For those of you who don't know about Yuki Matsuri, it is a festival celebrated in Sapporo every year in February. Hundreds of snow and ice statues are built in three different sites- Odori Park has small and large snow sculptures, Susukino has ice statues and the Tsudome Dome is basically turned into a playground made of snow and ice with funny activities such as Waku-waku Tappy Land and Snow Crystal Watching.
The 2010 festival was the 61st. The festival was started in 1950, when a group of high school students built a few statues in Odori Park. Five years later, the Japan Self-Defense Force decided they wanted in on the fun and started building massive snow sculptures. The Self-Defense Force is actually in charge of bringing in all the snow and has to bring in snow from outside Sapporo when accumulated snowfall is low. This is considered a training exercise for them!
I can't even remember what day we went to the festival but it's only a week long, so we must have gone on a weekend night. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in Sapporo before and I probably won't again until next year. It was freezing but worth it just to see the amazing things they built! I did not expect the statues to be so big but three or four of them were actually stages.
On to the most important part: the pictures! Enjoy!
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| Yuki Matsuri 2010 |
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