Sapporo & Otaru

A couple of weeks after we got back from Australia, we head to Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido, for the Sapporo Snow Festival. This festival is no joke. People travel from all over the world to build and see the massive snow sculptures that essentially close down several city blocks. 

Riding standing room only. For hours.

The train to Sapporo is not a shinkansen, or at least it wasn't at the time. Which means that to get to there we took the regular slow train from Misawa to Aomori to Hakodate to Sapporo. This all would have been fine, but you can't buy tickets for regular trains ahead of time like you can with the shinkansen. Or there is a way, but I don't speak fluent Japanese, so swing and a miss. 

Even Mario got there quicker. Fact. 

Once we arrived in Aomori, all they had available for the Hakodate to Sapporo stretch was standing room only tickets. It's okay, I've been there before. Dear friends, standing room on a regular train versus the shinkansen is a world of difference. The ride was insanely bumpy and crowded; it is one of the most popular festivals, after all. 

Beautiful downtown Sapporo. Snow, snow, SNOW!

Once we finally got to Sapporo, we were hit with a cold I had yet to experience in Japan. I had previously assumed people over exaggerated how cold Sapporo is, but as a former Alaska resident, I can affirm it is freaking COLD. Luckily, our hotel was a short walk from the festival, and there were multiple booths selling hot wine and corn butter ramen.

Japan had an unusually mild winter in 2015, and it was apparent with all of the sculptures. Most were beginning to melt, and some of the small ones had completely collapsed. The first night we walked down the Odori site, drinking chu-his and mulled wine. 

Also stumbled upon this fantastic photo op. Oh Japan, you're weirdly wonderful.

The following day we went to the Sapporo Beer Garden. The garden is split into a couple of different areas: the Genghis Khan Hall, an izakaya-style dining area, and the Sapporo Beer Museum. Since we were a touch hungover, and super hungry, we ate first.

The spread was on point.

As was the special edition chocolate stout.

After a hearty meal, we walked the grounds a little before making our way to the museum.

Unlike most of the museums in our area, the Sapporo Beer Museum was very Western-friendly. They gave us pamphlets explaining the history of Sapporo beer that was in English so we could really enjoy the whole experience.

The photographer couldn't get our camera to focus, but look at the signature Sapporo star! 

In standard Japanese fashion, there was a huge model with cute little characters that took you through the beer making process.

My favorite - mainly because there's a drunk guy floating on top of a giant beer. 

The tour ended in a sampling room because no trip to a beer museum is complete without a little sampling of the product.

Old school ads

After finishing our samples, we trekked back to our hotel and rested up before hitting the Susukino site in the evening. 

The Susukino site was on Ekimae-dori and only had ice sculptures. The warm weather affected the ice just as much as the snow sculptures.

The ice bar! Mark was pretty over Susukino at this point. 

Since the Susukino site was so much smaller than the Odori site, we only spent about 15 minutes looking at the ice sculptures. On the way back to our hotel, we decided to grab some dinner before checking out the Odori site one final time.

It really started to snow on the way to dinner. 

Before going to Sapporo, my friend Sara told us we had to eat soup curry while we were here, as it was one of the specialties of the region. We went to a restaurant called Suage, and knew it was legit when there was a line going out the door before the restaurant opened. Unlike ramen in our region, the soup curry was more of a stew with a thin broth. It was ridiculously delicious and I highly recommend trying it.

The main snow stage at the Odori site.

After warming up, we made our way to the main sculpture at the Odori site which was Star Wars themed in anticipation for the movie release in the coming year. They played the theme music and had a storm trooper light saber battle.

Outside the Shiroi Koibito Factory

The next morning we packed up our stuff and headed to Otaru for the Snow Light Path festival. I underestimated the ease of travel between Otaru and Sapporo before booking our trip and would recommend just staying in Sapporo if you are going to both festivals because there are more restaurants and points of interest in Sapporo.

Assembling the cookies. 

On the way, we stopped at the Shiroi Koibito Factory. We learned about how the cookies were made and saw the assembly line. Afterwards, we stopped at the cafe and had dessert. Like the Sapporo Beer Museum, the tour was Western-friendly and had pamphlets in English.

There were also a lot of statues like this one planted throughout the museum.

Once night fell, we headed to the canal for the festival. This festival was much more lowkey but was peaceful and beautiful.

Japan constantly restored my faith in humanity. 

Otaru is a small fishing village and the town creates small sculptures outside the businesses downtown.

Colonel Sanders had seen better days. 

The main draw of the festival is the canal area, which is surrounded by old warehouses, some of which were converted into breweries.

My favorite shot of the canal. 

I love doing street photography in Japan. 

After relaxing by the canal, we headed to Otaru Brewery for dinner and more brews.

We had a hard time initially getting service here as most of the seating was reserved. I also don't think the staff was necessarily excited to practice their English. Eventually, a nice gentleman at another table saw our struggle and sent a waitress our direction.

Arigato gozaimasu! Also featured - the nice gentleman.

We had a good buzz going and Mark decided he wanted to take a few more pictures before heading back for the night.

He was so committed to getting the shot that he may have crushed a lantern or two. 

We spent a little too much time on our second round of photos and almost missed the last train back to our hotel, which was a good five miles from the canal. Luckily one of the train employees ushered us to the right platform so we didn't have to try to decipher the signs. I love Japanese society. The next morning we took the train back to Misawa and had seats for the whole journey since we bought our tickets when we arrived in Sapporo. I'm glad that we did both festivals; however, it was probably my least favorite vacation that we took on Honshu, and as karma would I have it, I got pneumonia the following week. Totally worth it :)