雪まつり

Here are some shots from the 59th Sapporo Snow Festival---be amazed at what can be done with snow!

Mmmmm, my first proper Ramen shop! Miso ramen, one of the best loved foods in Japan, originated in Sapporo. (And Japanese ramen is nothing like Top Ramen!)

Glen and Micah building a sculpture of their own.

We were there before the festival officially began, so people were still working.

I think this one wasn't finished when I took the photo?

The two girls are ALT's that live close to me, Kate and Maureen. And Zach is one of the lucky JETs to live in Hokkaido.

A corgie in a bee costume - cute or sickening? He was the sweetest dog though, so I guess he get can get away with dressing goofy.

Sledding Hill

At nighttime, all the sculptures were lit up.

A HUGE Prince Caspian sculpture, to promote the new Narnia movie coming out soon.

This sculpture was the central attraction of the festival - built by the Department of Defense! (The guys that were building it were wearing their army clothes!) It celebrates the upcoming G8 meeting that will be held in Hokkaido. If you look closely, you can see 8 countries represented - Japan, US, England, Canada, Italy, Germany, France and Russia.

WOW!

There were also at least 100 smaller sculptures done by groups and families from the community. Some were pretty cool, others, well, lets just say that the people making them probably realized halfway through that they didn't like working with snow and decided to cut some serious corners! Here are just a few of the better ones:

Another one of the big ones. This was my favorite - it was so detailed!

Close up, with colored lights

A shot with people, to get an idea of how BIG this thing was!

This one wasn't done by the time we had to leave, but it is a whole bunch of ice blocks with sea creatures frozen inside them.

Lowering the ice blocks