Showing posts with label Sapporo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sapporo. Show all posts

Sapporo Snow Festival: 'boards and beer, bro

Day 3- The bucket list killer
The next day we woke up early again, got breakfast, and headed to another festival site that was about an hour away.  This was an exciting day for Reagan because this was the day where we were going to actually play in the snow (something that kids like to do, apparently).  There was many fun activities for children.  There were slides for children, rides for children, toys for children.  Are you sensing a trend? 

Kate and I commented on how much we would have loved this place as a elementary school student.  Although we are famous for acting like small children, we decided to take this opportunity to let the Haines' have some family time while we seeked out a ski resort. 

We decided to stop by the tourist information office at the main Sapporo train station.  Once there, we got the "hook up" for the ski resort.  For 6,700yen ($81), we received two round trip train and bus tickets, lift tickets, and rentals!  I just about had an accident in my pants.  Comparing this to the $118 we would spend on lift tickets alone at Durango Mountain Resort makes my head want to explode.  Not to mention the fact that we were going to the site of the 1972 Winter Olympics, Mt. Teine.  

In front of the Olympics main lodge. This mountain hosted the alpine skiing course, the bobsleigh course, and the luge course.  

Kate and I had never done any night skiing/snowboarding before, so that was the plan.  Once we got on the slopes, we noticed that we could see Sapporo AND the northern coastline.  For a couple kids who grew up snowboarding/skiing in the highly elevated, landlocked Rocky Mountains, this was especially awesome.

Despite the constant snowfall, you can still make out the Sapporo city lights on the right side of the photo above the snowboarder's head.  Where those lights end on the left is where the coastline is.  There was really only one that we could go on, but we still had a blast being on the snow. It was easily the driest (meaning fastest) snow we had ever been on.  Plus, there were some boxes and jumps so Kate and I took this opportunity to practice our tricks.  No broken bones = success.

Day 4- Beer:30
On our final day in Sapporo, we knew we had to end it right.  How might we achieve trip ending perfection...? Oh, by going to the Sapporo Beer Museum, that's how!  All of us were very excited for this adventure.

The Sapporo Beer Museum was an active brewery from 1903-1965.  Before that it was a sugar factory.

Sapporo Beer Company was the established in 1876 when a German brew master was brought in to teach the Japanese how to make beer.  As you may already know, Sapporo beer has made its way all across the globe, including America.  Everyone really enjoyed the museum as we learned about the brewing process, Sapporo Beer history, and current trends.

Sapporo Space Barley beer (kirainet.com)

Probably the most interesting thing we noticed was Space Barley beer.  This beer was made from barley grown in space on the international space station and was sold in 2009 for roughly $120 per 6-pack.  Apparently it tasted like "normal beer."  Pretty boring, but I suppose that's the point in proving the feasibility of growing crops in space.

Of course we had to do some tasting.  Lucky for us they had a three beer sampler platter.  After the four of us ordered it, we became aware that we looked like a bunch of raging alcoholics.  The fact that it was barely lunch time didn't help either.  

All of the beer was great.  Everybody agreed that this was a fantastic way to end the trip.  Peace out Sapporo!

-Seth

BO-BO-BONUS ROUND!



When we got back we thought we had left the snow.  Turns out, the snow came back with us.  Katie and I seized this moment to build a snowman on top of the Ninomiya House.  

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Sapporo Snow Festival: More snow sculptures than you can shake a stick at!

Day 2- Retinal white-out
After our first night, Seth and I woke up nice and early.  The Haines' were going to take the morning pretty slow so we ventured out by ourselves to hit up all of Sapporo's city monuments.  First we grabbed a smokey breakfast at McDonalds (75% of restaurant was the non-smoking section). Then we took a trip to good 'ol "Red Bricks."

Here we are in front of the old Hokkaido government building.  This building is very popular because it was built in 1888 to mimic the Massachusetts State House AND it was constructed using 2.5 million red bricks (red bricks were rare in Japan at that time). Currently it serves as a history museum for Hokkaido.  It was free and warm, so Seth and I took a mental note for later when we were with the Haines.

Once we caught up with the Haines we headed to the snow sculptures.  The picture above shows an owl native to Hokkaido as well as a model of Red Bricks.  The magnitude and detail was insane!

