Asahikawa Winter Festival | How to Visit Hokkaido’s Friendliest Snow Festival

Last Updated on June 3, 2026 by Charlotte

The Asahikawa Winter Festival is Hokkaido’s second-largest winter celebration, and its ice sculptures stole the entire show for me. This six-day event (the Asahikawa Fuyu Matsuri) is held every February in the snowbound city of Asahikawa. The festival spans a riverside venue with giant snow sculptures, a free slide, and a zipline, and a downtown venue that is lined with the most intricate, dazzling ice carvings I saw anywhere in Hokkaido.

The Asahikawa Winter Festival overlaps with the far more famous Sapporo Snow Festival. Still, I found the Asahikawa Winter Festival (sometimes called the Asahikawa Snow Festival) much smaller, friendlier, and far less crowded, with a genuinely warm and friendly atmosphere that won me over. Here’s everything you need to know to add it to your winter Hokkaido itinerary!

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Our Day Exploring the Asahikawa Winter Festival

In Asahikawa, the winter festival is actually split across two separate sites, one near the train station that features ice sculptures, and the other that has all the fun slides and snow sculptures. We waltzed down to the Asahibashi riverside site just after opening.

Asahibashi Riverside Park

The Asahibashi riverside site is the main event site, but it is around 30 minutes away from Asahikawa Station. Located next to the Asahibashi Bridge, in Tokiwa Park along the banks of the Ishikari River, this is where the festival really puts on a show!

The giant main snow sculpture that doubles as a performance stage, and there are activities like the free snow slide, the zipline, the snow maze, a snow chapel, the food marché, projection mapping at night, and the nightly fireworks.

Visiting the Snow Sculptures

The first thing that caught my eye was the most adorable snow sculptures! The festival theme changes each year, but the 2026 festival was Pokémon themed, which made an appearance in many of the designs.

Each year, the smaller snow sculptures are made by the locals of Asahikawa, including high school students, while the huge main stage is made by Japan’s Self-Defense Force.

Then, out of the blue, a very enthusiastic and convincing young man working at the festival came up to me and was like, “I know you want to go on the zipline!” I looked up at the zipline, crossing the whole festival site, then back at him, still unsure, when he said: “It’s only 1000 yen”! I was convinced!

Riding the Zipline

The workers rigged me into a harness, and before I knew it, I was climbing the tall set of stairs to the top of the tower alongside the other kids! And then, it was my turn, so with a whoop, I lept!

I’ll admit, the zipline was surprisingly fun, and I really enjoyed the free ride you get on a snowmobile to get back to the start.

I reunited with Travel Buddy, and we made the split-second decision to get in line for the Hankyu Slider, a massive tubing hill!

Tubing the Hankyu Slider

This free-to-ride 120 m (~400 ft) long tubing hill was built completely out of snow! We were tickled pink because this ride seemed to be mostly adults! Probably because you need to be at least 120 cm tall to ride.

I loved that the festival provided the tubes, and they have attendants to space the riders so that nobody crashes into each other. You really slide faster than you’d think!

Kids Slide and Snow Maze

For the littler kids and toddlers, there was a shorter and less steep ice slide, and also a snow maze. We tried out the snow maze, and it was a fun thing to do, and thankfully, much less difficult than a corn maze (my family has a bad track record with getting lost in corn mazes, haha).

But after so much fun, we’d really worked up an appetite, so we made our way to the Winter Marché food stalls to eat.

Winter Marché Gourmet Area

If you’ve ever watched any anime, you know that the festival episodes have the most delicious-looking food. And now I can confirm that the festival food is even more delectable in real life!

We started with warm, buttery, flaky apple hand pies, then fried noodles, before stopping at the stall 2 Beans Coffee and Sweets for two cappuccinos! You can imagine that I was STOKED to find specialty coffee in Asahikawa, and we chatted with the owner, and he was very sweet. Also, check out how cute this kuma bear latte art was!

Our final snack of the day was “long potatoes,” which we absolutely had to try, after it seemed like every other festival goer was eating them! And yes, they were the longest potatoes that I’ve ever eaten in my life!

After eating our fill, we decided to enjoy the 15 or so minute walk to the Heiwa Dori site to see the ice sculptures.

Heiwa Dori Ice Sculptures

The Heiwa Dori site (the ice sculpture street) is the pedestrian shopping street that runs about one kilometer straight out from JR Asahikawa Station. It hosts the World Ice Sculpture Competition, which is the only officially judged ice-carving contest in Japan.

