So the highlight of this week was being able to head down to Sapporo for a zone conference (they had some medical missionaries come and talk to us, so we all got to meet together) and then go to the Sapporo Snow festival, which is super famous.
When I got my mission call to Sapporo, obviously the first thing I did was head to the computer and do a google image search. The first thing that popped up for Sapporo? Giant snow sculptures from the snow festival! (This may have also been the first time I became aware that Japan had snow in places other than the mountains...) Everyone always talks about it so I had been way excited to see it in person, but when I got transferred to Asahikawa I wasn`t sure if I would be able to go or not because it is so far! But I totally lucked out, and it was a ton of fun.
All of the missionaries who are working far away got to go together, which was super entertaining. These snow sculptures are seriously ginormous -- the size of buildings! We went at night so they were all lit up, and one of them was of a famous Sapporo building that had a cool light show on it (maybe you can find it on youtube?).
They also had stages made out of snow in front of some of them with live performances, and a giant slope in the middle of the park with people continually doing snowboard tricks off of. One of the sculptures was of some cartoon character going to Hawaii, so they had this little well-heated box with hula dancers inside that was kind of funny because of it`s contrast to the snow (and resemblance to a zoo).
Over all it was way cool, and I definitely want to be able to go back some day! There is a winter festival in Asahikawa too, so we are planning to stop by for a few minutes after this. They also had an ice sculpture contest in the shopping park here that is way cool!
Ok, I am out of time, but I hope that you all are having fun as well!
Tomorrow is our transfer call, and I can`t believe that it is coming already. This is definitely the fastest transfer so far! The fact that it is ending totally took me by surprise. I think I will still be in Asahikawa for a while, but we will see...
Japanese word of the Week:
yuki matsuri = snow festival
Totoro!
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