We're at the Sapporo Snow Festival!
It's in Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido
It's every year at the start of February
They make massive snow and ice sculptures
And it's free to come in
Anyone can wander around and look at them
And at night
They light them up and have projections
Tonight it -11 degrees
Possibly a bit less than that now
It's really really cold
It's been snowing a little bit
It's not at the moment
But yeah...
It's definitely winter here in Sapporo!
Today I'm going to show you around Sapporo Snow Festival
The ice sculptures
The larger, more famous snow sculptures
And Snow Miku makes several appearances!
There's new Japan videos on my channel every Thursday
If you want to subscribe
And if you're planning a trip to the snow festival
I'll be making a separate video
With tips for you
Also coming up we've got the Snow Light Path Festival
In Otaru
It's smaller than this one
But it was actually the highlight of my time in Hokkaido
And I can't wait to show it to you
There's 3 sites to the snow festival
At the moment I'm in Odori Park
Which is the main site
With the really big sculptures
And that's a long thin park
That runs along the middle of Sapporo
There's also the Susukino site
Which is the nightlife district
In Sapporo
And that one has smaller, ice sculptures
And then the 3rd site
Is the Tsudome site
That's only open during the day
And that's got snow slides
And rafting
And lots of things for kids as well
We started off at the Susukino site
Susukino Ice World
Where the smaller ice sculptures are
They're so detailed
And when they're lit up
They look like they're made of crystal
Aloha from Hawaii
I like the turtle on this one
They really look like they're made of glass
I like how they put pictures in the ice
Although the sponsorship is a bit blatant on this one
With the credit card!
There's a smoking area in the middle of the street, made of ice bricks!
They're really smooth & slippery
Here's a cute one
Otainyan
I guess this is the mascot of Ohta
Whatever that is
This is the character mascot of Susukino
Which is this area with the ice sculptures
I read that she's cold all the time
So that's why she always wears a scarf
Maybe Hokkaido's not the best place to live
If you're cold all the time
And you hate the cold!
Welcome to Hokkaido
I like this little guy
I saw him before in Hakodate
Maybe he's a mascot of Hokkaido
And look he's got a cabbage head!
Because it's so cold in Sapporo
There are several underground subways
That you can use to walk along
And go through the city without being in the open air
And freezing cold temperatures
We've gone down into Pole Town
Which runs north and south
Between - above Odori Park actually
And down to Susukino
There's also a covered shopping mall
That runs east-west
That's called Tanuki Koji
This one's just a straight line
With shops & restaurants
As far as I can see!
We walked along underground
To the main festival site
At Odori Park
I'm so glad these walkways exist
We've seen some crazy icicles on the way
And look at this one!
It's so long!
Up there is Sapporo JR Tower
It's right at the end of Odori Park
And all the snow festival is this way
I got that wrong
This is actually Sapporo TV Tower
It's a smaller version of Tokyo Tower
They both look like the Eiffel Tower in Paris
We're about to watch the Snow Miku augmented reality show
There's an app to download on your phone
You point it at the picture of Snow Miku
On the snow stage
And she's going to do a show!
When I was going through the train station yesterday
The man at the ticket gate
Called me Hatsune Miku
Because of my blue hair!
If you like the scarf I'm wearing
It's my design!
My hedgehog scarf
It kept me warm all the way through Hokkaido
You can get it from cakeswithfaces.co.uk
Or Cakes with Faces on Etsy
The links are in the description
And I've got lots of summer clothes too
Like my new flip flops
Which make paw prints in the sand
And my new Hawaiian shirts
There's worldwide shipping
So you can order from any country
Now back to Sapporo!
Snow's coming down now
He's really cute!
If you see this one from the side
The legs are really separate from the body
He looks funny!
The snow festival is actually quite commercial
The major sculptures are all sponsored by companies
This little guy is the mascot of an insurance company
But look how cute he is!
At night the snow sculptures come to life
With lights, music & projection mapping
There's shows about every 15 minutes or so
So it's fun to wander around
And see what's going on
It's the big Hatsune Miku sculpture!
The other girl in the sculpture
Is from Bang Dream
Which is an anime / app game
It's all over Tokyo at the moment
Even on the trains
And they've got figures in the UFO catchers as well
Miku's guitar is shaped like Hokkaido
The company that developed Hatsune Miku
Is based in Hokkaido
So that's why she plays a big part
Every year there's a new design for Snow Miku
And she embodies the spirit of the festival
I wish I could include the music
It was actually quite emotional
And really great to see Miku performing in front of a big audience
She looks tiny!
There's some pictures here on the side
About how they made the Hatsune Miku statue
The statues are made by the Japan Self Defence Force
Which is like Japan's army
I really wish I'd seen their mascot
This sheep is called Moko
He's the mascot of Sapporo's self defence force
I just want to give him a big hug!
If you like this sort of thing
You should follow Mondo Mascots on Twitter
He tweets all kinds of Japanese mascots
It's one of my favourite accounts
Now, back to the Snow Festival
Wow they started it back in January
It takes that long to make the whole thing
That was some exciting music!
And if you look at how tall that sculpture is
Compared with the buildings beside it
It's actually massive!
There's loads of food stalls with all kinds of things
There's butter potatoes here
Gyoza back there
Sweet & sour premium zangi
I think that's a sort of kara age fried chicken by the look of it
Buta don
Pork rice bowl
All sorts of things
There's so many stalls
I've got some sweet red bean soup
And it's got mochi inside it
I wanted to try these
I can't remember what the name is in Japanese
But I quite like sweet red bean-
Arigatou gozaimasu
The soup is sweet
And really does have a kind of bean flavour
The mochi don't taste of much
But they're all about the soft, chewy texture
Perfect for winter
And Phil's got some long fries
Must have been some giant potatoes these are made from!
