Abashiri Okhotsk Ryuhyo Festival

Abashiri Okhotsk Ryuhyo Festival (あばしりオホーツク流氷まつり) is a winter event held in Abashiri city located in the northeastern part of Kitami city and started in 1966. The festival is held at Abashiri port event site that it takes about 10 minutes on foot from Roadside Station "Ryuhyo kaido Abashiri (流氷街道網走)" during 3-4 days in mid February. By the way, the roadside staion is a ferry terminal of Icebreaking Ship Aurora2 (流氷砕氷船オーロラ2), it is crowded in a winter. Many sightseeing buses parked at a parking lot.

About 30 snow sculptures, ice sculptures, ice slides and a snow maze of various sizes are made. Its feature is that snow sculptures and ice sculptures are seen in well balance. I felt that qualities of the ice sculptures were high generally. A main ice sculpture is Abashiri prison when I visited here because it was designated as the important national cultural property in 2015. Those sculptures are lluminated in the evening.

Except enjoying the snow sculptures and the ice sculptures, events such as a playing large quoits that people may win king crabs or a cash JPY 10,000 are held, too, and it looked interesting. In addtion, many stall stores open and seafood of Abashiri can be eaten, too and many tourists gathered.

Atmosphere of Abashiri Okhotsk Ryuhyo Festival Can Be Watched on Youtube

Movie of Abashiri Okhotsk Ryuhyo Festival

Accommodations

Refer to following websites for the accommodations around roadside station "Ryuhyo kaido Abashiri”.

Abashiri Royal Hotel(網走ロイヤルホテル)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Hotel Route-Inn Abashiri Ekimae(ホテルルートイン網走駅前)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Abashiri Central Hotel(網走セントラルホテル)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Dormy Inn Abashiri(ドーミーイン網走)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Hokkai Hotel(北海ホテル)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Abashiri Hotel Okhotsk Inn(網走ホテル オホーツク・イン)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Toyoko Inn Hokkaido Okhotsk Abashiri Ekimae(東横インオホーツク・網走駅前)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Abashiri Green Hotel(網走グリーンホテル)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Abashiri Ryuhyou-no-Oka Youth Hostel(網走流氷の丘ユースホステル)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Hotel Sun Abashiri(ホテルサンアバシリ)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten
Minshuku Lamp(民宿ランプ)	HP	Booking	Jalan	Rakuten

Booking.com

A page of Abashiri is here