This year the famous Sapporo Snow Festival was held from February 3rd-11th, and my boyfriend and I chose the second weekend to stay the weekend and hang out and check out the festivities. We decided pretty early on (learning from our lesson last year) that we wanted to stay the weekend to see the sights, so we booked our hotel a bit after the dates for this year’s festival were announced. Once next year’s dates are announced, I’m definitely booking my hotel in advance.
9th: I took the soonest bus I could after work ended, and we arrived in Sapporo around 7:30. My first stop was actually Gong Cha at Akarenga Terrace, as the bus stop is there, and I really wanted to get the Heart bottle thing they were doing for Valentine’s Day. I missed out on getting the gingerbreadman bottle last time because it was too late, so better early than later. Read about my boba here!
We walked over to our hotel which was close by, and checked in to drop off our stuff at the hotel before heading off to see the night sights and get actual dinner. I was hungry, so I only wanted to go see what was up on the way to food. That included Odori 1-chome of the snow festival, which was the block dedicated to a bunch of contemporary art pieces this year. I believe it’s a collaboration between a modern art festival and the snow festival. While we were there, the merch booth was about the close for the day, and I managed to finish my snow festival shopping right there! A keychain for myself, a plush for my sister, and a couple shirts for my boyfriend. This year, the theming is super cute, with the focal point being the Hokkaido long tailed tit on a stained glass background. I believe lat year was just a snowman? The ramen shop we were going to was in Sususkino, so we also passed the Susukino site on the way. Everything was very pretty!
The ramen shop in question was my boyfriend’s obsession favorite, Ramen Ichi. This time around, their special limited menu is this pork and ginger based ramen, and sounded pretty good. I’m not a huge ginger person, so I just asked for no ginger topping. It came with their normal ramen noodles, some boiled pork chashu, pork and ginger meatballs, bamboo shoots, a slice of fishcake, and seaweed. It was really good! The broth was super light and almost refreshing, and tasted like a chicken broth (could be my imagination, maybe the stock had pork and chicken?). The chashu was falling apart but pretty meaty, and I was excited for meatballs in the ramen, but unfortunately they had chunks of ginger in them. Oh well. Noodles were bouncy and chewy, and could be because I was hungry, but I inhaled everything pretty fast.
Since we were staying the night, I was determined to try an evening-only parfait shop, this time around preferably one of the Parfeteria branches (Pal, Mil, Nanakamadou). After looking at their current selection, I decided I liked the choices from Nanakamadou better, so we went to try our chances, since I heard these places can usually have a significant wait. Luckily, they were taking waitlist numbers on an tablet, which estimated 45 minutes, but the sign on the door and the staff were saying 30 minutes. Either way, there wasn’t much point in loitering in the area, so we headed to Odori to see the rest of the snow sculptures in their nighttime glory. I was keeping an eye out on our spot on the waitlist so we coul start heading back when there were only a few parties ahead of us.
True to their word, we did end up being seated after about 30 minutes. The Parfeteria shops most of the time have some kind of alcoholic component in their parfaits, and as someone who doesn’t like the smell of alcohol, I was hoping there’d be one without any, but alas, they all had some in them. I ended up choosing the Suzuran one, which seemed to be a matcha and tea-themed one, in a drink set with a apple and grape fruit tea. My boyfriend got the Ofraise (Strawberry Special) and a glass of whiskey. The “Strawberry Special” was recommended by the waittress, and I got this name by peeking at the English version of the menu a couple girls had in front of me. The menus are cool in that they draw out the parfait and point out what ingredients are where, as well as what is the alcoholic one and percentage.
Anyway, mine came with matcha langue de chat, chocolate, white chocolate mochi, white bean cream, white sesame tuile, matcha gelato, black sesame and pepper praline, soft serve ice cream, a white sesame langue de chat, matcha genoise, gyuhi, houjicha mousse, red bean jelly, tofu mochi ball, banana caramel (1.39% alcohol), and kagaboucha tea jelly (from Kanezawa city, Ishikwa prefecture). Phew. Quite fancy, and much yum. As a matcha fan, there was a good balance of matcha parts, other not-too-sweet parts, and some savory parts. I did taste the alcohol in the banana caramel (personally a bit unnecessary). but it wasn’t super overpowering. A lot of parts individually I was able to make out, and some I had no idea was in there until I looked at the card again. The tea was also very yum! The apple flavor was very concentrated which I was pleasantly surprised by, and it was indeed very fruity.
After parfaits, it was nearing late in the evening, so we retired to our hotel, and soaked in the hotell’s artificial onsen bath! That was a nice hotel perk.
