Here we are in Sapporo
Today we're off to Otaru
For the Snow Light Path Festival
It's smaller than the big, famous one in Sapporo
They have volunteers making lanterns out of snow
This was the highlight of my trip to Hokkaido
It's not as big & impressive
As the Sapporo Snow Festival
But it's really magical & charming
And if you time your trip right
You can see them both
I'll give you some more practical tips at the end of the video
And there's new Japan vlogs on my channel every Thursday
If you want to subscribe
*Japanese station announcement*
We've just arrived in Otaru
For the Otaru Snow Light Path Festival
It happens every February
Along the famous area by the canal
They make little lanterns out of snow
And put candles in them
And it looks really pretty in the pictures
It overlaps slightly with the Sapporo Snow Festival
So that's why we chose to come here at this time
We got the train from Sapporo
It was only about half an hour
So you can do this as a day trip or an afternoon trip
So now we've got a couple of hours to look around the town
Before it gets dark
And the festival starts
The illuminations should be coming on about 5 o'clock
Here's a map we found at the station
There's a "massive stone building"
"Remembrance of good old days of Otaru"
"Happy to be here"
Let's go there!
The train was absolutely packed
Lots of people got off here at Minami Otaru Station
That means South Otaru
But we stayed on
And got off at Otaru Station
As well as the festival in the town centre
There's two other sites
There's also the Asarigawa Hot Spring
Which looks really pretty with the lights all around the water
And there's also the Tenguyama Ropeway
Which is a mountain
Where people go skiing
And they put lights up in the snow up there
You have ot get a bus if you want to go to those ones
I've spotted a few of these lamps made of ice
I think they're getting ready for later
I wonder if they have to remake these many times during the festival
It goes on for quite a while
I didn't expect them to be different colours
Waah!!
Look at these icicles on this house!
They're so long!
That snow's ready to fall
Oh wow!
Hope that doesn't fall on your head!
Everywhere around Sapporo
There's been these giant snow drifts
Where people have shovelled snow to the side
I wonder how tall they get before the snow melts
Ahh this looks really cute!
There's some jars in the front
LIke it's going to be lit up later on
If you get there early, before it gets dark
You can see them setting up
And making all the snow lamps
They're making ice poles here
To make this log cabin
Out of ice
Wow
I like how they've made tables out of snow & ice
To work on!
This must be one of the trails
That's going to be full of snow lamps later on
There's all holes in the wall
Where they're going to be
In the town centre
There are 2 main areas for the festival
This one is along an old railway line
And the other one, which is more famous
That you see in all the pictures
Is along the canal
This railway line one
Was actually my favourite
We'll be back later when it gets dark
We've found the canal!
This is the famous spot in Otaru
Where the lanterns are going to be later on
You can see them making them with buckets down there
And look at these crazy icicles
They're so big!
All the snow lamps and sculptures
Are made by locals & volunteers from Korea & China
They're all made by hand
Aah there's a tool for making the snowballs!
And look at these lamps
With flowers in
That's really creative
These lamps say "Omotenashi Street"
Omotenashi Street
Omotenashi's the Japanese idea of looking after your guests
Or looking after people
And making them feel welcome
We've found this place called Denuki Koji
That has little alleyways with tiny restaurants in
It looks really cute!
We just popped into this bar to warm up
It turned out to be a whiskey bar
Neither of us are really into whiskey
So we had a hot apple wine
And it was really nice
And the place itself was really cosy
It only had a couple of seats
And it just had a really nice, relaxed feel to it
Tiny cosy bars like this
Are a lot more common in Japan
Than they are in the UK
Our pubs tend to be a lot bigger
I don't think you'd find many places that only have about 10 seats like this
This is actually quite a classy place
They had a big selection of quality Japanese whiskies
And tasting sets
If you're into whiskey
You can visit a distillery in Otaru's neighbouring town Yoichi
It's named after the Scottish girl who married the founder of Japanese whiskey
We've both gone for hot apple wine
It's really nice to warm our hands up
Kampai!
Mmm, it smells quite strong actually!
We're starting to see lamps!
It's not really dark yet
But they're all ready to go
This is a side canal going off the main, big canal
It's completely frozen!
There's lots of charming-looking old buildings like this one
They're all full of nick-nacks and souvenirs and things
Waaahhhh!
A big fat snowman!
Now it's dinnertime
So we popped into a conveyor belt sushi bar
Here's my corn & mayo gunkan
And an inari pocket
And Phil's got yellowtail
Had some salmon
Salmon was there!
The ones on the belt are covered in plastic here
They've got plastic to keep them fresh
Keep germs off them I guess
This one's a fatty tuna gunkan
There were two
The other one's been eaten
It's onions on top
Here's the English menu
There's quite a lot
This one is a little bit more expensive than other conveyor belt sushi places we've been to
Possibly because it's in a touristy, pretty place
It is quite nice though
Yeah
And all the vegetable rolls are cheap
162 yen
When we came out
It was dark!
And time for the festival
This is Otaru Denuki Koji
That's where the bar was that we stopped at
It looks really cute from across here
In the snow & with the lights on
This said -6.3 a minute ago
The temperature's dropping!
This is the most famous, picture postcard view of Otaru
Along the canal
And it is really beautiful
With all the snow & icicles
All lit up by candlelight
Look how many people are trying to get the perfect shot
Across the canal!
Paparazzi!
Otaru used to be a major port
And these warehouses were used for storing & sorting goods
They're no longer used
So now they're shops & restaurants
But they still have a really picturesque look
The main path of the festival
Is alongside the canal
It's all completely free to look round
A theme of the festival
Is welcoming people
And helping you forget your troubles
As you enjoy the candlelight
There's all the snow bricks
And lanterns behind
Here's Omotenashi Street
All lit up & cosy-looking!
