Yuki Matsuri Photos

Hey everyone,

Renée put together a web page of photos for the Sapporo snow festival (not to be confused with the Hokkaido photos previously mentioned). The link is here. This festival, in the heart of downtown, certainly had the most impressive sculptures. In addition to statues by individual artists, there were several large works (the Sphinx, Big Ben, and a Japanese castle).

You can read more about this particular festival on their own (English!) web site.

Sapporo Snow Festival

Rounding out our trip to Hokkaido earlier this month, we attended the 59th Sapporo Yuki Matsuri or Snow Festival. Actually, this awesome festival was inspiration for our long weekend trip.

Beginning in 1950 with six small statues, this festival has snowballed (ha!) into something of epic proportions. Each winter, numerous ice and snow sculptures now line the streets around Odori Park, the grounds at Sato-Land, and the main street in Susukino.

We only had a chance to explore Odori Park, but since that is the location for the largest, most detailed and most impressive sculptures, we were not too disappointed. (Although, there was a snow maze in Sato-Land that Chris and I had really hoped to see. Next time, I guess.)

The Odori Park area was made up of 12 square blocks with a huge sculpture or statue per block.
Since we were visiting the large festival area as part of a tour, we had limited time and had to hurry around a bit. I learned that icy ground and hurrying do not combine well. And to think... I laughed at the "suckers" on our tour bus who actually bought snow-spikes from the guides to snap on to the soles of their shoes. Whoops!

As the afternoon turned to dusk, things lit up. Christmas lights were in all of the nearby trees. Several of the ice based sculptures were lit in bright colors and the snow based sculptures were mostly lit in white light to show off the attention to detail. Better still, were the few sculptures like "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" that were part of the "Pageant of Light and Sound." We didn't actually stay to see this, but the idea was that moving lights and music would bring the sculptures to life to tell a story. Similarly, the Nissin Cup O' Noodles sponsored "Freedom" sculpture featured a continuous DVD of animated shorts projected on an incorporated flat wall.

To sum up, even with the slipping and falling, the Sapporo Snow Festival lived up to my expectations. Considering how high they were, that's an impressive feat!

I will make a photo page of this festival soon. Stay tuned.

Snow Covered Kinkakuji

We hear that Kyoto is having its snowiest winter in a decade. Woo hoo! It has snowed maybe ten different times so far, but it has never accumulated more than an inch or three.

And, when the snow does accumulate, the sun comes out and melts everything fairly quickly. You don't even need to shovel. But, what you do need to do is run (don't walk!) to Kinkakuji Temple. It is practically mandatory for Kyoto denizens to enjoy the Golden Pavillion coated in snow at least once each winter if the snow accumulates.

Nishihara-sensei (one of Chris' Japanese teachers) said that when snow accumulates you should drop whatever you are doing and rush to Kinkakuji Temple... even if you are in the middle of research, even if you have to meet with your supervisor, even if you are sitting in her Japanese class!

After rushing to Kinkakuji one recent wintry morning, we completely understand those sentiments. It was beautiful (even in just an inch of rapidly melting snow)! I just hope we get a really big snowfall so that we can return to see the total splendor of Snowy Kinkakuji.

In case you do not appreciate the quiet elegance of a temple dusted in snow, there was also the sight of the police/guards near the temple. I must say, their snowy weather uniforms were fantastically fluorescent!