Yolkobsens Go Yukigassen Indoors

Yolkobsens are great admirers of the snowball fight and consider it an art form. That is why we read with interest coverage of Yukigassen, the snow warrior game from Japan.

Yukigassen, “snow battle,” is not a an online game, but fast-paced team play, an outdoor frenzy that seems to be a twist on the old schoolyard sucker punch and the popular paintball games that have been around for a while now.

Mrs. Y was astonished when she opened Canadanewsreport this morning and found coverage of the first-ever Canadian national championship held recently in Edmonton.

Here’s how it’s played. First, you need to get ready by somehow locating steel snowball moulds, used to form water and snow frozen spheres, all of which have to be of a uniform size. Then you have to get some flags, shields and construct a snow wall fortress-style for each side.

The formal competition involves clobbering the other team with snowballs and stealing their flag. Well, it’s no dumber than most games involving throwing something. The gold standard for dumb sports remains the luge and synchronized swimming. At least Yukigassen does not involve nose plugs and pancake makeup and can be accomplished with a minimum of toe pointing.

There’s more on pancake makeup in Yolkobsens’ fashionable press magazine. Meanwhile, there’s more about pancakes on our delicious food recipe site so we think this sport lends itself nicely to shameless, cheap and inappropriate references to our business interests, thank you very much.

With early March snow on the ground here in Toronto’s South Annex, those bits of spring we thought we saw a few days ago through the pouring rain have once more submerged. Therefore, Yolkobsens thoughts turn once again to one of their favourite pastimes, the indoor snowball fight.

There really are no rules for the indoor version of the childhood rough and tumble game. Fortunately, Yolkobsen Manor is not burdened with a single item of value as part of its décor. So a free-for-all is pretty well safe here. The only rule is that one person must sit down and continue drinking his or her beverage while the other sweeps the floor at intervals to avoid puddles forming in the house.

Mrs. Y has taken to keeping a snowball stash in the freezer in case she is ambushed anytime Mr. Y comes in the front door. As I mentioned, there are no rules, but it’s best to be prepared for any frozen projectile eventuality.

Having the game indoors means that you don’t have to put on your coat, mittens and hat etc. to enjoy a bit of Canada’s fun white stuff. And, unlike Yukigassen, no snow barricades or uniform snowballs need be prepared in advance. It does help to be pretty drunk, though.