Day 7 - Yuki Matsuri (Sapporo)

6th February, 2003 - Yuki Matsuri is an annual event (around early Feb) that fills Odori Koen with a huge variety of snow/ice sculptures. There's always a number of LARGE pieces, but also there's a lot of small sculptures around the place.


Given how cold it was when we arrived, you might think that snow sculptures must be pretty easy - no lack of raw materials. Actually - it's hard work... every night the sculptors are out there, either fixing, or in some cases, re-building their sculptures to avoid the tell-tale signs of melting. There's no rest for the cold here in Sapporo.

Does this look familiar... actually the donjon might... this was supposed to be a replica (in snow) of Edo-jo... remember we saw the foundation in the Imperial Palace Park.

And then there's the international flavour.... direct from China!...

There's also ice sculptures as well that dot the park.

There's also an international snow sculpting competition... Go Aussie Go!.... actually - we don't get a lot of snow in Australia... I guess their freezers must be running overtime during our summer!