I went to the Susukino venue of the Sapporo Snow Festival in the morning only to discover that the venue would not open until 3 PM and all the sculptures were in the middle of an open road. The good thing about this was that there were not many visitors and I could take my time to take photos. Since it was a sunny day, I went back to the Odori Park venue to check the sculptures under sunshine and even went up the Sapporo TV tower again before ending my trip and went to the airport.

The ice sculptures at the Susukino venue were displayed at the center of the road.


Ice sculptures of Taiwan Presidential Office Building and Taiwan High Speed Rail train.


Frozen seafood was a famous display at the Susukino venue.


The ice sculpture that won the first price at the Susukino venue.


The ice blue sculpture of Taiwan Palace Museum.


The all white sculpture of Taj Mahal under blue sky.


Private made small sculptures lined up at the Citizens’ Plaza.


The Taiwanese team making final touches to the small sculpture.


The panorama view of the snow festival at Odori Park under daylight from Sapporo TV Tower.


The large snow sculptures of One Piece, Tsuruga Castle, and Taj Mahal viewed from Sapporo TV Tower.


The skating ground in front of the TV Tower.


I waited more than 40 minutes for the cancelled then delayed trains to the airport, so I could not spend more time to visit the newly renovated terminals of New Chitose Airport.


Mural of Doraemon at the New Chitose Airport.


Statues displayed at the Doraemon Sky Park at the New Chitose Airport.


Our flight passing Hokkaido’s Lake Shikotsu.


The line clearly separating day and night.


The Previous Day | Web Album

These are web albums of pictures I took during the Sapporo Snow Festival trip.

Sapporo Snow Festival	Sapporo
Doraemon Sky Park	Eating at Sapporo

I went to Sapporo at Hokkaido, Japan, to visit the 63th Sapporo Snow Festival. The flight from Taipei to Sapporo was quite full, with most of the passengers also traveling for the same reason. After reached Sapporo from the airport, I went directly to the Odori Park, the biggest of the three venues of the Festival, and visited every small, medium, and large snow sculpture in the venue until the sky went completely dark.

I took EVA Airways’ Hello Kitty Jet again.


We passed All Nippon Airways’ Pikachu special livery plane after landed at New Chitose Airport.


Activities were going to begin on the stages in from of the Snow Aquarium large snow sculpture.


Some medium sculptures served as playgrounds.


Hawkers selling foods were always a big part of the festivals.


Formal Sapporo Court of Appeals at the end of Odori Park.


Heavy snows with colorful lighting.


The large sculpture of magician’s hat and Mickey Mouse sponsored by corporations.


The large sculpture of Japanese animation One Piece sponsored by corporations.


The all white sculpture of Tsuruga Castle of Fukushima was built to pay tribute to the 2011 earth quake.


The all white sculpture of Taj Mahal under heavy snow.


The small sculpture of mother and son brought warm feelings to visitors.


Penguins real and fictional.


Mascots of Taiwanese convenient store chain made appearance in the snow festival.


The large ice sculpture of Taiwan Palace Museum.


Taiwan team working on the small sculpture highlighting Taipei 101 at the international plaza.


Singapore team also working on theirs, with the competition of the international teams was scheduled for the next day.


The snow board stunts performed by professionals sponsored by Hokkaido’s most famous cookie maker.


The panorama view of the snow festival at Odori Park from Sapporo TV Tower.


The large snow sculptures of One Piece, Tsuruga Castle, and Taj Mahal viewed from Sapporo TV Tower.


The large sculptures of Taiwan Palace Museum and Snow Aquarium.


Performances on the stage of Ice Square.


Row of snowmen at one side of a building on my way back to hotel.


The Next Day

I went to the Songshan culture park at the last day of the Lunar New Year holiday. The culture was repurposed to an exhibition and recreation complex by renovating an abandoned cigarette factory. I came here to visit the exhibition of arts of Ghibli’s latest film, From up on Poppy Hill, where concept sketches, storyboards, and the actual hand drawn backgrounds used in the animation film were displayed.

The pond in front of the culture park.


The walkways between the old Japanese factory buildings inside the culture park.



The park at the center of the old factory buildings.



The long hallway with wooden windows of the factory buildings.


Progress signified by the non-smoking display in an old cigarette factory.


The large poster for the exhibition at a corner of the culture park.


The exhibitions were housed in old warehouses.


These displays of posters of Ghibli’s films were the only place where photography were allowed in the exhibition.


But the exhibition did decorate this area allowing visitors to take photos.


The exhibition was coming to an end and most of the souvenirs were already sold out.