Sapporo Snow Festival
Every year, between February 6 and February 12, there will be a festival held in Japan, called the Sapporo Snow Festival.
Sapporo is the fifth largest city in Japan by population and third largest geographically. It is in this festival that you can momentarily enjoy the snow and forget how bitter the cold is while you’re engulf with beauty of snow expressionism. The origins of this festival started from a very humble beginning. It all started with 6 highschool kids back in 50’s in Odori Park building 6 statues. And when the big guys from Japan Self Defence Force saw how fun it was, they joined in a build their the biggest snow sculpture which turns this event into what is today, a big snow fest.
The Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the largest winter events in Japan. Teams from outside Japan come to participate, and the festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations. About two million people come to see the enormous beautiful snow statues on display in Odori Park in central Sapporo, which is the main site of the festival.
Subject of the statues and snow sculpture varies from year to year but there is always a statue of a famous person built – I guess it’s just much more fun that way because who would just wanna see dolphins, elephants, whales and objects; the face of a recognizable person is almost always much more impressive…:) Just like in 2004, they built a statue of a well known Japanese baseball player, Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui who plays for the New York Yankees.
This event is a definite must see by all tourists and visitors from around Japan as it showcases some of the most excellent snow sculptures in the world.
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