Kaonashi Ga Suki

Note: this is a repost from my old blog. I decided to repost it because this event occurs in early February and felt it fitting to show it to those of you who didn’t get to read it the first time.

Edit: I just added 3 more pictures! I dunno- I just felt like it. Check them out!

As a member of this particular blogger community I’ve had the opportunity to check out other people’s blogs to see what they’re writing about. I came across Polco’s blog and found that she’s a Japanese girl who lived in London for a while but is back in her hometown of Sapporo, Hokkaido. Reading her posts reminded me of my stay in Japan (I lived there for a year and a half). I told her that one of the places I visited in Japan was Sapporo, for the yuki matsuri (snow festival).

The yuki matsuri is held every February and goes on for a week. Like most festivals, there’s food, games, music, and souveneir stands, but the main reason to come is for the sculptures. Beautiful, intricate, frosty sculptures are carved out of snow for the public to enjoy. Many of the artists are from various companies and local businesses in Sapporo, but some are built (I was told) by the Japanese Special Defense Forces as part of their exercise. Yeah, I can’t figure out either what kinds of defense techniques they learn from carving frozen water. There’s also an international contest in which people from other countries have only a couple of days to create a sculpture according to a set theme.

My boyfriend and I got there a couple of days early, so we had the chance to see the artists in action. We were astounded to find that most artists only used a bucket of water, a spade, and their HANDS. Yep, that’s it!

However, not all the sculptures are made of snow. Susukino street hosts ice sculptures, and although there aren’t nearly as many as the snow sculptures, they’re just as beautiful and just as intricate. Since these are made of ice, the artists had one more tool at hand- a chainsaw.

There must have been hundreds of sculptures, and I couldn’t take pictures of all of them. I still took a lot of pictures though, but in the interest of space I’ve put up just a few. Click on the thumbnails for the full pictures.

Yes, it’s me and….Pikachu! I look like a masked bandit because the temperature was like, in the negative numbers. Being a native Californian, I ain’t never been that cold in my whole life.

Remember- EVERYTHING is made of snow, including the statues, the columns in front of the statues (the chains are plastic though), AND the platform the whole thing is sitting on!

Me posing with Togepi, another Pokemon character. I get a kick out of imitating the high pitched sound this little character makes. When my boyfriend took my picture, I squealed, “”Toge-toge-prrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!” and this lady near us remarked that I sound just like Togepi. Hehehe.

One of the many things Sapporo is famous for is kani, or crab. There are lots of restaurants that specialize in crab dishes, but a popular theme is the kaiseki, in which lots of little dishes are brought out one at a time. In this case, all the dishes are made of crab. By the way, the man clad in green plaid is my boyfriend.

Caw! Feed me! Hehehe….just to show you just how big some of these things are. I can only imagine how long it took to make something this big, or how many people worked on it.

Here’s one of the ice sculptures. Note the detail on the fish’s scales. Mind you, this thing was almost as big as a car- not something you’d find on some fancy dinner table.
 
 
 
 
 
Here’s another ice sculpture-this time of a castle. There were these colored lights that reflected off the castle that changed every few seconds. It looked really cool.

This artist was using a chainsaw to shape the block of ice. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the flash so it didn’t come out too well. But if you look closely, you can still see him wielding the chainsaw.

Of course, no trip to Sappro would have been complete without going to the Sapporo beer garden. We had a great time cooking our own food on little grills on our table while washing them down with Sapporo beer. Unfortunately for me though, my beer glass was a little too close to the fire, and a lot of grease splattered right inside it. After a while there were these gross chunks of solidified fat floating in my beer. Mmm…gross chunks of solidified fat…