Known as one of Hokkaido’s best tourist spot, Sounkyo boasts the beauty of nature in all the four season. I usually visit Sounkyo during autumn to enjoy the foliage. But today, I came here to see the Sounkyo Hyobaku Matsuri (Ice Waterfall Festival).

It’s a part of the winter trip hosted by the association of international students in my university. Actually, it was the group’s first winter trip. We usually do spring trip to see the cherry blossoms, go to the nearby beach during summer and do momijigari (viewing of the fall leaves) on autumn trips. And since we neither have spring nor autumn trip this year, the group opt to do the winter trip.

The Hyobaku Festival is an annual winter event which begun in 1976 and held from the late January to the end of March. It is held at the Sounkyo Onsen, Kamikawa Town covering a large area of about 10,000 square meter of the riverbanks of the Ishikari River.

We passed by the frozen waterfalls of Ginga and Ryusei to take some pictures. It was beautiful. Then we left to go to the festival.

As to be expected in any ice festivals here in Hokkaido, there are many snow and ice sculptures including several domes, a slide and the main 3-story structure with the dragon head and tiger head as the entrances. They pay homage to the Dragon and Tiger Pagoda of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. We came at night, so everything is illuminated with colorful lights.

At 7:30 pm, the mascots performances began with the mascots competing with each other in games such as sumo wrestling and musical chairs.

And finally, since today is a Saturday, there was a short fireworks display. When it was finished, off we went back to our homes.