Sapporo Snow Festival

In the beginning of February we flew to Sapporo. It is on Japan's most Northern Island of Hokkaido. We went to their annual snow and ice festival. It happens once a year. They make all of these sculptures out of ice and snow. It was the only time the kids have seen snow this year. They had been missing snow since we left Connecticut.

It was cold when we arrived. It was a definite change in temperature from our island. We were there for 3 days. When we woke up the second morning we woke up to snow and it didn't stop snowing the rest of the time we were there. I think it actually kept snowing for the next 2 or 3 days straight. The kids definitely got their fill of snow.

Here they are waiting to get on the plane. See the cool Pokemon plane in the back? Kyle got a mini version on the way back for behaving. Yes, we had to bribe him but it worked.

When we landed in Hokkaido, the first place the bus took us was to a town called Otaru. They are known for making hand blown glass and music boxes. The town runs along a canal. It is also home to the world's largest and second ever steam clock. Here's Megan in front of the beautiful canal that was lightly dusted with snow.

Here's a picture of us standing in front of a heart sculpture on the canal.
Cool picture of some local Japanese men blowing pieces of glass.

Having fun just walking around Otaru.

After we toured Otaru we checked into our hotel quickly then off to dinner at the Sapporo Beer Gardens for an all you can eat dinner and playing in the snow afterwards.
Look how smoky it got once everyone start cooking their meals...
Playtime...
The next morning we woke up to the snow, got all our snow gear on and headed out to look at all the snow sculptures. It went on and on and on for about 10 blocks or so. They were amazing they were so detailed. Here are some of our favorites.

Here they are at night...

On the next day, which was our last day, we went to the Tsu-Dome. It had 4 slides made out of the ice and snow. The kids had fun, however the lines were very long so we only got to go down each one once. We did get to ride on a raft pulled by a snowmobile which was fun too.

Wall-E