February 7

It's that time of year again. Time for the denizens of Hokkaido to shovel their way out of the snow and build giant sculptures using that snow they shoveled. In other words, it's time for Hokkaido's snow festivals! Last year I went to the Sapporo Snow Festival (Yuki Matsuri) for a weekend, but this year I decided to only make a day trip of it. It was once again an impressive display of what you can do with snow and ice.
Deb and Nicole having fun on an ice slide	The Japanese Self-Defense Forces build most of the displays at the festival
Nicole, Deb, and I (my lense was fogged up, that's why some of these pictures have blurry spots)	Hideki Matsui, a Japanese baseball player who plays for the New York Yankees
An Ice Castle and stage	I know this is the Year of the Monkey, but a monkey on a toilet...?
101 Snowmen	The biggest sculpture was a dinosaur scene
The detail on the muscles...	and the scales was amazing.
Does that mean I have to smoke here?	Gollum, the New Zealand team's entry in the competition
Ground Zero, New York, the US entry in the competition	I'm not sure what this building is...

February 8

Happening at the same time was the Asahikawa Winter Festival (Fuyu Matsuri). While not on the same scale as the Sapporo Snow Festival, I always find it every bit as impressive. There was a huge Snow Castle with a dragon on it built by the river, with many smaller sculptures nearby. There was a "light village" of sorts in the park, followed by ice sculptures going the length of the Kaimono Koen shopping area.
An-pan-man	A submarine sinking in the waves
There were lots of Nemo statues	Lavonda in front of one of the statues made by the Asahikawa International Committee (we won a prize)
The castle by the river	The dragon's tail coming out of the castle's front door
Ice Candles	Some neat colored lighting effects in the ice
This was a mini light house	They had a smoke and laser show all around it
This was a replica of a snow sculpture built in Asahikawa several years ago that won the Guinness World Record for largest snow sculpture	A pretty ice sculpture scene
A Buddha	Lavonda using her cell phone camera
Dragons in ice	A fisherman
two lobsters

February 22 - 25

If you check out my September 2003 Journal Page, you will see that I was an assistant to Dr. Olenka Bilash in a workshop at the Hokkaido Educational Institute (Douken). Well, this week I assisted Dr. Bilash again at the Fukagawa youth house, in a slightly shorter version of her workship on the B-SLIM model.
Christine, the Douken ALT	The placed we stayed at was very new-looking
We decorated the walls with all sorts of English posters	The teachers had to make advertisements in English. They're pretty entertaining.
Some of the teachers.