Things I love about Japan: the JSDF building ice sculptures

I was in Eastern Hokkaido recently, right before the Mombetsu area had their annual snow and ice festival. It’s not as big as Sapporo’s, of course, but the level of effort and heart that is put into it is still huge.

One of the most incredible things that I saw as the festival was being set up though, was that the Japan Self Defense Force were the ones making the star of the show - a replica of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat made of ice. The intricacy needed to make a creation like this was amazing to me, but what probably hit home even more was that we are lucky to live in a country so safe that the self defense forces are able to dedicate time to projects like this.

They were all still hard at work finishing it up when I was leaving, but can we take a minute to appreciate how phenomenal this looks?