I had heard of this ice festival years ago when my mates used to go skiing to Japan. I always thought it would be amazing to see but doubted I would ever get there. It took a while but we finally did it. It meant squashing a lot of travel into just over 2 weeks because we also had friends to visit, mountains to ski and parkruns to collect. We only had one night in Sapporo but it was pretty cool and very cold LOL.
We travelled to Sapporo after we finished snow skiing at Rusutsu. The local bus from Kimobetsu where we were staying was interesting as it stopped along the way picking up locals and tourists. Everyone needed to prebook. I suppose it the best way to guarantee a seat as you would not want to get stuck at a bus stop in -10 degrees no matter how well you wear dressed.