Japan Photo Guide

A district of Sapporo, Susukino is Japan’s largest entertainment district north of Tokyo and is home to hundreds of restaurants, clubs, bars and other nightlife establishments. During the Sapporo Snow Festival, Susukino gets involved and has it’s own road of ice sculptures on display.

These ice sculptures (are maybe I should say ice advertisements because that is pretty much what they are) are cool but the best part or the little ice bars that open up at night. In 2007, there was a Baily’s, Hennessey and even a Song Park Karaoke place where you could sing a song and you get a score depending on how accurate you were and then depending on your score you would get a coupon for a real establishment of Song Park.

Check out the video of a few of the ice bars here and a few more photos after the jump. See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

The 2008 Sapporo Snow Festival will be held in Sapporo (of course) from February 5th until the 11th. Basically the Sapporo Snow Festival is a showcase of huge and amazing snow and ice sculptures. I have been to many festivals in Japan and can honestly say that most of them do not live up to their hype, but the Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the few that does…if you can bare the cold weather!

I actually went a few days before it started and left on the second day because it was a lot cheaper to do it that way. I suggest doing it this way not only because it is cheaper, but also because most of the big ones are (almost) done anyway and you can also see how they are made.

See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Sapporo, located in Japan’s most northern and largest island, Hokkaido, is Japan’s 5th largest city and is a really great place to visit. There is good food, nightlife, modern buildings, old buildings and easy to get around. Sapporo is perhaps most famous for it’s annual snow festival held in February, it’s beer, Sapporo Beer, and it’s ramen (miso butter corn ramen is a MUST try if you go there). Sapporo has everything from a chocolate factory to modern art museums to a thriving nightlife in Susukino. Also Olympic and winter games have been held there. Below on the left is Odori Koen and on the right the Washington Hotel.

If you can handle the cold, or like winter sports, going to Sapporo during the snow festival is a great time to go. The snow festival has amazing sculptures made of, you guessed, snow and ice. If you are more into not freezing, then in the summer months the weather in Sapporo is pretty mild and not as humid as the rest of Japan. Below is the Sapporo Beer Factory and Sapporo TV Tower.

Sapporo is about a 40 minute train ride from Chitose Airport, 3 hours from Hakodate and about 2 from Furano and Biei.

If you are going to Hokkaido and plan to travel I recommend thinking about getting one of the Hokkaido free rail passes (they have different ones for foreign tourists–3 and 5 days–and one that anyone cane use–7 days).

If you plan on only staying in Sapporo, you do not need a car, but if you plan on going to other areas of Hokkaido, it would not be a bad idea to consider renting a car as a lot of places in Hokkaido are best accessed by car.