winter paradise in tokamachi

We had the musical this weekend in the city that had been hit the worst in the earthquake. It was a free show because we are such caring and generous people. Apparently free means not worth attending and not very many people showed up plus it was absolutely freezing in the gym so it didn't end up being the best show on our tour across Niigata. After however we went to the Tokamachi snow festival which is noted as being the best or biggest or something est of Japan. Tokamachi is a small city in the mountains that receives the most snowfall on earth and so a snow festival is a clever way to make snow into money!!! They had tons of beautiful snow sculptures around the city and the festival routes were lighted by snow candle pillars. The stage was a massive castle that was made entirely out of snow (hopefully I can steal a picture of it from someone) and it pretty much snowed the whole time we were there. On the drive to Tokamachi Fiona and I stopped to see how high the snowbanks truly were and took some photo opportunities. These are not large piles made by snow plows but the actual height of the snow everywhere.
Unfortunately cleaning off the car in the morning was a bit of a pain. I was thanking god (and Fujita) for my four wheel drive since I was able to plow through while the others had to dig away every speck of snow.

My car has pretty straight sides and didn't allow much snow to gather. Jimmy was not so fortunate. That is a car under the pile and it had only been there since the night before.