Sapporo Snow Festival Part 6: Nakajima Park at Night

After the Mt. Moiwa ropeway, we visited Nakajima Park again to see the candles lit up. I was excited to see that the Japanese garden area of the park was open because it had been closed during the day.

The candles were so pretty! The pictures don't really capture the atmosphere of the flickering candles in the snow.

Sapporo Snow Festival Part 5: Mt. Moiwa Ropeway

After walking around Nakajima Park for a while we went to a nearby tram stop and headed to the Mt. Moiwa Ropeway.

I had been hoping to get to take the tram decorated with Snow Miku that I had seen on a flyer, but we got an old, ugly one. Though we did pass by the Hatsune Miku one later so at least I got to see it! :)

Sapporo Snow Festival Part 4: Nakajima Park

After Odori Park we went to Nakajima Park which is not part of the snow festival, but there were still some sculptures there. On the signs I saw several made by sports teams and clubs at local schools.

On Wikipedia I found out that Nakajima Park was one of the official snow festival sites for a couple years in the early 90s. I'm kind of glad that it's not anymore because it's not crowded and is a great place to see snow in a pretty setting while in Sapporo.

Sapporo Snow Festival Part 3: Odori Park in the Day

We started off our second day in Sapporo with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Yummy!

Then we walked toward the festival. There was a lot of snow piled up on the sidewalks around our hotel. But when we got to more major roads in the Susukino district there wasn't any snow on the sidewalks because they are heated from underneath.

Sapporo Snow Festival Part 2: Sapporo TV Tower and Ramen Alley

The Sapporo TV Tower is located at the end of Odori Park. It's not super tall, but it has a neat view of the park. Since the festival was going on, it was crowded and took us over an hour to buy tickets and take the elevator up. But at least part of the line went around the gift shop and I saw some cute merchandise.

Sapporo Snow Festival Part 1: Odori Park at Night

Last Friday, Jonathan and I flew to Sapporo to go to the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival). We flew from the Chubu International Airport in Nagoya. It was a pretty neat airport!

We wore masks on the trains and plane to avoid catching anything before our trip. I had been wearing masks all week because they had been required at most of my schools to help prevent flu. I'm not sure how effective they are really, but there weren't too many absences at my school so maybe they work.

December and January Randomness: Sailor Moon Merchandise and More!

Wow! I can't believe it's already February. I have less than two months left in Japan! I have a list of things I want to do before I leave and I've already started checking some things off. Anyway, December and January were both great months and here are some random pictures of things I've done.

Actually, that picture is from late August. I just finally got it off of Jonathan's phone. It's Shippei (Iwata's mascot) at LaLaport! :) 

In early December I took the N3 level of the JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test) and thought I did horribly. I thought vocab and listening were ok, but grammar and reading were really hard! I wasn't worried about it because I had taken it for fun (yeah, I'm weird) but I was still relieved that it was over.

When I got back to Hamakita Station I saw Christmas lights in the area.