Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival and Sapporo Snow Festival
posing at Lake Shikotsu
My friend Lashan and I on the second floor with Lake Shikotsu in the background
The Shikotsu Ice Festival at night
photo in one of the ‘ice caves’
one of the snow sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival 2024
Lake Shikotsu
Living in another country has it’s perks, exploring the culture and sightseeing. So on my day off (on a Monday) my friend Lashan picked me up in his car at the Park Hyatt Niseko, and along with his friend Rasika, we ventured north for about an hour and a half to the Lake Shikotsu Welcome Center. We arrived in the early afternoon, and for some lucky reason it wasn’t cloudy at all; in fact the sun was shining and there was the best view of the lake along with the snow capped mountains on the edges of the lake. It’s such a beautiful sight to see. Of course I did bring my guitar with me so I sang a few songs. Here is a video of me singing “Blackbird” by the Beatles.
Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival
Every year at the end of January until the end of February, The Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival is put on. It is an interactive art installation which is built like an ice castle. The entrance fee is 500 yen ($3.35 USD) and then you can galavant through the lit up ice park. Theres a ramp you can take to the second floor of the ice castle where you get a nice view of the lake. There are also these very tall lit up caves where you can take pictures like you scaled up a glacier in the artic. There was also a small cafe that was built into the castle, so we got a cup of clam chowder, that was more for warming our hands than consuming, but it tasted really good nonetheless.
Sapporo Snow Festival
After we were done at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, we decided to head to the biggest city in Hokkaido, Sapporo. Sapporo does a Snow Festival every year for one week at the end of January. Because Monday’s are my only nights off, this was my only chance to see it this year. So after Lashan drove an hour and a half, we finally arrived to the festival a little before 8pm. The snow festival takes over a huge park in the middle of the city where these huge snow sculptures take center stage of each block. And, just like any other festival, there are food stalls so we started there, and got selection of long potatoes, and noodles, and mochi. After that it was a bit of walking for the next few hours seeing all of the different sculptures, but also some of the incorporated shows. Some of the displays have music and lighting events along with singers and dancers every block so it’s easy to get swept away in the majesty of it all. But because we arrived in the evening most of the shows were finished by 10pm. We decided to walk to another part of Sapporo where there were ice sculptures on display in the middle of the street (I don’t think this was a part of the Snow Festival, but a different event happening at the same time.). Japan just has a magical vibe that I can’t describe with words. Here is a video I made so you can see what it’s like.