Look at these - I saw Hello Kitty construction pole holders the other day
This one's got lions
Wow, this one is so big
It's like an actualy building
But made of snow!
This sculpture, with the giant train coming out at you
Is of Japan Railways' Red Bear trains
Lots of vegetables & potatoes are grown in Hokkaido
And transported through to the rest of Japan
On these trains
This one looked a lot better in person
With all the music
And had a really good sense of movement
But perhaps the best sculpture
Is coming up next!
What's going on over there?
A lot of smoke!
The snow festival's on fire!
So the thing that's smoking -
Is a big Cup Noodles slide!
A snow slide for the children to experience & enjoy
Ahhh it stopped steaming now
But it's a giant Cup Noodles!
And there's the slide
Oop, here we go!
Noodles are ready!
There's a Sapporo Snow Festival post office
With a special stamp & postcards
And teddy bear postworkers
At the end of Odori Park
There's a section of smaller sculptures
Built by people who live in Sapporo
Some of these look a bit melty!
I think they might need some work
This is quite near the end of the Snow Festival
There's only a few days left
This one's good
It looks really detailed
The little stone lanterns out the front
There's a little Pokemon sculpture
Cute!
I say little
It's probably still taller than me
It's definitely still taller than me
Even if I was standing on there it'd be taller than me
This tall
It's a big fat seal
He's got some sort of melon hat
I can see a dinosaur across there that looks really good
I think this a section for amateur snow sculptures
Obviously not complete amateurs!
I imagine if most people tried to make one it'd look terrible
This one's Japan United Football Club
I think it's supposed to be Mickey Mouse?
Maybe?
Yep, I think he might have melted a bit!
Look how much it's snowing now!
Maybe I could enter my Snow Ham
I made last time it snowed in England!
Look at this guy!
This is a good one
Rar!
Here's a little Snow Miku
She's got her Hokkaido guitar again
It's Totoro!
But where's Totoro's toe?
Totoro-toe
To-to-toro-toe-ro
Look there's a Snow Miku vending machine
What did you just say Phil
She must be cold!
She's not wearing her thermal tights
It's true!
That scarf is nowhere near thick enough
Poor Snow Miku
Here's some now sculptures from different countries around the world
This one's built by China
I think it's really good, it's something really different
Especially the way it's got holes through it as well
It's not just one block
This one's really impressive
This one's by Thailand
That looks really good
What is this one?!
We're looking up their nose!
Ah wow!
Look at this dragon!
That's amazing
How do they make the snow stay up?!
The second prize:
Macau in China
So the fish won the first prize
That one over there
I think this one's the best one
This looks really pretty & magical with the lights
Can you see the snow falling in the lasers?
This is of Helsinki Cathedral
Here's some more of the food stalls
This is the food court in the snow
Although really, there's actually food stalls everywhere
There's grilled scallops
Legendary savoury ramen
Deep fried margarita pizza
That's what we're going to have!
Over here we've got coffee and Yuki no Oshiruko
Ah oshiruko is the thing that I had
With the sweet red bean soup with the mochi in it
And yuki means snow
So it's snow oshiruko
Sapporo miso ramen
That's one of the local specialties
There's beef skewers
Rich sea urchin rice
Large grilled shitake mushrooms with cheese
Here's Hokkaido bug three hot pot
What's the big three, do you think?
Scallop
I'd say clam
It's mussels or clam
Or something, it's one of them
I've never heard of it before
And soup curry
That's also a Hokkaido thing
It's like katsu curry but more liquidy
With noodles
Or rice
Sometimes it's just the filling in soup with rice on the side
I had one at Coco Curry the other day
It was really good
It got really freezing out there
So we've come underground again
To the subway
To feel some warmth return to our bodies
We just got some drinks from the convenience store
Out of the fridges
And we couldn't tell if they were cold or not
Our hands are that cold!
I mostly looked around the festival at night
When all the shows are on
But there are things going on during the day too
Like this ski jumping I came across completely by surprise
Three two one, go!
We came back the next day at night
And discovered some more smaller things going on
Dotted around the city
It's always fun when you discover little things like this
Completely by surprise
Just down a side street we've found this little half pipe
For snowboarding
It's not really a half-pipe is it?!
A little course
That looks really slidey!
Snow Museum
How are those...?
I think they carved it in and then filled it in with snow
Is that a projector?
Yeah, I don't know what it's projecting at though
This wall I guess
Maybe it comes on at night
The lights come on as you go past!
Maybe it was just a coincidence
This is just a side street
It's called the Sapporo Yuki Terrace
Snow Terrace
It's not in one of the main sites
So there are other little bits dotted around the city
Here's the souvenir stamp!
Sapporo Yuki Terrace 2019
So that was the Sapporo Snow Festival
We saw a Cup Noodle made of snow
A giant train the size of several buildings
And lots of snow Totoros!
The sculptures are genuinely impressive
And the evening shows are definitely the best part
Although I might not say that
If I'd met Moko the sheep
I think it's great that all this is free and completely open to the public
In some places the sponsorship is pretty blatant
Like this ice credit card
But it doesn't get in the way of enjoying the festival
And I'd say it's completely worth braving the freezing temperatures
On this night it actually went down to -13 degrees C
If you're planning a trip for next year
I've got another video coming up
With lots of tips & advice
About how to have the best time at the festival
There's also the Otaru Snow Festival
Which was my favourite
I can't wait to show you
I'll see you next week on Thursday!