This is the back wall of the owl snow sculpture.  To put it in perspective, I'm 5'2" and standing about 10ft away.  The back wall is easily 4x taller than me!  Sweet sassy molassy these things were huge!  It wasn't too long before we got to one of Seth's favorite displays: The Lion King.  Naturally, Seth snatched up Reagan so we could do the "Circle of Life" pose in front of it. 

(from laughingplace.com)
For lunch we grabbed a table in the middle of about 100 vendors and quickly fell into a trance.  You see, the natives of Hokkiado, the Ainu, are viewed in much the same way as we view Native Americas.  In the past they were thought of as northern savages, but now their culture is revered as being very rich.  It is no surprise that they would be given the stage to share their heritage.  

Some Ainu in their traditional attire.  The lady on the left is playing a musical instrument called the "Mukkuri."

We were privileged to be able to sit in on such a performance.  No only because it gave us insight into their practices, but also because it was just SO FUNNY!  Ok, ok, ok, I suppose the more mature members of the audience didn't see the humor in it that we did, but to us it was comic gold.  Seth went ahead and made a video for this.  Enjoy.



After lunch we kept on truckin' down the trails to see the rest of the displays.

This snow sculpture is of a Japanese animation show called Sazae-san. It has been going on for 42 years starting in 1969. This large snow statue (roughly 25" tall) was amazingly done and was easily a crowd favorite with the Japanese.

Once night had come we ate some dinner then headed back to see all of the snow sculptures at night.  Above is the "big air" snowboarding competition which Seth loved. 

This giant ice sculpture was my favorite and was very cool to see at night with all of the lights.

Above is a 1/3 scale model of one of the three main pavilions in Kyoto.  When we had spent time in Kyoto, we saw the gold pavilion which was part of the three.  Here are statistics according to a sign posted right next to it:

Amount of snow: 803 dump trucks = 4,015 tons
Number of sculptors: About 4,500 people in total
Sculpting period: 31 days 

Pretty crazy, huh?  If you would like to see more from the snow sculpture bonanza, simply click to enlarge the photo below. 


-Kate

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Sapporo Snow Festival: Havin' fun, snow matter what

Allow me to introduce you to....SAPPORO
 

Sapporo Info and Festival History
Sapporo is the capital of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.  Although the city hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics (a first for Asia), it is perhaps most famous for Sapporo Beer in the eyes of Americans.  Throughout Japan, it is also famous for its seafood and miso ramen.
 
A healthy helping of miso ramen (left) and some Sapporo beer via the hotel's alcohol vending machine.  "Sapporo Classic" is served exclusively on Hokkaido (Kate had the little beer).  

On a normal day, Sapporo stands as the 5th largest city in Japan (1.9 million people).  However, during the Sapporo Snow Festival (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) its population more than doubles.  This year, 2.4 million people showed up to participate in a world class exhibition of cold weather sights/activities.  To put that into perspective, that is more than the ENTIRE population of New Mexico entering and exiting this single city in the span of one week.  Yowza!

Sapporro Yuki Matsuri started in 1950 when high school students built some snow sculptures in one of the city parks.  Word about the event didn't really get out until the Japanese Self Defense Force helped by building massive snow sculptures in 1955.  Now it is host to roughly 250 ice and snow masterpieces, some of which are bigger than houses.  In order to prepare for such a huge event, a mind-boggling 325,000 tons of snow is brought into town to start building the sculptures a month in advance.  However, in addition to slack-jawed gawking, people can find all manners of winter entertainment including, skating, curling, sledding, bamboo skiing, concerts, ect, ect , ect!

Ice Sculptures
Chelsae got the 4-1-1 about the Sapporo Snow Festival waaaaay back in the summer.  We quickly realized that if we wanted to do this, we would have to commit early on.  So we booked our hotel waaaaay back in September (many hotels were already full).  Upon arrival in Sapporo, it was apparent that our planning had paid off in a big way.  Our hotel was only a stones throw away from the main ice sculpture display area.

Looking down ice sculpture road (left).  The Haines standing in front of an ice display with real fish and crab frozen inside the blocks (right).

Mobile Suit Gundam. From a popular Japanese anime series.

This guy is a man's man.  Notice the ridiculous amount of ice shavings in his hair/face.

We caught a fish THIS big.

Giant peacock.  I have nothing else to say.

After making the rounds we went back to the hotel, toasted to the town, and hit the hay.  The next day was gonna be a big one.  To see more photos from the day, click here.

-Seth

P.S. To hear a more about our preparations for our trip, read Matt and Chelsae's blog by clicking here.

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