Exploring the Sapporo Snow Festival!

Visiting the Sapporo Snow Festival was one of the absolute highlights of my visit to northern Japan. It was also my first time on the island of Hokkaido and I know it won’t be the last! 

The Sapporo Snow Festival is held in early February each year, and there are three main sites: Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome. This blog post covers what you can see at Odori Park and Susukino – unfortunately Tsudome is located slightly out of the city centre (towards the airport) so I didn’t make it there. It is geared more towards families though and is the perfect opportunity to try lots of snow-related activities, if you’re keen! I got more than my fair share of festival with the Odori Park and Susukino sites so I didn’t feel like I missed out.

Although parts of the festival will change each year, I hope that this post will give you a general idea of what to expect when you visit. On this trip I also got to visit two other snow festivals, in nearby Otaru (which is an easy day trip from Sapporo) and also in Hirosaki, which is close to Aomori City in the north of Japan’s largest island, Honshu. (You can read my full Winter Tohoku/ Hokkaido itinerary here).

Before I go into what you can see and do, here are some practicalities first!

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What to wear for the Sapporo Snow Festival

It will be very, very cold when you visit, and so a hat, gloves, scarf and a warm coat are an absolute must, as are solid boots with a good grip (although I did see some people wearing trainers and office shoes!) Although the area is gritted, there was still a lot of snow on the ground and I saw a few people slip over. I became Very Aware of how fragile my body was and, being tall, how far I was off the ground! 

Although it dropped to -9°C (16°F) when I was walking around, I think a combination of my warm gear and my general excitement meant I didn’t really feel it! Everyone around me was having a great time and the atmosphere was infectious.

Where I stayed in Sapporo

I checked in at the JR Inn Sapporo Kita 2 Jo which was lovely (and had a sento bath, despite there being no mention of it on the website when I booked!) It was a great location, being 8 minutes walk from the train station and 8 minutes to Odori Park. It was also only a couple of minutes walk to the bus terminal which I used to get to Otaru and Noboribetsu Onsen. 

Any hotel near Odori Park is a good shout for seeing the festival although I would recommend booking in advance as hotels can get quite expensive. 

It was about 5pm when I arrived in Sapporo and the sun had almost set – I pretty much dumped my suitcase and headed straight back out again!

Starting at Odori park

As I was making my way to the East side of Odori Park (where the Sapporo TV Tower is), I walked past the Sapporo Clock Tower. I did a double-take when I walked by – the tower was built in 1878 by an American company and it looks like something out of a Western film! Sapporo Clock Tower is now part of Hokkaido University but you can still go in and have a look around for 350 Yen (about £1.60 / $2.30 (USD)).

Each block of Odori Park is sectioned off, showcasing different snow-related sculptures or activities. As I was near the TV Tower anyway, I wandered over to see how long the queue was for the lift that takes you to the top of the Tower (it costs 1000 Yen and gives you a good view of the park area). Sadly it had a 40 minute wait and I was much more excited to see what was on the ground so I thought I would give it a miss. Underneath the tower were food and drink stands, but I knew there were more further on so kept going.

The sculptures begin!

Next to the TV Tower ‘block’ were snow sculptures of lots of different anime characters, animals, and even people! These are all made by local groups and it was great to see people’s creativity! It’s definitely worth going round this section both at night and during the day as a lot of the sculptures at either end of the park were in shadow and looked totally different in the daylight.

A common symbol of Hokkaido is the bear (usually eating a salmon), so you might see some variants on this theme as you look around! (Pro tip: you can also get Sapporo/ Hokkaido-themed t-shirts from Uniqlo as you can see below!)

Past all the sculptures, I crossed the road to the next block. In some areas the street is cordoned off so no need to watch for traffic, in other areas there are people helping you cross. 

Skate, shop and eat

As you make your way through the park, you’ll pass by an ice skating rink, kiosks to buy special Sapporo snow festival merch (some with the adorable shima-enaga bird on it!), and plenty of places to eat or drink.

I tried some warm Hokkaido milk (Hokkaido is famous for having delicious milk) and also tried some yubari melon milk, served hot. Initially it was quite nice but as it cooled it felt very sugary and tasted a bit like dolly mixtures (for folks in the UK/ Ireland). You can also buy hot chocolate, hot apple wine and other alcoholic beverages if you really need warming up!

There are plastic shelters with tables throughout the festival, should you need somewhere to eat your yakitori chicken.

The sculptures scale up

A few blocks in I started getting to the larger sculptures, including some featuring Sanrio characters and Hatsune Miku. Some sculptures even feature songs and colourful lights. There were also some food-related sculptures too – the cup noodle on its side was fun!

Some of the sculptures are HUGE. There was a reproduction of the former Hokkaido Government Office for example, and another Sapporo building (I didn’t catch the name) which doubled as a stage. One of the evenings there was a performance by Minamina, an Ainu singing and dance group. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido and throughout my travels there it was interesting to learn more about their history and practices. In Hokkaido you’ll sometimes see stores with Ainu jewellery and bags for sale.

There was also a sculpture for an upcoming release for the Monster Hunter franchise too, which was absolutely massive!

What I wasn’t quite expecting was a light projection display depicting a horse and jockey (Hokkaido is apparently known for breeding thoroughbred horses). In the display it starts off with a lovely scene of a horse galloping through green fields and then suddenly there was dance music and music balls filling up the screen(!) which flipped back to a sepia line drawing animation of the horse galloping again, then back to multicoloured strobe lights etc. It was very cool but I was left quite confused!

Seeing the Sapporo Snow Festival International Competition

At the very end of Odori Park was the International Competition, featuring representatives from a variety of different countries (mostly in Asia but there were some countries from Europe and some US states too). These sculptures were amazing and so skilfully done. Most of the teams were still building their creations ahead of the judging the following morning. (You can see the winners of past competitions here. They are amazing seriously).

As I had reached the end of Odori Park, I then headed south and then east through the covered shopping street. Despite being open at either end I appreciated the shelter and the snow-free pathways! I stopped at some of the gift shops on the way and picked up an shima-enaga keyring (below) and made my way to the Susukino site.

Seeing the ice sculptures at Susukino

Susukino is Sapporo’s entertainment district, home to the famous colour-changing Nikka whisky sign. There are plenty of eating and drinking establishments and it has a really buzzy atmosphere with plenty of people out and about enjoying the festival (and beers).

Here at the Susukino site there were ice sculptures, rather than snow sculptures. Some sculptures had been made by famous businesses (for example Nikka and Suntory), whereas others had been made by professionals. There seemed to be an animal theme and I saw butterflies, eagles and a horse amongst swans and swordfish! 

There had also been a sculpture competition earlier in the day, as well as an ice-carving demonstration. Further along there were also sculptures you could interact with! I saw carved benches you could sit on and a mini-train sculpture for kids.

As I reached the end of the Susukino site I realised it was almost 9pm – I had been out for almost four hours and was beginning to feel that kind of coldness you get when you feel tired, in addition to the weather! With that, I headed back to my hotel sento for an amazing hot water soak and then went straight to bed, and to sleep!