Sapporo Snow Festival – 2025

 Japan, Sapporo, Uncategorized
Feb 102025
 

February 2025

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The Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the largest snow sculpture festivals in the world.

The brown bear is Japan’s largest land mammal and is found only in Hokkaido. Salmon, an important food source, was considered sacred by the Ainu, an indigenous people from northern Japan. During the Edo period (1603-1868), salmon from Hokkaido became an important trade commodity, and it is still one of the most popular fish eaten in Japan today. The image of a wooden bear with a salmon in its mouth is widely recognized in Japan as a representation of Hokkaido.

The first day of my arrival

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The Festival started in 1950 when local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. It has grown in scale to a major international event that includes as many as 200 sculptures, some as tall as 40 feet.

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It takes over 20,000 tons of snow to build the sculptures, three months of planning and construction to make one large sculpture, and over 9,000 people to help in the construction.

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People who help include the Japanese Defense Force, local companies, veteran staff, and international teams. Apparently, the construction process is just as awe-inspiring as the festival; however, it is nearly impossible for visitors and even locals to get a glimpse behind the curtain.

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Haruka Kitaguchi is a Japanese female javelin thrower. She is the reigning Olympic and world champion in women’s javelin throw.

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Porco Rosso is a 1992 Japanese animated adventure fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 1989 manga Hikōtei Jidai. And one of my favorite Miyazaki films

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The festival takes place in Odori Park, with the Sapporo TV tower as a backdrop at one end.

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The festival runs for eight days and has constantly rotating entertainment and lots of food, wine, and beer to enjoy.

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There is ice skating.

Fun slides built into some of the sculptures

and more sculptures

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The Japanese are still a smoking culture, so there were smoking tents everywhere.  I enjoyed the sense of humor posted outside.

This was just a sampling of the wonderful sculptures that run the entire length of Odori Park, which is just under one mile long. The flow of traffic is regulated to the east on one side and west on the other, with some streets closed and others well tended with traffic police to keep things moving.  It is snowy and icy and requires you really watch your step in places, but worth every inch of time and effort to visit.

Fun Findings of Munich

 Munich, Uncategorized
May 242022
 

May 2022

Little Red Riding Hood

The wealthy power couple Adolph and Apollonia Wolf were generous benefactors of the Munich art scene during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the early 1900s, the Wolfs commissioned local sculptors Heinrich Düll and George Pezold to create a piece of public art that would memorialize the family name.  This Art Nouveau sculpture which sits above a fountain with four wolf-headed spouts was dedicated in 1904.

Juliet

The bronze statue of Shakespeare’s Juliet from Romeo and Juliet was a gift from the city of Verona and sits behind the New Town Hall. Apparently you are supposed to touch Juliet’s breasts for a chance at undying love.

Chimes at the Toy Museum

While everyone gathers around to watch the Glockenspiel show in Marienplatz there are a few other places to enjoy hourly chimes.  This one spins and spins while the bells chime and the cymbals clang.

Chimes on the hour

I was particularly charmed by the chimes and dance from this one on a street corner in town.

Maximilian von Montgelas

I had no idea who this fellow was, I just fascinated with the sculpting technique it is so unique.  The whole scene is somewhat poignant with the detritus of a nearby flower bed at his feet. Maximilian von Montgelas was a nobleman and statesman. The statue is aluminum, and was done by Karen Sander in 2005.

Gargoyle

The word gargoyle comes from the French gargouiller.  It is also the root for gargle.  I often think people do not understand that these are placed on buildings as a way of evacuating water, but in this guy someone has done a masterful job of showing the spout and making his purpose quite obvious.

If it isn’t a gargoyle it is a grotesque, and I have a rather obsessive love for them.  Here are some of the ones that caught my eye around Munich.

A braying harp playing donkey was a new one to me.

On the same building was this half unicorn half fish, another design I have never seen

On the side of the Rathaus

Atlas figures another passion of mine.  Women are Caryatids and men are Atlas’s.  I have never seen one of each sex on a building before.

A crochet bicycle in the park

At first I wondered if this was a Munich take on the “ghost bikes” you find around the world, but later I saw “ghost bikes”, that were the universally accepted, actual bikes painted white.  I read that these were a fundraising concept to aid Belarus, but was unable to substantiate that comment.

Umschreibung

This sculpture at Ganghoferstraße 29A  is titled Umschreibung.  According to the artist, Olafur Eliasson, it is supposed to create “movement without destination, a space defined by motion rather than walls”.  It was created in 2004.

Hand painted theater sign

This sign is at the Sendlinger Tor Theater and it is hand painted.   The theater opened in October 1913 with a showing of the Italian silent film Marcantonio e Cleopatra (Cleopatra, die Herrin des Nils; Antony and Cleopatra). Over 25 million visitors have entered the theater.

