Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival

Building snow sculpture

Another view of the building snow sculpture

Animal Snow Sculptures

Not sure if this is Mickey Mouse (??)

I don't know the name of this snow sculpture, maybe Mama and baby bear (???) hehehe, this sculpture is big it's like a stage size

Different lanterns and overlooking Hirosaki Castle

Visitors are getting the candles once you enter this area and putting them anywhere they want to

&*^%$100 #@ ! (whatever that is hehehe)

Hello Kitty (has mumps LOL)

This Japanese farmer snow sculpture is taller than me

Snow lanterns

My son was inside the small igloo ;-)

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Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival

This snow lantern festival was held from February 11 to February 14, 2010. We went last Saturday, Feb 13. This festival began in 1977 is now one of the five biggest snow festivals in Tohoku region (Northern Japan).

The snow lanterns have different sizes and shapes. There are some with pictures of samurai warriors and some come on different odd shapes like the heart and star shaped snow scultures.

Happy Heart's Day

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We went to Hirosaki Castle Park yesterday to see the Lantern Festival, it was awesome!!! Amazing ice sculptures. The weather was nice but of course it was too cold and a bit slippery along the walkway but over all.....I enjoyed it very much!

Since today is Valentine's Day (although I posted this a bit late already) I uploaded the heart shaped snow sculpture.

I will post more photos tomorrow.

Hard- Off Store

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Hard-off is one of Japan's largest recycle stores where you can buy used clothes, sports gear, shoes, furniture, bags, electronics, appliances, housewares and other stuff that you can think of :-)

This is where we bought my snowboard since we're just newbies to snowboarding we might as well buy used ones rather spending $300+ for just 1 snowboard excluding its binding which will cost you $100+. Too bad, we didn't find any snowboard shoes for all of us, the sizes were all small since most Japanese are short so what do we expect? of course small shoe sizes hehehe. Don't ask my shoe size, it's big too :-) I bought my snowboard w/ bindings already attached for 2300 yen (~$25).

If you are looking for branded bags they have them here too such as louis vuitton, gucci, prada, chanel, coach and more which are being displayed in a covered glass cabinet. So if you want used branded bags this is your store hehehe. I haven't tried buying one though ;-) And sorry I didn't take pictures what's inside the store.

By the way, why the h*** is it called "hard-off?" LOL


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Hard-off is located in Towada City, a 30 minute drive from Misawa.


Directions:

If you want the directions, leave a comment here hehehe

Farmtown/ Farmville in Misawa during Winter

Hay stacks covered with snow

Hay stacks

Rice Field covered with snow

Greenhouse

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These photos were "drive-by shots" along Misawa after the snow fall. I'm speechless right now, my hubby has been deployed to one of the countries in Middle East and can't think of anything to say just.....enjoy my photos!