculptures in Odori Park. In the years that followed, the Japanese Self Defense Force got involved with building massive snow sculptures. Finally, in 1972 when Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics, the Snow Festival became internationally renowned.

The park’s snow is not enough for all of its creations, so over thirty thousand tons of snow are trucked in from all over Hokkaido (including from cemeteries!). Building begins between two weeks to a month before the festival kicks off. The sculptures are sprayed with water to freeze and preserve them; if they begin to melt or break, they are destroyed. No sympathy for these snow creations. They’re not even allowed to melt after the festival – they are unceremoniously destroyed in the middle of the night after the last day of the festival. The fleeting nature of the festival is supposedly part of its allure.

This year, there were a number of incredible sculptures to see. There was a light projection show on several-stories tall horse and jockey, depicting the horse actually running, or light streaming over both of them. Interestingly enough, a much smaller light show was playing a few streets away, illuminating the face of two Gundam mechs. The use of light to make their eyes glow, accentuate their suit details, and make them power up was a much more magical application of the projections I saw there.

Also this year, they had a MONSTER HUNTER WILDS ARKVELD AND PALICO SCULPTURE!!! Arkveld is a new monster also known as “The White Wraith,” according to the Snow Festival’s press release. I’m sure it will be called “Snow Kitty 2.0” or something ridiculous by the time we (the community) are done with it. You may have read my previous posts about Monster Hunter, which is one of my favorite game franchises. Capcom is releasing the newest installment, Monster Hunter Wilds, at the end of February.* The sculpture was incredible, with the Palico (tiny cat creature) being at least three times my size.

As I made my way westwards through Odori park, I came to an incredible, excessive, amazing snow sculpture. I looked up as an anime protagonist gazed down at me, to their right a giant dragon loomed. My heart raced. Then… then I noticed the ten-foot-tall slime ball in front of the dragon. The anime That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime got its own sculpture. The whole anime world has been shaken by incredible series recently, from the brutality of JJK and Chainsaw Man to the mysterious and beautifully animated Apothecary Diaries. But I didn’t see sculptures for those, except Apothecary Diaries with a more reasonably sized Maomao and Jinshi. Instead, an anime whose first season concluded in 2016, took center stage. I’m only marginally salty because the writer has an elementary school level education regarding women and economics, and we’ve come such a long way in storytelling, but the sculpture was pretty awesome nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I don’t snowboard or ski. So, the majority of the time David and I spent in Sapporo was spent staring at snowy artwork – from the Snow Festival to Blue Lake Shikotsu’s Ice Festival. The lake’s festival was quite different, where instead of snow sculptures, snow and ice was poured over metal frames and lights to make much more bizarre, architectural works. That festival was difficult to get to, but absolutely amazing with a shrine, café, and cathedral-like cavern made out of ice and frozen birch and pine trees. We also went snow shoeing at Sapporo’s Art Park.

I should also mention our friends Kat and Kevin joined us!!! Congratulations to the married couple and happy birthday, Kat! We got yaki tori, did ridiculous karaoke, played taiko, ate too much sushi, and played in the snow. Great way to make a great time even greater! We also learned how to use our Tile. Snow tackle 10/10. Recovery? 0/10.

All in all, I don’t know if someone would need to visit for the whole week-long festival. Odori Park could be done over two days, just to make sure you don’t miss anything and maybe to see if in daylight and lit up at night, and the other sites could have their own days. So, a half week could easily cover the whole thing. However, if I went back, which I absolutely 100% will if I am able, I would still stay the whole week and then some. There are plenty of ice festivals throughout Hokkaido, and the snow is truly magical. With underground walkways and public transportation, you never really feel “snowed in,” and can enjoy the magic without adulthood shattering the illusion. I also definitely prefer the winter wonderland over the scorching Tokyo summer, even with all the layers and many 7-11 pocket warmers I went through.

10/10 – MONSTER HUNTER WILDS TWO STORY TALL SNOW KITTY LET’S GOOO