News On Japan

Sapporo Snow Festival to Feature Mandalorian Giant Snow Sculpture

SAPPORO, Jan 08 (News On Japan) - A safety prayer ceremony was held ahead of the construction of giant snow sculptures at the Odori site, one of the main venues of the 76th Sapporo Snow Festival, which opens in Sapporo, Hokkaido, on February 4th.

The ceremony took place at the UHB Family Land area at Odori 10-chome, where UHB President Tsuruí Toru and others offered words of encouragement to members of the sculpture production teams.

At this venue, giant snow sculptures exceeding 10 meters in height will be created, featuring the Mandalorian, the protagonist of the latest Star Wars film, to coincide with the release of the new movie.

Regarding the giant snow sculptures, the Self-Defense Forces have previously been responsible for producing two of the five major works, but citing the need to secure sufficient training time, they plan to reduce their involvement to one sculpture starting in 2027.

The Sapporo Snow Festival will run for eight days from February 4th to February 11th.

Source: 北海道ニュースUHB

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Six junior high school students were taken to hospital after falling ill from eating pizza made during a home economics class in Kitakyushu last month, with officials suspecting the cause to be an excessive amount of salt added to the dough.

Losses from special fraud and SNS-based investment and romance scams in Osaka Prefecture over the past year exceeded 33.9 billion yen, marking a record high.

A ceremony was held in Kyiv on February 11th where the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) presented generators to Ukraine as the country grapples with worsening electricity shortages following Russian attacks on energy facilities, with citizens struggling to endure severe winter conditions and international assistance for power infrastructure continuing to grow.

A renewed water outage struck Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture after supplies briefly resumed on February 11th morning, with authorities reinstating water restrictions from 9 p.m. as frozen pipes and low reservoir levels linked to an intense cold wave continued to disrupt supply across the region.

Kiyotaka Mizuno, the oldest man in Japan and the oldest resident in Shizuoka Prefecture, died of natural causes at his home in Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, on February 8th at the age of 111, according to local authorities.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Travel NEWS

A unique certificate is being issued to visitors to Fuji City in Shizuoka Prefecture who arrive hoping to see Mount Fuji but find the famous peak hidden from view, part of a local effort to share the mountain’s ever-changing charm even on cloudy days.

Plum blossoms are now at their best viewing season at the plum groves of Minabe Town in Wakayama Prefecture, widely known as Japan’s leading plum-producing region.

JR Tokai has decided to begin construction on the Yamanashi Prefecture station for the Linear Chuo Shinkansen on March 11, marking the start of work on the only station along the Tokyo–Nagoya section where construction had yet to begin.

A large discount retailer Don Quijote has opened its first inbound-focused specialty store in the Kansai region in Kyoto City, aiming to better serve the growing number of overseas visitors.

Workers dressed as ninjas are carrying out weed removal on a castle stone wall in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, a city known as the home of ninja.

JR East and Japan Airlines have signed a partnership agreement aimed at regional revitalization and revealed they will consider integrating tickets in the future.

A traditional fire festival in which men dressed in white race down steep stone steps carrying blazing torches was held at the World Heritage-listed Kamikura Shrine in Shingu, Wakayama Prefecture, on February 6th.

A new wave of high-end hotel development in Nara is accelerating as Kintetsu Miyako Hotels announced plans to open a luxury accommodation facility on former grounds of Todaiji Temple, aiming for an autumn 2028 launch.