Visitors pose for a photograph in front of a snow sculpture of Hikone Castle at the 58th annual Sapporo Snow Festival Wednesday, Feb 7, 2007, in Sapporo, Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Posted on 02/08/2007 10:03:35 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SAPPORO, Japan - This year it was almost the Snow Festival that wasn't when an unexpected thaw struck opening day of the internationally renowned Sapporo ice sculpture fair.
Blame it on climate change or just bad luck, but temperatures well above freezing and a steady drizzle reduced thousands of visitors to slushing through coffee-colored mud. They watched helplessly as the lovingly hand-crafted crystalline artworks withered away before their eyes.
"I was really worried. Parts of the sculptures were falling off," said Masaya Ishikawa, chief of promotion at the Sapporo Tourist Association, which administers the event. February temperatures normally average -3.5 degrees Celsius (26 degrees Fahrenheit) in the city, but climbed to a balmy 5 degrees (41 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday as the 58th annual Snow Festival opened its doors.
Yet even the warmest of heat waves would take weeks to melt the mammoth winter wonderland on display — complete with sparkling three-story Japanese castles, stately Chinese palaces and elephant-sized Disney characters. It takes weeks, thousands of tons of snow and thousands more workers to make the biggest pieces.
And after the final details are chiseled into the frigid facades, the job's still not done.
The warm temperatures kept professional ice sculptors busy slapping on new snow and re-carving the melted images. Then, on Wednesday, the notorious snow squalls of Japan's northernmost island struck, pushing the mercury below zero but burying everything in pillows of powder.
"We're busy around the clock," said Noriyuki Hiyoshi, 32, brushing off snow that obscured the ice relief spelling "Nissin," name of the instant-noodle maker that sponsored a towering sculpture called "Freedom."
In his hand was a bucket of wet snow the consistency of concrete, known in the trade as "sherbet," that he meticulously smoothed over the letters to rejuvenate the surface.
Every year, 2 million people visit Sapporo for the open air festival when stretches several blocks through a downtown city park. Included in the milieu are thousands of foreigners; this year, 17 international teams, including groups from the United States, Malaysia, Finland and China, vied for the coveted best-ice-sculpture trophy.
Top honors were awarded Thursday to Hong Kong for their rendition of a coiled dragon.
"I'm sure impressed that all the teams did their best despite this unusually bad weather," said Snow Festival Chairman Tsuneo Fujita, referring to the warm spell that caused headaches for the artists.
For some visitors, however, good weather was all a matter of perspective.
"In Singapore you never see anything like this," said Charlotte Yap, 19, who flew up from the tropics to tour the lighted sculptures with her mother. "It's so cold my toes are dropping off."
The Sapporo Snow Festival dates to 1950, when local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. Five years later, Japan's Self-Defense Forces joined in, trucking in snow and helping in the packing and carving. Wooden frames, metal scaffolding and even power shovels are often involved.
Aside from the big sculptures, the park is dotted with dozens of smaller works, often made by citizen groups. To entertain the kids, there is a giant snow mountain for climbing and an ice slide to whiz down. Rock concerts are staged at night, and a daytime snowboard show features daredevil acrobatics off a ski jump.
No matter what the weather, it all ends Monday. After that, the thousands of 5-ton dump trucks that brought the snow in from the mountains start their return trip to cart the white stuff back.
Visitors pose for a photograph in front of a snow sculpture of Hikone Castle at the 58th annual Sapporo Snow Festival Wednesday, Feb 7, 2007, in Sapporo, Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
The Fairbanks Ice Festival is also on. Ice sculptors come from all over the world to carve the 3-4 foot thick lake ice blocks. So far the temperature is holding zero to +15
I was wondering where all the warm went.
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