Nakajima Park

This guide to Nakajima Park in Sapporo moves between a century of playground history, from an 1874 lumberyard on a bend of the Kamokamo River to an amusement ground with horse racing, sumo and fireworks, and a single night in January 1978 when a Rainbow concert crowd rushed the stage inside Nakajima Sports Center. It also traces the 1918 exposition that drew over a million visitors in seven weeks and pulled the streetcar line out to meet them. Rent a rowboat at Shobu Pond, just as visitors have done since the 1890s.