Sapporo, Japan.

The first weekend in February is reserved for Yuki Matsuri, the Snow Festival.  In Japan’s snowy northern island of Hokkaido, this iconic celebration of winter has garnered world attention, including mine for a short visit two years ago.

Extraordinary ice and snow sculptures celebrate various stories, cartoons, movies, and other forms of art, sometimes being original pieces.  Apart from that, the heavy annual snow accumulation makes Sapporo a world-class ski and snowboarding destination – and I took advantage.

I share this on my blog to make the special case to anyone who is able to make an effort to see this city, and perhaps this festival, once in your life.  Theses are the photos from that unforgettable trip.

Most of these photos are from a long Saturday.  I woke up and promptly took a train out into Sapporo’s immediate suburbs, where I found free shuttle buses leading into the mountain ski resorts.

These suburban mountains were Sapporo’s casual recreation spots, yet they were larger, more powdery, and more beautiful than most mountains I’d ever seen.

And they really weren’t crowded at all, even in Sapporo’s peak tourist weekend of the year.

Among the greatest longings since leaving Japan was my snowboarding experience there.

After riding and falling down Teine Mountain for a few hours, I took a shuttle bus not back to the train station, but instead another resort hotel at the base of the mountain.  The hot spring there was as large as a mall complex, with various interlocking pools naturally heated by Hokkaido’s volcanic undercurrents.  It was the perfect cap to a day of tumbling down the mountain, where even soft powder couldn’t protect me from my own mediocre snowboarding skills.

Of course, I have no pictures of the hot spring.  But afterwards, I proceeded back in town to catch the Snow Festival at its peak, beginning with Sapporo’s Atlantic-northeast-inspired clock tower.

The ice sculptures there were larger than life.  They were miracles of climate – only northern Asia’s steady, ferocious cold crossing under Southeast Asia’s voluminous humidity could produce the kind of annual snowfall necessary for these behemoths:

Some of the city’s displays were more… controversial.

Sapporo has a vibrant party scene.  It was a long day, but I knew I may only see this city once.

On Sunday, somehow still full of energy, I hopped on a train through Sapporo’s snowy outskirts to Otaru.

The train ride was as majestic as the city itself.

Sushi in northern Japan is known to be the best in the world.  Something about the cold water.  So I risked missing my flight to have a sushi lunch in Otaru.  It was well worth it.

Then it was a one hour train back to the airport.

All in a good weekend.

@gregnasif

Thanks for reading.  All photos property of Gregory A Nasif