Jan 08 (NHK) - Work has begun to carry snow to the northern Japanese city of Sapporo for an annual festival featuring huge snow sculptures.
About 200 people, including members of the Self Defense Forces, attended an event held Tuesday at the Odori Park to mark the start of the work.
Spectators applauded as three dumper trucks unloaded snow.
The organizing committee chairman, Ryu Shibata, said the festival will be the first major event in 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. He said he hopes it will be successful despite a record shortage of snow.
Organizers are working to secure enough snow. They asked trucking companies to begin transporting snow on Sunday, which was earlier than initially planned, from areas further away than usual.
They say about 6,000 truckloads of snow will be carried into festival sites by January 29.
The snow festival will be held at the Odori and Susukino sites from February 4 to 11, and at the Tsudome site from January 31 through February 11.
