is an indoor ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 arena

Arena

An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 in Nagano

Nagano, Nagano

, the capital city of Nagano Prefecture, is located in the northern part of the prefecture near the confluence of the Chikuma and the Sai rivers, on the main Japanese island of Honshū.As of April 1, 2011 the city has a population of 387,146...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 with a capacity of 10,104 seated spectators. Its official name is the "Nagano City Wakasato Tamokuteki Sports Arena". The arena was completed and officially opened on December 10, 1995. The ice hockey

Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics

Ice hockey at the 1998 Winter Olympics was played at The Big Hat and Aqua Wing Arena in Nagano, Japan.-Men's tournament:The 1998 Olympic men's ice hockey tournament was the first in which professional players from the National Hockey League were allowed to participate, allowing national teams to...

 games from the 1998 Winter Olympics

1998 Winter Olympics

The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated from 7 to 22 February 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Seventy-two nations and 2,176 participans contested in seven sports and 72 events at 15 venues. The games saw the introduction of Women's ice...

, including the men's and women's finals, were held at this arena. The rink still serves as the location of the Nagano Cup, an annual ice hockey tournament held to commemorate the 1998 games, as well as many short track speed skating

Short track speed skating

Short track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a circumference of 111.12 m...

competitions. The Wakasato hall in the complex features a stage and theater seating, and frequently serves as a venue for music recitals and public meetings.