The most remarkable thing about the Sapporo Snow Festival is its scale. It's more than just your town's giant Frosty the Snowman. It's ginormous. Every year, it attracts over two million tourists to Sapporo. And no wonder. The government and the citizens of Sapporo go all out to ensure that the sculptures are, indeed, worth coming over for.
The largest snow sculptures are so massive, entire consulates are involved in their construction. Consider the Taj Mahal replica, built through the combined efforts of the Japanese and Indian governments. The sculpture is so huge, it rivals the surrounding concrete buildings in sheer size. It's a small quibble that only the facade was sculpted; you can't actually walk into the sculpture as though it were the iconic landmark, itself. That would have been dope. Still, it's mind boggling how closely the snow replica approximated the actual struture.
Other sculptures are built by Sapporo's sister cities (Novosibirks, anyone?) and local organizations.
It was hartwarming to see how easily the entire city opens up to travellers. I felt very welcome. And very much a citizen of the world.
That day, Sapporo was an awe inspriring, kickass, butt-freezing-cold, pretty global village.
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