Sapporo is one of the big cities in Hokkaido located at the north of Japan. This city is very famous for its snow festival and after visiting there I must say yes it is yet another beautiful city in Japan which should be visited during winter.
This year snow festival is scheduled from 2/4 ~ 2/11 2020. Millions of people visit snow festival as it is kinda unique in asia. This festival is considered as one of the top 3 snow festivals in world. Due to coronavirus threat we also planned our visit 2 days ahead of the festival i.e 2/1 ~ 2/2 We took first flight from Tokyo Haheda airport. (06:10) To catch this flight we had to reach airport in the night itself as in night no trains/buses run in Tokyo. When we went there we found that airport is closed. They were not allowing anyone to stay overnight. Person incharge told us to approach international airport for overnight stay and return back in morning by airport shuttle. So we took airport shuttle for international airport and stay over night. In middle of the night an earthquake happened of magnitude 5. finally in morning we took flight to Sapporo. Its 1.25 hours flight.
After reaching Sapporo we planned to visit Otaru city (1 hour far from Sapporo). This city is famous for its canal lights and festival during snow.
From airport there is direct train (airport express) to Otaru. It took us almost 2 hours to reach there. Post reaching there we had quick breakfast and started roaming around the city. The canal is really beautiful and both sides were covered by snow. There was old train track also which was covered fully by snow. the climate was nice. We spent almost 2 hours experiencing natural beauty of the area and then started our journey to Sapporo. Sapporo is just like other cities in Japan. Infact not that big like Tokyo or Osaka. But well architect-ed one.
Post reaching there we dropped our luggage to APA hotel (one of the good hotels for stay in Japan). But mind it there are almost 10 APA hotels within Sapporo itself so get the exact name handy. Had some rest in hotel and we started our exploration. First we went to Mt. Moiwa which is 20 mins from center of Sapporo. You will get to see entire Sapporo city view from this mountain. There are nice observatories. Night view is especially good.
Check before going as during snowfall you may not be able to see clear view. Luckily when we went the sky was clear and we could grab lot of photos there. Its just beautiful. As we were bit tired we planned to have dinner and go early to bed. There are lots of restaurants in center of Sapporo. All variety of food you can get there.
Next morning we started around 09:00 checked out from hotel and kept our luggage in hotel itself. They have free storage service. We first went to One of the snow festival sights Tsudome. While going to that site we experienced a nice snowfall and it was one of the memorable moments. Tsudome site is especially made for kids. You have lots of kids special activities. Of course they have added enough stuff for parents too to enjoy along with kids. This location had lots of snow sculptures made up by high school students. And the art was
really creditable.
After spending almost 1.5 hours there we went to Hokkaido Shrine. Another old shrine in Japan. It is very big shrine and sometimes they allow you to go inside as well free. We had that chance. Next to the shrine there is big maruyama park fully cover by snow. It was fun spending some time there. Again we experienced snowfall. Post spending some time there we had our lunch and then approached a main snow festival site Odori park.
This park has lots of snow statues made by experienced artists. One full section they have kept it for locals to showcase their skills. The snow statues were so huge and perfect..unbelievable. Such minute details they captured. They prepared various sculptures like palaces etc. We were lucky to get to see few of them. As sight was supposed to open from 2/4 only. Entire park is covered by statues and it is surrounded by roads. very beautiful view. On the same location we have Sapporo TV tower and old parliament house. Then we started our journey to second big site susukino.
This site has lots of ice statues. And everything was so beautifully carved. Just hats of the the artists. This site is not that big but still worth visiting.
Also a tip if you are going over weekends to Sapporo then you have
"Donichika" subway day ticket which is very convenient as subway connect almost every tourist attraction in Sapporo.
After spending entire 2 days in Sapporo we started our journey back to Tokyo.
It was definitely a pleasant trip and worth the money spent.
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