Snow and Ice Festivals
By Amy Chavez February 15, 2007
If you're traveling in Japan in February looking for fun, cold things to do, Hokkaido has some great snow festivals. You may have already heard about the Sapporo Snow festival that attracts over 2 million visitors to see the Japanese castles, Chinese dragons, and other mammoth ice sculptures. The Sapporo Snow Festival is made up of international teams who compete for the best ice sculpture. But should you miss Sapporo's festival, or should you just want to get away from the crowds, there are other, more local and equally interesting snow festivals to enjoy.
The Chitose- Shikotsu Ice Festival (see photo) is about an hour from Chitose Airport by bus. The ice sculptures are made by local artists and are situated on the edge of Lake Shikotsu. The frozen lake, 42 km in circumference, provides a lovely backdrop during the daytime and at night, the ice sculptures are enhanced with multi-colored lights. You can wander freely among the ice sculptures and even climb on top of some!
Otaru, the second largest city in Hokkaido, offers the Snow-Light festival where they light up the streets with candles including floating them down the historic Otaru canal. Otaru lies 25 minutes northwest of Sapporo on the Ishikari Bay on the Sea of Japan. Don't forget to sample the famous Otaru Beer while you're there.
The biggest snow festival in southern Hokkaido is the Imakane Snow Festival. The preliminary games of the World Snowball Fight Competition are held at this time also.
The Asahikawa Winter Festival offers snow sculptures from small to gigantic and you can even try your hand at making one yourself. They also have snow slides and the World Ice Sculpture Contest in early February.
If you still just can't get enough snow and ice into your winter Japan visit, head on up to eastern Hokkaido to see the floating sea ice. Large drifts of ice pile up in Abishiri Bay and then flow into the Nemuro Channel which separates Japan from the Russian held islands. From Abashiri, you can board a tourist boat that will take you out among the ice floes. Now that's good, cold fun!
Snow Festival Dates for 2007
- 58th Sapporo Snow Festival Feb. 6-12 (Feb 5-in 2008)
- Otaru Snow-Light Festival Feb 9-18
- Lake Shikotsu Festival Jan 26-Feb. 18th (Japanese)
- Asahikawa Winter Festival Feb 8-12 (Japanese)
- Rausu sea-ice cruises (Japanese)
- Complete list of winter events in Hokkaido
Amy Chavez is author of Guidebook to Japan: What the other guidebooks won't tell you" She is a columnist for The Japan Times, co-hosts the Planet Japan podcast. Visit her website at www.amychavez.com
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