sapporo revisited

Meet Shimo (means "frosty" in Japanese), my very first snowman! :)

Nestled in the cold winter weeks of Japan is a wonderful 3-day holiday, perfectly situated as to let people visit Sapporo for the annual Snow Festival. I had been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time, ever since the previous year’s trip. Hostels were reserved in November, plane tickets were booked in December, and plans were finalized months before the actual event. Sapporo, here we come ;)

For me, February in Yamaguchi was spent curled up in front of a heater cursing the essence of winter while movies like Blue Crush and Lilo and Stitch played in the background. Fast-forward to our Sapporo trip, where thousands of people joined together in celebrating the beauty and wonderment of winter. A very different spirit indeed.

Who knew cold could be so much fun? At the many festival sites were assortments of ice sculptures resembling that of beloved cartoon characters and famous buildings. We also tried our hand at snow tubing –a not-so-popular pastime in Hawaii ;) There was even a snowman building booth at one of the snow sites, where I aided the Canadian in the construction of my very first legitimate snowman. His name came to be Shimo (“shimo” means “snowball” in Japanese). The Canadian was pleased :)

There was so much fun to be had. A dinner buffet every night (the first being crab, the second being mutton), snowboarding at the magnificent Teine Ski Resort, a trip to the Sapporo Beer Museum (well…to the tasting section at least), soup curry with friends, and the most amazing display of snow and ice artwork I have ever seen…an amazing time indeed.