10th: Happy Chinese New Year! This was our main sightseeing day of most of the Snow Festival festivities, and along with it, the Snow Miku festivities. One of the Snow Miku campaigns is a digital stamp rally; well, actually there were/are (some are going on until March) two: one is a general stamp rally, and the other is specific to soup curry places. Not only do you get to eat a special collaboration menu item and get a digital stamp (if you’re doing that), the collab item comes with a random 1 of 12 stickers of the past Snow Miku outfits. We looked through the list, and the collab at Soup Curry Okushiba looked the most appealing in our area. They open at 11, but we were worried there might be a line, so we headed over a bit after 10 to scope out the premises. There wasn’t anyone there at the moment, and there wasn’t really a point in waiting 40 minutes with no one there, so we headed to Parco to check out other things. There is a stamp for the general stamp rally there, and a contempory art exhibition of Miku there. Tickets were 1200 yen, but the art style didn’t appeal to us, so we checked out the outside and the goods shop, as well as the other pop-ups that were there (a cute dino thing, and a Hokkaido Gals one).
We hung out for 20 minutes or so, and headed back to Okushiba to go check out the line. At this point, 20 minutes before opening, there were actually two people waiting, so we decided to sit and wait along them. By the time 11 rolled around, there was a line extending up the narrow staircase next to the restaurant, but we were seated pretty much immediately.
Similarly to the other Okushiba branch we’ve been before (coincidentally was when we went to the Snow Festival last year), the general set up was the same. I’m not sure if it was a stock thing or a branch thing, but they only had the shrimp soup base here. We also ordered on a big tablet, as opposed to putting in our order with an employee. Of course, I had to get their current Miku collaboration soup curry, no spice, with medium rice, and for the vegetable of choice, I got broccoli.
It was pretty good in satsifying. There were a ton of vegetables, and also a ton of seafood, mostly consisting of shrimp, but also a couple scallops, and an oyster fry. It was very filling, especially as the first meal of the day.
My next stop in the general stamp rally was the Gigo bowling alley in the Norbesa building. It turns out, there was a photo spot there, with ingenius technology. If you turn the flash function of your cell phone on and take a picture with it, a Miku appears. That was super cool. In addition to that, there was a crane game with exclusive Miku merchandise.
Our next stops on the stamp rally were the C-Pla at 2-Chome in Tanukikoji, where there were a few exclusive Miku gacha machines, and the Animate building. If you pulled 3, you get an exclusive sticker. The Animate event floor on the 5th floor had the Snow Miku pop-up shop, selling this year’s exclusive merchandise.
After that, we headed over to the Mitsukoshi building to check out the Snow Miku event space on the 8th floor. Here, there were a few art installations, as well as more merch, but this time collaboration with different artists and a deviation from the normal cutesy style.
Then we made our way to Odori to finally see the rest of the snow festival in its daytime glory.
We had about an hour to kill before the next thing I wanted to do, so we did karaoke for a bit. They didn’t have any normal rooms available, so we got a first class room. Sweet. It had one of those cool stand mics, and had a lot of gold decorations.
Starting at 4:30 until 8pm, there would be candles lit up in the plaza in Nakajima part so we went to go check it out. There were a few food trucks, as well as a mini version of the Yakiimo Festival way back in fall.
We made our way back to Odori park, just to walk around and see some of the statues for the last time, and make our way back over to 11-chome to see the Miku statue light up. It apparently would be lit from 5:55-10pm. There was a music show last year every hour, but because the site or no where really said anything, I assumed there wouldn’t one this year. When we got there though, the light/music show was just starting, but we had to leave right away to get to our dinner reservation (I actually made it for 6:15, but we were running a bit late so I changed it to 6:30).
Because it’s Chinese New Year, I wanted to eat hot pot, so I made a rservation to eat at the Susukino branch of Shabu Shabu Retasu. Unlike the Ekimae branch, this one is only open for dinner. After having the lunch set the other time, I really wanted to try out their all you can eat option, so I can pick what I want to eat, and also eat more of it (meat was a bit lacking last time). We went with the beef and pork tongue option, which includes Kuroge beef, pork tongue, pork, chicken thigh, and cow intestine. I got the sukiyaki base, and my boyfriend got the spicy Korean base. They start you off with your soup bases and a standard veggie platter, along with a meat platter that matched my lunch set last time.
God, I love their honey soy sauce, and even my boyfriend said it was good. Anyway. I’m mostly a beef person a shabu, and their beef quality is pretty good; that said, I found the beef quality pretty varied, with more pieces fattier than others, and not even a marbled fatty. The pork was pretty good, and so was the tongue. My only complaint was that when you put in extra orders through the QR code site you scan, 1 order of meat is like 2-3 slices on a baby platter, and 1 order of veggies is like 2 pieces. I felt really weird putting in 5 orders of meat at a time so we wouldn’t run out right away, but it just seems a bit inefficient. For some reason they wouldn’t come when I pressed the ‘call a server’ button on the order site. I’m also pretty sure we were supposed to get a free dessert (was looking forward to trying their hojicha tiramisu, as I had the matcha one last time), but when we asked for the check they just directed us to the front register. Usually when a place comes with a complimentary dessert and you ask for the check, they’ll give you the dessert and make sure you don’t forget…Oh well, I had dessert plans anyway.
One reason I chose this location is because Denki Sabo, an evening-only parfait place I’ve been before, is right next door. I saw recently on their Instagram that they were doing a special limited time parfait (apparently sometimes they do specials), the matcha parfait, and I really wanted to see if they still had it (yes, I had a matcha parfait the day before too, but that’s different). Luckily they did, so I got that, and my boyfriend got the cheesecake and fruits parfait, and a whiskey.
