I know we have some Dopers living in Japan. I will be in Fukuoka/Nagasaki in late August and would like to attend a game… probably the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks at their stadium in Fukuoka.
Where can I find a schedule online and can I buy tickets at the stadium an hour or so before the game?
What do tickets cost for say something along the 3rd base line?
You can find the schedule online here, for the Hawks, but it’s in Japanese only:
http://www.softbankhawks.co.jp/game/2009/200905.php
You can see the ticket prices here (again, in Japanese):
http://www.softbankhawks.co.jp/ticket/seat_ticket_price01.php
Along the 3rd base line, you’re looking at either 4,300 yen for the A section, or 10,000 to 12,000 for the “Coca Cola seats”.
You can buy tickets at the dome up to two hours before the start of the game. The best way to buy tickets, however, is at convenience stores. Lawson, Family Mart and Circle-K have the best selection. For some reason 7-11 doesn’t sell tickets for all sections. Convenience stores have a sort of terminal from where you can buy things like tickets. You might need to have someone help you out, as I’m not sure there’s much English on the menus.
Moving to The Game Room from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
So I assume I’d have to buy the tickets at a convenience in Fukuoka for games at the dome, or can you buy tickets for any game at any store in Japan? I have a Japanese friend in Prague that can probably help with reading the website. Thanks!
You can buy tickets for any game from any store. It’s a central service, somewhat like Ticketmaster; you can buy tickets for pretty much any show or sporting event.
You definitely need someone to help you if you don’t understand Japanese - I’ve purchased tickets to Studio Ghibli at Lawson, and there was no English option whatsoever. Plus, at one point it asked me for my phone number, and I didn’t have a Japanese one. Tried punching in random numbers, which it didn’t like. I then dragged a poor Lawson employee to the machine, and he said there was no way to get out of entering the number. At the end I got desperate and used my German mobile number with a couple of zeros added, and that luckily did the trick.
Can anyone comment on the different teams? I have the choice of seeing the Fukuoka Hawks at the Yahoo stadium in Fukuoka or perhaps a game in Kobe or Nishinomiya.
Is there any team that is particularly “special” like the NY Yankees, Harlem Globetrotters (yes, I realize they play basketball) etc.