Snow festival

The snow festival is in full swing.  We went by it in the late afternoon to see what is going on.  Today was a very warm day with temperatures above 4 C.  Some of the snow was starting to melt.  This also meant the Micheal's wheelchair would sink into the snow easily so we all took turns pushing it.

We started out by the Maypole looking at the international carving competition.  The carvers come from around the world to compete in a three day carving extravaganza.  Each group had a sign in front of their station stating where they are from in Japanese and English.  They also had a model or a sketch of their final carving so you can see what they are working on.

The first group here is from Russia.

The second group is from Korea.  Their model has been painted gray and is on the ground to the right of their sign.  Just click on the image to see a larger version.

Here is the Thai team.

The Singapore sculpture was so abstract I couldn't tell much about it.

Malaysia's sculpture is two sea turtles in a giant hand.  There is a second photo of Malaysia's sculpture below.

Here is Portland's (in Oregon) entry.  This sculpture is in the early stages.  You can see how they use spray-paint to roughly mark out where to carve the snow.

Chile's model is sitting on the green bucket.  It is two halves of a sphere separated slightly from each other.

There were other international carving competition sculptures, but I didn't photograph them this time.  Maybe I will go back when they are complete to see them all again.  There are many other sculptures that were smaller (relative to the giant sculptures) around Odori Park.  Below are some of my favorites.

It is Totoro!

I name this one penguin cake.

This is one of the larger sculptures.  To give you a sense of the size just compare them to the people standing on the sculpture.  They seemed to be filming a TV broadcast while we were there.

The snow festival is very popular, with an estimated 2 million visitors annually.  There always crowds like this everywhere we went.

I love this advertisement, Boil Japan with Yoda.  Michael and Brigid loved it too!  It is supposed to be selling cup noodle instant noodles.

This guy is riding on the front of the electric train complete with fake smoke.  Behind him are many kids and parents.  They are going into the tunnel that the boil Japan sign is attached to.

Bre was excited to see these characters.  They are famous cartoon characters from Russia.  The guy with big ears is Cheburashka and his crocodile friend is Gena.

There were lots of anime sculptures.

Here is another photo of the Lone Sailor that we saw in the last posting while he was sill being carved.

Here is the earlier stage of the Lone Sailor for comparison.

I swear I didn't photoshop this image.  It came exactly this way.  There really is a bright colored paper flower in the middle of the sculpture.

Here is another view of the castle.  It is the Aizu Tsuruga Castle.  This sculpture was built by both the Japanese Defense Force and a TV station.  You can seem more about it here and here.

Here is one of the two Sawa-san sculptures of the women's soccer star Homare Sawa.

By the time we got to the ice sculptures the sun had set and they were lit by many man-made lights.  They were able to change the colors on the sculptures from violet to blue to orange to yellow and even green.  It was fun to watch.

Here is a view of the lights they use to light the sculptures.

This was one of the large sculptures.  The animals in the back of the sculpture looked like they could be life-sized.  The ones in the front are definitely over-sized but they give a fun sense of perspective.

Here is the same sea-life sculpture from further back with just white lighting.

Here is a group photo with Michael, Brigid, and Bre.  I am very impressed that my camera was able to take this photo at night without a flash.

Here is the second Sawa-san sculpture.  It is really good.

Her hair looks very natural on the frame.

 

For your convenience I have reposted my earlier photos of this Sawa sculpture below.

That's all for now.

-Kyle (and Bre)