Sapporo Snow Festival!

This past weekend, Jason and I ticked off one of our bucket list items, seeing Sapporo Snow Festival.

 We'd wanted to go for years, but Sapporo is just so far away from any where on the main island (10 or so hours from Tokyo by train, and 12 hours from Osaka). Not to mention of course that those times would be using a shinkansen (bullet train) which cost an arm and a leg if you don't have a JR pass (you can`t get a JR pass while living in Japan).

But we figured, this is our year! This is our year to tick off all those bucketlist items! We're in Japan for a year! What better time to travel to Sapporo than when we have a whole year to play with!

The festival sculpures were beautiful and daunting in size. There were some lovely features, although I could have got more out of the weekend if we'd followed some of the advice I now know...

THE ACCOMMODATION

We booked an Airbnb a good 6 months in advance (I like to plan). At this time, the Airbnb was very reasonably priced and I think that perhaps the owner hadn't realised it was the Snow Festival weekend... a month before we were due to go to Sapporo, I recieved a message from the Airbnb host, asking me if I had made a mistake, as I only booked for one person, when there was 2 people coming...

 
She then requested that I pay double the entire booking. For those not in the know about Airbnb, this is not how it works. The owner herself had stated that for extra guests (more than 1) is simply a charge of $32 a night... not double the whole booking... She had even doubled the booking fee (unacceptable as it's only one booking and this is supposed to go to Airbnb not her) and also doubled the cleaning fee despite this being listed as a once-off fee. i told her of her mistake and said that I wanted to pay the amount listed on her website and she then said that once she has requestd this money she can't change it and the only way to change it would be for me to cancel and rebook with 2 people..
So I thought sure, that's what I'll do. That way I'll save myself a bunch of money doing it the legit way. but when I cancelled my booking, and tried to rebook she had then raised the price to OVER DOUBLE THE PRICE! Eveb more than what she wrongly tried to charge me before! So my two night trip was now going to cost $900!  So then I saw what her intention was. Obviously she had realised that the weekend was the Snow Festival weekend and all the hotels around her were charging a premium and she wanted her share...

This was unacceptable to me so I started looking around at other hotels and Airbnbs. But now, being only a month before the Snow Festival, most of the hotels were fully booked, and those that weren't were charging suuper high rates. I'm talking $300 a night for a mattress on the floor in a single room with a shared house... Most places were around $500 a night, with some being over $1000 a night!

Eventually, we found a not too expensive airbnb that did not give us physical pain to book... It still cost us about $200 a night when our original booking was only going to cost us just over $200 in total...

So please be aware of these scams if you're going to the Snow Festival! I'd reccommend booking with a real hotel for this event, rather than Airbnb, as Airbnb hosts can cancel your booking at their own discretion, leaving you high and dry just before the event like us and having to pay exorbitant fees for shitty accommodations.

Make sure your accommodation is near Odori park, as getting around can be exhausting. In the snow, even a 10 minute walk to the train station can be gruelling.



GETTING AROUND

You can easily catch the train or tram from anywhere near Sapporo to Odori or Susukino, and you can then follow the colomn of sculptures and festivities that line Odori park.  

 

I highly, HIGHLY reccommend wearing either snow boots or little snow grips that you can attach to your shoes. I did not have them, and I deeply regret it. I couldn't get as much out of the weekend as I would have liked as a result of this. The grounds of Odori Park are largely free of snow with the exception of the parts where you walk across roads, but getting to and from train stations, and to and from hotels is VERY slippery. Plus, if you want to see any of the other snow festivals like the one at Tsudome or closey by towns, you'll need to be able to walk on snow and ice.

 

Walking on the snow and ice will get very exhausting and will work entirely different parts of your feet, knees and legs. You'll find your toes and feet trying to grip the ice as your legs constantly sply outwards, slipping on the ice. You'll shuffle, hunched, trying to minimise your movement as you walk. This puts a lot of strain on your back and knees. By the end of the weekend my knees were killing me and both my husband and I had blisters so make sure your footwear, whether snowboots or otherwise are comfy and well worn in.

THE FOOD!

 
I'm a big fan of festival food, and there was plenty at Sapporo's Snow Festival. Be sure to bring some cash, to try fesival foods like pork rib steamed buns, fresh seafood, long potato fries, buttered corn, doughnuts, fried chicken burgers, and a huge array of portable fried food. Even the convenience stores are selling special snow editions of foods, some featuring "Snow Miku", Hatsune Miku's snow alter ego.

 

Sapporo is famous for its Yubara melon, which is similar to Aussie Rock melon, or American Canteloupe, so be sure to try their melon pocky, mochi and icecream!

 

Sapporo/ Hokkaido is also famous for it's milk products so Hokkaido ice cream, milk, and butter are all famous around Japan.

