This year, the Sapporo Snow Festival was from February 4th to February 11th. It only included one weekend this year, and my parents came from America to come see it and spend some time together! From there, we took a short trip to Hiroshima! Here’s the Sapporo part of the trip.
February 7th: After getting off work, I went home to get my things and drain my pipes since it’s winter, and then off to catch the bus to Sapporo!
I arrived around 8:30, and met up with my parents at the hotel. Since my bus essentially took up dinner time, I did have a protein bar, an orange, and a drink on the bus to tide me over. I was thinking about getting ramen since it’s open late when I arrived, but I actually wasn’t feeling super hungry. Since my parents were coming with me, we decided to just head to Susukino for an evening parfait!
When we arrived, we did have to wait a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. There was even a line forming behind us at 9:30pm! Unfortunately, the seasonal strawberry parfait I saw on their Instagram was gone already, and replaced by a new seasonal, the Sweet Chocolat Parfait. I went for this one, my mom their normal strawberry parfait, and my dad the alcohol parfait.
This parfait has chocolate, white chocolate, and milk gelato, with house-made chocolate and berries. On top is a waffle cone. There was also a piece of melted sugar on top, and strawberry jam on the bottom. Verry yummy, and you can disintinctly tell the difference between the white chocolate and milk gelato.
February 8th: Time to walk around and see the Odori and Susukino venues of the Snow Festival! My friend would join us for lunch, and then walk around and see the sights.
I started the morning with a bath in the hotel’s onsen, and then we got breakfast at the hotel’s buffet! Pretty comphrehensive buffet, and very filling!
The initial plan was to get sushi at Nemuro Hanamaru, a popular Hokkaido revolving sushi chain, at 11 when they open, to beat the line. I thought that the Stellar Place location was the only one that got crowded, but I severely underestimated the Sitatte location too (I guess the current tip is to go to the new Cocono location, though I haven’t been to scout it out yet). Luckily, my friend was already there, and got us a number around 10 minutes before 11. We were party #78!
After meeting up with her, we had plenty of time to kill, so we went to go buy some coffee for my dad at Tokumitsu Coffee. Since we were in the Odori area, we might as well go look at the Snow Festival while we were waiting. We managed to cover Blocks 1-5 of Odori park!
When there were about 10 parties left in front of us, we headed back to the restaurant to wait. Our number was called around 1pm, and by then, we were pretty hungry. We definitely ordered quite a bit, but it ws quite reasonable for 4 people!
After a yummy lunch, we went to check out Blocks 6-11 of the Snow Festival! There were a ton of cool sculptures this year, as well as a curry bread stand that made a new world record, ha! Here’s a selection of my pictures.
After we were done with the Snow Festival area, we headed to Susukino to see Susukino Ice World! Unfortunately, one of the winner runner-ups was knocked over by the strong wind a few days ago…
We needed a break from all the walking we were doing, so we stopped by a cafe for a much needed parfait break. I decided on Initial, since it was close by, and had a new seasonal parfait I wanted to try! I went for the Strawberry Daifuku Parfait. It has raspberry, strawberry, kumquat, a strawberry chocolate heart, mochi, white bean cream, whipped cream, almond slices and white chocolate mixture, amazake gelato, basil aroma strawberry gelato, crispy rice chocolate, kumquat pink berry marinade, yuzu and cream cheese mousse, umeshu jelly, and strawb honey cinnamon marinade. Wow, that’s a lot for a tiny parfait. It was topped with what I think was rosemary and flowers.
Overall I liked it a lot! There were a ton of strawberries in the parfait, and the gelato was great. I loved the inclusion of mochi, and the big strawberry daifuku on top with the crispy layer. The kumquat inclusion and jelly wasn’t my favorite, but there’s always something I’m not a huge fan of in these I guess.
At this point we split up with my friend who had evening plans, and headed to Nakajima Park to see the illuminations at night. The lights officially start at 5, and by then, it was starting to get dark. As usual, the lights were super cute and pretty, and then had a year of the snake thing going on. There was also a small igloo that people were lining up for pictures! It felt a little smaller to me this year, but it also felt more open space this time.
