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The 61st Sapporo Snow Festival was held during Feb. 5-11, 2010 in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Among the giant snow sculptures was Hawaii's Iolani Palace made of ice. It was the reason why I decided to see this festival again.
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Iolani Palace, a giant ice sculpture at the 61st Sapporo Snow Festival during Feb. 5-11, 2010. During the day, it has a translucent, blue look. It is the festival's largest ice sculpture. This block is officially called the Mainichi Shimbun Ice Square
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The Iolani Palace ice sculpture is 16 meters wide and 8 meters high. It was built with 700 large blocks of ice weighing 135 kg (298 lb.) each.
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The ice sculpture was built by over 250 members of the Japan Ice Sculpture Association. Most of the 250 were from the Sapporo chapter working as chefs at Sapporo area hotels. In Japan, ice sculptures are often featured at high-priced buffets, etc.
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It took about 2 weeks to build Iolani Palace out of ice. They started building it on Jan. 15, 2010. The sculpture was planned by Mainichi Shimbun Newspapers.
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The Iolani Palace is Hawaii's most famous building in Honolulu, Oahu. It is America's one and only former royal palace. Built in 1882 by King David Kalakaua as his residence. It had electricity installed, which was rare at the time.
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Today, Iolani Palace is a major tourist attraction. Guided tours allow you to see the rooms inside, including the throne room and the small bedroom where Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii's last monarch, was held prisoner by Westerners who overthrew her.
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This was not the first time Iolani Palace was at the Sapporo Snow Festival. It was also featured in Feb. 1982 when it was made of snow (photos below).
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Unfortunately, there was no sign in English explaining the Iolani Palace ice sculpture. I looked at this list of supporters and sponsors and found no one from Hawaii listed.おい、ハワイ州観光局はまったくいないぞ。
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Like the other big sculptures, various free entertainment was held on a stage in front of the Iolani Palace sculpture. This was the entertainment schedule. I was very disappointed to find nothing Hawaiian.
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Facing the Iolani Palace sculpture were food stalls such as this German almond food stall. I couldn't comprehend why there weren't any Hawaii-related stalls instead. How about selling macadamia nuts or having a Hawaii Visitors Bureau booth??
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The Iolani Palace ice sculpture had a slim profile. This is a side view.
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Rear view of the Iolani Palace ice sculpture. Scaffolding propped up colored lights.
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Now for some entertainment in front of the Iolani Palace ice sculpture as the crowd waits.
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This is a local Hokkaido group dressed as school girls calling themselves Moegi-iro Jogakuin. もえぎ色女学院
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I could only wonder if these girls knew the significance of the sculpture they were performing in front of.
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They turned out to be very lively. When you're dressed this lightly, it's best to move a lot to keep warm in freezing temperatures.
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They should be cheerleaders.
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北海道美人
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Girls in Hokkaido look healthy, thanks to Hokkaido's clean environment, wide-open spaces, and good food.
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In the late afternoon, they start to light up the sculptures.
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Iolani Palace ice sculpture lit up at night. The sculptures are lit up nightly till 10 pm. Ice sculptures in particular become very beautiful when lit at night due to their translucence.
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The color lighting scheme also varies slightly. The sculpture is basically backlit with green lights in the middle and orange lights on the sides. At the same time, blue lights shine on the front of the sculpture.
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It was very impressive and made my trip to Sapporo worthwhile. The lingering question remained: Where was the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau??? Why weren't they here passing out Hawaii PR brochures?
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Hawaii needs more tourists to visit, especially the Japanese market. Why isn't HVB here promoting Hawaii with Iolani Palace in ice? This was a golden opportunity to promote Hawaii and NOBODY was doing it.
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2 million people visit the Sapporo Snow Festival, many from China and Korea. Many of them would love to be in warm Hawaii.
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I just CANNOT BELIEVE that HVB's English and Japanese Web sites neva even mention the Iolani Palace at this year's Sapporo Snow Festival.
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Get in touch with people from Hawaii living in Sapporo/Hokkaido. They would volunteer to pass out Hawaii brochures or maybe even perform hula on the icy stage.
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No Hawaii events/entertainment in front of the Iolani Palace ice sculpture at the 2010 Sapporo Snow Festival. Hula is so popular in Japan, and no one danced hula in front of Iolani Palace in Sapporo??
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Look how beautiful this Iolani Palace ice sculpture is. I was red-faced not only from the cold, but also that no one from Hawaii did anything here.
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ハワイPRの絶好のチャンスを完全に無視、逃がす。２百万人の来場者へのPRがパー。HPにもまったく掲載なし。
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Rear view. HVB should round up the Hawaii folks living in Japan to help them promote Hawaii. Especially now, with the Internet, blogging, and word-of-mouth being so important for PR. But us guys in Japan haven't heard one peep from HVB.
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Other entertainment included amateur rock bands.
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Another boy group called B-Luck.
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A trio of girls perform the para-para dance.
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Para-para dancer
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As I was watching all this entertainment, how I wished there would be hula dancers too. Iolani Palace, being the home of King David Kalakaua who promoted hula in Hawaii, is a symbol of the hula movement.
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And no one performed hula or anything Hawaiian in front of this Iolani Palace ice sculpture. It was sad and a wasted opportunity. They dance the hula everywhere in Japan except in front of an Iolani Palace sculpture?? Does that make sense to you?
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Sure it's cold to perform here. But look at these girls in shorts. They weren't shivering. This is another local wannabe Hokkaido girl group called "Cream."
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Even though I was seeing all this entertainment totally unrelated to Hawaii, I have to say that the icy Iolani Palace made a great backdrop for these performers.
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All they had to do is wear something Hawaiian and it would've been perfect. But of course, nobody thought of that.
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On the final night of the snow festival, they had yosakoi soran groups perform. They turned out to be the entertainment climax in front of Iolani Palace.
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Notice how the colored lighting varied between dark orange and white lighting.
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This yosakoi soran group was from Hokkaido University.
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