Sapporo Snow Festival and Brewery

Our journey to Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, began with a car ride to a ferry port in Hachinohe and was followed by an eight-hour and very choppy ferry ride; so choppy, in fact, that all four of us (that's me, Matt, Hazel, and my brother, T.J.) were either feeling sicking or getting sick most of the time. When we finally arrived at our port in to the port in Tomakomai, we had a car ride to reach our surprisingly nice hotel in Sapporo.

The next morning, we were off to visit the 63rd annual Sapporo Snow Festival. We took a subway to the Odori site, the largest of three festival sights located throughout the city. One of the first ice sculptures we saw was the "Snow Aquarium: Treasures from the sea", and the giant walrus pictured below was one of my favorite sculptures of the entire festival. I think they used some sort of tubing to create the most realistic faux ice whiskers imaginable.

Ice Sculpture of the National Palace Museum, located in Taipei, Taiwan...

T.J. in front of the Taj Mahal...

Ashley and T.J. in front of a snow sculpture of Aizu Tsuruga Castle, located in Fukushima prefecture.

Pinnochio...

In addition to crazy impressive ice sculptures, there were performances by Japan's top-level snowboarders and skiers from this 60-meter jump ramp. If it weren't so cold, it would have been fun to stand and watch more than a few jumpers.

We also saw some of Sapporo's main sights, including the TV tower, the maypole (at the sight of the beer fest held in Sapporo) that reminded us of the one we saw at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich, and the red brick Old Government Building. It was sights like these, in addition to the pedestrian friendly and grid-like layout of the city that reminded us of being back in Europe.

But then we'd stumble across an incredibly ornate shrine or temple, and be reminded that we were most certainly still in Asia. 

Between the three adults, we sampled a lot of different festival food and beverages, including corn on the cob, deer ragout, vegetable chowder made with Hokkaido cream, yakisoba, a chocolate Belgian waffle, and Belgian beer. 

While the Odori site was mostly comprised of large snow sculptures, the Susukino site was lined with smaller but very impressive ice sculptures. 

Those are real fish, crabs, and other sea creatures frozen in the ice.

Ice bench.

We found a warm restaurant for dinner and made our way back to the hotel. On our walk back to our hotel, we unexpectedly came across Nakajima park filled with small amateur snow sculptures illuminated with candles in the snow. It was quite beautiful.

The next morning we snagged a picture of the historic clock tower en route to the Sapproro Brewery.

The brewery was located on the outskirts of town, but may as well have been in Europe. The visually appealing campus is made up of a brewery museum/tasting room, beer hall, and multiple gift shops. We all agreed that they must be pumping something into the air throughout these buildings, as we just couldn't stop buying souvenirs (a poster, sticker, glasses, t-shirt, crackers, and a key chain to be used as an ornament to be exact). Here are some photos from our visit to the brewery:

Inside the museum...

In the tasting room, we sampled nearly all of the different types of Sapporo beer between the three adults, and discovered the delicious curry crackers and Sapporo beer crackers (simple butter crackers). After lunch, we returned to the tasting hall for dessert- way too rich caramel and really tasty "black beer" ice cream.

For lunch, we grilled our own meat, fish, and veggies yakiniku style in Kessel hall. They provide bibs the size of aprons and bags to contain coats and bags under the table, presumably so visitors don't smell quite so bad at the end of the meal and to minimize the potential of catching on fire in the open flame used to cook the meal at the table. 

The whole brewery experience solidified my burgeoning opinion that Sapporo was my favorite Japanese city visited so far. So much so that I would really love to come back in a different season...if it weren't for that painfully long ferry ride.