Pink Tentacle » Winter

Photos: ‘Snow monsters’ of Japan

Pink Tentacle — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:20:49 +0000

Ghostly trees covered in snow and rime ice -- known as "snow monsters" or juhyou (frost-covered trees) in Japanese -- are a celebrated feature of the winter landscape in mountainous areas of northern Japan. Here are a few photos.

Hakkōda Mountains, Aomori prefecture [via]

Mt. Moriyoshi, Akita prefecture [via]

Hakkōda Mountains, Aomori prefecture [via]

Mt. Zao, Yamagata prefecture [via]

Mt. Moriyoshi, Akita prefecture [via]

Mt. Moriyoshi (Moriyoshi shrine), Akita prefecture [via]

Mt. Zao, Yamagata prefecture [via]

Hakkōda Mountains, Aomori prefecture [via]

Mt. Zao, Miyagi prefecture [via]

Mt. Zao, Yamagata prefecture [via]

Mt. Moriyoshi, Akita prefecture [via]

Hachimantai Plateau, Akita prefecture [via]

Mt. Moriyoshi, Akita prefecture [via]

Mt. Azuma, Fukushima prefecture [via]

Hakkōda Mountains, Aomori prefecture [via]

Snow sculptures at Sapporo Snow Festival 2010

Pink Tentacle — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:43:47 +0000

This year's Sapporo Snow Festival kicked off last weekend, bringing hundreds of massive snow sculptures into the streets of Japan's northern capital. Here's a look at some of the works on display at the event, which runs until February 11.

+ Video

Hatsune Miku [Photo by kamemaruk]

Michael Jackson [Photo by tmaeda_japan]

Frauenkirche (The Church of Our Lady) [Photo by North☆Star]

Northern Zoos [Photo via Sapporo Snow Festival website]

Northern Zoos [Photo by 悪さー]

The Place Where Dreams Come True [Photo by minkara]

The Place Where Dreams Come True [Photo by zuiko]

Gundam [Photo by あくあ]

Royal Palace of Baekje [Photo by 野鳥大好き]

Buddha [Photo by あくあ]

Kodama [Photo by あくあ]

Gundam [Photo by あくあ]

Iolani Palace [Photo by tmaeda_japan]

[Photo by あくあ]

Seitokai no Ichizon [Photo by ryu.i4]

[Photo by あくあ]

Chibi Maruko-chan [Photo by あくあ]

Ski jump toilet: Loo with a view

Pink Tentacle — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:45:36 +0000

As part of a winter marketing campaign by canned coffee brand Georgia Coffee Max, a number of toilets at ski resorts across Japan have been decorated with wrap-around murals depicting the view from the top of a ski jump.

[Image via Coloribus]

The attention-grabbing loos, which include a pair of skis printed on the floor, are designed to provide target customers an extra thrill as they take care of bathroom business.

Ski jump toilet at Madarao Kogen ski resort [Image via Re-Ski]

Advertising messages are placed on the toilet paper holder and on the wall behind the toilet.

[Link: Coloribus]

Snow sculptures at Sapporo Snow Festival 2009

Pink Tentacle — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:29:03 +0000

Here are some photos of giant snow sculptures from the 60th annual Sapporo Snow Festival, which runs until February 11.

Hakodate Magistrate's Office [Photo: Moontears]

Kinnikuman [Photo: Talk P]

Namdaemun (check out the the LIVE WEBCAM [WMP]) [Photo: Sasakei]

Namdaemun under construction [Photo: tetsu]

Olympic gold medalist swimmer Kōsuke Kitajima [Photo: Sasakei]

Kitajima under construction [Photo: tetsu]

Hamamatsu Castle [Photo: Talk P]

Sento-kun & Manto-kun [Photo: tetsu]

25 years in Japan [Photo: Sasakei]

Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers cleaning mouse heads [Photo: Reuters]

Stitch [Photo: Talk P]

Tsuyo Ink [Photo: Sapporo Snow Festival Official Site]

Snow Zoo [Photo: bigarnex]

Alien Baltan [Photo: bigarnex]

Pekkle [Photo: bigarnex]

Happy fun snow creatures

Pink Tentacle — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:28:12 +0000

With winter in full force, now is the perfect time to explore the frozen wilds of the Japanese web in search of happy fun snowmen.

Arguably the best place to see snowmen is the annual Sapporo Snow Festival, one of Japan's most celebrated winter events. This photo (by Flickr user kozyndan) shows a sea of snowmen (yuki-daruma) built by visitors to the festival, who attach written wishes for good luck.

The week-long festival held in early February is home to Japan's largest snow and ice sculpture competition, and all sorts of wacky snow creations can be seen at venues around town -- like this giant chihuahua and Asimo.

Or your favorite anime character. (Photo from Jonas's Travels in Sapporo website.)

Or much more impressive creations like these dinosaurs. For more pictures from the festival, try a Google image search for "札幌雪祭り" (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri).

Of course, the Sapporo Snow Festival is not the only place to encounter snowmen -- they appear wherever there is snow.

