Amusement Out Of White

It has kept snowing day after another for over a month. The snow has lain thick on the ground, which makes hard to determine the boundary between roads and fields. Everything has been buried in white. The sun seldom comes out. The gray of snow clouds seems to be the only color I can see here and now. By the time when it became February, we already have the record breaking heavy snow this winter caused by a bomb cyclone.

Only white and gray: The actual color I see everyday in winter.

The snow that has piled up beside the road has to be removed by a big snowblower, which takes massive of efforts and costs. I cannot see any productivity in shoveling snow. It seems a waste of time and money to me. I could spend more meaningful time during the winter if I did not need to clear the snow in front of my house every day and night. As a consequence, I usually feel sick and tired of seeing snow every winter.

“How could I be induced by anything related to snow?” I thought in my mind as usual after my routine work of clearing the snow in the yard. Actually, I had never imagined myself going somewhere for other white walls until I watched a TV news about the snow festival.

The TV news said an annual snow festival had been held this week at Hirosaki Park in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture. I do not remember whether I have been there before. Maybe not. It was cold outside enough for me. The temperature was around -3 degrees. I had pondered for a while whether I should go or not. Again, it was so cold. But at least it was not snowing, and the TV news about the snow festival somehow sounded interesting. So I decided to get out of my warm and cozy room to see how the snow festival was like.

"Take me to the festival."

This snow festival is a miniature version of that in Sapporo City, Hokkaido: the most famous and attractive snow festival for tourists. Our small snow festival has held in every February since 1977. It is said that there are about 150 snow lanterns and miniature-sized Kamakura (an arched roof snow hut). Hirosaki Park is famous for cherry blossoms, so it always has many tourists every spring. Apparently, the snows less appeal to tourists than cherry blossoms do. I saw fewer people visiting the park this time. 

Afternoon sunshine at Hirosaki Park.

A snow lantern standing in peace.

The first thing that welcomed me in the park was a big snow lantern which has a Nebuta picture on it. The snow lantern was more than two meters, I guess. It was hard for me to imagine how to build this lantern.  It must have been freezing cold while volunteer citizens had worked on it. These lanterns were simple but just could not be ignored. I am sure that they all were created wholeheartedly.

I already felt freezing at this point even though it was just the beginning, because I forgot to bring my gloves with me. I was even thinking that I should have stayed at home instead of coming here.  Anyway, I desisted from retracing my step and kept going inside the park with both my hands in the pockets of my thick winter coat.

Going along the path, I found big snow walls which also had Nebuta pictures on the surface. Those pictures were used on real Nebuta floats in previous summer’s Nebuta festival: the nighttime festival in Hirosaki. Now in winter, these pictures colored the whole white scene vivid and reminded us that summer will come around again, maybe not soon but surely. Such a vibrant works of art!

When passing through the snow walls, I met cute snowmen with colorful face expressions. Some were smiling while others expressed various emotions: anger, confusion, surprise, wonder, sadness and so on. The sign beside the snowmen said they were made by some kindergarten children. How lovely! I could not help smiling at these charming snowmen. Such an innocent art!

Walking about the park, I was wondering why there were children on a plastic snow sled pulled by their father. Because the child refuses to walk through the park? Was there any new trend for children in the park?

The answer came into my sight when I entered the main area of the festival. There was a big playground slide made of snow. Children were enjoying sliding down the slope with their sleds or used car tire tubes. While watching those children, I recalled the days of my childhood playing in the snow. The time when I still had feeling for snow.

And then, I finally found this year’s main snow sculpture. It was a statue of a half sized church called United Church of Christ in Japan Hirosaki Church. I was amazed by the fact that the exterior was pretty much like the real one.

The snow sculpture of a Church.

If you want to look about the real version, it is located just 5 minutes of walk from the park. And here is a picture of the spring version of the church.

The church with cherry blossoms.

This Gothic style church is topped with two steeples and the walls have windows of which the top end is crescent-shaped. By that means, the church somehow resembles Notre Dame de Paris in its external appearance. The whole structure of the church was completed in 1906; Japan’s seventh oldest church. Since then, it has been on active service as a Protestant church. This well-designed architecture was designated as an important cultural asset by Aomori Prefecture in 1993. Another point that makes this church unique is the aspect that its floor, walls, pillars and roofs are made of “hiba” lumber (“Hiba” is a kind of Japanese cypress). Though I have not toured the inside of this historical church yet, I can imagine that it would be comfy to be there surrounded by the scent of hiba wood.

When it was getting dark, the festival staff started to light up the snow lanterns one by one. The castle was also about to be lit up. I wanted to stay there as long as I could enjoy the night show performed by lights and snow. It must have been an amazingly dreamy experience, But I decided to leave there before the night completely fell on the park. It was too cold for me to remain outside without my gloves.

The sunset behind the moat covered with snow.

In reality, there was no entertainment for me during the winter, and I tended to stay at home yearning for spring. Snow had blinded me with its whiteness, though I should have been sighted by its pure splendor instead. If I open my heart, there will be always something pleasurable even in the boundless white. Remembering the snowman winked at me, I think that I would love to be amused by this lovely festival next winter.