Star Wars, anime favourites, and tennis pro Naomi Osaka all make an appearance at this year’s event.
Sapporo Snow Festival
Come for the fire-breathing dragon vs. Dragoon action, stay for the iconic victory fanfare.
Towering snow sculptures pay homage to Final Fantasy and Osamu Tezuka’s beloved anime characters.
Fans of Star Wars, Final Fantasy and Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen have fallen in love with this year’s breathtaking giant displays.
Missing out on the 67th Sapporo Snow Festival? Check out some of the snow sculptures that have been popular on Twitter!
It’s less than a month till the Snow Miku 2016 festival! And even more fans will be delighted this year, as Miku teams up with μ’s from Love Live!
As sad as we are to say it, the 66th Annual Sapporo Snow Festival has now come to a close. In case you missed our coverage this year, this is when people from around the world come the snowy city of Sapporo, Hokkaido to create massive and gorgeous works of art out of ice and snow.
However, a lesser-known festival has been spreading around Twitter recently. It’s the unofficial Sapporo Demolition Festival, where excavators come in and mercilessly rip apart these massive and gorgeous works of art. While it doesn’t have the same international drawing power of the Snow Festival, many people have been on hand at the Demolition Festivals past and present to take plenty of video and images of the fun.
Last week, we took a sneak peek at the upcoming Sapporo Snow Festival by checking out an icy rendering of an idol trio from hit anime Love Live! Freaked out as we were by their unfinished yet crazed expressions, it turns out Umi, Honoka, and Kotori aren’t the most intimidating characters showing up at this year’s event.
That title goes to the massive snow sculpture of fallen Jedi Darth Vader, who rolled into the largest city in Hokkaido with the sort of backup that’d you’d expect from the Supreme Commander of the Empire’s space fleet.
The key difference between being an idol singer and a pop diva is warmth. Even if you’ve got perfect pitch and unshakable rhythm, if you want to succeed as an idol, you still need a heart-melting smile. Really, as long as you’ve got the smile, idol fans will even cut you a lot of slack on not having the other two.
So it’s a little unusual to gaze upon this trio of anime idols and feel a chill run down your spine, and not just because they’re made of snow.
The annual Sapporo Snow Festival held in Japan’s northernmost prefecture has been delighting tourists and locals for over six decades. Each year, artists from around the world are invited to show off their talents constructing enormous structures out of ice and snow.
To commemorate the release of the seventh installment of the Star Wars series, The Walt Disney Company has collaborated with festival officials to design what looks to be the most epic large-scale snow sculpture yet, featuring enormous snow versions of Darth Vader, three Storm Troopers, a TIE fighter, and the Death Star.
Last year we brought you a firsthand account of the 2013 Sapporo Snow Festival, with more images of snow and ice sculptures than you can get your tongue stuck to. This year, we’re sad to say we couldn’t make it out to the annual event up in Japan’s northernmost prefecture, so we’ve been living vicariously through Twitter users. Some of the images we’ve seen are too good not to share, so we decided to give you a little taste of the snow festival through the following gallery of images from Twitter.
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Distressed about heading to the vet, this kitty breaks into fluent Japanese
One-man anime creator is back with a staff and a beautiful new video with two cool twists
Baby penguin seeing sakura for the first time is all of us during hanami season 【Video】
Popular coffee brand and Mobile Suit Gundam team up to make limited edition Gundam can designs
Dog valiantly saves owner from an uncomfortable prank 【Video】
Maid cafe maid is in no mood to put up with complaints about guys who have girlfriends
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This nonconformist Japanese schoolgirl is ready for any bullies who tease her about her backpack
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The time someone pooped next to us on the train during Tokyo rush hour, and we tried to be nice
Japanese reporter laughed at for asking black hole photo team for more on Japan’s contributions- Distressed about heading to the vet, this kitty breaks into fluent Japanese
Chinese couple’s wedding crashed by groom’s ex-girlfriend, dressed in her own wedding dress【Vid】
Pink sakura and baby blue eye flowers team up for gorgeous views at this seaside park in Japan【Pics】
Hayao Miyazaki still looking for talented staff to join Studio Ghibli for new anime production
Japanese collector shows off 31 Pokémon cards in collection worth a total of… how much?!【Video】
Japanese high school will suspend students who don’t reveal their social media account names
Monthly
The train station that stayed open for a single school girl finally closes down- Chinese couple’s wedding crashed by groom’s ex-girlfriend, dressed in her own wedding dress【Vid】
Immigration raid at anime convention ends with five Japanese cosplayers being arrested overseas- This nonconformist Japanese schoolgirl is ready for any bullies who tease her about her backpack
- All-new World of Thighs Photography exhibition opens in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood this month
Disney is making an anime-style dating simulator where you meet handsome villain boys
Japanese net users speculate on a subtle design feature of the Toyota Prius…related to booze
Shiba Inu boss lazes around in flowers while winning Japanese workers’ hearts
Zelda fan’s Sheikah Slate turns charging his phone into a scene from Breath of the Wild【Video】- Japanese reporter laughed at for asking black hole photo team for more on Japan’s contributions
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New Pokémon dress shirt line lets you dress like an adult in the company of all 151 Kanto species
Prominent boob-centric manga artist shocks fans by revealing she’s a beautiful buxom woman
Ariana Grande “fixes” her 7 Rings Japanese kanji tattoo, but it still says tiny charcoal grill- The train station that stayed open for a single school girl finally closes down
You have One Piece creator’s official permission to have sexy fantasies about his characters- Chinese couple’s wedding crashed by groom’s ex-girlfriend, dressed in her own wedding dress【Vid】
Japanese Penis Festival 2019: Everything you need to know for this year’s Kanamara Matsuri
Japanese Twitter community shocked to learn that train timetables are made with Microsoft Excel
Sonic the Hedgehog creator gets one last blow to his pride on final visit to Sega office in Tokyo
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Baby penguin seeing sakura for the first time is all of us during hanami season 【Video】
Popular coffee brand and Mobile Suit Gundam team up to make limited edition Gundam can designs
Dog valiantly saves owner from an uncomfortable prank 【Video】
Maid cafe maid is in no mood to put up with complaints about guys who have girlfriends
W.T.F. Japan: Top 5 reasons sleeping on the floor Japanese-style is awesome 【Weird Top Five】
Pikachu and Eevee pay their respects to Wobbuffet with new Pokémon bags and plushies【Photos】
Cats in Japan say “nyao,” except for this one that says “ololiloliloliloliloliiiloli”【Video】
This nonconformist Japanese schoolgirl is ready for any bullies who tease her about her backpack
Chinese couple’s wedding crashed by groom’s ex-girlfriend, dressed in her own wedding dress【Vid】
First details, title of Inu Yasha creator Rumiko Takahashi’s new manga series announced
Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts designer shop to open in Osaka for a limited time!
Nine questions we have from Netflix’s Rilakkuma trailer, which reminds us he is NOT a bear【Video】
Revolutionary new A.I. self-checkout system in Japan calculates all your items with one glance
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