Kabayama, Kutchan cafe “Green saso” and guest house owner Junichiro Watanabe (41) has opened the skateboarding skatepark “Nupuri Bowl” right outside the cafe. This is the first authentic skatepark in the Niseko region.
The idea is to play a part in stimulating tourism in this region that is usually busy during the winter with snowboarding, acting as a fun area for the summertime “ground boarding” sport.
Nupuri Bowl is a bowl-shaped outdoor concrete play area that is 20 meters long, 10 meters wide, and 1.4 meters deep. The total construction cost was about two million yen, and it opened on August 8. In addition to ramps for skating down, there is also a “play-scape” feature where skateboarders can try jumps and whiz along the edge of the course, allowing everyone to practice a lot of different kinds of skateboarding techniques.
Skateboarding is often used as summertime training for snowboarding and was included as an official sport for the Tokyo Olympics, which are postponed until next summer. Nupuri Bowl has been thronging with skateboard enthusiasts from nearby and all over Hokkaido ever since it opened.
Watanabe plans on holding all sorts of events in the future, including contests. He said, “I want this to expand as a new cultural phenomenon for the region and to simultaneously attract tourists from inside and outside Japan as a new sport people can enjoy during the summertime.”
The park is open from 10:00 am to sundown and closed on rainy days. The admission fee is 1,000 yen per one adult for a full day.

Contact by e-mail at info@greensaso.com.