Playground of the Gods

By Linda Tancs

You might think that an attraction known as Playground of the Gods hails from some exotic island. In this case, the locale is actually in Burnaby, the third largest city in British Columbia. Also known as Kamui Mintara, it comprises more than a dozen wooden totems perched atop Burnaby Mountain, created by Japanese sculptors Nuburi Toko and his son Shusei in the Ainu indigenous tradition of northern Japan. These works commemorate the goodwill between Burnaby and its sister city, Kushiro, Japan.