Tokamachi Snow Festival

The Tokamachi Snow Festival is the second largest snow festival in Japan (the largest is in Sapporo, Hokkaido). There were so many events going on in various parts of town, e.g. Ms. Tokamachi beauty pageant, snow wrestling, snow volleyball, tea ceremony in the snow, snow sculpture competition, etc.

There were HUGE snow sculptures all around the town participating in the snow sculpture competition. This gigantic Doraemon snow sculpture was entry no. 20.

You can see a "door" next to Doraemon...well, when you peek in, it's like an aquarium. An octopus by the door...

and dolphins inside.

Really elaborate!

There were other snow sculptures around that were almost as large but were not in the competition...people built these just for fun.

Row of snow torches with paper figurines outside a restaurant

Abe-sensei bought a huge ball of cotton candy

...and was thoroughly embarrassed when we met some of our students shortly after

We went to one of the event sites to watch taiko drumming (they weren't very good...need more practice)

...and there was the biggest taiko drum I've ever seen! Went into a giant kamakura (igloo)

and drank amazake (sweet sake) inside. The sake is very mild (children can drink it), it's white in colour and a little lumpy, like oatmeal. Tastes a little sweet...quite pleasant.

Friendly little toddler all wrapped up

There were the usual food stalls

Yaki imo (grilled sweet potatoes)...a godsend when you're cold

A Japanese garden created from snow...this was where the tea ceremonies were held. It was a truly amazing creation...it was really beautiful and tranquil.

Then we headed off to the carnival venue (which was the main event). It was a long uphill trek. A massive grasping hands sculpture and snow torches along the way.

The main stage was really big! There were various performances...a kimono show, and performances by two popular Japanese singers and some unknown ones. You actually have to pay money (around 2,000-yen or S$30) if you want to be near the stage. And of course, there are the usual fireworks too.

How Valentine's Day is celebrated in Japan

Got these presents from two of my students:

Valentine's Day is celebrated differently in Japan:

1. Only girls give presents on Valentine's Day.

2. The present is almost always chocolates or something made with chocolate, e.g. cookies, cake, etc. The chocolate industry in Japan does a booming business during this period. Supermarkets display a wide variety of nicely-packaged chocolates and all kinds of baking ingredients and equipment about a month before Valentines. Japanese girls like to bake something themselves to give away as presents, in addition to what they buy. For example, the two presents I received include a piece of chocolate-banana pie and a piece of chocolate nougat that the girls made in addition to some chocolate candy they bought.

3. There are two types of chocolates that are given:
(a) honmei choco (to your husband/boyfriend/someone you like)
(b) giri choco (obligation chocolates: to your male colleagues)

4. Guys will give presents in return on White Day, which is a month after Valentine's i.e. 14 March.

Since there are only 5 or 6 female teachers in my school and 40+ male teachers, I just puak bodoh and did not give any giri choco (hey, it adds up to a lot leh!). Anyway, I checked with the other female teachers beforehand and only one was giving giri choco, so I figured it would be ok if I didn't give as well. It's waaaaay too commercialised over here.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Snowball fight

Took part in the annual "International Snowball Fight" in Koide (next town to mine) today. It was really fun!

Funny-looking snowman shrine

There were people making big snow sculptures...Doraemon on one side...
...and Anpanman (a popular cartoon hero made of red bean bun) on the other. The guys posing in front are the sculptors and painters.

Snowman mascots on the snow stage during the opening ceremony. Each team had to carry a placard with its name on it and parade around like during the Olympics opening ceremony.

There were 4 courts. A surprising number of people took part. There were 170 teams that registered. Each team comprised 5 members. The winning adult team gets the famous Niigata Koshihikari rice...and the winning kids' team gets a trip to Disneyland!

There was also a costume competition...and boy, were there some funny costumes.

These blondes were actually men in drag. They actually brought a hi-fi set along and did a dance before their match. Their friends sportingly dressed up as well and joined them for the dance and cheered them on during the match. They were a super funny team and they played well too.

And the team captain had a swan's head sticking out from under his skirt...

These guys wore their underwear on the outside, ala Superman-fashion, and stuffed snow down the front

Rules of the game: Each match is 3 mins long. Each member has 3 lives, if you're a guy, or 5 lives, if you're a girl. The team with more surviving members left at the end of 3 mins wins.

My team...the SNOW WARRIERS! Fierce name huh...I suggested it. Erm, but we lost both matches in the preliminary round. For the first match, we did not understand the rules (which were completely in Japanese) properly. We thought that the team with more lives left wins. We had more lives left but one less surviving member. Wrong strategy. For the second match, I think we were all rather tired and we all got killed before the 3 mins was up.

Top (L-R): Junior (Brazil), our Team Manager Kathryn (New Zealand), Kate (USA) and Dean (Canada). Bottom: Raza (Pakistan) and me. We were a truly international team. More international than the competition, which despite its name only had 3 foreign teams out of 170.

Since we did not make it through the preliminaries, we went to get food instead...

Look, crab soup (or in Japanese, kani nabe)! Kani means crab and nabe is a hot pot of soup lah. Only 200-yen (S$3) for a bowl with half a crab and 4 long legs. Bargain!

Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival)

My city (the towns in this area were merged into a city, although it does not resemble one) is having it's Yuki Matsuri this weekend. It was quite a big event...was fun, but cold when it started snowing.

The theme was "Enjoy snow as a friend, not as enemy in life" (you must understand the theme from the perspective that many people are tired of shovelling snow, have suffered damages or had accidents or been killed in snow-related incidents).

Many shops and houses in the town built snow torches or snow sculptures outside their shops or houses in celebration of the festival. It really adds to the mood of the whole event.

Retro buses provide a complementary shuttle service to and from the train station

Graffiti on snow walls pointing the way to the event venue

Snow torches lighting the path to the event venue

There were many stalls selling food, drinks, local produce (e.g. rice), clothes, accessories, etc.

One fish for only 100-yen!

Multi-coloured candy floss (check out the stall-owner's anpanman apron! Only in Japan will a grown man allow himself to be seen wearing such a cutesy apron in public, I think.)

Sit-down area to enjoy your food. I had tempura soba, vegetable korokke (cutlet) and a bag of Okinawa donuts for a total of only 1,000-yen!

There are also igloos (called kamakura) that you can rent. People usually toast mochi and drink amezake (sweet sake) in the kamakuras. They're pretty expensive to rent though.
Offerings to a folk deity who protects people from evil spirits and diseases are burnt

The main draw of the event is a huge snow stage featuring a model of the Sakado castle, which is now in ruins. Many performances are held on the stage during the day, including children's contests, celebrity look-alikes contest, etc.

I'm not sure what this kids' performance was about or why they're dressed like that

Kids' taiko drumming...most of them were shivering before they started cos they were only wearing shorts (you can see a short video of taiko performance here http://www.youtube.com/?v=RtPwgQ01oNI

Strange adults' dance performance

Fireworks!