The Sapporo snow festival was pretty good. There was lots of delicious food stalls, information booths, and I even signed a petition calling for the return of Japan's "northern territories" (the Kurril islands) and got a pack of toilet paper in return.
The only thing that was a slight disappointment was the snow sculptures themselves. They were very big, such as the Taj Mahal, and some of them had an impressive amount of detail, such as the Hirosaki castle, but although there was one section for original works from around the world, and also a castle sculpture inspired by a drawing by Fukushima schoolchildren IIRC, 90% of the works were depictions of Japanese or western popular culture figures. It wasn't very original. The ice sculptures nearby weren't too bad, but also were much of a muchness.
Unless I'm the only person disappointed by the festival, are there any suggestions for festivals that'd look more like what a bunch of schoolkids would create?
