that this festival started with so did you know that Japan's northern island of

Hokkaido has only been inhabited (by modern Japanese people)

for about a hundred and fifty years? that

that is so new and it comes along with it some pretty cool advantages and how

they do City planning and everything like that will touch on that a little

later for now it is my third day will be morning of my third day in Hokkaido

right now I'm in Sapporo but getting here was an adventure all of its own

let's see if I can't summarize it in about two minutes alright here we go

so I was in Milan (Italy) with two shamisen players and I got an email asking me if

I wanted to go to Hokkaido... yes. so instead of going home I came directly to

Hokkaido. Well, not really directly. there were four flights and five airports

involved who's counting. we landed at night in Asakawa. there was snow. lots of snow the

next day we went to a cool design center the area of Asahikawa itself is

known for producing incredible furniture we have food and we got to visit some of

the furniture makers than themselves and when night time hit we went to the

Asahikawa Winter Festival it was brief it was cold it was beautiful but at night I

braved the cold and went out for a little bit and it was so worth it

it's just around midnight right now it's currently about minus 12 degrees (Celcius) so it's

not all that bad but magic is happening right behind me

for the record I kind of wanted to say it a little bit later and film more for

you guys but my camera is starting to freeze up the lens more than anything

but she's not doing good this giant truck filled with snow

reminds me before I head into the hotel there's something I want to show you and

that's these poles right here which let cars and snowplows and everything know

where the edge of the road is they're everywhere in areas that don't have

these poles have arrows hanging from above because the poles wouldn't be tall

enough because they get that much snow in this area all right that's all for

now I'm really gonna head back into the hotel look at how white my hair is

turned.

alright I think from this point we can slow down a little bit so the

next day we headed into an area called Otaru and we're pretty much instantly

graced with the beauty of snow

these little ledges that have created are to reduce the risk of like I guess

not landslides with snow slides down the side of it like hill or mountain that

tells you how much snow they in here know it's nor like no no we know this

guy we see his videos at Tuesday thank you guys so much for coming up.

Otaru was beautiful I cannot wait to go back there someday but that pretty

much brings us to last night when I arrived here at this hotel

this hotel isnt too bad either

Got a mountain view!

Look at that that sunset over the mountains there

I feel like this warrents some kind of time-lapse

I'm on my way to the snow festival right now

Sapporo itself is just so beautiful right now look at this

before we actually get to the festival a little bit of context this entire

festival actually started with kids. as the story goes it looks like the goal

was to turn the snow into something more than just a cold bother and so they

started this annual tradition of building snow castles and stuff like

that and over the years it gained so much attention that it became the

Sapporo Snow Festival that it is today something I wanted to tell you guys

about right now so interesting fact from the station all the way to the main park

Odori Park is connected by an underground set of tunnels I never knew

that I've never been in them and I kind of want to check them out

considering how cold Sapporo gets it makes sense there's an underground

walkway for like the most popular area and it also makes sense that it is

insanely crowded

all the exits seemed clearly numbered and to be honest with you guys I want to

enjoy Sapporo so I'm gonna go back up. I just kind of wanted to show you guys

the area. you'll notice that Sapporo also has these poles the station is back

there has been like 14 years since I've seen it and the last time didn't go so

well and I've actually always wanted to come back and see this snow festival so

I'm literally over-the-top excited I'm just trying to keep the energy down

right now

so as much as all I want to do is hang around and gather two gorgeous b-roll of

this snow festival there's one thing that I've always wanted to do so let's

go this way

the very first time I came here by the time I discovered this place it was too

late this time I got here just in time

something special about today I hear that just during the snow vessel they

open up the staircase so we can go down by this stair coming this far

the cold I can deal with it's the ice on the stairs that's kind of freaking me

out anyway I don't think ten minute montage of me going down the stairs is

gonna be the most except the elevators neat though, I love seeing.. Hi Guys!

I'm just gonna hurry down and I'll see you guys when I get down there that was

totally worth it now I'm really excited to go check out the Snow Festival itself

in the last video where I showed my footage from sapporo from 14 years ago i

believe i described sapporo as being a different kind of amazing and i think

that holds true the only sad thing is that every single day until today it's

been snowing and it's not snowing at the snow festival do you see this behind me

it's like a wish it's like a wish come true it started snowing started snowing

yeah

it got really bad there for a while but things are seemingly calming down a bit

it is a snow festival after all... and I asked for the snow and as you get down

to the end of the park that's where they're working on the smaller statues

but just because they're smaller doesn't mean they skimp on detail by any means

and my hands may be reaching their limit ended up buying gloved it seemed like

the smart choice

Combini Time

what a day that was there's a lot of fun I never thought that when I publish that

video of my first visit the Sapporo that I would be there two weeks later

and finally Sapporo Beer! let's see if this is even any good

smells like beer...