This snow festival is held annually in February
in the city of Sapporo in northern Hokkaido. Many sculptures
made of snow and ice are displayed along the streets.
The sculptures represent a variety of objects such as
famous buildings around the world or certain animation
characters. The larger sculptures are made by first building
a wooden frame, then packing snow into the structure,
and thereafter allowing it to harden. After disassembling
and removing the external frame, sculpting can begin.
