Higashiyama Park, Public park in Iwamizawa City, Japan.
Higashiyama Park is a public park in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, bordered by Ekimae-dori and Chuo-dori. It contains a 400 m, eight-lane athletics track with a natural-grass football field, a sports center, a training center, an archery hall, tennis courts, and an outdoor music stage. The park also holds a water park along the Hokkan main irrigation channel and five outdoor sculptures.
Higashiyama Park's facilities were built in stages: the sports centre and athletics stadium opened in 1968, followed by an outdoor music stage in 1979, a training centre in 1981 and an archery hall in 1985. Tennis courts were added and the baseball ground renovated in 1992; the baseball ground moved to a new site in 1999, and the present athletics stadium was completed in 2007.
The park's planting reflects a local link with China: black poplars from Beijing, lilacs and flowering peach were set out because Hara Masaiichi worked on rice cultivation guidance there. At the suggestion of city junior high school students, wild squirrels were brought back from the Tonebetsu old-growth forest.
The park lies between Ekimae-dori and Chuo-dori, with the Iwamizawa city office, Iwamizawa Shrine and the city library nearby. The athletics track's outer loop doubles as a jogging course, and in winter as a cross-country ski course. The北海幹線用水路 canal runs beside the park, its covered box section landscaped as a waterside walkway with routes named after mizunara, poplar, viewpoint and birch.
The park's plantings include Beijing poplar, lilac and flowering peach, chosen because Masaiichi Hara worked on rice cultivation in China. Wild squirrels were also reintroduced here from the Tondenbetsu old-growth forest after a proposal by local junior high school students.
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