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.
MOST POPULAR
Now
30 ways people keep reacting to our born-in-America returnee Japanese writer
“We wasted so much time in English class” — Japanese Twitter user points out major teaching flaw
One graffiti artist to be honored by Tokyo while another graffiti artist sits in jail
Japan’s amazing wisteria flowers are here to make us all forget about the cherry blossoms【Photos】
Detective Pikachu makes his Pokémon Cafe debut with new menu items for the live-action sleuth
Lone Wolf and Cub’s Kazuo Koike passes away, final tweet is a salute to his manga rival
Dog valiantly saves owner from an uncomfortable prank 【Video】
Handsome Japanese YouTuber surprises fans with photos of his “dorky” high school self
Giga Big Mac returns to McDonald’s Japan, along with Grand Big Mac and new Big Mac Jr【Taste Test】
Crazy cute cosplayer Nekomu captivates at Comiket, considering a career in comics
Weekly
This nonconformist Japanese schoolgirl is ready for any bullies who tease her about her backpack- “We wasted so much time in English class” — Japanese Twitter user points out major teaching flaw
Distressed about heading to the vet, this kitty breaks into fluent Japanese
All-new World of Thighs Photography exhibition opens in Tokyo’s Harajuku neighborhood this month
The time someone pooped next to us on the train during Tokyo rush hour, and we tried to be nice- Japan’s amazing wisteria flowers are here to make us all forget about the cherry blossoms【Photos】
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
Maid cafe maid is in no mood to put up with complaints about guys who have girlfriends
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
Yearly
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
Decorate your whole house like Sailor Moon’s Moon Castle with the new Isetan collaboration
RECOMMENDED STORIES
Lone Wolf and Cub’s Kazuo Koike passes away, final tweet is a salute to his manga rival
Dog valiantly saves owner from an uncomfortable prank 【Video】
Handsome Japanese YouTuber surprises fans with photos of his “dorky” high school self
Giga Big Mac returns to McDonald’s Japan, along with Grand Big Mac and new Big Mac Jr【Taste Test】
Crazy cute cosplayer Nekomu captivates at Comiket, considering a career in comics
Distressed about heading to the vet, this kitty breaks into fluent Japanese
TeamLab Borderless: A visitor’s guide to Tokyo’s new jaw-dropping interactive light museum
One-man anime creator is back with a staff and a beautiful new video with two cool twists
What does “Konnichiwa” really mean? Understanding Japanese greetings
Japan announces new era name, Reiwa, but what does it mean and why was it chosen?
Suntory explains the simple science behind how it makes its amazing clear tea beverages【Video】
Beautiful Taiwanese Go player hailed as a once-in-a-thousand-year beauty by Japanese fans 【Pics】
-
