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| Yuki daruma greeting in front of Akarenga |
I started even earlier than usual, getting up before four to commute to Nagoya Airport to catch an 8:00 flight. It was snowing a bit in Aichi on the way, appropriately enough. Noted a couple of things en route - one, that it was more than 500 yen cheaper to take the train to Nagoya Station then one of the buses to the airport and potentially faster the bus directly from Okazaki Station. The other thing, and I don't know why this has never been done before, is that when I checked in my bag at Nagoya Airport, I was given a claim ticket by JAL to claim it at Chitose Airport. It surprises me that bags aren't taken mistakenly or stolen more often by other passengers at airports.
I reached Odori Park, the main festival site, by around 10:30 after an hour-and-a-half flight and a 40 minute train ride from the airport. It was bright, the statues were tremendous, and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face (no, it wasn't frozen on). The size, number and amount of work and detail blew me away and this was just one of the three sites.
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| Greetings from Sapporo Snow Festival 2004 | Sapporo Snow Festival 2004 makes you smile! |
It wasn't Christmas Eve at Nagoya Port but to me, it's better than Disneyland or Universal Studios. I haven't been to either of those places, but to me, it's still more inspiring to see these snow and ice statues because of how the community must have come together and worked for the love of it even though it's cold and the statues would all eventually go away. When I look at the very old Japanese buildings or think about Renaissance architecture, I don't believe it is possible to see the like of it again because of the dedication and pure labour (often forced or religiously driven) it requires but seeing a massive effort like this gives me reason to think otherwise.
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| Using lasers to build precise snow castles |
It was also interesting watching the sculpters at work. Some of the ice sculpters in Susukino, with their chainsaws and chisels, did their work in front of the public. Sometimes it was better to walk by late at night in Odori Park as teams worked to fix any problems or clean off fresh snow off their statues. I managed to catch one group while they were using lasers to achieve precision on their snow castle.
There were a lot of ice sculptures as well spread over the twelve blocks of Odori Park so it was a lot of walking, especially since I still had my bag with me. The hotel was further from the train station than I thought but the Sapporo Prince turned out to be a very nice one for the price. Too bad it will soon move across the street to a new building. I probably won't get this kind of rate again if I ever come back, especially during the festival.
Odori Park had about a half-dozen or so giant snow statues and hundreds of smaller ones. The giant ones included one of the Parthenon (a reference to the upcoming Athens Olympics) with a statue of Athena thrown in for good measure. The one featuring Matsui Hideki, a Yankees baseball player, in New York would certainly be popular. Aside from his popularity and a successful first season with the Yankees, Matsui wears number 55 and since it is the 55th Snow Festival, the timing seemed to fit. This statue alone took 26 days, 827 truckloads of snow (5 tonnes each) and a workforce of 2,500 (I couldn't tell whether the figure is measured in working days or not!).
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| Parthenon snow statue (14 m high x 26 m wide x 20 m depth) | Go-Go Matsui in New York (15m x 25m x 20m) | Dinosaurs snow statue (12m x 24m x 18m) |
The dinosaur one was the best, especially in terms of detail though the re-creation of Hannover City Hall in ice was very impressive. Other ones included the Hakodate Magistrate's office and a few featuring anime characters with one also having an ice slide.
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| Hannover City Hall ice statue (12 m x 18 m x 16 m) | Hakodate Magistrate Office (13m x 25m x 25m) | Momotaro Dentetsu (10m x 20m x 15m) |
The smaller ones were fun too. There were some common themes - Finding Nemo was there about four or five times among other anime and cartoon characters (Snoopy showed up twice), and some local themes, like the local baseball team, the Nippon Ham Fighters. No, I am not a Hamtaro fan, but the statue of him in a baseball get-up for the Ham Fighters was just too cute.
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| Nemo statue found at the Snow Festival | Hamtaro, the Ham Fighter | For the Snoopy fans out there |
Then there was the one of the baseball player with a lion's body that was just cheeky. I don't know who it was (may have been Tsuyoshi Shinjo, new Ham Fighter player who used to play in North America) but he must have a pretty good sense of humour.
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| Front of cheeky snow statue | Back of cheeky snow statue |
It was all good, clean, cold, wet fun. They even had snowman kits for the kids, complete with gloves, so there were thousands of miniature snowmen at various places. It was all free but, of course, there are still bills to pay. Lots of souvenirs and food being sold all over. There were businesses sponsoring the festival, especially for the giant snow statues, but I think it was done in an unimposing manner. There rest stops nicely spaced out at the Odori and Makomanai sites for people to take shelter. Some had free hot tea and sold food (ramen aplenty) while one had free internet which was great because I couldn't find a place to check my e-mails close by.
There were certainly many artistic sculptures there as well, especially in the international competition. Singapore did a very nice insect and flower sculpture and China and Shanghai did elaborate pieces as well but simple and elegant won out as Sweden won the competition with "the Claw". Must have been the Canadian factor. One of the sculpting team, on the far right in the photo, has a maple leaf on his jacket (turns out he is Swedish but lives in Winnipeg). Too bad the New Zealand one fell apart before it could be finished. They had a good Golem (of Lord of the Rings fame) going (at least he got hold of his 'precious' before the end). I should have taken a picture earlier when I had the chance.
