The Snow Festival began more than 50 years ago with high school students building a half dozen sculptures. The official Snow Festival Web Site has lots more information.

A number of the sculptures feature ice slides for children. Children wearing numbered bibs for their Elementary School wait for the ice slide to open on Monday morning of the festival week.

Children are dressed in brightly colored snow suits.

Cartoon characters inspire many of the snow sculptures. These "small" sculptures are about 2 meters high.

There is an international competition for snow sculptures, here under preparation in Odori Park. The US entry was embarrassingly poor, both in conception and execution. I mercifully did not take a picture of it. How humbling for a great nation to be outdone by Pacific island nations that never have snow!

Here at another site, vendors sell colorful masks and other toys.

These large sculptures had built in ice slides.

Fortunately, this naked lady is bronze and thus well able to withstand the cold as she surveys Odori Park.

The snow sculptures are lit dramatically at night.

copyright 2000 Roy Latham,   go to the Travel Photo Index.