Experience the magic of Japan’s winter wonderland at the Sapporo Snow Festival 2024! Stroll through Odori Park and marvel at the incredible snow sculptures created by international teams, and don’t miss the dazzling display of ice sculptures in Susukino. This is a must-visit event for any winter travel enthusiasts!
The Sapporo Snow Festival started 74 years ago when some high schoolers made snow sculptures in Odori Park, and now millions of people visit to see hundreds of snow statues, some MASSIVE!
We start our journey with FOOD at historic Ganso Ramen Yokocho, Sapporo’s ramen alley. Miso Ramen was invented here so we try the classic and a version with corn and butter at Teshikaga Ramen.
Bellies full, we brave the cold snowy weather as we take in stunning larger than life ice sculptures a few blocks away in Susukino.
We change at the hotel and fully brace ourselves for the cold as we head to Odori Park for the main event, the Snow Sculptures! The randomness of the variety is such an incredible look at the variety of people that live here in Sapporo. It is incredible to take in these works of art, the small ones are big, and the big ones are MASSIVE! We even see a projection light show on the massive ones, and we enjoy delicious hot milk on a mini dairy tour of Sapporo (this island Hokkaido has some of the best dairy in the world).
Next we enjoy soup curry, another dish invented in Sapporo, at Sama, and it is the most delicious and perfect treat for this cold weather! Warming us up just enough to head back to the ice sculptures and see them illuminated. They look even cooler than before!
After a night’s rest, we cross off the final things on our Sapporo bucket list: Seafood & Beer. At Nijo Market we find a delicious setup outside めしと純米別邸 二条市場でめきん that we can’t pass up! Crab miso sounds absolutely perfect after trudging through the snow to get here, and it IS! The food is great and we get to try our first Hokkaido Scallop IN Hokkaido! (These scallops are famous around the world). The owner Uchi Hiro is so kind and fun! Highly recommend this spot! We drink a Sapporo Classic before we go, because that is what you have to do when you’re in Sapporo, and then it is off to our next destination to cross something BIG off my bucket list!
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Welcome to madventure, we’re MADison and iVEN (okay it is spelled Ivan, but pronounced like VENture) a husband and wife living the adventure we have been dreaming of, despite the fact that it makes us sound completely mad. For us that looks like traveling full time and starting our own businesses.
For Madison, a former reality TV producer, the dream is the madventure community, connecting people through travel, experiencing new cultures, and trying the best foods from carts, stands and restaurants all over the world. She hopes to encourage others to follow their maddest most adventurous dreams, whatever they may be! For Ivan, a former NASA engineer, it is creating an engineering product that will change the world! Travel and food are two of our biggest passions, so on this channel we will be traveling the world, and staying awhile to experience what life is actually like living other places. We’re excited to have you on board for the delicious, culture filled, madventurous times that will ensue! Let’s madventure! xoxo
00:00 game plan
00:44 entire alley of ramen shops
01:36 sapporo’s famous miso ramen
03:03 snowing
03:17 stunning ice sculptures (susukino)
04:43 sapporo snow festival (odori park)
05:54 community snow sculptures!
08:06 hot milk!
08:38 MASSIVE snow sculpture pt 1
09:03 ivan’s rivalry w/ children
09:39 more hot milk!
10:13 MASSIVE snow sculptures pt 2
12:05 warming up
12:16 international snow festival competition
12:57 snow sculpture projection show
13:43 sapporo’s famous soup curry
15:43 ice sculptures illuminated
16:26 nijo fish market
19:58 sapporo beer IN Sapporo
20:25 plz subscribe 🙂
This might be the most underrated place in Japan. You’ve probably heard of Sapporo and that’s probably because it’s a beer, but turns out that beer is named after the city it is from and that city is the second snowiest city in the world, and home to the most incredible snow
Festival on Earth that’s happening right now. But wait there’s more Sapporo is on the island Hokkaido the northernmost island of Japan, and the best of basically every food you can think of comes from Hokkaido, best Dairy Hokkaido, best seafood Hokkaido, best soy products Hokkaido.
Even the best beef you thought it was Kobe, but turns out Hokkaido. Speaking of amazing food we are getting so hungry it has been a crazy travel day and there is only one place to start our food
Journey through Sapporo, Ganso Ramen Yokocho an entire alley of ramen shops. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 ramen shops every single one that’s open pretty much has a line.
It is actively snowing right now it’s just like the perfect time to go get some delicious hearty ramen. We found a spot that is crazy well reviewed. In Sapporo they’re known for like a miso Ramen and they also do a variation on that
Where they use like butter and corn so we’re going to give both of those a try. this is a safety item very [Music] important. Ivan got the spicy corn with butter look at that butter right there. so good? very good, very good, excellent. a really Umami base but it’s not thick packing a
Lot of flavor in there because of that miso. miso is fermented soybean so it makes sense that is packing that umami punch so this is corn and butter in a Ramen a first for me the butter
Flavor is strong so simple but it makes so much sense burst of Sweetness from the corn creamy goodness of the the butter as it’s melting into that miso, totally makes sense because butter is going to warm your insides on a cold snowy day like this. I just got the basic miso Ramen
Since it is something that this area is so known for yeah that’s so different but so good I’ve obviously had a lot of miso and I’ve had a lot of ramen but I’ve never had them together like
This it’s a great pairing just like so comforting on this cold cold day it’s not so fatty like the ramen that I’m used to it definitely still has fat in it but it feels a lot lighter which is
Good because you would be eating this probably a lot more often in a cold place like Sapporo look at the damage your bib is already taken. The shrapnel. If I have a bib on I’m going to use
It. it’s snowing. just a few steps away from our ramen alley is ice sculptures look at this Susukino ice world. this side seems to be the sponsored ones it’s literally an ad for the ramen alleys. the snowfestival takes place in a few locations but the ice sculpture event is
The smallest which is mindblowing there are so many ice sculptures and they are stunning and detailed I am in awe I can’t believe this isn’t even the main event. when I think of ice sculptures I think of fancy dinners in the movies invitation only but here are these
Beautiful intricately carved works of art in the middle of the road for free incredible. oh this one is the first prize winner, destruction and creation that’s cool the wings are super detailed. this is extra and the most amazing way possible little offices and they’re made of [Music] ice. snow crab actually in the
Snow. [Music] I could spend hours looking at all the intricate details here but I have a feeling they’re going to be even more incredible when they’re illuminated at night so we’ll be back. checked into our hotel and cold weather Madison and
Ivan has been activated we got beanies now got my ski jacket now gloves and now we are walking to the main event we are here in Sapporo for the biggest Festival of the year. the first thing we see is a bunch of cute shops food stalls and activities this actually
Reminds me a lot of the Christmas markets we went to in New York City but then we see some incredible snow sculptures and realize this is going to be so much better than a Christmas
Market in New York City and look at this I feel like we’re back at Team lab’s Museum ah this is a snow City in the future. the future, the future looks awesome. the sapporo snow Festival started
In 1950 when some high school kids decided to build a few snow statues in the park 74 years later in this same park there are hundreds of snow sculptures. they span 12 blocks or almost a mile and it attracts millions of visitors every year. the intestine is an important
Organ for health we wish for healthy lives for people all over the world. who thought we’d be seeing snow sculptures of intestines? I absolutely love the randomness of the sculptures most of the snow statues we’re looking at now were built by Volunteers in the community and
It is so cool to see the variety of people that live in this city and their interests through the art they’ve made. now my favorite one this is made by a youth group wild it’s so gorgeous. thanks to Google Translate we are even more confused about some of them “and opanchu
Usagi don’t worry I’m wearing panties” what? that’s the description. these translations are out of control. that’s what it says I I don’t make this up. you might need to translate this one. don’t lick the baby. “aliens and their friends.” this one’s artsy. this one Ivan
