20030927 27 September 2003 SSAWS Spring Summer Autumn Winter Snow 1 Funabashi Chiba Tokyo Japan

SSAWS, pronounced and officially known as , was an

indoor ski slope Indoor skiing is done in a climate-controlled environment with artificially produced snow. This enables skiing and snowboarding to take place regardless of outdoor temperatures. Facilities for both alpine skiing and nordic skiing are availabl ...

Funabashi, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 644,668 in 309,238 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . It is the Greater Tokyo Area's 7th most populated city (after pa ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The name was an acronym of "Spring Summer Autumn Winter Snow". Constructed by

Mitsui is one of the largest '' keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industri ...

at a cost of US$400 million, the ski slope opened on July 15, 1993. With a structural height of 100 meters (translating to a skiable vertical drop of 80 m), a width of 100 m and a length of 500 m, it was the largest indoor ski slope in the world at the time. The complex had three ski courses—20.1° for skilled skiers, 15° for intermediate, and 10° for beginners — and two ski lifts. The ski slope was designed to break even by 2018 by attracting 1.3 million visitors yearly, who would pay ¥4,300 (~US$50) for 2 hours of lift time and spend a total of $70 on average. However, the opening of the ski slope came shortly after the end of the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and Japan's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration ...

, and original estimates soon proved too optimistic, with the number of visitors dropping from one million in the first year to 700,000 in the second. With an annual operating cost of US$40 million, SSAWS sustained losses averaging US$16.7 million/year. SSAWS closed on September 30, 2002. In 2003, the structure was demolished to make way for Japan's first large-format

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

store, which opened on the site on April 24, 2006.

References

External links

*
Webcam captures from inside the complex on www.indoorsnow.com
{{Coord, 35.681472, 139.991934, type:landmark, display=title

Ssaws SSAWS, pronounced and officially known as , was an indoor ski slope in Funabashi, Chiba, Japan. The name was an acronym of "Spring Summer Autumn Winter Snow". Constructed by Mitsui at a cost of US$400 million, the ski slope opened on July 15, 1 ...

Sports venues in Chiba Prefecture 1993 establishments in Japan Buildings and structures demolished in 2003 Funabashi Defunct sports venues in Japan