2020 Olympic Venues – Yumenoshima Venues

Yumenoshima, or Dream Island, is a large park next to Shin-Kiba Station.  I feel it is an underused park as it is in the middle of nowhere.  The entire area is surrounded by industry and the main train line is not very popular.  It can be a difficult venue to reach and even with the new venues, I’m not sure if it will be any more popular in the future.

Kasai Slalom Course

The Kasai Slalom Course will be a brand new venue built at Kasai Rinkai Park.  Kasai Rinkai Park is a large park located just east of Yumenoshima at the border of Tokyo and Chiba.  I couldn’t pinpoint the location of this venue but it appears to be on the eastern side of the park, even though the 2020 bid committee points out that the venue will be located on the western side of the park.  The venue will remain after the games and provide entertainment for local residents.  I will definitely give the slalom course a try if I can and provided the price isn’t too expensive.

The Kasai Slalom Course will hold the canoe and kayak slalom events for 2020.

Youth Arena Plaza A & B

The Youth Arena Plaza will be part of a large complex of buildings on Yumenoshima, or Dream Island.  The entire area is getting old and will require a little sprucing up.  The Youth Arena Plaza will consist of 2 buildings and will host the badminton and basketball events.  The current (BumB) Tokyo Sports Bunkakan, which was built around 1970, will be demolished and a new sports centre will be built in its place.  While this building is not necessarily that old, it isn’t new either and I would imagine they are just advancing the schedule of rebuilding it.  Knowing the standards of Japan, most buildings are rebuilt after 30 years, so this one is ready for a renewal anyways.

The Youth Arena Plaza A will hold the badminton events while Youth Arena Plaza B will hold the basketball events.

Update (July 2016):  The Youth Arena Plaza is no longer going to be updated for the Olympics.  The events will be moved to other venues.  Badminton will be moving to the Musashino Forest Sport Centre in Kofu, near Ajinomoto Stadium.  Basketball is moving to Saitama Super Arena.

Dream Island Archery Field

The Dream Island Archery Field will be built very close to the Youth Plaza.  It will be a legacy stadium that will be capable of holding various national and international archery events.  It will also be a good practice ground for local archers.  I’m not sure how useful this archery field will be but, the art of Kyudo (Japanese archery), is still pretty popular.  I see enough Kyudo archery bows on the trains in Tokyo to feel that it is still going strong enough.

The Dream Island Archery Field will hold the archery events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Dream Island Stadium

The Dream Island Stadium, or Yumenoshima Stadium, currently exists but will receive large upgrades.  Currently it is a track and field stadium but it will be converted into a stadium for equestrian events.  I doubt the refurbishment will be cheap.  From the 2020 bid website, it appears that the stadium will be rebuilt on the existing site but it will not look anything like the current stadium.  I’m not sure what will happen after the games but the bid committee says the stadium will revert to its original use, which may be pretty expensive.

Dream Island Stadium will hold the equestrian jumping and dressage events.

Update (July 2016):  The equestrian events are being moved to the Equestrian Park in Setagaya-ku of Tokyo.  It is located between the Sakurashinmachi Station on the Tokyu Denentoshi Line and Kyodo on the Odakyu Line.

Olympic Aquatics Centre

The Olympic Aquatics Centre will be built next to Yumenoshima providing great inter event access for the public.  The Aquatics Centre will be built for 20,000 spectators at first but be reduced to 5,000 and hold various national championships as well as being open to the public.  I am curious to see what other facilities will be available at this Aquatics Centre as it could turn into a very good community centre if they do it right, or just a big swimming pool if they do it wrong.

The Olympic Aquatics Centre will hold the swimming, diving, and synchronised swimming events.

Water Polo Arena

The Water Polo Arena will be built adjacent to the Olympic Aquatics Centre.  There really won’t be much to say about this venue as it will be a temporary venue that will be taken down afterwards.  Water Polo still remains to be a relatively small sport and the area they are building this arena appears to be an open area park.  I shudder to think of how many trees this park will lose for both the Aquatics Centre and this Water Polo arena.

The Water Polo Arena will hold the water polo events.

Update (July 2016):  It appears that the water polo arena will not be built but they will use the existing Tatsumi International Swimming Centre which is located adjacent to the land allocated for the original water polo arena.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Yumenoshima (Dream Island) Venues is part of a series detailing the venue locations and what will happen in the future.  To read more, follow the links below:

• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Meiji Jingu Venues
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Central Tokyo Venues
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Ariake Venues
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Odaiba Venues
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Sea Forest Venues
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Venues Outside the Heritage Area
• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venues – Other Venues

Information

• 2020 Tokyo Olympic Venue Plan (Official Site – English)