Special Contents
ASOBINA – Paragliding and Outdoor Sports in the Ina Valley
Yoshiki is a man in his 40s with the air of a man in his 20s. Paragliding and adventure sports have been his whole life and have kept him young in body, heart and mind. His paragliding, MTB and stand-up-paddle board adventure sports company in the Ina Valley is called ASOBINA. The business was started in June of 2020.
At ASOBINA you can choose from a menu of outdoor activities including:
• Tandem flight
• Paragliding experience (a solo low elevation flight with a special training paraglider that prevents you from flying away into the next town over)
• Mountain Biking
• Stand-Up-Paddling Boarding
• Motorized buggies
• They also offer body conditioning exercise classes and pottery.
• Tandem flight
• Paragliding experience (a solo low elevation flight with a special training paraglider that prevents you from flying away into the next town over)
• Mountain Biking
• Stand-Up-Paddling Boarding
• Motorized buggies
• They also offer body conditioning exercise classes and pottery.
Their main facility is a reformed old house in Yokoyama Village of Ina City, which has some of the best views mountain views you could imagine. Once you visit you may just want to stop travelling and live here. The building itself blends very well into the beautiful mountain village backdrop. You might well miss it if it weren’t for the big ASOBINA logo written on the side of the shipping container that stores their outdoor equipment. On that note, the equipment that ASOBINA uses is reassuringly new and high quality. This news may offer light relief for those fearing the flight that lays ahead of them.
The Staff
The team at ASOBINA have some impressive credentials to their names.
Yoshiki Kuremoto:
Yoshiki himself is at the very top of the paragliding game. Born and raised in the Ina Valley, he says his urge to fly started from a young age. He loved the movie Top Gun and his father was an avid paraglider. When he was 14 years old his father refused to let him fly so he stole his father’s paragliding gear and … flew straight into a tree. Things got better since then. Here are a few of his achievements:
• He held the number one spot in the Asian paraglide rankings for 6 years straight.
• He holds the Japanese record for the longest non-stop paraglide flight with a flight of 385km.
• He won gold in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia in the speed competition.
Yoshiki himself is at the very top of the paragliding game. Born and raised in the Ina Valley, he says his urge to fly started from a young age. He loved the movie Top Gun and his father was an avid paraglider. When he was 14 years old his father refused to let him fly so he stole his father’s paragliding gear and … flew straight into a tree. Things got better since then. Here are a few of his achievements:
• He held the number one spot in the Asian paraglide rankings for 6 years straight.
• He holds the Japanese record for the longest non-stop paraglide flight with a flight of 385km.
• He won gold in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia in the speed competition.
Naoto Tateda:
Naoto takes the lead of the MTB operation. Originally from Kagoshima Prefecture he is (at the time of writing) ranked number one in Japan’s MTB second league and is fully expected to be promoted to the top league next season. He travels the country to compete alongside his job guiding at ASOBINA.
Naoto takes the lead of the MTB operation. Originally from Kagoshima Prefecture he is (at the time of writing) ranked number one in Japan’s MTB second league and is fully expected to be promoted to the top league next season. He travels the country to compete alongside his job guiding at ASOBINA.
Tomoya Hirabayashi:
Tomoya is a free style skiing and takes a lead role in the company’s winter operations. In the green season he also paraglides and loves to guide in the outdoors.
Tomoya is a free style skiing and takes a lead role in the company’s winter operations. In the green season he also paraglides and loves to guide in the outdoors.
Yasufumi Tsumaki:
Yasufumi is a trained pharmacist. He packed in his white lab coat and took up a career in mountain biking and the outdoors, his true passion.
Yasufumi is a trained pharmacist. He packed in his white lab coat and took up a career in mountain biking and the outdoors, his true passion.
ASOBINA’s Vision
The company’s aim is to become a hub for Japanese outdoor talent. Yoshiki hopes that through his work he can help to train a new generation of Japanese athletes. Lofty aims (excuse the pun). He also wants to attract people from all over the world to come and stay in the Ina Valley so they can experience his beautiful hometown valley between, that lies between the Alps.