Sapporo Snow Festival 2006-Odori

It was coincidence at first that our second trip was 5 years after our first. Now, its become a regular schedule as the third trip is in 2011 and a possible fourth trip will occur in 2016. By 2006, my travel equipment has been upgraded to include a laptop and digital camera. Thus, making it much easier to post pictures for all to see and much faster as well. For now, I can upload images at the end of the day to those who like to follow along with me on my adventures. This second outing to this familiar locale has us residing at one of two Toyoko Inn locations in the Susukino area. This one is a bit further out than the one located right in the downtown area. However, it did not pose much of an inconvenience. This was our first stay in this chain of business hotels. We had already planned the trip but unable to secure accommodations in Sapporo. While reading through the travel section of the hometown sunday paper, I espied a letter written by a traveller who recommended this franchise. Since the location was good and there was availability, we booked our rooms. Since we were in the Susukino area, there were a number of restaurants and stores within walking distance. The sculptures carved from blocks of ice were an everyday sight that we would walk past during sightseeing. Being known for their seafood and crab, eating establishements that cater to these needs were many and not very hard to spot. They are also known for their style of ramen which uses miso in their broth. There is an alley nearby where ramen shops line either side of the narrow passage ways. We had a full on crab buffet that cost 5000 yen, around $40 at that time. Along with sushi, soup, and side dishes, it was all you can eat king, snow, and hairy crab.


Crab is readily available during this festive time. At the main drag, Odori Park, crab sellers are hawking their wares at the base of the TV tower that anchors one end of the sttrip. They offer samples of crab broth to entice buyers. The briney smell of crab being boiled to death wafts throughout the one square block they have set up at.

This was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia if my memory serves me right

This is a depiction of a scene from the stop-motion animated feature The WereRabbit starring Wallace and Grommet

Sapporo Snow Festival 2001

I had mentioned the Yuki Matsuri, Snow Festival, before but had not posted any of my pictures. Back in 2001, on the initial trip, I was using a point and shoot film camera to snap images. Back then digital cameras were not as common place as they are today. Because of this, Costco had not begun to offer digital prints derived from film. Fortunately, I had a flat bed scanner that I could use to transfer the prints to the computer. We were staying at the Hotel Raffine. It was a place that our friend had recommended. Off the top of my head, I dont remember where this hotel was located. It was a very nice hotel with ample space in the rooms and a large luxurious bathroom to boot. The displays at Odori and Susukino are located in the same place every year. The third site usually moves around the Sapporo area. In 2001, it was set up at a military base.

With Japan being a food obsessed nation and regional areas beaming with pride with what they produce, its no surprise to find the the specialities of the region on display in most of the festival areas. With its icey cold water around the northern most island, a number of crab varieties are plentiful and easily accessible to Sapporo-ans(?)

Many a night was spent walking around the two main areas amidst the locals visitors alike. After the sun sets, the sculptures and displays are illuminated. Some are doused in colors while most have a white spotlight placed upon them. A few have lights that change color to really make them stand out and provide a show for the many onlookers. Along Odori are the larger sculptures of snow and/or ice

I was amazed by the detail found on this replica of Trevi Fountain. As I found later after many travels to Japan, they have a great attention to detail in many things they do

This is not Trevi at night but a structure of asian origin awash in blue lights. It seemed as if man made structures was the theme this year. However, in subsequent visits, they tend to have at least one bulding of some sort. There were just alot more on this first visit.

In the downtown area of Susukino, you will find primarily ice sculptures set up in the middle of a coordined off area open to pedestrians. The creations carved from ice run small and large. Most are about a few feet wide while some of the larger installations can span several yards. With many restaurants around, you can have a courtside seat to the view while enjoying a nice hot meal. This one depicts goldfish. The horizontal lines are present becuase blocks of ice are stacked upon one another to create the blank canvas for the artiste

Roast Duck Anyone?

