The best part of the Asahikawa Winter Festival are the ice sculptures and anything cool that’s made out of snow. If I’d have to describe what the festival is all about in a few words, it’s about 5 days of snow, ice, light , lasers, music food and drink. It’s also free to walk around and observe, so if you’re in Japan or got the money to go there, its defennitley worth your time.
The coolest thing involving snow in this year’s festival seems to be the great snow wall of Optimus Prime. If you don’t know who Optimus Prime is, or to be exact what he is, then don’t bother about watching the Michael Bay Transformers Trilogy. Better take a time machine and go back to the 80’s, and you’ll get the idea from the original cartoon series.
But seriously, as much as we can be about fictional robot warriors, Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, and besides being super cool with a voice I’d love to have, it’s his human side, and compassion towards our fragile existence that makes him so damn lovable.
The snow-sculpture itself will be a gigantic 53-foot tall bust of Optimus Prime looking over a wall. So if you’re walking around Asahikawa and you see this wall, just know it’s not a tribute to Pink Floyd, or the Wall at the edge of Westeros to hold back the wildlings and the Others from invading. It’s a tribute to the greatest Autobot of them all, although I’m pretty confident they’ll also have signs explaining each exhibit.
