Otaru Lantern Festival

Everyone (in Japan) knows about Sapporo's Snow Festival, but not as many people have been to Otaru's Lantern Festival. The city is located about 45 minutes by train outside of Sapporo and is worth the visit if you're there during Sapporo's festival. The city itself is known as the "Venice of Japan", because of a canal that runs along the coastline. At any rate, the city folk light up a bunch of candles to make their city oh-so-romantic. There are apparently two major sites, but I could not find the second one located in the area Temiyasen (apparently runs parallel to the Otaru Canal) which is a shame because I think that one was actually cooler. Instead I focused on the area right next to the canal known as the Unga Kaijo area. It's about a ten minute walk straight down the main street toward the ocean from the station. 

The atmosphere from the candle lit frozen flowers, wax bowls with leaves, and snowball lanterns made for a very romantic setting. Just to drive home the point, many of their sculptures centered around hearts. If you were single, then you should probably leave this area feeling sad. 

Ready? Set? Go!

 This is the Otaru Canal, lit up with lights in the water and also lighted snow lanterns along the canal.

You know how I have to prove I was there and all... 

These were the snow lanterns that lined the canal... basically little sand bucket shaped things with a candle in the center.

On the not so romantic (maybe the bitterly single?) side of things, there was also a frozen crab and some other scary fish. Otaru is known for having excellent sea food.

Finished with the lantern festival, I headed to a local microbrewery called Otaru Brewery (creative name). It's located just along the canal, so it's easy to find. It was created by only one of TWO (yes, two) German nationals in the city. Apparently they use traditional techniques to create three ales (Dunkel, Pilsner and Weiss). Personally I liked the Pilsner best... the Weiss was okay but I wasn't woman enough for the Dunkel which grossed me out.

With that, I'll leave you with an early Valentine's Day themed photo in front of the Otaru Canal.