Sapporo Snow Festival

It’s one of the biggest festivals in Japan that happens in the first week of February and ends just before Valentine’s Day (Feb 5-11th). If you’re planning to go here it’s recommended to book everything at least 6 months (to a year) in advance. Things can get pretty pricey and accommodation can book up fast!

Sapporo Snow Festival

Also known as the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival in Japanese). There are tons of things going on as every town has its own festivities, so there’s no worries about always hanging around the city. In Sapporo City there are the iconic snow and ice sculptures located at 3 main sites: Tsudome, Odori, and Susukino.

Tsudome Site

Is the farthest site that requires busing from one of the train stations, and is more geared towards student sculptures. There’s a huge snow slide that you can line up to ride a donut down, but the line gets pretty long.

At Tsudome Site

Odori Site

Is the main street. It’s quite a long walk, and the snow & ice sculptures are phenomenal. While there may not seem like a lot of people walking during the day, the masses come out at night when everything is lit. The lighting really makes the sculptures come alive! There’s also a main stage with live performances, often of J-pop-wanabe rising groups.

Odori Site at night.

Susukino Site

Very close within walking distance of Odori. Here there are a lot of ice sculptures as well, but it’s easier to find food shops and restaurants here if you want to get out of the cold.

Susukino Site

Otaru Lantern Festival

This is a town outside of Sapporo, and it’s really nice because they had their own lantern festival going on. It’s quaint to walk around during the day and check out the snow sculptures they have, but it’s absolutely gorgeous at night!

Otaru Latern Festival. Lights on the river, as well as candle lit sculptures throughout the area.

While I’m I got stuck with an extra 3 hours to spare before my next train arrived. So, I figured I might as well stop by the Otaru Brewery! It’s along the river bank, so sitting inside there’s a great view of the river. The layout is a shiny old school brewery and everyone is dressed in German lederhosen.  They have food as well as special (monthy?) drink concoctions, which are actually pretty good.

Otaru Brewery

Ogi Park Night Lantern Hanami

Heard that Ogi Park in Saga was having a Night Lantern Hanami (flower watching), so some of us decided to go check it out. Sakura season is around late March to early April, but the days leading up to Hanami season was a bit cool that many people were afraid that the Sakuras wouldn’t blossom. Happy to say, some did decide to come out and it was just so beautiful! Against the lanterns, the Sakuras were amazing, but sadly my camera couldn’t justify what I saw.

Ogi Park Lantern Festival

“I love Ogi” was this year’s theme

The park was scheduled to be lit at 6pm, but it took a while to get dark as dusk didn’t start to set in until a little bit before 7pm. Sakura (cherry) blossoms were freshly budded as very few petals covered the ground, while lanterns of bamboo and cups were set around the park.

People have Hanami picnics, Ogi Park.

Bamboo Lanterns were everywhere.

Night Lantern Hanami, Ogi Park in Saga.

Ramen Burger

Outside the park stood a row of food stands. Many were the usually festival foods: fried chicken, fruit other foods on a stick, etc. But among the stalls, a sign caught my eye. Even though I already ate a good dinner I had to try it just because it was called, the Ramen Burger!

There was no patty, but noodles and egg were fried to be the “buns”. In between there were toppings usually found in Ramen: meat, ginger, etc. It was a bit bland, and it required a lot of “condiments”.

Ramen Burger…a little bland. Not high on my list of recommendations…sorry.

Ogi Lantern Fundraiser

At the entrance of the park, for a 500 Yen ($5) donation, you could decorate and write a message on a candle cover to the earthquake victims of Tohoku. I wasn’t so sure what to write…so I just did what Kanji my brain could remember from a combo of Japanese lessons and Grade 11 Mandarin:

日本,　わたしは　愛してる！
カナダ　から。
(Japan, I love you! From Canada)

Nagasaki Lantern Festival

We went to visit on the final weekend that wrapped up the annual Lantern Festival in Nagasaki’s Chinatown. Who knew there would be a Chinatown in Japan?! During the day it’s nice to see the huge displays, but it’s in the evening where everything comes alive.

Alley way in Chinatown.

To celebrate Chinese New Year, the district is covered with traditional Chinese style lanterns, and other artistic creations. It all looked really nice, very inspiring.

Dragon in an undercover shopping arcade.

It’s not Chinese without Sun Wu Kong
(aka. Monkey God)

Nagasaki Holland Village
Not far away from Chinatown, we took the streetcar to the Nagasaki Holland Village. Very cute cobble stone roads, brick walls, and Dutch merchant houses & buildings. During the Edo period, Nagasaki was the only port open to foreign trade while the rest of Japan was closed. Frequent foreign visits and influence came the formation of Chinatown and Dutch village. Buildings in the Holland Village are restored to commemorate the historical Dutch relationship.

Part of Nagasaki Holland Village

Certain areas can be a bit steep to walk down.
But it’s all lovely 🙂

Dutch-style church.

Sasebo Burger

Nagasaki’s three infamous eats:

1) Champon. Noodle dish, can be served either stirfry or in a soup.

2) Castella. It’s a kind of cake, and it comes in a variety of flavors.

3) Sasebo Burger. This Sasebo Burger is pretty good for what you can get in Japan, a non-burger-eating society. My photo might make it seem small, but it’s a pretty big burger. My recommendation: save your stomach space for this. Eat the Sasebo Burger first, then have all other snacks and festival foods after.

Certain venues may have special Sasebo Burger versions, there’s also the option of original. I tried the venue’s “Special Sasebo Burger”…because they were sold out of the original??…

sasebo burger. Burger with patty, two eggs, bacon, tomato, lettuce.
Sauces: light wasabi mayo & okonomikayi sauce…(from what I tasted)