Sapporo Snow Festival!

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We went up to the top island of Japan for Yuki Matsuri, the Snow Festival! It was exciting for me to have it snow on me in the streets of the city, but it lost its appeal when it got hard and started blowing in my eyes! Anyhow, the snow festival was really neat. There were 3 different areas for it - Susukino with ice sculptures, Odori Park with massive big snow sculptures, and Satoland with slides, a maze, snowman building etc. We met up with Shino and some of her friends on the work japan program, and went skiing/snowboarding on our second day to Rusutsu. It was really neat - it was really powdery snow so I couldn't even see my skis! Pictures speak a thousand words so I will just post a heap up here instead of waffling!

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Photos

"Antarctica" snow sculpture
The 2 dogs were left behind by some Japanese guys forced to leave Antarctica due to weather conditions and were found alive and well when they returned a year later!

Fi by "Antarctica" sculpture
This was probably my favourite.

"The Kingdom of Dreams and Magic"
Tokyo Disney's snow sculpture - featuring Lilo and Stitch and Mickey

Imperial Palace: The Hall of Supreme Harmony
Shino, Mum and I pose in the cold

Chakri Maha Prasat Grand Palace
Shino trying to look Thai

Hikone Castle snow sculpture
Looks very similar to Himeji Castle (see Hiroshima and Himeji Blog)

Whale Shark
From the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Mucking about in the snow
The snow at the side of the footpaths was pretty high so I had to try jumping in it

Penguins
Do we blend in?!

Snow Monster
Not so scary when its melting

Bike in the snow
Shino about to go for a chilly joy ride

Foot bath
We popped in to warm our feet while checking out the snow sculptures - David, Shino, Fi, Mum.

Swan ice sculptures
In Susukino

Baileys ice bar
Enjoying my warm baileys and milk

Mum by the ice bar
This one was not in use