Tenri Station Plaza CoFuFun

A unique scene of a building combining a round lawn and a pure white circle stretches across JR and Kintetsu Tenri Station in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture.
It is the station square "CoFuFun," which opened in 2017 as a base for local revitalization.

Designer Oki Sato, who was selected as one of Newsweek's "100 Japanese People the World Respects," chose "kofun (tumulus)" as his design motif.
All the buildings, whether roofed or upside down, are composed of a combination of the shapes of circular mounds of various sizes.
The design is unique to Tenri City, which is known as the birthplace of the ancient Yamato kingdom and still retains approximately 1,600 kofun tumuli in various locations.

Because of its location in front of the station and its creation as a place for citizens to connect with each other, there are many event spaces, including an outdoor stage.
In addition to the giant trampoline "Fuwa Fuwa CoFun" and the "Suribachi CoFun," which is climbed by going around a mortar-shaped hole, the multipurpose square is equipped with playground equipment popular among children and health equipment for adults, and is used by people of all ages.

There are also a number of convenient facilities for tourists, including a café-restaurant serving food made with Tenri and Nara ingredients, a bicycle store selling, repairing, and renting bicycles made by the American manufacturer TREK, and information to assist travelers, making it an excellent base for sightseeing around Tenri.