It’s compact, completely free to visit, and only a one-minute walk from the station, so it’s easy to wander through on your way to dinner (which is exactly what we did, most nights). At night, the sculptures are lit up in colored lights.

One thing I wish I’d known before planning our trip is that the ice sculptures on Heiwa Dori are carved during the festival, not finished in advance. The carvers work through roughly the first couple of days, so if you visit early in the run (we went on day one), you’ll see beautiful but half-finished blocks of ice rather than the completed competition pieces.

This is the opposite of the Sapporo Snow Festival, where the sculptures are completed before the opening. So if your priority is photographing the finished, illuminated ice sculptures, aim for the back half of the festival. Or if you find watching the artists at work fascinating (it genuinely is), the early days are wonderful for that. For what it’s worth, even half-carved, the Asahikawa ice sculptures were more wildly intricate than anything I saw at Sapporo.

Plan Your Visit to the Asahikawa Winter Festival

The Asahikawa Winter Festival (旭川冬まつり, Asahikawa Fuyu Matsuri) runs for six days in early February each year, and the 2027 festival is confirmed for February 6–11. Sometimes called the Asahikawa Snow Festival or Asahikawa Ice Festival, it overlaps almost exactly with the Sapporo Snow Festival, which is why so many travelers (us included) end up doing both.

Here’s everything you need to know to plan your visit, from the two festival sites and how they connect, to getting there from Sapporo, to which activities are actually worth the trip.

How to Get to the Asahikawa Winter Festival

The Asahikawa Snow Festival is easy to get to from Sapporo, Biei, and even Furano.

By Train

The fastest and easiest way to get from Sapporo to Asahikawa is the Limited Express Lilac or Kamui, which takes bout 1 hour 25 minutes, running roughly every 30 minutes throughout the day. These trains are now all-reserved seating, so a standard reserved seat runs about ¥5,440 one-way. We rode the Limited Express, and I thought it was a pretty comfortable ride, with charging ports in the train cars, and the ride itself had nice scenery to look at.

If you’re coming from Biei or Furano, local trains run to Asahikawa from Biei in about 30 minutes and from Furano in around 1.5 hours, with departures roughly once an hour.

If your plans are locked in, book early through JR’s Ekinet site for discounted advance fares (sometimes as low as ¥2,440). The ride is fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass and the JR Hokkaido Rail Pass, which makes the train a no-brainer if you’re already carrying a pass.

By Highway Bus

The budget alternative is the Chuo Bus “Highway Asahikawa-go,” which departs from near JR Sapporo Station. It’s about ¥2,500 one-way, but the winter schedule takes around 2.5 hours (which is an hour longer than the train), so you’re trading time for yen.

By Car

While it is possible to visit the Asahikawa Winter Festival by car, there is no parking at the festival venue. The riverside site has no car park, and the festival doesn’t set up temporary lots either, so you’ll want to park in one of the paid coin-parking lots in central Asahikawa near the station, and then reach the festival the same way public transit visitors do.

By Guided Tour

If you’d rather not drive on winter roads — or just want the logistics handled for you — check out these guided tours from Sapporo.

Getting Between the Asahikawa Station and the Riverside Site

In past years, there has been a free shuttle bus to transport tourists between Asahikawa Station and the Asahibashi riverside site during the festival. Unfortunately, during our visit, that shuttle was not running, so we took the public bus instead. I highly recommend that you stop by the tourist information office inside Asahikawa Station when you arrive for the Snow Festival to ask whether the free shuttle is operating that day. The ladies at the Tourism Office are super friendly and multilingual.

If you don’t like the bus, it is also easy to catch a taxi at Asahikawa station, or use rideshare apps like Didi. Thankfully, there is also usually a taxi stand at the riverside event site, so you should have no problems hailing a taxi back after the festivities.

Asahikawa Winter Festival Dates, Hours & Admission

Admission to the Asahikawa Snow Festival is free, and the festival grounds and both sites cost nothing to enter. A handful of individual activities, like the zipline, have small fees.

During the festival on February 6–11th 2027, the riverside site is open roughly 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily, closing at 8:00 p.m. on the final day, although some paid activities close earlier. You can monitor festival updates (and alerts like blizzard closures) on the official Japanese website.

Best Time of Day (and Which Day) to Visit

The festival has a clear daytime version and a nighttime version, and ideally, you want both in one visit.

If you love rides and activities, you’ll want to visit in the daytime. The rides and activities wind down by mid-afternoon: the zipline stops around 3:30 p.m., the big snow slide around 4:00 p.m., and the snow maze closes its line around 6:30 p.m.

