Fri, February 06, 2009
A snow festival kicks off in the northern Japanese city of Hokkaido.
The Sapporo Snow Festival, one of Japan's biggest tourist draws, opened on Thursday (February 5).
Thousands of tonnes of snow were carved into towering sculptures, some as high as 15 metres.
A highlight of the festival was a sculpture for Tokyo's 2016 Olympic bid, with Japan's Olympic hero Kosuke Kitajima engraved into it.