 

DRINKING

 

We went to Susukino to drink, as we had heard that it was the center of Sapporo's nightlife. There's an abundance of restaurants and bars, and a lovely ice sculpture display as well. It's quite different to the night life in Osaka  and Tokyo though, in my opinion. Perhaps it's just the fact that it's so cold out, but there were no sprukers outside with pamphlets trying to persuade us to come into restaurants or offering us "all you can drink options".  This is something  love about Tokyo and Osaka night life, so I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see any, as this is usually the way Jason and I decide where to eat/drink. Especially because a lot of Japanese restaurants can be a little bit daunting with small spaces and closed doors. You feel like you're intruding a little if you just want to come in and see what they've got. Plus, a lot of restaurants are upstairs or downstairs out of sight, so without these sprukers we were a little bit lost.

 

We eventually ended up at a bar called the "Electric Sheep" which I had seen advertised on a website. They offered a delightful range of enticing, fancy cocktails for a nomihoudai (all you can drink) deal of 2600 yen (around $30) for 2 hours.This is quite expensive by Japanese nomihoudai standards, but still cheap by Aussie standards, so we decided to splurge. It also included one food item from the menu in this price.

 

We made sure to get our money's worth, with each of us ordering at least 8 drinks, but we were slowed down by the sub-par single waiter. Perhaps he was not used to Australians finishing their drinks so quickly.

Some of their cocktails were amazing though. Standouts included the glowing, colour changing cocktail the Blade Runner, and the Peach Pudding Martini (a thick, pudding like cocktail that was to die for!).

Kamikawa; Snowboarding and beautiful mountainside

This weekend, my husband and I, spur of the moment, decided to meet up with a complete stranger who had offered the use of his artists retreat for a weekend of skiing, snowboarding and mischief. 

I admit, I was quite worried. It was to be myself, my husband and a stranger who would be picking us up at the train station where we would meet for the first time, and taking us to some remote mountain house for a couple of days. I mean, he could be an axe murderer, or even worse, he could be really annoying and then we'd be stuck with him all weekend...

But, it was a cheap weekend where we would get to try snowboarding, something we've always been curious about. And besides that, really, everyone in Japan is a complete stranger to us at the moment... So what's the difference? 

We met up with our host, Mark at Sannomiya station and drove up to the area of Kamikawa. Mark turned out to be a very interesting dude with lots of experience living in Japan and around the world, and he brought his Japanese friend with him. 

We stopped at a tiny little raamen shop once we arrived in the are of Kamikawa. If you go there, I highly recommend it. They have a simple but delicious menu of raamen, gyoza (dumplings), and some side dishes. It was warm and comforting food in a cute little traditional Japanese setting.

Kamikawa itself is a small mountain village with beautiful mountain scenery. In the spring, the area comes to life with cherry blossom areas. Signs advised us as we explored of areas good for blossom viewing. Old traditional houses were the norm and some of the architecture was just stunning. It took only around an hour to an hour and a half from Kobe by car, but you can get there by train, catching it to Niino station.

For a little village, it's quite well stocked with plenty of supermarkets, and even a Daiso (hundred yen shop). So we stopped at MaxValu to get some booze and snacks and "retreated" to his artist retreat. 

The artist retreat was so cute! We were greeted my a little sign declaring it "The house". Inside, the walls were covered in art and sayings in all languages. Blankets covered each doorway to keep the heat in. Beautiful wooden floors and old furniture gave it an authentic charm. We warmed ourselves in the main kotatsu and drank our whiskey. 

The next day, we awoke frozen, our seven heavy blankets rendered useless by the merciless and unrelenting cold. We clumsily dressed under the blankets as best we could, and made our way back to the main areas, our toes and fingers going numb from the one minute walk. 

After a hearty breakfast we layered up and drove to Mineyama Ski Fields. Mineyama is a relatively new ski resort that I had heard was good for beginners. Thank god. My husband and I had never skiied or snowboarded and were quite apprehensive about it. 

Turns out we had good reason for it...

Snowboarding is detestable. Unless you like pain. We spent a large amount of time smashing our heads on ice, bruising our butts and hands with the falls, and just generally praying for our lives as we tried to slow ourselves down, with very limited degrees of success on the slopes. 

I hadn't realised how daunting it would be to suddenly be up on a mountain top, with the only way to get down being to slide with your feet strapped to something that won't stop moving. It's a scary feeling.

So in short, I wouldn't recommend it...

But the views and scenery were lovely. And we didn't break anything. And we did something completely out of our comfort zone. We grew as humans. 

After we had been appropriately smashed up by the ice, we made the excellent decision to go to an onsen (Japanese bath). If you haven't been to a Japanese bath, I would strongly encourage it. You need to shed your western sense of prudishness and embrace your own body. It's a very empowering and relaxing thing. 