It was pretty good! It was a small glass though, with the upside being a good option after all you can eat hot pot. With matcha sauce on the side, some matcha cream,shiratama, red bean, chesnuts, and some cake pieces, it all tasted great.
I was feeling a bit tired that day for the night, so I headed back to the hotel by myself while my boyfriend went back to karaoke because he didn’t have enough earlier, ha!. On the way back I did consider getting boba from Shin An Ju because they sent over a coupon and I gave up my boba earlier in the day to have an empty stomach for hot pot, but I didn’t want to overstuff myself, so I just went straight back. I soaked in the bath again, and just chilled for the night. He actually brought me back a meat bun! I presume it’s from Kaishourou, as that’s the place in Susukino that’s open until 4am.
It was juicy, with a dark, soy sauce flavor, filled with some cabbage pieces, chunks of shiitake mushroom, and clumps of ground pork. Time to retire for the night, to see more Miku and go home the next day.
11th: Happy National Foundation Day! The 11th was actually a national holiday, but it doesn’t mean much since it was a Sunday, Our goals for day at slightly changed from my original plans: we were going to hang around Sapporo until the afternooon, head home, and then check out the Otaru stuff the next day, but since the Miku exhibition in Otaru Wing Bay’s main event was only being held the 10th-11th, we decided to alter the schedule a bit and finish our Otaru things in the later half of the day. That’ll be a separate post.
Our check-out was at 10, so my first order of business was to go to Krispy Kreme, which also opens at 10. I actually haven’t been to Japanese Krispy Kreme yet, but they recently came out with a shimaenaga/long tailed-tit (English is not nearly as cute as Japanese) donut that’s exclusive to Hokkaido, because it’s the Hokkaido bird.. It’s supposed to be in stock from February to May, but I’m not holding out on the wait in case stock goes way. It’s supposed to have white chocolate icing with pink chocolate shavings to imitate sakura petals on snow, with the bird made up of milk cream, red bean paste for the wings, and bitter chocolate for the beak and eyes.
When we got there, aside from the shimaenaga donut, there also seemed to be another Hokkaido exclusive donut, the white cheesecake. My boyfriend expressed interest, so we got one of each. As is with Japan and campaign season, they’re doing a Chocomania lineup, probably for the Valentine’s Day season. I can’t pass up a chocolate opportunity, so I chose to the the Chocoheart & Strawberry from the lineup, consisting of bitter chocolate and strawberry jam glaze.
I was going to just save them to bring home later, but we were both hungry and thought it’d be better to eat it right there, so we found a nearby area to sit and eat our donuts. First, I had half the Chocoheart, and overall was pretty good. The donut itself wasn’t too fluffy, but it had a strong chocolate flavor that wasn’t sweet but also not too bitter. I couldn’t taste too much of the strawberry, just slightly there, but I could see it. As for the shimaenaga, the overall flavor was milky, pretty light with no other strong flavor profile. I will say the chocolate shavings gave it a nice texture, and the bird was like a soft mochi supported by a thin pastry in the whole. I wish the donut itself was softer (fresher?) but they probably premade the whole batch a while before opening, and especially to decorate it.
The last Miku event we wanted to attend in Sapporo would open at 11, and with a bit of time to kill before then, we headed to Nana’s Green Tea to go chill in a cafe for a bit. He got the shiratama red bean matcha latte, while I got the current limited special drink, the houjicha chocolat chaud (I just learned this is a thing, apparently it’s fancy French hot chocolate). I’m usually more interested in Nana’s limited parfaits more than their drinks, but since I was there, I figured I might as well check it out, being a fan of houjicha and chocolate.
The drink is supposed to represent a blend between French and Japanese culture, mixing the rich cacao of chocolate and fragrance of houjicha, with a heart sable cookie, and a bit of cream on top. Actually, it was pretty good! It tasted mostly like not-too-hot perfect temperature hot chocolate, with just a hint of houjicha flavor to make it interesting. Surprisingly (or not?), they went really well together.
11 rolled around, so we headed upstairs to the HMV in Stellar Place to go see the 15th Anniversary Snow Miku Memorial Museum. There was some merch, with a focus on the CD as it’s a music store, and the museum. Tickets were 600 yen which wasn’t bad, and the exhibits featured Snow Miku from over the years, with the designs, as well as every Snow Miku featured thing in Sapporo every year.
Before heading over to Otaru by train, I stopped by Lupicia to pick up some tea for my mom, and then headed over to The Alley to grab some boba before we leave Sapporo. Read about my boba here!
This time we stayed at Hotel Hokke Club Sapporo. The room itself was a pretty standard Japanese-sized room, but very clean and decently spaced out. We didn’t ask them to clean the second day, but they gave us a full refill of all amenities and new pajamas and towels, along with free water! The best part about this hotel was that it had an artificial onsen bath in the basement. Obviously nothing huge and fancy, but it had the basic onsen experience and felt really good to take a dip.
I’ll be detailing the Otaru part of my day in a separate post. Part 2 in Otaru, is here.
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