The Susukino Ice Festival

Although generally better known for its bars and houses of ill repute, Susukino, Sapporo’s bustling nightlife district, also plays host to the yearly Susukino Ice Festival. Although it’s really just an extension of the larger snow festival, the Ice Festival is not without its own unique charm.
During the days leading up to the opening of the festival, sculptors work to create a series of elaborate carvings in the middle of one of Susukino’s busiest roads. I’ve been told that most of the sculptors generally work in hotels and restaurants during the year and can only be seen publicly doing their thing during the Ice Festival.
Here we see an ice kirin commemorating the beer that bears its name.
Some of the sculptures even have fish and other aquatic life frozen inside of the ice. I imagine that this required somehow convincing the fish to keep perfectly still until the water had time to freeze around them. Truly remarkable.
The end product is an impressive display along one of Sapporo’s main drags.