If you haven't been to an onsen before, first you go into a room and take all of your clothes off. There are no stalls, no partitions. You get starkers. With your friends there, if you go with people. Which we did. Then, once you are butt nekkid, you go into the next room and this is where you really need to get comfortable. In the next room, you shower in a large room. There are lots of small shower heads, usually the ones with little movable shower hoses, but again, no partitions, no separations or privacy. So in this room with your friend and all of the other patrons, you shower, soap yourself up, wash your hair with the provided shampoo, and get intimate...

Then, once you're completely clean is the good bit. You hop into the large communal bath tub. These are usually pool-sized and waist deep. You can sit on the steps that usually run around the outside and soak. Many Japanese people believe that onsens are one of the reasons they are so healthy. They use them to destress and get rid of toxins. The heat is very intense, although some onsens will have a cooler bath in addition to the hotter one so you can move from one to the other. 

Walking around in a room surrounded by people naked is a very strange feeling. But you need to keep in mind that it's not strange for Japanese people. For them, naked bodies in this context is completely natural. In my opinion, it promotes healthy body image. Girls and teenagers in Japan grow up seeing the reality that is the female body, rather than just an airbrushed image that is unattainable. Japanese youths see old bodies, young bodies, imperfect bodies, healthy, unhealthy, damaged, different, cellulite-ridden, smooth.  Many young girls in Australia may only see the bodies in magazines and television as examples of the female form and a standard to meet, rather than being able to see the diversity that should be represented. 

So, that aside, the soak in the tub was lovely. The jets massaged sore muscles, and Mark's friend, my new friend, talked candidly about our countries and being naked while we sat together in the bath, completely bared.

After the soak, we went out to the outer room of the baths, where hairdryers, moisturisers, and other post-bath necessities were located to preen ourselves. If go to Kamikawa, this onsen was just 500yen at the Community Center. it had everything we needed and was pretty quiet.

The next day, the hubby and I took Mark's bikes for a ride. This was an excellent decidion. The mountains looked over us in the background, the wind was brisk but the sun shone on our faces. Flocks of birds scattered as we rode through fields, woods, and areas of beautiful houses. It felt divine. We explored small shrines and temples, and little side roads leading up the mountain, before heading back to Mark's artist retreat.

We left shortly after, but not before painting up our hands and leaving our mark on the wall, as so many had before us. 

If you want a cheap stay in a beautiful area, hit me up with a comment and I'll direct you to Mark and his artist's retreat in Kamikawa.

Awaji Island Narcissus Fields (Nada Kuroiwa)

My husband and I decided just the other day to travel to Awaji to see the narcissus fields (Nada Kuroiwa) because they're only available in Winter and I had seen some lovely photos online.

We were slightly discouraged by the fact that google was telling me it would take 1 hour and 50 minutes from where I live in Nishi Futami, plus a shuttle bus ride on unknown time (Google doesn't give this information). But we decided that if we want to get the most out of this year, we would have to be willing to travel a lot, otherwise, we'd never see anything... Let's face it... Everything is a bit of a hike from Nishi Futami...

What google didn't tell us was the price... unfortunately...  

To get to Nada Kuroiwa we first took the Sanyo Line to Maikokoen station. This took about half an hour and and was reasonably priced at around 500 yen (6 bucks). This is the price google COULD tell us. So we were thinking that this trip would be fairly reasonably priced...

We then caught a bus from Maikokoen bus terminal to Fukura in Awaji. This bus trip does not have a price listed on google. It was easy enough to find, just follow the signs for the bus stop, and then once at the bus stop, find the bus stop that says Fukura. This bus took about an hour, and cost us around 2000 yen! 

From Fukura we had to take another shuttle bus. This one did not have the price or time listed on google maps. I think it may be a seasonal specialty bus. It also cost us another 2000yen! This did include entry to the field though (although we had been under the impression that it would be free). This one stung, right in the pocket! But of course, we couldn't turn back now, after paying the last 2000 yen!  So we paid it and got on the tiny shuttle bus, sitting on the make shift seats between real seats.

The shuttle bus trip took half an hour and then we arrived at Nada Kuroiwa. We saw a beautiful hill filled with narcissus flowers. Some jokes about narcicists were made. Pretty pictures were taken. But actually, we were underwhelmed. It was just one small hill really. With flowers. I was expecting something along the lines of Nabana no Sato for some reason. I mean, with entry fees, I would expect something spectacular... But to me it was really just something that, in passing, you would exclaim about it's prettiness... Not something you would travel for 2.5 hours, and pay over $50 to see (plus the return, so nearly a hundred dollars!)

It's my fault, I know... But it was a learning experience... We both swore to always check reviews before we go anywhere...

We did have a good little hike (It took us only 10 minutes to walk the entire trail loop over the one hill- and that's with photos), but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're in Awaji for something else. Now, Nabana No Sato... THAT'S a winter attraction you MUST see. Pics below for comparison, but really a photo can't capture the overwhelming vastness of Nabana no Sato.