Photo= Students of Shiga Junior College create "Candy houses" in which people and aliens live together happily at Christmas in the Lake Biwa area (Lake Biwa Otsu Prince Hotel, Nionohama 4-chome, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture)

"Candy houses" made by students of Shiga Junior College, in Tatsugaoka, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, are on display in the lobby of the Lake Biwa Otsu Prince Hotel, located at Nionohama 4-chome, Otsu City. A snow scape of the Lake Biwa area is colorfully created and boosts the Christmas mood.

It was made by 27 students who belong to "Bakery Juku," a club for learning about bread and sweets at Shiga Junior College. They worked on making candy houses for their class and then presented the sweets to local kindergartens and nursery schools.

The exhibition at the hotel began three years ago. This year its theme is "Actually, an alien is Santa Claus." With preparation starting from the mid November, the students created a scene where people and aliens live together peacefully in the Lake Biwa area.

Photo= Students making candy houses with cookies and marzipan

The candy house scene measures 1 meter in length, 1.8 meters in width and 70 centimeters in height, including its foundation. Dolls made of "marzipan," a colored mixture of sugar and almond powder, are closely arranged on it. All characters show rich facial expressions and include people enjoying skiing, raccoon dogs dressed up as Santa Claus, aliens enjoying hot springs and others. One sophomore student, who comes from Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture, said, "We used ingenuity to make the characters as lively as possible."

The exhibit will be changed to suit the New Year on December 26 and shown until the middle of January. On December 24 and 25, the hotel's coffee shop "Marmolada" will include cakes associated with Christmas, developed by the students, on its menu.