The Sapporo Snow Festival starts soon and I thought we would share our trip from last year with JapaneseSearch.com! We had an excellent time and hope you enjoy our trip details!
Hello!!! Welcome to Sapporo!!
Janelle and I love the winter and activities in the snow, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before we decided to visit the Sapporo Snow Festival. Unlike our other friends who were heading off to sandy beach vacations in the south, we packed up our heavy clothing and set off for our first adventure in Japan.
Sapporo Snow festival ice sculpture
We were a bit nervous about going to a place where we didn’t speak or read the language, but we do like new experiences. We had seen some news reports on the Sapporo Snow Festival on tv and it seemed like a wonderful experience.
We first flew to Narita airport on JAL airlines, where we transferred to a local flight to the New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. From there, we caught the train to Sapporo Station according to the directions from the person at the hotel, and fortunately, everything went without a hitch. We met a couple of friendly Japanese ladies waiting for the transfer to New Chitose airport waiting lounge at Narita who very determined to try every English word they knew I think. It was very sweet and they pointed out some good places to eat in Sapporo station. They said they were staying at the Cross Hotel Sapporo and hoped we would see each other again during some of the events at the Sapporo Snow festival, at least I think that was what they said, before they disappeared with smiles out of the station.
JR Tower Sapporo Station
We deliberately chose the JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo because we didn’t even have to leave the station building to find it. Actually, it was a much larger building than we had expected, so took a while to get oriented and find the hotel, but once we got there we were greeted with a warm welcome. During our stay, we came to realize that our accidental choice had been very lucky. The hotel was lovely and our room had spectacular views, but more than that, the staff members were always ready to answer any of our questions with sound advice.
JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo lovely room
We were exhausted from travel, but also wound up and didn’t exactly feel like sleeping upon arriving in a new country halfway around the world. Janelle thought a shower might be relaxing, but it ended up giving us a second wind. So we ended up going back into the station building in search of something light for a bedtime snack.
Pomme-no-ki restaurant at Sapporo Station
Maybe because we were tired, everything had a slightly surreal feeling. There were famous brands that we recognized, but other names were totally foreign. Some signs were written in English, others in Japanese. The stores in the mall looked vaguely familiar, but the clothing seemed somehow more feminine and fluffy, with more signs in pink and cute animal logos.
La Maison ensoleille table at Sapporo Station
The restaurants all had plastic food out front, and we only recognized a few of the things. We never knew how appetizing these plastic food displays could be! I guess we were expecting sushi as the main Japanese food, but that was far from the case.
La Maison ensoleille table dessert selection at Sapporo Station
There were even lots of ramen shops, but not like ramen rehydrated from a small brick like we were used to back home.
Sapporo Ramen and classic Sapporo beer (photo: MIKI Yoshihito/flickr)
We were even fascinated by the other shoppers. We had expected a homogenous mass of Japanese, but were amazed to note that there were tall and short, young and old, even ones with bleached blonde and red hair. It made us realize how much we had been thinking in stereotypes.
Pastry shop at Sapporo Station
Our senses full of new sights, sounds, and smells, we headed back to the hotel room at Hotel Nikko Sapporo with some desserts we purchased at a bakery which the staff packed in little cardboard carrying case. We looked forward to what the new day would bring.
photos by: Cesar e Camilla & iyoupapa, David McKelvey
