Asahikawa Snow Festival

10 February 2009 by Charles Hamel, 20 Comments
Asahikawa Snow Festival

The 2009 Asahikawa Snow Festival is in full swing now, having started Saturday 7 Feb. My family and I were anxious to attend after learning many things about the festival even before we made the trip to Hokkaido. My family and I headed to the festival around 2:00pm because we wanted to be there in the day time and at night to see the lights, after parking near the Taisetsu Local Beer Hall and walked along Kaimono Koen which is the main shopping street in Downtown Asahikawa, to Tokiwa Park and then to the Ishikari river side.

It was a cold brisk day and our fingers quickly became cold, but that didn’t stop my two sons from sliding on every ice slide that they encountered.  Near the River side there are huge snow sculptures of various characters and objects, which have ice slides built into the design.  All of the children have a great time sliding down the ice slides in their ski suits.  Some of the snow sculptures we saw were incredibly artistic.  Even the stage where many performances were happening was made from ice and snow.  The river side area is a place where they dump all of the snow and ice from Asahikawa’s snow removal crew.  After a couple of months there are huge mountains of snow, which is then carved into 3 story building sized structures.

building_sized_sculpture
building_sized_sculpture
One impressive sculpture was the ice bar, totally made from ice, and was serving hot coffee, chocolate beer, and oyster beer.  I will pass on the oyster beer, but really wanted to try the chocolate beer, although 600¥ (about $6) was a bit expensive for me, so I passed.  We bought hot cocoa in a vending machine instead, which helped warm up the frozen hands.  We all stopped along steep slopes of the river to try our turn at riding an inner tube down the frozen river banks, Yeah even I did it, but couldn’t talk the wife into trying.
hokkaido_gang_problem
hokkaido_gang_problem

After the river bank, we walked through Tokiwa Park, and looked at some ice sculptures while the kids played a form of ice hockey on sleds made out of, what looked like a giant ice skate blade.  It started to get dark and the colored lights came on lighting all of the ice buildings and sculptures up.  It was really a beautiful sight, and I got a lot of great pictures of the Asahikawa Snow festival, as you can see from this post.  At one point I felt a tap on my shoulder and a voice in English from behind me said  ”you must be from Texas”, quickly turning around, I saw my friend Toby and his wife Maiko smiling at me.  You can read Toby’s Blog at Toby Maiko and Bomber!

After hanging out at the park for a bit, it was really getting cold, down into the mid 20′s, so we decided to head back to Kaimono Koen and look for a place to get something to eat.  We looked at all of the ice sculptures, which were still not finished.  We was watching one guy carve a dragon out of a huge block of ice, I got a good picture of it just before he bumped it and the head fell off and cracked into a million pieces.  I could tell by the look on his face that he was heart broken, and knew that he would be there late carving another head for the dragon.

dragonball
dragonball
galilleo
galilleo
We decided on dinner at a family restaurant located on the top floor of one of the shopping centers on Kaimono Koen, the type of restaurant where they have a wide selection of food for every choice you could possibly be hungry for.  My wife and I decided on a pork cutlet on a bed of rice and a bowl of Ramen, while my oldest son ordered shredded pork and egg on rice, with salad and vegetables, and the youngest ordered pizza.  After dinner I was exhausted and my legs hurt from all of the walking around the Asahikawa Snow Festival.  We decided to head for the house, an hour drive back home.

The next day on Sunday the Shibinai kids club was having a meeting, and many games and events were planned for the children and the parents.  We headed over to the community center about 1:00 pm and was divided into 4 teams.  The first even was a rely race where you had to run and pop a balloon and then run back to tag the next person.  We were D team and came in 2nd place on that event.  The next game was ice bowling, where you had to bowl an ice block similar to curling (olympic sport) into some frozen PET bottles.I am not positive, but I think we came in 2nd or 3rd for that event, which put us in a 2 way tie for first place.

The next event was a sled pull relay, where the adults had to pull the children in a sled around a designated point and back to our team where the next two people had a try.  Hands down we came in first place with a whopping lead.  The final event was a snow structure building contest, where each team had to try and build the tallest snow sculpture they could, we also came in first on this event, only in the last 5 seconds.  D Team came in first place, and was awarded necklaces made from ribbon and 2 pieces of candy.

igloo_lights
igloo_lights
After the games we all piled into the community center for snacks, consisting of cheesecake, ice cream floats, and other sweets, it was really a fun time, and the kids had a blast.  At 3:00pm my oldest son and I went to a local ski park called “Santa Present Park” for a 4 hour snowboarding session, which left me, collapsing in the house tired.  I am looking forward to getting back to my lessons and work, to get some sort of a rest.

frosty
frosty
My snowboarding skills are getting better and better, and I hardly ever fall now.  The snow conditions were excellent after 2 full days of snow, there is nothing like the feeling of snowboarding through fresh powder  snow, especially the dry kind that falls in Asahikawa, it is truly like floating on a cloud.  Toby and I are planned to go on a snowboarding/skiing trip to Asahidake soon, which is the largest mountain in Hokkaido, and just happens to be right in my backyard, about a 15 minute drive away.

