Sapporo Ice Festival

And it snowed in Sapporo as well

For a break from all the powder skiing, a coach load of us spent the best part of a day visiting the Sapporo Ice Festival.

The festival renown around the world, features a large number of ice and snow carvings and is set in the heart of the city of Sapporo, the largest city on the island of Hokkaido.

The display was awe-inspiring. The walk through some of the streets, arcades and department stores in Sapporo equally impressive.

Many of the exhibits were in a typical Japanese animated character style.

It would have been nice to have seen the sculptures by night when they are illuminated with coloured lights. A small piece of advice to those thinking of making the visit to see the ice festival is to make sure you go early in the festival.

Those who made the trip during the last few of the festival days noticed there had been considerable erosion to the sculptures due to rain and that they had become somewhat stained by smoke and pollution.

But of course for those not indulging in the finer cultural events of Japanese society there was always more snow...

Get a life Dan