More than 120 teams on Sunday battled it out in a snowball fight tournament in a mountainous Japanese city, in what the local weather bureau called the coldest air this winter to sweep the country’s northern snow belt.
The 35th annual Koide International Snowball Fight in Uonuma in Niigata Prefecture, about 180km northwest of Tokyo, was the largest event of its kind in Japan, 29-year-old head judge Takuya Kitsu said.
Teams of five players competed in two-minute matches between two teams on a field the size of a tennis court, with points awarded for direct hits with a snowball.
Photo: Reuters
“Put simply, you make snowballs, throw them, score hits and the [team with the] most points wins,” Kitsu said.
In Japan, standardized snowball fighting, known as Sports Yukigassen, has players across the country’s heavy-snow areas and boasts an official body that has campaigned to take the sport to the Winter Olympics.
According to the rules published by the Japan Yukigassen Federation, which was not involved in organizing Uonuma’s event, players are counted out when hit by a snowball and a team wins once all opponents are out.
Photo: Reuters
“Snowball fighting is originally just a game, so I like that when you give it a competitive side it becomes a high-tension sport you can enjoy,” said 26-year-old Masaki Nakakubo, who traveled from Tokyo to take part in the tournament.
“I think it’s that kind of event where you can feel like a kid again,” said 28-year-old Chizuru Ofuchi, a fellow competitor.
Uonuma is deep in Japan’s so-called snow country, a region that has hefty amounts of snowfall every winter. More than 3m of snow had accumulated in the city by Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
“When you look at it from a local’s point of view, the snow can be a nuisance, it’s a hassle,” said Kitsu, an Uonuma native. “So we hoped we could turn it into something fun by starting these snowball fights.”
The winner of the tournament was awarded 30kg of rice, an Uonuma speciality.
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