Where to find Japan's annual snowball fight festival!
Japan is known for having some fantastic festivals, held year round - there are festivals to celebrate the cherry blossoms blooming, summer fireworks festivals, autumn koyo festivals to embrace the beautiful changing leaves - and then there are all the fun winter festivals. Snow festivals are found in many places at this time of year, but a snowball fight festival? Yup - that exists here, too! 5611F28E-298F-4AAC-AA2F-75489E44EE10.jpeg 2.46 MB The International Snowball Fight is held annually in Niigata Prefecture, and this year was the 30th anniversary of the inaugural event. If you want to participate, teams need to be signed up for prior to the event itself -- and there needs to be five people per team. C8C092AF-615D-473D-8956-B5A25483FF8A.jpeg 3.05 MBThe atmosphere at the festival itself is a lot of fun - there are plenty of food stalls selling all manner of delicious goodies to try! There was everything from yakitori to dango, and even beers and local sake to enjoy if you didn't have to drive. Niigata is renowned for producing some of Japan's best sake, so if you're in the area you definitely need to try some! There were also many unique takes on the humble snowman scattered around, and plenty of powdery stuff to make one yourself if you want to. 7864DFD2-458C-42D5-B68E-CA654EF1C13D.jpeg 2.29 MB One of the most amusing things about the festival has to be that many of the participants dress up in quirky costumes. You have to admire many of the competitors dedication - even though it's the middle of winter and there is plenty of snow on the ground, many teams had costumes on that did little to shield them from the harsh weather conditions. There is a prize for the team with the best costume, so some people really did go all out.23A6F7DD-6BF6-4679-80EC-CF33C98DB546.jpeg 1.79 MB These girls were the winners of the costume competition. Since it was the 30th anniversary of the festival, they went as human flower bouquets - a nice little congratulations for the festival having run for so long, perhaps! I think they deserved the win, given how cold it was - and I'm hoping they did have jackets stashed away somewhere.EDCA3A56-75ED-4A5B-8458-DC47E59DAE2C.jpeg 2.45 MB
Enjoy Japan, and Safe Travels!
this is japan
You may also be interested in
Sight in Miyagi
Sendai Tanabata Festival
Tanabata, or Star Festival, is a festival originally celebrating the reunion of 2 deities along the Milky Way. Sendai Tanabata Festival takes place in August, o
Sight in Yamanashi
Fuji Shibazakura Festival
Held from about mid-April to early June, the annual Fuji Shibazakura Festival is a riotous carpet of pink phlox moss flowers growing near Mount Fuji.
Sight in Shizuoka
Kawazu Sakura Festival
Located on the banks of the river running through Kawazu, this annual festival celebrates the early blooming cherry blossom trees lining a 4-kilometre walking r
Travel
play_arrow
Video
Explore a Japanese Countryside Festival with Sharla in Japan! [Journey Across Japan Spinoff]
We split up into 2 groups during Abroad in Japan's "Journey Across Japan" to create a new spinoff playlist showcasing different spots that we come across in Japan! We were lucky enough to pass this local festival here in Ehime Prefecture.
Sight in Nagano
Dosojin Fire Festival (Nozawa Fire Festival)
The Dosojin Fire Festival is one of the biggest fire festivals in Japan.
Article by Cameron Hilker
Everything You Need to Enjoy the Fuji Rock Festival
Fuji Rock is the largest music festival in Japan, with over 100,000 festival goers attending each year. According to a ranking of 250 Music Festivals around the