There’s another aspect to the Sapporo Snow Festival, the Ice Festival in Susukino (which bizarrely translates as “Zebra Grass Fields” – go figure) the red-light district of Sapporo, one of the largest of its kind in all of Japan (again, go figure!) far away from kid-friendly Odori Park with its cutesy-pie Anime snow sculptures. Susukino…
Tag: hokkaido
Slip Sliding Away in Otaru, Hokkaido
We’ve paused the Sapporo Snow Festival for a day and headed out to Otaru, a charming old port town on the Sea of Japan and, believe it or not, on the same latitude as Vladivostok, which is just 766 kilometres away. Otaru is around 45 mins on a local train from Sapporo, and, on this…
Sapporo Snow Festival – Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!
2025 marks the 75th incarnation of the Sapporo Snow Festival, now bigger than ever with over 200 snow and ice sculptures on display in the city’s Odori Park. We’re staying in a beautifully appointed Onsen Ryokan, a few minutes’ walk from this 1.5k narrow stretch of parkland in the heart of downtown Sapporo, so it’s a…
Snow-ward Bound To Hokkaido, The Frozen North
We’re here in Sapporo for the Snow Festival, a bucket list trip to Japan’s north island of Hokkaido, travelling from Tokyo on the Shinkansen to the top of Honshu then down through the Seikan Tunnel, one of the world’s longest undersea tunnels at 53.85ks and around 240m below the surface. It’s a frozen landscape up…
Travels With My Ant 