But the festival also has something special if you visit after dark! The ice sculptures on Heiwa Dori glow under colored light, projection mapping plays across the giant snow stage at Asahibashi, and there’s even a fireworks display! We’d planned to visit at night for the fireworks, but sadly, they got called off due to a blizzard that day.

Facilities & Accessibility

The Asahibashi riverside site had a surprising amount of amenities for a temporary festival, and rest assured, you will have a comfortable time here!

Places to Eat

This is like a traditional Japanese festival, so the best part is the street food! We saw vendors selling everything from sumo wrestler chanko nabe to noodles, potatoes, and wagyu on a skewer. You will not go hungry here, and you are welcome to eat in the warming huts.

Restrooms

There are restrooms on site at the riverside venue, including barrier-free accessible toilets. The permanent toilet building is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Amenities

• Paid luggage storage and paid sled rental are available on site.
• Indoor warming lounges (the “Hot Lounge” zones)
• First aid, an information point, and a taxi stand are all on the grounds.

Accessibility

Everything underfoot at the riverside venue is snow and packed ice. If you or anyone in your group has mobility concerns, know that it’s not an easy-access site, and ice cleats make an enormous difference for everyone else.

We saw plenty of families with young kids having a blast, and there’s even a toddler slide, so it’s a very kid-friendly event.

Language

The Asahikawa Winter Festival felt more local and Japanese-speaking than Sapporo’s winter festival. Some staff and volunteers spoke English, especially younger people, and the tourist information office at Asahikawa Station was very helpful, but I did need to order in Japanese at a few food stalls. Google Translate and a few basic phrases should be enough for most visitors, and we’ve made the perfect flashcards to prepare you for your trip! So please check them out 🙂

How Much Time You Need

We spent about 2.5 hours at the Asahikawa Winter Festival riverside site and did everything we wanted to. Heiwa Dori is a quick 30–45 minute stroll, and because the ice sculptures sit right between the station and the riverside site, it’s easy to fold them into the same trip (we walked through them most evenings on the way to dinner).

So plan on a half day minimum, and budget into the evening if you want to catch the illumination, projection mapping, and fireworks.

What to Wear & Bring

Asahikawa is one of the coldest cities in Japan, and we got hit with a full-on blizzard during our visit, so take the cold seriously.

This is what you’ll want to wear and bring to the Asahikawa Winter Festival:

• Serious layers plus a windproof outer shell (most locals we saw were wearing snow pants and ski jackets)
• Insulated, waterproof boots and warm socks
• A hat, gloves, and a scarf or neck gaiter
• Hand and toe warmers (worth every yen)
• Ice cleats or Yaktrax for the icy paths
• A camera
• An external battery bank, because cold drains phone batteries fast

Where to Stay in Asahikawa

If you have time in your itinerary, I highly encourage you to spend at least one night in Asahikawa! Surprisingly, I really loved my short time in this city because there are so many good places to eat, and having a backup day in case the festival gets blizzarded out never hurts.

Asahikawa also has easy access to the slopes at Kamui Ski Links, and this resort is thought of as a hidden gem in Hokkaido (uncrowded, affordable, excellent ja-pow), so don’t tell anyone that I let you in on the secret!

Anyways, as far as hotel options go, I recommend staying near the Asahikawa Train Station so that you can just walk from the station to your hotel, easy peasy. If you want to spoil yourselves for a night, OMO7 Asahikawa by Hoshino Resorts has a public bath, several restaurants, and a free shuttle to Asahiyama Zoo (handy for pairing the Penguin Walk). For a mid-range option, check out the Dormy Inn Asahikawa with the famous in-house onsens. We stayed at the budget option, the Court Hotel Asahikawa (which was comfortable, simple), so we could splurge on a luxury ryokan in Biei.

Is the Asahikawa Winter Festival Worth It?

Yes, 100%, and especially if you’re already coming to Hokkaido for the Sapporo Snow Festival! The two festivals overlap in dates and are only about 1 hour and 25 minutes apart by train, so adding Asahikawa is easy.

I think that this festival is perfect for families, anyone who loves snow and ice art, and travelers who’d rather have a smaller, friendlier, more local festival than a packed one. The locals here were so warm, offering to take our photos together, and cheerfully pressuring me to try the zipline, and I’m glad they did!

Ready to Plan Your Trip to Hokkaido?

Hokkaido is one of my favorite places on earth! If you’re already coming to Asahikawa, you can’t miss seeing the most adorable Penguin Parade at the Asahikawa Zoo. I LOVE penguins, they are so cute, and this experience did not disappoint!