This video documents our 3-day trip to Hokkaido.
Main destinations:
1. Sapporo Snow Festival
2. Sapporo TV Tower
3. Noboribetsu Jigokudani
4. Mount Hakodate
5. Goryokaku Tower
6. Otaru Snow Light Path Festival
▬ Chapters ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 – Opening
3:27 – Sapporo Prince Hotel
3:58 – Tanukikoji Shopping Street
4:33 – Jingisukan in Susukino
5:21 – Ice Sculptures
5:35 – Sapporo Snow Festival (2020)
6:05 – Food Stalls
7:01 – Sapporo TV Tower
7:52 – Noboribetsu Jigokudani
9:22 – Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse
9:50 – Mount Hakodate
11:50 – Goryokaku Tower
13:16 – Otaru Canal
13:28 – Otaru Snow Light Path Festival
13:48 – Kaisendon
14:20 – JR Tower Observatory T38
14:28 – Kaisendon Sapporo Station
▬ # ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
#Japan
#Hokkaido
#北海道
#Hakodate
#函館
#SapporoSnowFestival
#さっぽろ雪まつり
#SnowFestival
#雪まつり
#さっぽろテレビ塔
#SapporoTVTower
#NoboribetsuJikokudani
#登別地獄谷
#GoryokakuTower
#五稜郭タワー
#Otaru
#OtaruSnowLightPathFestival
#小樽
#海鮮丼
Hello! Today we will fly to the New Chitose Airport (CTS) from Chubu Centrair International Airport (NGO). We will be traveling around Hokkaido for 3 full days. Technically, this is a 4-day, 3-night trip. We will attend the 2020 Sapporo Snow Festival for the first day and do some sightseeing around Sapporo.
For our second day, we will rent a car and drive to Hakodate. For our third day, we will drive to Otaru and back to Sapporo. The flight from Nagoya to Sapporo takes about one hour and 45 minutes. We are preparing for landing. Arrived to the New Chitose Airport.
CTS is conveniently located just a 35-min train ride from the Sapporo Station. This airport offers a ton of options for shopping, dinning and entertainment, and even has a theater and onsen. Arrived to Sapporo. First, we will check-in at our hotel. Arrived to the Sapporo Prince Hotel.
The Sapporo Prince Hotel is a bit more spacious than business hotels, but it is also slightly dated and away from the train station. Our room. View from our hotel room. Now heading into Tanukikoji Shopping Street to get to the venue of Sapporo Snow Festival. Sapporo TV Tower on the right.
Food stalls at the Sapporo Snow Festival. We decided to grab dinner at Susukino and will return to the Sapporo Snow Festival venue later in the night. Susukino is one of Japan’s largest entertainment district in Sapporo. We went to Aji no Hitsujigaoka (味の羊ヶ丘) to try Jingisukan.
Jingisukan is a Japanese grilled mutton dish prepared on a convex metal skillet. It is especially popular in Hokkaido. With a full belly, we will head back to the venue of the Sapporo Snow Festival. It’s snowing quite heavily. Susukino hosts the ice sculpture competition during the annual snow festival.
We will admire many of the works as we make our way back to Odori Park. Sapporo Snow Festival 2020. The first Sapporo Snow Festival was held in Odori Park in 1950 and has since become one of the most popular winter events in Japan.
The Sapporo Snow Festival is held annually in February for a week and has attracted visitors from all around the world. Hundreds of breathtaking snow sculptures are displayed each year. Artworks are illuminated after dark with some of the latest projection mapping technology. Snowboarding performance.
During the festival, visitors can sample regional foods such as fresh seafood, potatoes, corn and fresh dairy products. We had dinner, but there is always room for more food 🙂 The Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the most easily accessible winter festivals in Japan. No admission fee is required to attend the festival.
Cup Noodles snow sculpture. Sazae-san, a popular manga and anime series. View of the Odori Park from the Sapporo TV Tower. Built in 1957, the Sapporo TV Tower is a 147.2-meter-high TV tower with an observation deck at a height of 90.38 meters.
It is a popular destination especially during the annual Snow Festival season. For a limited time, visitors can take the stairs back down during the freezing cold weather 😀 That’s it for day 1 of our trip. See you tomorrow! Good morning! It is snowing again.
Today we will rent a car and drive to Hakodate from Sapporo. It stopped snowing and is nice and sunny. We will stop by Jigokudani or “Hell Valley” on our way to Hakodate. It is a valley above the Noboribetsu Onsen that displays hot steam vents, sulfurous streams and other volcanic activity.
It is the main source of Noboribetsu’s hot spring waters. Various types of water containing natural elements gushes out of this area daily. I guess people cannot resist the urge to toss in coins when they see a pond… The scenery here is quite beautiful.
A giant demon statue welcomes visitors to the town of Noboribetsu. There aren’t very many dining options in the area. So we had lunch at a nearby casual restaurant inside a hotel. Arrived to Hakodate after a few hours of driving. The Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse. It was originally built in the early 1900s.
There are plenty of shopping and dining options with a view here. We will take the ropeway to Mount Hakodate. Measuring 334 meter high, Mount Hakodate offers one of the best observatories in town. The peak is accessible by ropeway, bus, car, bike, or hiking.
The 3-min ropeway ride costs ¥1,500 for a round trip ticket. The view from the peak was awarded three stars by Michelin and is said to be among Japan’s three best night views. Facilities at the summit include observation platforms, restaurants, event hall and gift shops. We are approaching the “magic hour.”
Magnificent view of the surrounding bay and the city of Hakodate. Mount Hakodate is a highly popular tourist destination. It can get very crowded even on weekdays. Tons of tourists (arriving in tour buses) would flood the observatory deck.
After about half an hour, we waited out the crowd for our turn to capture some spectacular shots of Hakodate. We are staying the night at Heiseikan Kaiyotei, a hot spring hotel with breakfast and dinner. See you tomorrow! Good morning!
Our first destination on day 3 is Goryokaku, a massive star fort built in the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido in 1864. The fortress’ name can be translated as “five-point fort,” taken by its geometry that is shaped like a five-pointed star.
There observation deck offers a spectacular view of the surrounding region as well as the star-shaped Goryokaku. The admission fee for the observation decks costs ¥900. Goryokaku is not at all crowded during the weekday. The miniature displays on the observation decks are wonderful in explaining the history of the area.
Before returning to Sapporo, we stopped by Otaru for the Otaru Snow Light Path. Since 1999, the Otaru Snow Light Path Festival is held annually in February at the same time as the Sapporo Snow Festival.
During this festive period, the Otaru city is decorated with candles and small snow sculptures around the canal area. The Otaru Snow Light Path Festival is often considered as a side trip from the main Sapporo Snow Festival event. Otaru is famous for its fresh seafood.
Kaisendon, Japanese traditional donburi dish with raw seafood, is one of the most popular dishes in the area among tourists. Stores in Otaru are usually closed by 6 p.m. Glassware and music boxes are well-known in the area.
Enjoy a nice stroll along the Otaru Canal while admiring works at the Otaru Snow Light Path Festival. It is getting late. We will head back to Sapporo. After returning our rental car, we will head to the JR Tower Observatory T38 for dinner.
Located next to the Sapporo Station, T38 has dining options and offers a 360-degree view of the city. We will end our trip with winter illuminations. Thanks for watching!