DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
• A huge humpback whale briefly scooped a kayaker in its mouth in the seas off the coast of southern Chile before spitting him out unscathed in a dramatic incident caught on camera. The kayaker, Adrian Simancas, was out with his father last weekend in the seas off the town of Punta Arenas, when the whale surfaced and scooped him up in his mouth. “I felt like I was being lifted, but it was clearly too strong to be a wave,” said Simancas. “When I turned, I felt something blue and white passing close to my face, like on one side and above. I didn’t understand what was happening. Then everything… I went under and thought I had been swallowed.” Luckily, the whale quickly spat out Simancas unharmed. His father, in another kayak, caught the whole thing on camera. “I turned on the camera and heard a wave crash behind me, loudly. When I turned, I didn’t see anything,” said his father, Dell Simancas. “So that was the only moment of real fear because I didn’t see Adrian for about three seconds. Then he suddenly shot out without the packraft, and a second later, the packraft emerged, and then I saw the fin of something.” Adrian Simancas was sure he was going to die during the ordeal. “I thought I was done for, that I was dead. It was like three strange seconds down there,” he said. – Reuters TV
A man falls while throwing a snowball at the 35th Koide International Snowball Fight in Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, on 9th February, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Tom Bateman/File photo
• More than 120 teams battled it out in a snowball fight tournament in a mountainous Japanese city on Sunday, 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, roughly 180 kilometres north-west of Tokyo, was the largest event of its kind in Japan, said 29-year-old head judge Takuya Kitsu. 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. “Put simply, you make snowballs, throw them, score hits and the (team with the) most points wins,” said Kitsu. In Japan, standardised 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 organising Uonuma’s event, players are counted out when hit by a snowball and a team wins once all opponents are out. “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 travelled 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 fellow competitor, 28-year-old Chizuru Ofuchi. Uonuma is deep in Japan’s so-called “Snow Country”, a region that has seen hefty amounts of snowfall every winter. More than three metres (nine feet) of snow had accumulated in the city by Sunday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. “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 30 kilograms of rice, an Uonuma speciality. – TOM BATEMAN, Uonuma, Japan/Reuters.
We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!
For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.
• A tourist village in China’s south-western province of Sichuan famed for its scenic snow landscape said it was sorry for using cotton wool and soapy water to create fake snow after online criticism from visitors went viral. In a post on its official Wechat account on 8th February, the Chengdu Snow Village project said during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, the weather was warm and the snow village did not take shape as anticipated. China is facing hotter and longer heat waves and more frequent and unpredictable heavy rain as a result of climate change, the country’s weather bureau has warned. “In order to create a ‘snowy’ atmosphere the tourist village purchased cotton for the snow…but it did not achieve the expected effect, leaving a very bad impression on tourists who came to visit,” the Chengdu Snow Village project said in the statement. After receiving feedback from the majority of netizens, the tourist area began to clean up all the snow cotton. The village said it “deeply apologises” for the changes and that tourists could get a refund. The site has since been closed. Photos on Wechat showed large cotton wool sheets strewn about the grounds, only partially covering leafy areas. A thick snow layer appeared to blanket the houses in the zone but as you got closer, it was all cotton, said one netizen. “A snow village without snow,” said another user. “In today’s age of well-developed Internet, scenic spots must advertise truthfully and avoid deception or false advertising, otherwise they will only shoot themselves in the foot.” – FARAH MASTER and the Beijing newsroom, Hong Kong, China/Reuters
