Snow Festival in Yamagata
...pictures from February 11-12, 2006

My friend Aya from Sendai drove me to Yamagata to check out a snow festival in a town called Yonezawa. There's very little snow in Miyagi prefecture, but on the west side of the mountains, Yamagata prefecture has been completely buried this Winter. The festival was amazing. There were candles and snow lanterns placed all over the town along all the sidewalks. There were also lots of snow and ice sculptures and it was all very beautiful.