Japan Day 4 - Yuki Matsuri Odori Koen

Our first day at the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri was everything we'd dreamed it would be, and more. We were all hoping for a good snowfall experience for Ryan, because even though we have snow here, we *never* get to experience the actual snow fall (since the road to Mauna Kea only opens 24-48 hours after the snow has stopped, and roads have been safely plowed).

The walk from our hotel apartment to the venue wasn't particularly scenic (except for this one river scene), but EVERYTHING is pretty when covered in snow. I felt like an overly excited kid in a candy store, so very grateful to be crunching my way along the street each and every time we walked outdoors. I know, I know...snow gets old when you live in it, but I don't. So in brief visits, it's lovely!

The snow sculptures all line up both sides of Odori Park, which starts at the Sapporo TV Tower end of the park. We started there, and spent the next 5-6 hours slowly walking around the park taking pictures, eating regional cuisine at vendor after colorful vendor, having Rich and Ryan go ice skating, etc.

The Sapporo TV tower was modeled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but um...I'm not quite sure it has the same magic. It's gorgeous at night all lit up, but in the day, it screams "Red Communist Russia 1978." I'm sure the views of the matsuri (festival) were brilliant from it's unique above-ground, vantage point, but I wasn't willing to fork out the cash for the view when you could literally walk among the sculptures below.

The Odori (dance) park site had a half dozen or so large snow sculptures, and perhaps 100+ smaller ones scattered up and lining the park on both sides. The much smaller Susukino site, on the other hand, was entirely ice sculptures (which we visited the next day).

There was even a snowboarding area for demonstrations.

 

One of those cute munchkins is not a Japanese schoolchild on a field trip surveying visitors. He's a cute half-Japanese school child on a family trip, who is cold, but loving the snowfall.

One of my non-vegetarian meals...Hokkaido style 'stew' with creamy potatoes, onions and bamboo shoots:

After walking around for an hour or so...boy, oh boy...did we get our wish for snow. For the next few hours, it steadily dumped down on us. It was fascinating and foreign for all of us to see so much of it falling from the sky. I referred to it as a 'snowstorm,' but I'm certain in hindsight, that it wasn't a blizzard. It just felt and looked like it to us, and we loved it. 

We had prepared fairly well (namely, with snow boots, long underwear, thermal socks and thick, long jackets) and so we were never painfully cold. We definitely could have bought better quality hats and gloves, but we weren't eager to spend even more cash on snow gear we weren't sure we use more than once or twice. As a matter of fact, we left Ryan's boots and snow pants, a pair of Rich's pants and my barely used boots (only 3 days!) behind in Sapporo (we couldn't find any homeless in that kind of weather to give them to do directly). They were all so bulky, and with luggage fees rapidly mounting, we had planned to leave them behind to open up space in our backpacks for gifts. Bringing them back on the off chance that we *might* use them another time or two wasn't as important as bringing back a few things for our close family and friends.

 

I believe this was my favorite 'large' snow sculpture, a life-sized temple.

 

Ok, you may sense a trend here, but this was my favorite 'small' sculpture at the festival. I'm a sucker for a gorgeous temple, shrine, mosque, church or cathedral!

It's hard to tell which is a more poignant scene...the sculpted mother in kimono feeding her son...or the live-action goofball mother feeding hers...very tough. However, I will also say, all joking aside, that this was my second favorite small sculpture. I thought it brilliantly and lovingly captured the devotion of a mother toward her child. It reminds me to hug more and screech less. I almost wish it were an actual art piece I could buy, because it speaks to me. Not as much as the voices in my head, but a little.

What you can't see in this photo, is what is 'pouring' out of the spilled Cup Noodles, which is an ice slide for kids. We stood in line for 15 min. so Ryan could slide down, but it was a tad anticlimactic as the grade was too subtle and most kids needed a few forceful pushes in order to get to the bottom. :-D

Stuck before he got to the bottom!

To our surprise, there was an unfinished, still in progress section of sculptures at the festival. Various countries (and around the world, Hawaii is often seen as more as a country than as a part of the US) compete against each other, and had a few days to complete their sculptures from scratch. It was fun to see the sculptures and artists in action (vs. just the completed projects). We got to chat with a few members of the 'Country of Hawaii' contingency. The gentleman we chatted with from Oahu told us it was his eighteenth time competing there! He also said there was a gentleman from Hawaii who took second place last year in the ice sculpting competition. Who knew our state had such talent?

Juuuust getting started...ganbatte, Hawaiijins!

I think we saw about twenty different countries competing. It was the only part of the festival that was still in progress, and would have been cool to sit there and observe over a period of a few days. It was just too cold to stay put for more than a few minutes at a time.

The country of Finland (near the Hawaii entry) were also just getting started.

Okay, the near grand finale of the day...stumbling into this sculpture, and thinking it was a dead ringer for my own dad! We had no idea who it was (as most sculptures had no placards or explanations), but my brainy older brother back home figured out it's a professional baseball player for the Hokkaido hometown team.

Minions were the most popular theme of the festival, by far. I think we saw a dozen minion sculptures!

Maybe they shouldn't have left their bikes overnight at the station?

Rich and Ry got to ice skate for an hour at the cheapest rink we've ever been to (and in Japan of all places)! But it was so small and crowded (in this pic, they were first in line to get on the ice, so it rapidly filled up), that for the first time ever, Ryan opted to not go a second visit.

There were more than a few ice bars you could drink at while we were there, but none of us drink! It doesn't mean I don't want one in my home, however. I think every home should have a proper ice bar.

I am deceptively skinny looking in this photo, so it gets posted. :-D

Hokkaido is known for a few specialty items, and one is it's very fresh dairy products. Specifically, the Snow Royal brand of ice cream (created initially only for the Royal family, as I understand it). However, now even the commoner/riff raff can enjoy it for the mere sum of about $4 a cone. It was...heavenly. We had it (cough! cough!) three times, while we were there.

The walk to and from the site from our hotel was only about 15-20 minutes, but it was just so beautiful to us that we never minded. The next day, when Rich and my dad separately discovered an entirely underground (faster, safer) subway route we could walk, I missed the walks! But at nearly every intersection above ground, there was slippery black ice, and with two seniors and a young 'un, we didn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

Our first day in Sapporo couldn't have gone any better. We had successfully covered the entire grounds of the main site (Odori) at a leisurely pace, saw heaps of snow and no one had fallen or suffered frostbite!

Walking home in the snow at the end of a long day.