For the past 25 years the posters at the theater have been painted by René Birkner, and are often completed in less than a night. Birkner is one of the few remaining film poster painters in Germany.

A sewer cover in Munich

The Munich Coat of Arms has a boy monk cloaked in black with gold trim, wearing red shoes, and holding a red book on a white/silver background. München, the German word for Munich, basically means “of monks”. It is thought that the monks image on the coat of arms is possibly a play on the city’s heritage.

Bavaria

This 59 foot tall statue of Bavaria is the earliest bronze statue of the Germany’s modern era. It was commissioned by King Ludwig I in 1837 to crown the Bavarian hall of fame.

The statue took 13 years to complete, with the project outliving the architect and the reign of the king. This was due in large part to techniques not used since ancient times. King Ludwig was even recorded saying, “Only Nero and I have produced such giant statues – no-one has done it since Nero’s time.”

It also took many years to install, the first portion went up in 1844, it was completed 6 years later.

Bavaria in front of the Bavaria Hall of Fame. Inside the colonnade of the Hall of Fame are over 90 busts of Bavaria’s most celebrated people including artists, politicians, and scientists.

Every town has its own off the beaten tracks fun curiosities, these are just a few that I found in Munich

Vienne, France

 France, Uncategorized
May 182022
 

May 2022

Vienne is a mere 18 minutes by train from Lyon and yet it is a million miles away.

Vienne sits on the Rhône River where it eventually joins the  Gère River, about 20 miles south of Lyon. In ancient times Vienne was the capital of the Celtic tribe known as the Allobroges. It was conquered by the Romans in 121 BCE and became one of the most important towns of Gaul until Roman rule of the area ended in 275 CE. Late in the 9th century the town became part of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was transferred to French sovereignty in 1450.

The Roman Theater

The Roman Theater was built in the 1st century CE and was one of the largest in the Roman world.  It could hold 11,000 spectators who could watch chariot races or singing and poetry performances.  In the 4th century, due to disapproval by the church, the emperors banned theater productions and so the theater was abandoned.  It became a quarry and dump in the 3rd century and was eventually buried underground.  Work began on its restoration in 1922 and today it is home to theater and Vienne’s Jazz Festival.

Under restoration and completely covered in scaffolding is the Saint-Maurice Cathedral

Originally a roman temple dating from the early 1st century CE. Saint-Maurice Cathedral became a Christian church in the 5th century. It was used as a club for the Jacobins during the French Revolution (1787–1799).

The 9th-century church of Saint-André-le-Bas, was rebuilt in the 12th–13th century.

The abbey of Saint-Andre-le-Bas was founded in the 8th century by Duke Ansemund. The church was originally a chapel of the palace of kings of Burgundy built in the end of the 9th century and flourished in the High Middle Ages.

The Hundred Years’ War and the competition of new religious orders reduced the power of the convent and it never recovered from the Wars of religion. The monastery was dissolved in the late 18th century.

Cloisters of Saint-Andre-le-Bas church.

A fun little character hidden on a column base in the church of Saint-André-le-Bas

The abbey relied on income from the privilege of being buried there. This is an obituary plaque dating to the 6th century.

The Temple of Augustus and Livia

The Temple of Augustus and Livia was built sometime between 20 and 10 BCE, although some features of the Temple date to the 1st century CE.  The temple’s excellent state of preservation is largely the result of it being incorporated into a church as early as the 5th century and later restored in the 19th century. The temple is dedicated to the imperial cult honoring Emperor Augustus and his third wife, Livia.

At the end of the Middle Ages, this house sat next door to the pillory where criminals who were condemned by the Justice of the county were exposed and tormented.  The building is attributed to the end of the 15th century with its timber frame facade.  There is a spiral staircase leading to the room at the top of the tower.

 

The archeological garden of Cybele. It is thought that these walls were likely former homes of Roman forum council members.

The Hotel de Ville

French in style, the Hôtel de Ville is in the heart of the city. It was the private home of Marquis de Rachais until 1768 when the property was acquired by the city.

Interesting Architectural Sightings

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Dogs and their accoutrements of Vienne***

Read the sign on the far right – Espace Canin

World Wars and Vienne

France entered World War I when Germany declared war on August 3rd 1914.

A mural at the train station honoring the dead of WWI – This mural was very gut wrenching.

Dedicated to the dead of WWII

The piece at her feet, while difficult to see is rather poignant.

Passing by you often.  The memory of the combatants of the grand war.

Vienne sits on the Rhone river

While an ancient bridge once connected the two parts of Vienne

Ruins tower over the city with a cascade of vineyards below

During Antiquity, the village of Saint-Romain-en-Gal was a residential and commercial district this is some of the archeological site that remains.

Saturday morning Vienne hosts the second largest market in France.

White asparagus is in season

 

Vienne is a nice train ride from Lyon, it makes for a lovely one day excursion, especially if you time it with market day.  I went for the Roman ruins and was not disappointed.