Hokkaido Trip 2/5-7/2010: Sapporo Snow Festival, etc.

From the evening of February 5th to the late afternoon/evening of the 7th, I traveled to Sapporo, Hokkaido for the first time, to mainly see the

61st Annual Sapporo Snow Festival (Yuki Matsuri).  

It was my first time outside of Honshyu (the main island) in Japan.  I was on the same ANA flights (my first time on ANA) to and fro as some of the other Osaka JETs (incl. Louise, Han, & Joe).  I stayed at the Sapporo House Youth Hostel with 3 other Osaka JETs (Louise, Han, & Joe) for 2 nights.  It was decent and inexpensive...so much better than staying at a hotel.

Late-night dinner on 2/5, with the whole Osaka JETs crew (except one is a Wakayama JET):

2/6:  Odori Park festival site 1: main snow sculptures:

Met up with Monbetsu, Hokkaido JET/fellow Aggie, Saul:

My favorite masterpiece:  Chibi Maruko-chan <3:

The Melting Gift by TeamHolland:

Susukino festival site 2: ice sculptures:

lunch at Sapporo Ramen Yokocho's Tomiya restaurant:

with ice hina dolls:

Saul, Louise, Han, Joe, Patrick, Patrick's friend Henry, and I went to see the Clock Tower on the way to the Tsu-Dome... it wasn't disappointing:

thank goodness for these:

At the Tsu-Dome festival site 3, we got on the fun snow raft (pictured below is not us):

I left Tsu-Dome to go meet up with Saul and Miyagi JET Henry (both Aggies):

After parting with Henry, Saul and I had dinner; I had jingiskan teishoku (but Saul had noodle salad):

We came back to Susukino to see the rest:

ice wall:

ice vehicle:

ice ramen bowl:

After doing a little bit of shopping before and after parting with Saul, instead of eating crab with other Osaka JETs, I went back to Odori to see more:

2/7 breakfast, bread I bought the night before:

passing by the Old Hokkaido Government Building (Akarenga):

Tanya (just met her), Han, Louise, Joe, and I went to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory Shiroi Koibito Park in Miyanosawa:

We paid 600yen to get in and see the museum and factory:

We had some desserts at the cafe (nice view):

After going through the museum/factory more, and shopped for souvenirs (chocolate cookies), we returned to Odori Park to see more... we saw the snowboarding finals:

I had such a great time, despite the freezing cold while having a cold, the snow blizzards, and having to wear so many layers.  I'm so glad I got to go even for just a weekend, and I'm sure other people who went (esp. first-timers like me) feel the same way.  The best part of JET is traveling, haha.