Go into any large Chinese community and you will find produce shops, restaurants/delis, etc. Specifically, restaurants/delis will display offerings in the window to all passerbys. The steaming hot table will keep things like sweet and sour pork, fried chicken, fried rice/chow fun, etc. warm. Hanging above will be barbecue pork, steamed chicken, and roast duck. These will all be very familiar sites of once has been to their local chinatown.

As such, while walking around my Chinatown, I spotted this in the window. A somewhat Warhol-esque display using the ubiquitous cooked foul. The first row has a black duck(Oil spill duck), a missing duck(What the duck), a black duck with strings painted on it to resemble a cello(Yo yo Ma duck), and a pink duck with a label over its privates(Garment label duck). The bottom row has the following: a multicolored gradient duck(Ranbow duck), a duck covered in paper money(Money duck), a duck covered in duct tape(Duck tape), and a red duck that mimics the flag of the Republic of China(Peking duck)

Apparently, there are more ducks at the artist's website.

Although the city has only one official Chinatown, there are many areas with large Chinese coomunities that have setup shops and restaurants. Some of the well know areas include blocks of Clement, Irving, and Noriega. Some burgeoning areas include San Bruno Ave in the 94134 zip code.

Flights to Haneda

A while back, Haneda airport opened up a few slots to international flights. Before Narita(NRT) was built, Haneda was the main hub for international flights. These flights begin flying in this month and a number of airlines will be embarking on this route. Unfortunately for me, none of those are United out of SFO. ANA has a few flights from LAX which depart shortly past midnight to arrive approx 5am the next day. Other airlines have roughly the same schedule. JAL has a flight that takes off from SFO around 6pm to arrive in HND at 10pm the next day.
My usual flights on United leave at 11am to touch down at 3pm the next day. Because of the time and jet lag, I am rarely able to get a few good hours of sleep on the flight. A midnight departure, in my mind, would seem ideal as I would normally be asleep around at this time. and, hopefully wake up feeling refreshed once I make my way through the airport and into town, The reverse flight back to the states, for practically all filghts, outbounds around midnight. I forget what time it lands in California but I believe it was late afternoon. I imagine there may be some nice aerial views of the metropolis on the inbound JAL flight

Haneda is located just south of and much closer to Tokyo than Narita. Sitting on Tokyo Bay, the airport is serviced by a monorail and a local train which ferry people to Shinagawa and surrounding areas in under 30 minutes. Tickets run less than 500 yen. Narita users will usually ride the N'ex for a speedy 1 hour at 3000 yen minimum. Stations further than Tokyo will incur higher fees.

Trying To Pick Up A New Language...Japanese/Korean

As I get older, I find its very hard to learn new languages, not that I really learned any when I was youner. Case in point, my many failed attempts at learning japanese. Attempts may be a more positive spin on what was really a start and stop, mainly stop, approach to trying to motivate myself to begin the process. The best I was able to do was recognize a few characters and remember a few words. I dont have enough knowledge to even put a sentence together. Also, the language incorporates 3 character sets for its written aspect: katakana, hiragana, and kanji. I think its hiragana that I can somewhat read. See that! I cant even remember which charater set I remember.

So, I tried to understand a little bit of korean before my first trip. Luckily, they have one set alphabet system. Given time, it looks like it would be easier to learn than 3 different sets of symbols. However, I have found a problem with the romanization of the language. In reading the translated sounds of the characters, I found that the same symbol can be pronounced or romanized in 2 ways. Coming from an english language background, I thought they were different words/meanings when spoken differently. Heres a few of the interchangable ways of pronouncing certain characters: j and ch(Jeju/Cheju), b and p(Busan/Pusan), g and k(gimchi/kimchi), etc. In japanese, the characters are distinguished by their softer or harder sounding letters. But the difference in sounds means that they are two seperate words. This was very confusing to me prior to my trip. Although, I found that you can get around Seoul just as easily as Tokyo due to alot of signs being written in english. Conversing with the locals is a whole other matter