My parents were craving barbeque, so I made a reservation near the park ahead of time. We ordered a bunch of things, including every variety of beef tongue they had on the menu, ha! We came to the consensus that the thick beef tongue was the best one.
On our way back to the hotel, we passed through Cocono. My mom wanted boba, so we stopped by The Tea for a drink. We also passed by a taiyaki stand, and bought a sakura bean paste taiyaki from a taiyaki booth. Read about my boba here!
February 9th: Time to leave Sapporo and head to Hiroshima!
I started off the morning with another bath, and we headed to have breakfast. They changed out some of the daily items, including Chinese shumai, corn soup, genghis khan, and a scallop shiokara.
My mom likes the super exclusive Snow Cheese in Daimaru. They open at 10, and our check-out was at 11, so we left our hotel around 10 hoping the line wasn’t too long. The line wasn’t super long when we got there, but it seemed like we would have to wait a bit, and it would cut close to our check-out time. On our way back to the hotel, I grabbed a boba from Gong Cha. Read about my boba here!
After checking-out, we took the airport bus. The driver warned us that it would take 2 hours because of traffic, but it really was the 1.5 that the flyer promised. Because we were taking a domestic flight, we thought we had time, so we lined up for an apple pie. Turns out, my dad wasn’t issued a ticket number, so he had to stand in a ridiculously long line to check in. In the meantime, I went up to Miku Sky Town to get a stamp in this year’s stamp rally.
We waited so long that they let us into a priority check-in and security line because our flight was coming up. This was also the longest I’ve ever seen domestic airport security. Crazy. We made it though, thanks to the staff, with 10 minutes left before boarding.
As an aside, when I was booking my flight to Hiroshima months prior, for some reason, J-class was cheaper than regular economy. It was weird, but I wasn’t questioning it, if I got me a better seat for less, ha! Although I was J-class, I was still group 5, because my seat was technically an aisle seat. Go figure.
Now I thought Japan Airlines normal seats were roomy, but this was more roomy. The seat was wide, there were two mini pockets in addition to the usual pocket, a ton of leg room, a foot rest, a reading lamp, a baby coat hanger, and a pull-out table from the armrest. The flight was slightly delayed, but overall, pretty smooth.
The airport is not too close to central Hiroshima, and the only public transport is by bus to Hiroshima station. We opted for a taxi with our luggage load, and it directly took us to our hotel. Our hotel was where the 2023 G7 Summit took place!
It’s a cool hotel, but our hotel was literally located on an island far from everything. We took a taxi to dinner, Okonomiyaki Micchan, which is credited to be the most famous place, and the place that created Hiroshima okonomiyaki. When in Hiroshima, eat oysters and okonomiyaki! We didn’t eat a proper lunch, and by 8pm, we were starving.
Definitely the best okonomiyaki I’ve ever had. All the sides were unique and yummy, and especially the fried squid legs here. I’ve always been a Hiroshima-style over Osaka-style person, and I loved how cutomizable ordering was here. The noodles were crispy, and full of toppings. Highly recommend Micchan!
In Sapporo, we stayed at Hotel Monterey Edelhof Sapporo. My dad booked this place because they could accomodate three people in a room. The amenities were all a very nice quality, but the room was a bit warm. Our plan also came with breakfast, which was pretty good, with Japanese staples, a rotating menu, a truffle omelet bar, salad bar, sweets bar, pastries, and ice cream! This was the first time I had a croffle, and it truly deserves the hype.
The hotel also has a hot spring bath! The facilities included a sauna, a cold bath, a massage bath, a normal hot bath, and an outdoor bath. I like the vibes of outdoor baths, but this one was tiny, and kind of sad, being walled off with a tall white fence. What was interesting was apparently this hotel hosts weddings, and they have a wedding salon, along with plaques of all the couples who had ever gotten married there.
That was part 1! Part 2 is coming next week!
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