This skatepark is an interesting one, Located in Mikasa on the island of Hokkaido Japan. Now we can’t get a date for when this one was built, it could possibly be 80’s or 90’s, but it could be even later, we are not really sure. This place is often referred to as the Lost Skatepark Mikasa or "The Death Bowl". This is the Jurassic Park of skateparks, it is nestled in between high lush mountains, in a really raw and untouched part of the world. Now Hokkiado is the second largest island in Japan, with the capital being Sapporo. The city of Mikasa was one of the birthplaces of coal mining and the railroad industry in Japan. It once flourished with the abundance of coal mining, yet with the closure of the mines, it caused the population to fall rapidly. More recently Mikasa has become more of a tourist attraction, with people being drawn to it for its agricultural beauty.
So this park is gnarly, we have included an arial shot from Google Maps below. We have never seen anything like this to be honest. It is made up of this concrete S. It is not connected to anything, it is just like a freestanding vertical wall that bends around in an S shape. In the centre of the park there is this huge, cylindrical structure, which almost looks like a flower box or planter box, again super steep and gnarly. There is actually a big tree growing in the centre, so it looks damn cool. The third section is this insane vert pipe run that ends at this gnarly bowl. From the sky it almost looks like a bent thermometer or test tube you would use in a lab for scientific research. The concrete and just the look of this thing is so ominous, the pipe is really steep and there are zero coping or even platforms, plus the edges look razor sharp, so it looks like a damn challenge to skate. To add to the equation the concrete looks rough as guts so stacking it here and you would grind off a few layers of skin, that’s for sure.
When you're first looking at this thing, you might think that this is some type of bunker system remaining from WW2. The bowl could be the remaining foundation for an anti-aircraft gun or something, its nuts. If any of you remember Lakewood Centre Skateboard World they had a pipe that looks really similar to this, so i mean this place could potentially have been built in the late 70’s we have no idea. The style is really unusual, its not your regular skatepark setup, it looks like it would only really cater for really advanced skaters, so if this place was open to the general public back in the day, it would have been a death trap for beginners. So we are not sure why it was built to only cater for such advanced skaters, there potentially could have been competitions held at this spot, but we are not sure. We did have one person on our Facebook account hit us up and say that it was originally built for roller skating, but this seems insane. If that were the case I don't think they would of had a big enough hospital in the Mikasa to cater for all the injured people.
During 2001 it actually made the cover of Thrasher. It also made a feature in a few videos from the 2008 Thrasher Japan Tour video. Most recently Thrasher went back to Mikasa and shot a video in 2023. Apart from that there are a few images on social media and some pics posted on some Japanese skate forums. Yet the details on its history are still pretty hazy, my first thought is that it was built during the time that the mining industry was still quite active and a way to cater for the kids whose families worked within the mining industry, once the mines dried up and people started leaving the town and the skatepark was used less and less. It is also said that this place is located on private land and it is closed off to the public, yet, there is only a keep out sign and the skatepark is not fenced off. The owner has forbidden the general public to use it because of the risk of injury apparently. There is also a family activity centre located next door and campaign ground close by so it seems like this area still gets people coming to it.
If you are in search of a new adventure, this place would be at the top of the list!
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