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Ski resort with escalator opens beside Fighters’ baseball stadium
KITA-HIROSHIMA, Hokkaido--A compact ski resort for beginners has opened in the F Village ballpark complex that features the home stadium of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters pro baseball team.
Snow Park, which started operations on Nov. 1, is intended primarily for foreign tourists and visitors from outside Japan’s northernmost main island.
Shorefield Co., the ski resort’s operator, wants to limit users to skiers who will “play on snow for the first time in their life at F Village.”
Situated on a hill near the Es Con Field Hokkaido stadium, Snow Park’s lone ski slope is 70 meters long and 30 meters wide. It can accommodate up to 80 skiers at a time.
“Our hope was creating a slope for people who cannot ski well,” said Hiroshi Kishino, president of Shorefield.
Snow Park is marked by beginner-friendly gimmicks, including a 50-meter escalator that brings novice skiers to the top of the hill without the risk of a chairlift mishap.
Rental equipment, including skiwear, is available so visitors can travel light to Snow Park.
The operator will use artificial snow if natural snowfalls prove insufficient.
Personal ski lessons are available. Staff members fluent in English, Chinese, Korean and Malay are stationed there permanently for interpretation.
The three-hour usage fee for the slope and rental expenses total 8,800 yen ($58).
Visitors will be given the option of touring both Snow Park and the baseball stadium. They can enjoy various experiences at the complex all day long even if no ball games are scheduled in winter.
Snow Park is looking to draw 10,000 visitors in its first business year.
About 1.44 million people from overseas visited Hokkaido from October 2018 through March 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of that figure, 23.6 percent wanted to play winter sports, but only 10.4 percent could do so. That means an estimated 120,000 people failed to get a taste of physical recreational activities in Hokkaido.
Snow Park is open between 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Prior booking is recommended.
A specialized corner for sleds will open in mid-December.