I apologize for the lack of updates recently, as I have been very busy yadda yadda yadda, yeah yeah, no excuses..  I hate them myself.  Between being the only driver in the family, working a full time job, and a part time job trying to make a full time income online, not to mention the weekly snowboarding trips, I stay just a bit busy.  Enjoy the Asahikawa Snow Festival pictures and take care my friends and talk to ya again soon.

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20 Responses to “Asahikawa Snow Festival”

  1. Auto Source Finance 10 February 2009 at 10:11 am #

    Great Blog definite bookmark. Hope you will be able to attend the 2101 Olympics her in my home Province of BC. We are so proud to the host. Please come visit us

  2. Marietta 11 February 2009 at 5:44 am #

    Hey nice to see that you have changed your blog template. This one is great but seems to me that you should change some colour combination as well.

    Those pics were really great … but sometime they are look horrible when you are alone at there .. isn’t ?

  3. Bruce 13 February 2009 at 4:55 am #

    I am an American Expat living in Davao, Philippines. Even though I live living here in the Philippines, I do admire you living in a land where there are seasons, winters and not like here where it is either Hot or Very Hot.
    I hope you will look at my site, enjoy and pass me along to your friends and readers.

  4. Play 80 ball 13 February 2009 at 3:19 pm #

    These snow sculptures are amazing, the first one is my favorite, I’d like to be there!

  5. Mike 15 February 2009 at 10:55 am #

    very nice post and pics..thanks for sharing

  6. makati office space 17 February 2009 at 1:21 am #

    Wow.That was so exciting. Great post.

  7. Dog containment 18 February 2009 at 8:26 am #

    I do not know but I am feeling that you have changed your templates. Believe me this one is looking more beautiful, composed and attractive as well.

    Everything placed at the right place.

  8. Customer care 18 February 2009 at 5:25 pm #

    Nice place, it’s hot here so It was nice to see this pictures.

  9. internet sms 23 February 2009 at 7:00 am #

    Hey I did not recognise that this one is your blog. So at last you have changed theme. This one is looking better.

    Boy these snow photos are really awesome. Is this one from your own camera.

    Oh I forgot to ask … what happend to that adsense earning program ?

  10. SEO 24 February 2009 at 2:22 am #

    Hi Dude,
    I am Grace and your article is so informative and all Picture are very beautiful.Thanks for post this article.

  11. promdresscheap cheap 24 February 2009 at 9:12 pm #

    Look like FUN! ?

  12. zoophilia 24 February 2009 at 9:24 pm #

    great vacation I love mountains.

  13. Charles Hamel 9 March 2009 at 8:34 am #

    Hi Bruce, I did indeed check out your site, and read your interview. I have visited the Philippines and loved it. Although I do not like the hot weather. Great Blog you got, and I will be back often to see what you are up to. Take care my friend!

  14. Bruce 9 March 2009 at 8:46 am #

    Thanks for visiting my site. Maybe leave a comment if you have thoughts about a post.

  15. social networking philippines 29 April 2009 at 10:34 pm #

    Snowboarding and skiing is the best thing to do in Asahikawa.That festival seems to be so exciting hope to join in that festival next time.

  16. Baby Gear 14 May 2009 at 7:14 am #

    This is only my assumption and I want to share with you. Don’t you think that you have left two many blank spaces and hence this new design of yours looking bit empty.

    Try to filled it up with the content or photos. Although colour is really cool and pleasure to look at.

  17. Surplus Armyshop 16 May 2009 at 3:22 am #

    @BabyGear

    Yes he changed the theme and I think this one is much better than its earlier one. If you want to know more about him than let me tell you that he have also one blog on adsense and that one is quite nice and informative, if you want to earn money through adsense.

  18. Folding Sliding Doors 20 May 2009 at 4:44 am #

    Believe it or not I have just changed my monitor and in that your blog is simply looking great with great colour combination and all.

    Nice work friend.

  19. West Austin Homes 21 May 2009 at 2:04 am #

    Yes he have changed the template and now this one is looking much better.

    But I think now he is not posting that much which he was used to be.

  20. Support solutions 4 November 2009 at 12:33 pm #

    These sculptures are magical
    my next holiday will be there for sure
    The people who make them have a great ability


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