Iwate Snow Festival 2014

February is here! Before I get to talking about the festival let me give an update on weather stats... (from Misawa AB Weather Flight)

As of January 28th our snowfall total for the season was 64.6" which is very close to the average. They haven't done another update since the month ended, but that makes at least 45.4" in January! Average for January is 40.1".

February averages 33.2" of snow and the average high/low temperatures are 36°/25°. We've been hearing a lot about how this year's snow is nothing compared to the last couple of years which were both in the top 5 for all time highest snowfall. Not complaining! Lots of mornings there's an inch or two on the sidewalk but we don't even bother scooping because the sun is out and it melts right away. The sun seems to be out a majority of days, some days it snows while the sky is clear and sun is shining. Haven't really had any big storms...yet...

At the Iwate Snow Festival.

And so our adventures to snow festivals begin! Keenan may not realize it but I have several in mind... Our first was the Iwate Snow Festival! We went with a couple of friends. The festival is held at Koiwai Farms which is just northwest of Morioka and just south of Mt. Iwate. It's 155km (96mi) from Misawa and the drive takes just over 2 hours, of course depending on the roads. The tolls are about 7,000¥ roundtrip. Admission to the festival is free. This year was the 47th year of the festival and it was from January 31-February 11.

Koiwai Farms/Festival Coordinates: 39.750852,141.016664

View of Mt. Iwate from the north as we approached.

Iwate Snow Festival is one of "Tohoku's 5 Great Snow Festivals." Tohoku refers the northern portion of the big Japanese island of Honshu. The festival has snow sculptures, a large snow slide (bring your own sled or rent one there), a horse drawn sleigh, a snow train, a snow maze, stage shows, some other activities for kids, and of course, food and drink stands. They also had little igloos that were a restaurant serving lamb. At night they call it "Fantasy Night" where they illuminate the sculptures and have fireworks.

He's a little tall for this igloo...

These igloos were the restaurant.

This was so funny! The kids were just laying/sitting on the
exercise balls and then falling off.

Dragon ice sculpture.

Sculptures of a fairy and birds.

This shows the process of creating the sculptures.
They are made by members of the Japanese Self Defense Force.
(Japan's military)

Inside the snow maze...

Sculpture of a teapot. The most famous brand (Iwachu) of
cast iron teapots is made in nearby Morioka.

Keenan really wanted to do this!!
But we couldn't find the info for
size limits...

Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake). Not sure what
all the ingredients are...

Takoyaki (octopus with breading around it) and beef.
Don't worry, they put the cooked beef back on the grill when
you buy it...that's why it can sit there and touch raw meat?

Hard sugar coated strawberry. Probably
not worth the 300¥ ($3) price.

I tried  then trashed some sort of hot "sweet" strawberry
fermented rice drink (amazake).
Thicker than milk, but just not quite right.
An acquired taste I suppose?

Grilled chicken and beef.

Noodles, hotdogs and corn.

View of Mt. Iwate from the south. To the far right are
the snow slides.

Almost every kid there was being transported on a sled!

If you take kids...take sleds for them!

The next day (a Sunday) I convinced Keenan that we should go to Aomori to see the Paper Light Pageant (November 29-February 28), Light Snow Festival (January 24-February 9) and Aomori Winter Festival (February 1-9). All of which were going on right now. It had been raining most of the day but the temperature was in the mid-30's so no ice. As we ventured closer to Aomori the rain was turning to sleet. Sad. We kept driving a little longer until finally I said we should turn back, the temperature was dropping and the roads were probably going to be a sheet of ice once it was time to go home. No bueno. I think Keenan had been thinking the same thing but hadn't wanted to say it because he knew how disappointed I would be. Oh, well! We've got 2 more winters of opportunity while we're in Japan.

On the way back to Misawa the sleet turned back into rain and since we were starving we decided to try a highly recommended steak restaurant, Oga-ya. Oga-ya is only 12km (8mi) from Misawa, but is definitely tricky to get to. Most people don't even attempt to give directions, they just say to put the phone number into the Google Maps app and it will pinpoint the location. Hmmm, that sounds like an interesting trick! And it works! A great thing to know!!! All I need is a phone number and I can find pretty much any place on a map! So Oga-ya is in tiny Tohoku-town and on what I consider a residential street. The staff did not speak English, but they did have a menu with English and pictures. It was good, not the best steaks we've ever had, but still pretty good. Prices were around 1800¥ for a meal with 7oz steak.

Coordinates: 40.729836,141.260811
Address: 〒039-2405 Aomori-ken, Kamikita-gun, Tōhoku-machi, Kamikitaminami, 2 Chome−32−343
Phone number: 176-56-5801

Corn soup, salad and rice were included with our sets.

I had the sirloin set with garlic chips and Keenan had
the rib eye set. There were 2 types of dipping sauces
one was onion and not sure what the other was.

Up next: The world famous Sapporo Snow Festival!!