Sapporo snow festival 09’

I went to snow festival 2009 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. When I was a child living in Sapporo, I used to go to the festival. But, I haven’t participated in the festival for more than ten years.

Compared to the time when I was a child, scale of the festival got smaller because municipal government didn’t have enough money to hold the festival. And newspaper said that there will be less people who are taking part in the festival than usual because of economic recession. Certainly, the festival wasn’t so crowded. But I could have fun the festival very much.

And opening ceremony was held in both Japanese and English, considering increasing foreign travelers. To my glad, I could listen to the ceremony in English. I felt very pleased and was motivated to study English again! I will study English to the best of my ability.

By the way, there were a lot of statues that were made from snow in the festival. Large snow statues were made by the Self-Defense Forces mainly. But, anyone who created statue could display their work. So, small statues were made by local people, students and so on. I thought that you have known large snow statues because TV broadcasted these statues many times. So, I will show you some small statues that are my favorite. Do you know these characters? These characters are very popular in Japan.