Hokkaido has an Ice Festival that’s less famous than the Snow one, but beautiful in its own way

A fantasy realm of sculpted ice appears every year in Chitose and lasts for weeks..

Sapporo’s Snow Festival has become world-famous, and its snow sculptures are undeniably amazing sights to see. It lasts for only a week, though, which is a pretty narrow window in which to both find time in your schedule and compete with all the other visitors from around the globe who are headed to the city at that time.

However, there’s another outdoor winter art festival that takes place every year in Hokkaido Prefecture, and this one goes on for almost a whole month. Starting at the end of January, Shikotsu Toya National Park, in the town of Chitose, will play host to the Chitose-Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival.

Preparations for this annual winter event, now in its 48th year, actually start in November, when wooden tower and wall frameworks are constructed at the venue. As the chill of Hokkaido’s famously cold winters starts to set in, water is sprayed onto the frameworks, forming gradually growing sheets of ice. By mid-January, they’ve reached their maximum sizes, and artisans with pickaxes and chainsaws began sculpting them into their organically artistic final forms. The result is a stunning space of massive ice formations that lets visitors feel like they’re stepping right into a fantasy realm.

▼ The sense of scale is a little hard to grasp looking at just the foreground, but take a look at the people coming out of that building in the background, and you’ll start to understand just how huge these sculptures are.

▼ Videos from 2021 showing the months of preparation that go into the festival

During the day, the ice can take on a crystalline blue hue, and after sundown the venue is illuminated in a variety of colors for a festive feel.

This year, the Chitose-Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival’s opening hours will be from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with admission 1,000 yen (US$6,50) for visitors middle school-age and older. However, the nearby Kyukamura Shikotsu hotel will be offering a special package that includes access to the venue after the regular closing time, between 8:15 and 9:15 p.m., for a more secluded atmosphere.

And though the Chitose-Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival has been going on for almost a half-century, it’s not afraid to try new things, as this year will be the first for the Hyou-Cos (“ice cosplay”) cosplay event, which will be held on January 30 between 2 and 8 p.m.

▼ This being Hokkaido, it is a very safe bet that someone will be dressed as a Golden Kamuy character.

This year’s Chitose-Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival will run from January 1 to February 23. The venue is located about one hour by bus from either Chitose Station (which is itself about 30 minutes by train from Sapporo Station) or New Chitose Airport, and the schedule for the buses to the festival, called the Blue Liner, are available online here.

Related: Chitose-Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival official website, Kyukamura Shikotsu, Hyou-Cos
Source: PR Times, Chitose-Shikotsu Lake Ice Festival official website
Images: PR Times
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