Show 280 Wednesday 7 February

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Yesterday we went to the Sapporo Snow Festival.

The temperature was unusually high so the snow sculptures had started melting, cracking or breaking completely.

There was a lot of advertising.
And there were a lot of cartoon characters.

This is Mt Fuji.
This is Hikone castle.
It says it took 4000 people 30 days to make it.
This is a shrine.

I thought the most interesting sculptures were part of the international snow sculpture contest.
I interviewed some of the artists. I asked them to tell me about their work.

This is actually, um, um, a hibiscus flower.
And then, ah, in the middle is the globe.
And then there’s the twin tower.
The hibiscus is actually the national flower of Malaysia.
The bird signifies peace and harmony.
We came here on the 3rd, so we start doing our job on the 3rd of, ah, February.
And, ah, the competition will finish by the 7th.
We got about 17 countries participating in this event and Malaysia has been participating each year, every year.

But the theme is reflection.
This is a mermaid waving at the little boy on the top.
With a dolphin in the back – I don’t know if you can see it from there.

And then, this is a Hawaiian sea turtle.

It’s called Bird Catcher, Bird Charmer. And it’s the relationship of man with birds. And in some countries, ah, birds are regarded as sacred and it’s part of the culture. And ah, in some countries like to have bird catchers.
And in some countries they are ... like to enjoy them in, in ah, nature, in trees, in the wild.
So it’s basically that, it’s just a man with ah, charming birds ... that’s the essence of it.

My English is really bad but it’s like ... it’s like ...
Our group have, ah, doing snow sculpture since 10 years.