Otaru is known for glass
It's by the sea
So they used to make glass floats
For fishing nets
They're no longer used any more
But they use the same glass floats in the festival
To hold the candles in the canal
And you can get lots of glass souvenirs
In the shops
It's really simple
Just snow blocks put in different shapes
But looks so pretty
It's a little snow village!
Cute!
There's so many people along here
In quite a narrow alleyway
It's impossible to get your perfect shot
Without someone getting in the way
Or a kid walking past
Or someone's selfie stick!
But it is really beautiful
And enchanting
It's so pretty
I almost forgot how cold it is
My fingers are quite cold though
All these displays
Are really enchanting
It feels like it's got a lot of heart
Not just because of the hearts
But because it's all simple, home-made
Sort of things
But really effective
And beautiful
We're just walking along from the canal to the other site
Which I think is on an old railway line
It's the place where we saw them setting up earlier
Like Christmas trees!
Across the road there's Thriller Karaoke!
With a portcullis!
And a demon sign!
I wonder if the rooms inside are themed as well
These are just down by the side of the road
Where everyone's walking
It's really pretty
With the flowers in there
These are so simple, it's something that anyone could do
But really effective
As far as I know
They re-make all of these snow lanterns
Every day
I don't know if the candles are warm enough to melt them away
This is definitely one anyone could do!
In a tupperware pot
And tin foil!
How would you do that?
I would draw some pictures & put them in there
Here's the log cabin we saw them making earlier
They finished it off
Ooh it's got snowmen inside!
How cosy!
I wonder if they re-make this every day?
This was my favourite section
It's a bit less crowded than the canal
And really atmospheric
Walking along the snowy path
Some of the displays were really cute
Look it's a little snow Totoro!
We saw about 3 snow Totoros
Yesterday at the Sapporo Snow Festival
These ones are the cutest ones
This one, they must have frozen the stars with little strings in
To make them floating
That's really cool!
Ahh so cute!
A little penguin in his star house
He looks unhappy
Because we're all here
On his doorstep
Go away, leave me in peace!
Look it's a snow cat lamp!
The variety of lamps & decorations
Is really quite stunning
Everything's made by hand
And essentially quite simple
But really creative
I like these ones where they've made a picture out of the flowers & the leaves
That's really cool
The path still carries on for quite a way up ahead
I thought we would have got to the end of it by now
Because we've seen quite a lot
Down this way
But it's really long
This must have taken them ages to set up
This path is actually 500m long
That's half a kilometre!
I enjoyed the whole thing
All the way along
It was really captivating & magical
This display's actually pretty big
I wonder how they made these tubes for the bamboo
Isn't it funny how the candles make them look so cosy
Even though it's freezing cold
It's not cosy at all
This is Phil's patented technique
For focussing your camera phone
When your fingers are too cold
I'm turning the flash on and off
These gloves are supposed to be conductive
So you can use your phone
But I think they've got so cold
That it doesn't work
I'm having to use my nose
Which somehow is warmer
Yesterday it got so cold
Both our phone batteries died
And our wifi battery ran out
All the electronics shut down
Ah this is really beautiful
It's like in Frozen
Not Frozen
It's like in Tangled
Where the lanterns go up!
All the floating lamps
We're about to go through a snow wall
It's so tall!
That's taller than me
We've come into a bar
To warm up
They've made some steps outside
Going up the side
Made out of snow
It's a really cool idea
And yes, the lens is steamed up
Now we've come indoors
Hope this doesn't break my camera!
It's really cosy in here
And warm
Most importantly
They've got a really big selection of drinks
Everything's 500 yen
Or they do all you can drink
For 2 hours
For 3000 yen
Look they've got Pokemon cocktails
Bulbasaur, Charmander & Squirtle
I've got a cassis coke
It's actually really good
It tastes of blackcurrant
Here's the steps up to the bar we went to
It's a really good idea
People need drinks
And hot drinks
KFC's got in on the snow festival!
It's kind of weird, this big statue of the colonel
I've seen them before
In pictures
But -
It's weird!
We just got back to the hotel
Excuse my hat hair
I enjoyed that festival a lot more than I expected to
It was really beautiful & charming
It feels like a lot of love has gone into it
Because it's all made by volunteers
They must renew a good amount of it
Every day
Which is amazing really
It has a home-grown feel to it
Because a lot of the displays are quite simple
But they're really effective
And it's really charming
Especially compared to the Sapporo Snow Festival
Which is really big and commercial
And everything's sponsored by a company
Or got something to do with advertising
In a way
This one is just there for you to enjoy
It's made by volunteers
They're not trying to get anything out of it
Apart from bringing more people into the town of Otaru
So yeah, it feels like it has a lot of love
And I really enjoyed it
It was really beautiful
There's actually 3 sites to the festival
We just went to the main, town centre site
There's also the Asarigawa Hote Springs village site
Which looks really beautiful
And there's the Tenguyama site
Which is up a mountain
You have to go up a ropeway
Now both of those 2 others
Are a 25 minute bus journey from the town centre
So I think if you just went to the town centre site like we did
You can easily do it as a day trip
From Sapporo
On the train
You could probably see one of the other sites as well
But if you want to see all of them
You really need to be there for 2 days I think
Because it gets dark about 5:30
And then the whole festival finishes at 9pm
So it's not really enough time to get round all of them I wouldn't think
Especially as it's so busy
So you can get there from Sapporo on the train
It's about half an hour or 40 minutes
Depending which train you get
And you can use your JR Pass
From Sapporo Station
To Otaru Station
If you want to see the rest of the things we've been doing in Sapporo
And Hokkaido
Have a look at my other videos
And subscribe for new Japan videos
Every Thursday
See you soon!