Not the Cascades, Kathryn

Some more images from our C7F/BLUE RIDGE visit to Hokkaido for the Sapporo Snow Festival. 

This one was a tribute to their professional baseball team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. To be clear, this team did not become champions by battling swine. They are the Hokkaido Fighters, sponsored by the Nippon Ham company. As with their U.S. counterparts, many Japanese professional baseball teams have corporate sponsors. But here the team, as opposed to the stadium, carries the sponsor's name. Can you imagine the Detroit Comerica Tigers? Or the Colorado Coors Rockies? The Houston Minute Maid Astros? The Florida Sun Life Marlins? 



Staying with the baseball theme, this sculpture of slugger Hideki Matsui emerging from the mouth of Godzilla symbolizes his longstanding nickname. Although one could make a case that the reptile actually depicts the New York Yankees, who were foolish enough to let the World Series MVP out of their grasp to join the Los Angeles Angels for the next season. Note also the clever "Go! Go!" which in Japanese would be "5-5", corresponding to the jersey number, 55, that Matsui wore with both the Yomiuri Giants and the New York Yankees.



Meanwhile these children seem to be looking past the dragon sculpture toward the rows of food vendors across the path.

I don't know how these ladies stayed warm, let alone sang. It may have stopped snowing, but the wind chill was in the single digits...and I don't mean Centigrade. 




I wonder what it felt like in this ice block smokers' lounge: