This past February, we planned a trip to Sapporo with a few of our friends (Lyndsey, Jill, Julie, Orlando and Trish). Sapporo is known for a big snow and ice festival every year, and some great powder skiing! Sapporo is in Hokkaido, the most northern prefecture in Japan.
Our first night there, we ventured out into the cold to check out some of the ice sculptures and a ski jump!
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| Ski Jump! |
These are some of the really cool ice sculptures:
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| The Japanese sure do love their liquor! |
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| ...and beer! |
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| ...and of course seafood :) |
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| Chris, Orlando, Julie, Lyndsey & Jill |
After checking out a bunch of the ice sculptures, we made our way to "Ramen Alley". A lot of us tried the Butter Corn Ramen.
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| Ramen Bar |
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| Never a dull moment, not even in the ramen restaurant. |
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| Anthony Bourdain ate here! |
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| Yup, it really had that much butter in it! |
After dinner, we headed back towards our hotel and hit up the "Ice Bar" on the way home. We all had a glass of warm red wine...it was actually delicious!!
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| The girls: Julie, Jill, me, Lyndsey & Trish |
Aaannnd then we decided to keep exploring...
We found this special store...I'll spare you the other pictures we took here.
And then we all went down to Pole Town. Yes, Pole Town...it's the name of some of the underground walkways in Sapporo!! This city is amazing...since it's so cold & snowy during the winter, the city actually has miles (kilometers for you Japan folk :)) of shopping malls, walkways and random stores underground where the subways run. This entrance just looked like any other run of the mill subway entrance, but there was a mall right underneath us! It was so clutch when we were freezing our butts off!
Our last stop of the evening was for some Sapporo Beer.
The next morning we ventured out to see the snow sculptures. It was pretty cold...and I'm pretty sure it got colder as the day went on. The picture do no justice to the frigid temps!
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| I wanted this shirt so bad, but it was only in kids sizes! Raaats! |
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| The Taj |
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| One of the BEST signs we have ever seen! |
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| More nice construction signs |
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| This is the Post Office guy |
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| A little melted, but we still thought it was pretty cool :) |
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| Bahahaha |
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| Festival food Sapporo style |
One of the cutest things was all of the little kids dressed up in their snow gear!
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| Ready for the snow and ice!! |
Chris LOVED this train. He thought it was super cool that it was a real steam engine train that the guy had to keep loading coal into. I think he could've watched it all day.
After spending a few hours here, we decided to go to another area of the festival where there was a ice luge and tubing! It was about a 20 minute train ride away, so we got a little break from the cold.
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| My favorite snow sculpture. It's a sibling thing :) |
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| Another train...shinkansen style! |
This is when the freezing temps really started to kick in.
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| FREEZING!!!!!! |
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| Jill & I waiting to tube down the ice luge |
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| Chris is happy in this cold weather! |
Much needed train ride to thaw out!
We decided to bundle up before heading out again for the night. We checked out the ski jump area...and it was freezing! :)
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| Jill & Lyndsey |
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| Ski Jumpers! |
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| Lyndsey trying to stay warm! |
We ate at the most delicious Italian restaurant in Japan! Well, at least we think so :)
Cheese Cheese. What more can you ask for!
We found a pretty hip bowling alley too. Nerdin' it up.
A couple of my favorite cat photos to close out the first 2 days of Sapporo. :)
After checking out a bunch of the ice sculptures, we made our way to "Ramen Alley". A lot of us tried the Butter Corn Ramen.
After dinner, we headed back towards our hotel and hit up the "Ice Bar" on the way home. We all had a glass of warm red wine...it was actually delicious!!
One of the cutest things was all of the little kids dressed up in their snow gear!
We decided to bundle up before heading out again for the night. We checked out the ski jump area...and it was freezing! :)
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