Sapporo Snow Festival

The 60th Annual Sapporo Snow Festival:
First day of the Snow Festival and it starts snowing. Can't call it better then that.

The Nippon Ham Fighters. Goooooo Ham Fighters!!

Smokers segregation chamber.



That is my thumb at the top left, trying to shield the lense from the snow.

These people are lined up for a maze, that leads to the stage.

This is a sculpture and a slide.

Movie Promo.



Snow is coming down, and it's wet.

Kinniku-man

Domo-Kun.

Lots of food booths.

Tyler in his bright orange jacket made a great homing beacon. Easy to spot. Also acted like a target for the kids who were on a mission to grill foreigners for information. They were all numbered like racers, and carried little paper forms with the questions, in English, on them. But it was nearly impossible to write anything down as the snow was coming down hard and very, very wet. Their papers were soaked.



Keroro Gunso!


Totoro

An Ohmu from Nausicaa

Year of the Cow. Lot's of cows around.

Anpan-man riding... a cow.


And a monkey... riding corn?

I missed the Potato song... almost recorded it. Po-Ta-To!... ah, too bad...

Snow Queens


Astroboy (or Tetsuwan Atom) by the US Navy...
Seriously!? That's the best you can do Navy!?
Gah, making me ashamed to be an American...

Doraemon




Totoro again

Domo-kun again

Shirley had to get an umbrella, her Jacket was getting soaked.

Robot from Laputa


Foreign section was still mostly under construction...




Then we returned at night time:
The snow had lightened up a bit, and it looked like they'd swept some of the snow off the scultures. well, at least the big ones.

The Sapporo Tower, marks the beginning of the Snow Festival trail.

In the smoker's chamber. Black lungs, courtesy of Alaska.









This crowd is gathered for the ski slope on the other side where snow borders are doing tricks.



Finland still working away. I love the hats!



This is "Relax-bear" (Rilakkuma), not Deaddy Bear, as I was calling it.

This makes me happy. =D



Mr. Donut

Stitch.


lots of food booths.

"What 'chu looking at?"
"You dragging your kid in a sled." Heh...

There were also some scultures going down the middle of streets. These were taken the night before an weren't lit up. I'm sure there is probably some other stuff we missed too.




I took a lot more pictures of the various sculptures, if you want to check them out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TheMutantPenguin/YukiMatsuri#