Higashikawa Ice Festival

On Saturday I made the journey out to Higashikawa for their Ice Festival.

It's smaller than the ones in Asahikawa and Sapporo, but it's also held like a month earlier, so that's a big draw.

Ice sculptures.

"R".

 "Swordfish".

 "Descent". It's like a four-armed lion man I guess.

 "Iceflame".

The path up to the main area was scattered with broken coloured ice. It looked like candy. A bunch of little kids were picking up chunks and putting them in bags.

 "Sweet trap"

 "Friends"

If a woman, a kangaroo, and a cat can be friends, why can't we?

 There were about a hundred little snowmen. I assume people in town could come and make them for the festival.

 That one's a Weezing!

 There's a Totoro and a Baymax.

 Hello Kitty, a Minion (of course), Domo-kun, Mickey Mouse, and a Muppet (maybe Elmo?).

Snow sculptures. I think these were probably done by kids, because there are a lot of video game characters. It's Kirby!

 An Inkling.

 Eevee.

 Da Pump with U.S.A. This song sure has been popular around here.

A cute bun-bun in a frame, perfect for pictures.

 Another Totoro.

 Snorlax!

 Heart of ice.

And here are the biggest, fanciest ice sculptures. "Celebration".

 "Emotions".

 "Phoenix".

 "Dragon".

"F".

 The anatomy on this one was a bit off.

 And I'm not sure what this one is but there's a bird and a fish in there.

 There was a big sledding slope for the kids too. It had some narrow slides made of the coloured ice.

 Here's a little house with a happy dude out front. Oda said she helped out with this one.

 These ones were outside the doors to the town hall.

 There was a big pile of ice on the forest trail for some reason. It was like an igloo but there was no opening.

 Had some nice hot borscht for lunch. Haven't eaten beets in a while.