The Sapporo Snow Festival has been interesting.

As with tourism in Japan in general, everything is overrun (of course, I’m part of that crowd). That said, it doesn’t mean you can’t get into restaurants or get good photos; it just means some waiting, or going out of your way or at different times. I had excellent soft serve (what I mean is: creamier, and with a very pronounced “dairy” taste—the only time I’ve had that in the US is when Morganstern’s in NYC had a “raw milk” flavor) at Machimura Nojo Farm Odori which is literally right next to Odori Park, and I never had trouble getting a seat—I just went after dinner. Other dessert spots have been similarly empty. Maybe the 夜パフェ trend hasn’t made its way to tourists yet?

Most of the Hatsune Miku merchandise I wanted was sold out by the time I got to it. It annoys me that a lot of these vendors don’t have online sales—the gatekeeping is infuriating. Can’t/don’t want to show up and stand in line for a couple hours? Then you’re not a real fan, apparently. This made my day in Otaru a bit of a pain, because it was a choice between lining up all day for different booths vs actually being able to see the city. In the end, I grabbed some merch for friends, wandered around to take photos, then left for Otaru proper. (Protip: don’t walk from the mall to Otaru, just get back on the JR.)

Miku Sky Town in New Chitose Airport had quite a bit of merch as well, along with a little vocaloid history exhibit and a 1:1 scale Snow Miku stand. Just remember it’s before security, not after!

Getting pictures of the Miku tram has been a fun experience, particularly when I happen to spot it coming by. My main joy/frustration has been my choice of gear. I have an Olympus (now OM System) O-MD E-M10 MkII (Micro Four Thirds) with a TTArtisan 35mm (70mm equivalent) f/1.4 lens. The lens is a bit heavy, which makes walking around with it in my bag annoying when there’s also my laptop. (I wish I had chosen a smaller/lighter laptop.) Moreover, it’s fully mechanical, so I have to focus it by hand, and I am new to this and don’t always get it right. Focus peaking and zoom help, but the camera does not always show focus peaking highlights, particularly when dark (though presumably the autofocus would also struggle in those situations?).

The bigger problem is the focal length; the crop factor means that the lens is way too zoomed in. Sometimes that actually helps: when I spotted the Miku tram coming once, I crossed the street, and the 70mm focal length meant I could still get decent shots. (The camera is only 16MP so zooming by cropping in post only goes so far.) And when I wandered around the Snow Festival the night before opening and saw they were testing the Snow Miku light show, again the 70mm lens was enough zoom to get good shots. But otherwise for most things it’s just too much, and I wish I had gotten the 50mm equivalent (which was much more expensive).

Yes, this is all a skill issue.

I am not good enough at photography to really justify new gear. I have a 20mm (40mm equivalent) f/1.7 lens that I stupidly left at home, and the 14-42mm kit lens, both of which have autofocus, but the manual lens is more fun…More importantly a better bag would be useful, since the shoulder bag is a bit of a pain when it gets heavy, even though I like the form factor when walking around casually. Ideally I’d like a totepack that can handle a laptop, camera, umbrella, and drink, plus misc items (tissues, charging cables, battery pack); normally I wouldn’t carry most of that and could carry it over the shoulder, and when fully loaded I’d put it on my back.

---

Some restaurants I’ve enjoyed:

• Machimura Nojo Farm Odori: get the soft serve
• Every soup curry spot I’ve visited:
  • Soul Store Sapporo Odori
  • Okushiba Shoten Parents’ home
  • Picante Soup curry
  • Soup Curry King
• Hasso Dolceteria Hokkaido: a fancy dinner/dessert spot. Though honestly, I felt very out of place without a date to bring.