Sapporo Snow Festival: Susukino Site (1)

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for our month long Sapporo Snow Festival special. Having already covered the Tsudome and Oodori site, it was time to pay a visit to the last major site of the Sapporo Snow Festival, the Susukino site. With nightfall having arrived and heavy snowfall accompanying it, it was the perfect time to pay a visit to the Susukino site!

Why? That is because the Susukino site is comprised entirely out of ice sculptures that are laid through the middle of what was a major road in the city. Unlike the previous two sites, the Susukino site focuses largely on highly detailed ice sculptures. Many of which were not carved until the weekend of the event owing to the highly volatile nature of ice sculptures!

One thing keen visitors will notice immediately upon entering the Susukino site is that most, if not all, of the ice sculptures are funded by a third party. In essence, they serve as glorified advertisement boards for companies interested in getting their name out there. 

But aside from the obvious marketing and tourist purposes of these sculptures, they also seem to hold a greater meaning to the large corporate bodies of Sapporo and by extension Japan. You see, many of these companies do not actually require the extra publicity as they are already existing household names of already established players in the industry. At the same time, they are neither promoting a new product or service. 

Rather, these ice sculptures seem to serve a bigger purpose of placing a particular companies reputation on display. A show of prosperity and power once a year in the form of an ice sculpture to represent their solidarity. Would that be the case? Or perhaps am I reading too much into it?

Whatever the case may be, my theory certainly does not apply to all the ice sculptures as there were actually a good number of them which were advertising their brand's presence. Animals seemed to be a particular popular subject of choice for the ice sculptures be it actual or fictional ones. 

Visitors are even allowed to cast their ballots for their favorite ice statues and stand a chance to win prizes from the lottery!

Earlier, I mentioned nightfall being the ideal time to visit the Susukino site and that largely has to do with the interaction of the snow statues with the environment. Come night time, the shiny translucent snow statues glisten as the bright lights from the surrounding stores and their signboards illuminate the sculptures as do the dedicated illumination  each statue possesses. 

But, don't take my word for it as you too should experience the site for yourself if you can. Maybe you will be lukcy enough to even spot the famous Coca Cola polar bear?

When it comes to photography, the ice statues/sculptures certainly posed a new challenge to me as I had little experience shooting these type of subjects beforehand. Their translucent nature meant that the background shone right through giving a diffused light sort of look. Trying to get the focus and framing right proved to be a big of a challenge too. 

Fortunately, I was still able to make do with the equipment that I had. The well lite site and its surroundings also meant there was not much need to raise the ISO which would have then resulted in more noise in each shot. But, I would not bore you with the photographic details any further. 

The bottom line is, these ice statues were certainly best appreciated up close and in person as very few photos could capture the three dimensional detailed nature of each one. 

The Susukino site occupied what is normally a main street in Sapporo city giving ample space for both pedestrians and the exhibits. It may not be as large as the Tsudome or Oodori site. In fact, it is the smallest of the three by a large margin. But, it is one that must not be missed as it colors an entirely different facet to the festival. Out of all the three sites, this one seemed to exude the atmosphere of the city the most, I felt. 

On top of that, visiting at night with the illuminations on, meant you did not have to waste precious daylight hours that could then be spent visiting the other sites. The relative small size of this site means that completing it can be done comfortably under 2 hours. Seeing as how the sun sets early, you can be here from sundown, complete it and still have time for dinner. 

Many of the ice statues used simple white or yellow light illuminations so, you can understand my excitement when I spotted those which use the much snazzier RGB illumination. 

While I do understand the logic behind the cleaner white or yellow lights, creativity with the lighting was perhaps the only area that I was left wanting throughout the site. Though, that is not to say the site was not well lit which it certainly was. 

Up until now, the snow statues presented have all been fairly straight forward and that is because we are reserving the true top dogs for the next part of our coverage of the Susukino Site. In that installment, we will be taking a look at the event's award winners which boasted extremely detailed and complex snow statues. We sure hope you look forward to that!

In the meantime, I hope this quick insight into the night aspect of the Sapporo Snow Festival has piqued your interest in paying a visit to the festival. Of course, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments section below and I will do my best to answer them. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!