A night time trip to the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival. So what is it? It’s a local endeavour where the people of the town work patiently and painstakingly together to channel water from the Lake to make a fantasy land.
I went on an organised tour (Live Wild Travel Hokkaido Social bus) and it took more than two hours to get there and more than two hours to get back, being driven through the dark countryside not able to even to see much out of the window. First because it was steamed up and then because the moisture turned to ice!
And that was with the mini-bus heating at full blast.
When we arrived we were told it was the coldest night since 1950. The year I was born and according to my mother I was born in a sunflower in a heat wave, so this didn’t augur well!
Fortunately I was wearing so many layers that I didn’t feel cold at all. I tried a different tack for this adventure. I doubled up on the thermal tights and then, instead of my jeans. I wore another pair of tights! And in the over-trousers I put a heating pad in each pocket which rested snugly on my thighs! With thermal socks reaching to my knees and my jacket stopping some inches above those knees this plugged a gap nicely.
We left Sapporo at 5:0 o’clock in the afternoon and returned at almost 11:00 at night. Less than a third of the time was at the Festival and part of that was waiting in the bus for some inconsiderate fellow travellers who did not return at the agreed time. So was it worth it?
I would say, yes, definitely.
But don’t listen to me. Judge for yourselves. No words can do this place justice. Truthfully even the pictures can’t do full justice to it either but you’ll get the idea.
And just think, you don’t even have to wear your thermals!
By the way, it is a miracle I got any decent pictures as there was no way I was taking my mittens off so it was definitely hit and miss to click the shutter. And at one point it said to change the battery. When I did (knowing the spare was fully charged) it still said, change the battery. And that’s when I realised the battery had basically frozen. Only after I had warmed it up in my hand did it start to work again.
link:
AloJapan.com