🏮 Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

さっぽろ雪まつり

Sapporo, Hokkaido (Odori Park) · Every year in early February

Snow festival

147 days to go
Rooms around Sapporo, Hokkaido fill up while the festival is on.

The Sapporo Snow Festival, held in Sapporo, is a major winter event that draws more than 2 million visitors from Japan and overseas. At three sites — Odori Park, Tsudome, and the Susukino venue on Sapporo Ekimae-dori — you can see snow and ice sculptures of various sizes and enjoy playing in the snow. The festival began in 1950, when local junior and senior high school students displayed six snow sculptures in Odori Park, and it is now enjoyed as an event that represents Sapporo's winter. The highlights differ by venue. At the Odori site, snow and ice sculptures line about 1 kilometer from West 1-chome to 11-chome, and they are lit up from sunset until 22:00. At 11-chome, you can also watch the production process of the international snow sculpture contest, in which participants from around the world take part. The Tsudome site has a huge slide and indoor and outdoor snow-play events, and at the Susukino site you can enjoy an ice sculpture contest and illuminated ice sculptures. You can visit each venue and enjoy the winter event.

Getting there

Odori site: a short walk from Odori Station on the subway. Tsudome site: about 10 minutes on foot from Sakae-machi Station on the subway Toho Line, or about 30 minutes by bus from JR Sapporo Station. Susukino site: a short walk from Susukino Station on the subway.