Sapporo City

If you crave the wintery beauty of ice and snow, you might be interested in the Sapporo Snow Festival, where snow is not in short supply, at least partially thanks to organizers having it shipped in by the truckload. What is the Sapporo Snow Festival? One of Japan’s most popular winter events, and perhaps the world’s most famous snow festival, the Sapporo Snow Festival is a two-week event that takes place annually in February and showcasing staggering displays of snow architecture. It began back in 1950 when six groups of High school students each created a snow statue for competition. Encouraged by a surprising 25,000 visitors on that first outing, it has grown- partially due to the recognition it received during the 1970 Winter Olympics in the city – exponentially. Today it is contested by participants from all over the world, creating some 400 statues in all and is so internationally renowned that it attracts over 2 million visitors from Japan and abroad. What to See The Sapporo festival has three main sites. The main bulk of the snow and ice sculptures, some measuring up to 25 meters wide and 15 meters high, are in the Odori Park site. The 1.5km park is open between February 5 and 11,…