Translated “Is the butt the most charming part?” so now we’re on the other side where we can kind of see the butt. yeah I guess it’s Charming. they like encouraged you to walk around and look at his
Butt. yeah they were like “please look at this butt from both sides” this one’s a very short description “Chaya yaaaa” “plan G Ana becomes Mr Godzilla and appeals to ginan” ooh this one seems protesty Unions that’s funny that’s such an American thing because it represents rock paper
Scissors. “I express my passion for rock paper scissors” oh my gosh. these have all been been incredible so far but it looks like it’s about to get even more crazy. yeah just looks good. let’s get it hokkaido is known for its Dairy. honestly
It seems like everything that is the best is from Hokkaido. so we’re excited to be getting a little bit of the milk and it’s warm milk on this extremely cool day. it is so creamy. it is so good. that good it’s warming my insides [Music] I like how we were like oh
Man oh we can see ahead and it’s going to be incredible and then we were like oh but wait hot milk this is massive oh my gosh. from the TV anime golden kamui centered on the action and suspense surrounding buried treasure set in hokkaido. this is so
Huge. the backs of these giant snow sculptures are being used for ads. my gosh this is so great. hey what are you doing with this? no I was going to try to make a mini one. that’s something. I was been getting so defensive about how mine looks bad and theirs
Looks too perfect, but vindicated! literally getting defensive against children this is called snow kids park and Ivan’s like. They cheated! Queen and Adam Lambert Ivan dances to this song on beat saber. more hot milk, you can never have too much hot milk, thank you for the
Milk. that is really good milk has like this natural creamy and like mild sweetness to it very mild just something about after milk hits that that temperature like the the frothed milk silky almost like velvety coats your mouth. this is so funny that we’re accidentally doing a milk
Tour of sapporo. hey milk, snow, both white, makes sense. so far this one is number one milk stand. this one is an incredible snow sculpture and also a stage the building of these huge snow sculptures is done by the Army along with the help of volunteers from the community. chainsaws,
Chisels, shovels, and heavy machinery are used for two weeks to a month to build them and while this is the second snowiest city in the world only the purest snow can be used if there’s any impurities in the snow it’ll absorb light and cause the snow to melt so around 30,000 tons of
Snow are brought in from golf courses and parks around the community once the snow structure is complete they spray water over the top to freeze them in place absolutely incredible how much work goes into this. hey blue- eyes white dragon. oh my gosh Ivan used to be a professional Yu-gi-oh!
Player or competitive. competitive yes, not professional. you know when I saw pictures of the snow Festival I didn’t expect it to be here like in the heart of the city I expected not in the rural area but like somewhere in between like Suburbia or like suburban area where there’d be
Like more space. but we’re like on Main Street right now. yeah we’re basically in the middle of the City right now, this is awesome. but what city are we in the middle of? I think we might
Have walked too far because I’m pretty sure we’ve just made it to Germany. I have actually been here before there’s a Neuschwanstein Castle, the castle that inspired the Disney castle, and this Castle was built by over a thousand people and it took them 30 days. this is
So beautiful. look at this this might be my favorite yet, the old train station. [Music] the sun has set, it has gotten really really cold out there, and the amazing thing is they have these community warmer lounges for free you can just come hang out in here,
These are Lifesavers. the Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo in 1972 and I love that they created this Olympic section of the park for the international snow Festival competition where teams from around the world compete there are nine teams this year Hawaii Mongolia
Thailand Lithuania Indonesia Poland Portland Oregon Singapore and Korea. Mongolia won, I mean look at this! this might be one of my favorite sections of the entire ice sculptures like it’s just so cool to be like transported to all these countries through these incredible
Pieces of [Music] Art and now we are back at Old Sapporo station for a projection show. This is incredible I almost cried traveling through the seasons of Life at the train station who knew a projection show on a snow sculpture at a snow Festival
Would be so emotional. this is more the type of projection show I was expecting, no crying here but this is still so incredibly [Music] cool. woo okay we did it it is so cold let’s go eat something warm somewhere warm right now.
Another one of the most famous dishes in Sapporo is their soup curry and Reddit said that Sama is one of the best spots. Created in Sapporo, soup amazing in this weather, Curry amazing in this weather, together I feel like it’s going to be a dream come true. also can we talk about how
Stylish Ivan has look today? got my Japan Fashion on, Uniqlo. when I first started researching food in Sapporo I was surprised to hear soup curry to people who have actually been to Sapporo this is the dish that’s worth talking about. pork curry level eight spicy which is in the very spicy
Range, coconut soup base, when you’re traveling getting dishes that have like fresh green veggies in it is so exciting and this has broccoli this has okra this has green peppers carrots corn. oh my goodness, I can do a happy dance right now. this is so good,
And this sweet coconut soup paired with a spicy and like hearty flavors incredible reminds me a bit of a Thai curry because of that combination which I love, this is probably one of my favorite soup curry type of dishes that I’ve ever
Had. you have to get this when you come to Sapporo. Natto Curry, tomato based because that’s what they recommend, 10 spice level, so much complexity in there you think tomato soup you think Campbell’s, this ain’t it. Rich spices, there’s a lot of complexity in that flavor,
It’s a good amount of veggies that are hidden in here and they’re all soaked in this delicious curry soup combo. It makes everything tastes good. That heat really builds, this is perfect for a cold day like this I’m going to be walking out of here sweating and I’m
Going to carry that heat all the way through the ice sculptures and back to the [Music] hotel. oh this looks even cooler at [Music] night! we’re back we had to see them at night and honestly I think they look even cooler at night like look at how amazing this is all lit up.
[Music] We are back at it again, we are headed to do the final few things on our list. We have me Nijo Fish Market and you can tell because the crowds suddenly pick up this used to be
One of the main fish markets for the city now it’s more of a place just to come get fish for eating right now everything is already starting to look [Music] delicious. hokkaido Seafood is such a huge deal that when we were in Tokyo which is
Not in hokkaido every seafood restaurant was advertising like oh we have crab from Hokkaido oh we have scallops from haikkaido like to like assure you that it’s going to be the best quality I’m very excited to now finally be getting a taste of the seafood itself
Here. that is so good, the freshness of the seafood paired with delicious like heartiness of a miso soup. we have been having a lot of miso soup sometimes restaurants literally just give you miso soup for free as if they’re giving you water, like miso soup flows through this country,
But this one with the crab so strong of a flavor in it this is definitely one of my favorites we’ve had. oh all the juices of the crab are in this miso giving it extra delicious flavor. boom look at that,
Super super tender it’s just been slow cooking in that soup. present for you. what? arigato. please this channel subscribe, dozo yoroshiku. look at what he just gave us beautiful, beautiful abalone grilled on a a skewer and torch it,and everything
Just what a nice char on that I got to get a bite this while it’s still hot. juicy actually, that is actually a scallop, they leave the Ring of Flesh on the outside still on it
And we’re messing around I don’t know why we get rid of that because it actually has such a nice flavor and a completely different texture almost creamy Hokkaido is known around the world for their scallops, the best in the world come from Hokkaido. absolutely delicious you can taste the
[Music] freshness. that’s so good they’re like opposite in what makes them good almost like crab is super super good super tender super delicious but it pairs so well with the Miso the Miso is definitely doing something too to make this delicious dish. the scallop on the
Other hand we’re literally just eating a scallop that was on the grill like we watched him fire it, that is all. this ingredient is speaking completely by itself and you don’t want to cover it up with anything, like it is so perfect and delicious and tender and
Buttery on its own. stunningly delicious highly recommend you come here this man is incredible, he’s so friendly, some of the freshest most delicious Seafood you will ever have. I’m so glad we did this. we could not leave Sapporo without getting some Sapporo beer. this is
How everyone throughout the world knows about sapporo, when I told people I was coming to Sapporo there were a lot of people that just said oh like the beer Kanpai, just a simple fresh lager, classic Sapporo, feels right to be drinking a Sapporo
In [Music] Sapporo. That was a delicious ending to our time here in Sapporo I’m so glad we got to try so many of the classics of this city and of this island and got to see their biggest Festival of the Year ,this has been amazing, this is an underrated City for sure,
We’re headed back to our hotel to head on out to the next madventure, something that’s been on my bucket list for years. there are so many more Amazing madventures in Japan to come so please share this video with someone you think would enjoy it hit those subscribe and
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2 Comments
Which snow sculpture is YOUR favorite?!? I loved the International Snow Festival Competition sculptures, and the INTESTINES!
The Japanese are perhaps the best happy medium between crazy workaholic Americans and don't give a flying fart Europeans. They work hard, but play hard. Pursue the future, but respect the heritage. Glad you are enjoying it!