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| Klo (the Claw), Sweden's winning entry | Singapore's snow statue | Shanghai's 'Golden Monkey joking with Lucky Dragon' | Fallen Golem snow statue |
One problem I had was deciding whether it was better to see the statues during the day or night, especially for photos. They all looked good either way. The ice ones, though, looked better at night, especially with the coloured lights used. Aside from Hannover City Hall, Odori Park had one block of ice statues, one of them, the Monkey Rainbow Castle, was big. That section also had a very impressive Yamaha organ/synthesizer that was hard to believe it was being played solo.
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| Hannover City Hall statue at night | Yamaha synthesizer entertainment | Rabbits on ice | Ice Statues in Odori Park | Monkey Rainbow Castle |
Susukino district, though, had about one hundred ice statues stretched out over about six blocks. I love crystal, so ice statues are a treat but the problem with that many of them is some common themes come together - eagles, owls, dragons, and goddesses. On the other hand, some were clever, like the time capsule that the city must keep frozen and bring out every year for the festival (looks like they add a new block to it every now and then, too). There was also one displaying local seafood frozen inside the ice blocks. The night sky was clear and there was a full moon out so the atmosphere was perfect (as long as you didn't mind some of the high number of service businesses in the neighbourhood).
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| Susukino at night | Time Capsule on ice | Ice fairy reaching for the moon | Black Bass | Seafood on ice |
The Makomanai site wasn't far away, a fifteen minute train ride, but it certainly felt more remote and spacious. There wasn't nearly as much there as Odori Park, but with the extra space, the statues there were all massive. The one of the Taj Mahal was amazing. The site also allowed for bigger ice slides which is why I brought my ski pants along (jeans will not work!).
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| Giant ice slides at Makomanai | Taj Mahal snow statue | Doraemon snow statue |
I came well prepared for the weather but I didn't think it was that bad (so the Canadian says). The temperature stuck around -2 to -5 and there was an occasional slightly blowing snowstorm. It was colder at Makomanai though.
Since the Makomanai site is a Japan Self Defence Force (SDF) base, there was also more security, especially with Japan's current involvement with Iraq. Bag checks while entering the site are usual procedure but the metal detectors were new. I don't know if terror threats were a concern for prospective festival attendees. It was certainly crowded enough in Odori Park but it wasn't that busy at Makomanai, especially for the fireworks Saturday night. Speaking of which, they weren't the spectacular ones I saw at Nagoya Port on Christmas Eve but these ones were right on top of the crowd, fired behind the Taj Mahal snow statue. They were short, though. I wish I knew. I would have taken more video of it otherwise (I had asked a few personnel how long the show was).
I did have the ramen, of course. Three times as a matter of fact. They say it's the best in Japan and the possible reason may be because they put a pad of butter in it. Agriculture is big in Hokkaido, especially the dairy sector, so milk and butter was here aplenty. Putting the butter in the ramen certainly made it rich (I didn't want to drink all the soup because of it). I also tried a different kind of yakitori, "Genghis Khan", which meant using a personal brick-fired stove to fry onions, leeks, bean sprouts, and mutton, one meat that I haven't heard that doesn't come with any recent health concerns (yet). The photo below is too bright, though. Contrary to appearance, it was actually fairly dim in the eatery with the glowing bricks creating a contrast to give the place a real winter feel to it, especially after coming in from the cold.
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| Ramen on ice | Genghis Khan eatery |
I only really needed a good day to get through all the festival sites so I checked out the Clock Tower and the Akarage, the old 'red bricks' Government House. Though it's appearance is not very special, the Clock Tower embodies a community spirit and pride that I felt both there and throughout the festival, perhaps the strongest I have ever felt in a big city. The people were very friendly too, worker, volunteer and festival attendee alike. I struck up a conversation with a few and maybe made a few new friends as well.
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| Sapporo Clock Tower | Clock model | Row of Yuki Daruma guarding Akarenga |
I also visited the Sapporo TV tower at the eastern end of Odori Park to get a night-time overhead view. Seeing the festival lights all in front of me was spectacular. With the line-up to the elevator to the observation deck, the tower was offering free cups of hot milk for those who took the challenge of climbing over 70 meters of stairs from the third floor to the observation deck. Quite a few people did. I also got an extra cup for taking the stairs back down.
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| Climbing the stairs up the TV Tower | Odori Park at night | Trees in parasol (to support snow-heavy branches) |
I closed the trip with some shopping which was quite good in Sapporo. The mix of goods was different, including local and Ainu arts and crafts and a lot of it was much more affordable. I wondered if maybe the Hokkaido stores, especially the stores on the Tanuki Koji arcade, has better access to goods from South Korea and/or China.
Sad to see it all come to an end, not just because my visit to the festival was over but also because it was the climax of my three-month Japan visit and I have to now start winding things down for the trip home.