Question:
What did you see at Gion Matsuri?

Answer:
The back of heads.

Yeah it is a joke, but it can’t be more true. Unless you reserve a seat (link is in Japanese but you can call 075.752.0227 from 9-5 and they should have an English speaker) or arrive super early, don’t expect to get many photos without getting some random person entering your frame. I was climbing on anything I could find space on, which usually meant waiting for another person to get off and it was still hard to get clear shots, unless I was shooting up.

Overall, I thought it was interesting and worth checking out even though it moves a little slow. Below you can see the rope the participators pull to move and turn this gigantic floats at 90 degree angles. There are probably about 20 people pulling.

Anyway, the day I went was just so hot and humid I couldn’t stand to be there more than about an hour before I ventured off into the photographer’s paradise that is Kyoto!

More general and historical information can be found at the Kyoto City Tourism site.

I actually went a few days before it started and left on the second day because it was a lot cheaper to do it that way. I suggest doing it this way not only because it is cheaper, but also because most of the big ones are (almost) done anyway and you can also see how they are made.

Of course it seems whenever I go to Hokkaido I am really unlucky with the weather because on the first day I was it it was so warm that it was raining and almost ruined a lot of the sculptures. The main part of the snow festival is in Odori Park but there 2 other places to check out, Sato Land and Susukino. I have a different post about the ice sculptures and ice bars in Susukino.

At the Odori Park site, the big sculptures a lot of times are used as stages for different perfomances throughrout the festival. As you can see below, they even built a (not so) small jump for skiers and snowboarders to do some tricks.

On a side note, if you are looking for something else to do because maybe you are arriving before the Sapporo Snow Festival starts or staying after it ends, you may want to check out the smaller and lesser known Chitose Ice Festival.

Check out more photos after the jump or check out a video of some performances and other happenings at the Sapporo Snow Festival.