Snow sculpting for me is an avenue to adventure. When I started, I had no previous training, but a somewhat wise man told me that anyone could be a sculptor, all you had to do was try. Never did I think that carving snow would take me around the world. So with a few unacceptable excuses as to why I couldn't do it, I gave in and the rest is history.

Japan 2004, was one more piece of this history. I was invited to sculpt at the, The Japan Cup, The International Five Continents Snow Sculpture Contest in Nayoro, on Hakkaido Island at the north end of Japan . There were ten teams competing and I was by joined by my teammates, Roger Chaisson, and Donald Watt.

We were excited when we arrived to the snow sculpture park in Nayoro but we were not expecting the two new religions, "Pokemon" and "Hello Kitty". I couldn't figure it out, but everyone was obsessed by these cartoons. When we saw the family competition it seemed like it was a law that you had to build one of these characters(Either that or all other designs were illegal). The Civil Defense (military) constructed a fifty foot high monstrosity of one of these Pokemon characters. Every morning I saw the soldiers sliding down the sculptures before the kids showed up to play. The snow here is fantastic, light dry and fluffy and it snowed nearly ten inches every day we were there.

After scouting the park it was time for the "onsen" back at the hotel. Most homes don't have a bath so these onsens act as a community bath house. These hot tubs, without the bubbles, are fed by natural hot springs - as well there was a sauna, mineral tub and an ice cold water tub. The idea was to sit in the sauna, then try to stay in the ice cold tub. Repeat three times. What you do is set the egg timer and rotate back and forth between the two. One local guy thought he would show up the tourist in the ice tub competition. But his willy got a little chilly which made the local Ice Bucket Champion guy bail from the ice bucket. I kicked his frozen butt! That certainly left me feeling exhilarated. He shoud have known to never mess with a Canadian in any kind of cold tolerance competition.

Then off to the lounge to celebrate my championship. A monk form the local Buddhist temple who was there was amazed with my bald head. We had something in common. Shiny bald heads! Even though the two of us couldn't communicate I relied on the "Smile, nod and point" method of communication. He bought us beer and the team relaxed, in preparation for tomorrow, we start the sculpture. We bowed him good night. Over here you bow to everyone, it's so catchy that I found myself bowing to the automatic doors as they opened for me.

Then the Snow Sculpture Welcome Party began. This is where all the teams hold a lottery for which block of snow they get to carve. Unfortunately I was tricked by beer into singing for the crowd. There was an open microphone, even though I can't sing, I stepped up to the Karaoke plate. One major difficulty is that the "words" were written in Japanese. I had to use the "Describe the Pictures on the screen songwriting technique". Luckily I was filled with beer which helped my creativity considerably. The crowd seemed to enjoy it too.

I woke up with a bit of a local fog strategically positioned around my head. Once we began to carve it took about 30 hours over three days to build our sculpture, "Patience" which showcased two hands threading a needle. What is interesting about this festival is that families all over this city of 30,000 build their own snow sculptures in front of their homes. Luckily there were no judges eyeing these carvings of the masses because there were some really interesting ones out there. The boys and I took home second place and received a wonderful plaque and many bows. Many bows. Many, many, many, bows.

To celebrate all the bows we joined an outdoor community barbecue also known as Ghenghis, as in Ghengis Khan. When he wasn't out raping and pillaging, apparently, he come over for a visit and as any good guest should, left some sheep for the locals. The town's people gather in the park near the stage, where entertainers were doing various entertainment things, and there were small barbecues set up that resemble hubcaps. Here they roast these gift sheep and cook up wonderful shaved marinated lamb. In between this endless feast there were other delicacies like scallops, cooked minced fish, sake, and that ever present beer.

I didn't sing for the crowd but I participated in as much hubcap cooking, beer swilling and bowing as I could. We traveled from far to gather with the citizens of Nayoro with large piles of snow and wonderful hospitality; we sought adventure and friendship and found both.

To me Japan is so very much like North America except for the obsession with Pokemon and that stupid cat, sheep hubcap cooking and all the bowing. For sure one thing that we have in common is a desire for fun and snow sculptures helped us to connect with each other. You just never know where learning a fun activity will take you.

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