The 2010 Sapporo Snow Festival

Ah, snow, snow, and more snow. I have never seen so much snow in my life. Our adventure began with a full day of snow sculptures. Our hotel was only one block down from all the excitement. We arrived at the airport with two buses full of people. Our guide was waiting for us with our boarding passes. I was already impressed by how organized our trip had begun. Our flight destination, the large island of Hokkaido, only one hour from Tokyo. When we arrived, we had two more guides and two buses waiting for us. We headed to our first destination The Ainu Museum. This spot was home to the indigenous people of Hokkaido with their own culture and language. We were treated to a nice show. Off in the distance we could see kids ice skating on a frozen lake. It was cold, and I mean cold. I soon figured out my jeans and boots were not going to keep me warm. I could hardly wait to get to the hotel and change into my snow boots, and snow pants.

Next stop, The Sapporo Beer Brewery, were we treated to all you could eat BBQ mutton, and beer. This place was filled with a nice atmosphere, and yes more snow. The kids had a ball having their first snow ball fight.

Then we were off to our hotel for check in and free time the rest of the day to enjoy the ice sculptures. Wow! We ended our day at Ramen alley, then took a taxi back since we could no longer bear the cold.

Next day, a free day of touring, so we headed to the Chocolate Factory where Larissa and Ernie baked and designed their own cookie as we sat and enjoyed the best hot chocolate ever overlooking the beautiful mountains as it snowed right outside our window. Breathtaking! We then went to the snow park and ended our day ice skating outside as it snowed. Brrrrrr!

Day Three, it was nice to see the finished sculptures from all over the world. We were disappointed with USA who came up with a sculpture of grapes. Go figure-

As we headed back to the airport, we encountered a snow blizzard. The highway closed and the next plan was to take us to the train station for a quick ride to the airport. This was quite an adventure as we unloaded suitcases then hopped on a rapid train. Don't ask me how they managed it all, but we were on the train in around 5 minutes. We barely made our flight. Thank god they had to de-ice the plane, otherwise the whole group would have never made it on time. Hats off to our ITT ladies for getting us home last night. All in all, a trip to remember.