This photo, taken in the town of Kuroishi (Aomori prefecture), shows what is proudly labeled as Japan's largest snowman. The 31-meter-tall (100 ft) monster has a face composed of local agricultural products, such as charred apple trees for the eyebrows, seashells for the eyes, rice for the cheeks, apples for the mouth, daikon radishes for the ears, and carrots for the collar.

This Namahage folk demon was spotted at last year's Lake Tazawa Snow Festival.

These glowing snowmen were seen standing watch at Kanazawa castle.

And this one. Haven't we seen this somewhere before?

Sometimes happy snowmen can be found where there is no snow -- like in Tokyo. For this year's Kanda Yuki-Daruma Fair in late January, organizers trucked in 70 tons of snow from rural Gunma prefecture and built 30 large snow creatures on the sidewalks of Kanda.

Here is a snowy incarnation of Baikinman, an evil character from the Anpanman anime series. (Photo via Mycom.)

And here are Kurohige Kiki Ippatsu (Pop-up Pirate game) and Shiisaa (a mythical Okinawan creature). For more from the Kanda Yuki-Daruma Fair, see these photos.

Octopi hung out to dry

Pink Tentacle — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:45:06 +0000

It is a common sight in winter to see octopi hanging out to dry along sidewalks in the town of Toba (Mie prefecture), according to the caption for this image from the Toba Photo Gallery.

[Link to full image]

Yuki-taro autonomous snowplow robot

Pink Tentacle — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:28:03 +0000

The harsh winter in Niigata, Japan brings heavy snow, which can pose problems for residents -- particularly the elderly -- who are faced with the laborious task of clearing it from driveways and entrances. To the rescue comes Yuki-taro, an autonomous snowplow robot developed by a team of researchers from five Niigata-area organizations.

The friendly-looking Yuki-taro measures 160 x 95 x 75 cm (63 x 37 x 30 in.) and weighs 400 kg (880 lbs). Armed with GPS and a pair of video cameras embedded in its eyes, the self-guided robot seeks out snow and gobbles it up into its large mouth. Yuki-taro's insides consist of a system that compresses the snow into hard blocks measuring 60 x 30 x 15 cm (24 x 12 x 6 in.), which Yuki-taro expels from its rear end. The blocks can then be stacked and stored until summer, when they can be used as an alternative source of refrigeration or cooling.

Yuki-taro is the result of nearly seven years of work by researchers from the Niigata Industrial Creation Organization (NICO), Research and Development, Inc. (RDI), Niigata Institute of Technology, Yamagata University and the Industrial Research Institute of Niigata Prefecture (IRI), who set out to design an environmentally-friendly robot that can operate by itself and support the elderly. In 2006, Yuki-taro received a Good Design Award in the small-to-medium sized enterprise category.

Researchers continue to work on reducing Yuki-taro's size, weight and cost, and they hope to make it commercially available in five years at a price of less than 1 million yen ($8,300). It is unclear whether or not the researchers intend to further enhance the robot's "cute" factor, but they might ought to consider attaching a pair of pointy ears. O-negai!

[Sources: Asahi]

Frozen waterfall indicates bumper rice crop to come

Pink Tentacle — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:57:17 +0000

In a tradition that stretches back 700 years, local farmers in Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture measure the circumference of the frozen waterfall at Taroshi Falls to predict the yield of the year's rice crop.

According to the conservation group that has kept track of the measurements since 1975, the largest measurement on record is 8 meters, taken in 1978. Warm winters in recent years have caused the ice to break apart, sometimes making it impossible to get an accurate measurement. This year, however, the frozen waterfall measures in at a respectable 5.5 meters, surpassing the 4-meter mark that indicates a plentiful harvest.

Hiroshi Itagaki, 74, head of the conservation group, says, "With all the depressing news about this year's heavy snow, I hope this can serve as a message of hope for the country." The conservation group's mantra is a haiku which translates: "So magnficent -- this icicle before us -- bulging with promise."

[Source: Asahi Shimbun]

Giant snow rescue robot put to the test

Pink Tentacle — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:38:00 +0000

A giant rescue robot with "feet" like a bulldozer and arms 5 meters in length is undergoing practical testing at Nagaoka University of Technology (Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture). Designed for avalanche disaster relief and snow removal operations, the robot -- known as T-52 Enryu (lit. "rescue dragon") -- is being developed by tmsuk, a Kitakyushu-based robot manufacturer. T-52 Enryu stands 3.45 meters tall and weighs 5 tons.

In the tests, which began on February 1, T-52 Enryu showed off its avalanche prevention skills by removing accumulated snow from the edge of a cliff. The robot also demonstrated its ability to extract a car buried under a bank of snow. Remote control operation is being tested at avalanche sites, where extreme caution is required to prevent secondary avalanches.

Tetsuya Kimura, an associate professor conducting rescue robot research at Nagaoka University of Technology, says, "In addition to performing avalanche-related work, we hope the robot will be useful in removing snow around the entrances to underground shopping arcades or tunnels." Tmsuk aims to put T-52 Enryu to practical use in another year or two. Testing will be open to the public on February 4.

[Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, Impress Watch]