Sapporo Snow Festival

Unfortunately I could not stay for the festival. The price for accommodation increased 3 fold at least over the few days that the festival was open and Sapporo expected to receive about 1.5 - 2 million visitors over those few days. Therefore we didn't want to be there at that time fighting over viewing space with those other people. Lucky for us most of the structures were complete (something that we were banking on) and we could look at them from close up the night before the opening. Most weren't lit up but that was fine. Its amazing to see what people can create from ice and snow.

The design process

Actual work in progress - final touch ups before the unveiling

Ice House Replica
Mickey and Friends, about 20m high
Smaller sculpture from a movie last year (1m)
The biggest structure there. A replica of a German building (30-40m tall) almost as big as the surrounding buildings.

Sapporo City

The sights of Sapporo were quite amazing. It is Japan's 5th largest city and has developed into a modern metropolis very quickly. The city was built with the American Blocks system so most of the streets are in order from 1 to ... and East and West of the center where the Snow Festival was held.

Sapporo Park Hotel - From the front

View out of the window of my room

The mountains in the background - view from window of room

At the Cookie Factory we had a light lunch. It was beautiful, both the lunch and the sights

The main entertainment area of Sapporo which also included the more scummy parts of society...

... including a "Soap Land"Soapland is, and I quote "(ソープランド, sōpurando^?) is a type of brothel in Japan where male clients can engage in sexual activity with female prostitutes, although officially the clubs do business as places where the client is bathed. There are also a few soaplands specifically for female clients."