Asahiyama Memorial Park, Park with observation deck in Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Japan.
Asahiyama Memorial Park is a park in Chuo-ku, Sapporo, centred on a lookout 137.5 metres above sea level. Around the lookout are a large lawn, a fountain, a terraced Italian flowerbed, a French geometric garden and a Chinese arbor. Paths lead through the Learning Forest, planted with Ezo alder, Ezo spruce, magnolia and false acacia.
The area was a farm and later the Sapporo Onsen resort, whose tram line closed in 1930. In 1946 the Hokkaido Takushoku Bank donated the land to Sapporo as a ski site, and the Onsenyama ski area operated from 1947. Over 5,500 trees were planted in 1966, and the park opened in 1970 for Sapporo's centennial. It closed for renovation in 2004 and reopened on April 29, 2009.
The park hosts the Sapporo Asahiyama Music Festival every July, set against the Toyohira fireworks. The forests planted for sister-city anniversaries with Portland and Munich, and for Sapporo's centenary, mark the city's ties. The hill's name comes from its use as a ski slope, Onsenyama, before the park was laid out.
The park is reached by JR Bus (Nishi13) from Maruyama-Kōen Station on the Tōzai Line, a 15-minute ride to the Asahiyama Koen-mae stop followed by a 5-minute walk. The rest house closes in winter, when a cross-country ski course is set up instead. Paths link to the Moiwa Mountain trail.
The lookout sits on top of the Sapporo Waterworks Bureau's Asahiyama reservoir, so the observation plaza is built directly over a water tank at 137.5 m. Below the park, traces of a kiln that produced Sapporo ware in the Taisho era remain, listed among Sapporo's 100 hometown cultural selections.
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