Walking on the clouds: from New Balance to a sea of clouds

If you predict from the above title that this article would be about the introduction of New Balance, you must be a big fan of sneakers. Indeed, it is said that Ralph Lauren praised the New Balance M1300 as “It’s like walking on the clouds.” Speaking of New Balance, it’s one of the three major sneaker brands in Japan, with Nike and Adidas. According to a research, Nike and Adidas are selected for the design and style, while New Balance is for foot comfort. Ralph Lauren’s remarks may hit the mark. Anyway, I’m not writing about sneakers today.

Possibly some of you (around the same age as me) may associate this title with the title of a Hollywood movie remade about 30 years ago by starring Keanu Reeves, but it’s correctly “A Walk in the Clouds.” Sorry, the Introduction of my essay is always quite long like this, which sometimes may make readers wander in a cloud. OK, let’s get to the point. Today, I will introduce a special place in Hokkaido where you can see a sea of clouds and feel like really walking on the clouds.

An unexpected person with a simple idea revived a resort

The name of the special place is Tomamu, a small resort town among mountains. The place was developed as a ski resort about 40 years ago, when the Japan’s crazy bubble economy just started. A lot of investment flew in such places at that time, and consequently many tower hotels and ski slopes were built there. With the end of the bubble economy, people, money, and everything were gone, and since then, the small resort town barely survived on a shoestring. Most of the Hokkaido people including me just forgot Tomamu as one of the ruins of the bubble economy.

In 2004, a turning point came: a hotel management company famous for business turnaround took over the operation of the main hotel there. Even for the company, it was not an easy road, but the situation got better gradually. The biggest challenge they faced was that it was a ski resort where visitors have nothing to do in the seasons other than winter. The president of the company kept on asking the staff “Are there any summer attractions?” One day, the maintenance staff of ski’s lifts said “The scenery seen from the summit area on a summer morning is so beautiful, and I think people will love it, too.” This was the moment when killer content “Unkai Terrace” started. It was not super marketers but the lift maintenance staff that brought that outdated ski resort back to life.

Unkai Terrace: sipping coffee above the clouds

Unkai Terrace is a café with the various types of observation decks where you can enjoy coffee and some snacks looking down at the clouds. It opens only for 3 hours from 5 to 8 o’clock in the morning in summer from the middle of May to early October. The time permitted to be on the site is limited, and to make matters more difficult, it depends on your luck if you can see a sea of clouds. For your information, I finally saw a sea of clouds for the first time some weeks ago, and it was on my fourth try. It takes more than three hours from my home by car, but I’m sure it’s worth it because we can feel like walking on the clouds.

As you can see, it’s not easy to experience a walk on the clouds, but you may be able to simulate the experience with our sofa. The name of the sofa is Mola. Japanese sofas are often said to be harder, but Mola is tuned to be soft and comfortable. From the view point of ergonomics, hard cushions are better for your back because they make your sitting posture more stable, but I know many of you want to relax on the soft, fluffy sofa, right? Mola manages both comfort and stability, and you can feel like lying on the clouds at home.

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