Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival starts at the end of
January and lasts all the way to mid-February.
Near the city of Chitose in
Hokkaido
is Lake Shikotsu,
which is said to have the clearest water in all of
Japan.
In the town of Shikotsu Kohan, the Lake Shikotsu Ice
Festival begins at the end of January and continues
on
to mid-February. The festival area is made with the
water from the lake. The ice sculptures, when bathed
in
the sunlight, have a color that people refer to as
shikotsu blue. The locals use sprinklers with the
lake’s
water to make all the ice attractions which vary in size
and shape. During the day it beautiful to see the color
of
the water, but at night all the ice sculptures are
illuminated in different colors. It gives the feeling of a
different place from what you would see during the
day
time.
Even though the festival is much smaller than the
Sapporo Snow Festival, but it has attractions unique
to
their own. When entering into the festivities you first
pass through a tunnel. There you are greeted by the
different ice attractions. There is an area where you
can
go down an ice slide or be surrounded by a giant wall
of
frozen lake water. Walking around you can enter
tunnels
of mazes where you can either see frozen pine
leaves
hanging from all over the place, illuminated by a
green
light to make it look like a moss cave or see salmon
encased in ice like an aquarium. There is even a
children’s ice skating rink where they can use just
their
shoes to slide around. Then at night there is a
fireworks
show every weekend and holiday for everyone to
enjoy.
The Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival is free to enter, but
the
food will cost you money.
Please
see below for tours that include Lake Shikotsu Ice
Festival:
