This post is NOT to be posted ANYWHERE else without my agreement. Thank you.
This post will be updated whenever there's a need for it, or whenever I feel like.
Coming/ongoing tours:
ASIA TOUR 2008
~10th Anniversary~
Dates in English
April 5-6, 8: Tokyo Yoyogi
April 12: Hot House Super Arena (?) (Old Grande 21 - Miyagi)
April 19: Shizouka Ecopa Arena
April 26: Fukui Sun Dome
May 5-6: Nihon Gaishi Hall (Old Nagoya Rainbow Hall)
May 10: Hiroshima Green Arena
May 16-17: Kobe World Hall
May 24-25: Osaka Jo Hall
May 31-June 1: Fukuoka Marine Messe
June 7-8: Yokohama Arena
June 17-18: Nihon Gaishi Hall (Old Nagoya Rainbow Hall)
The Tutorial
- How to Get Flight Tickets
- How to Get Concert Tickets
-- How to Get Tickets Before You Arrive in Tokyo
-- How to Get Tickets when You are in Tokyo
- Price Examples and Seating References
- Where to Stay/Sleep
- How Much Money I Spent
- On Cellphones
- Links to Other Relevant Threads
- Pictures by Me and AHS Other Users
- Google Earth Locations
QUICK GUIDE
Spoiler:
Feeling unsure about if you've thought about everything? Or just curious about how much a trip to Japan in order to see Ayumi would cost you?
Here's a quick guide on what to think about and how to calculate the cost.
- Look up prices for flight tickets to Tokyo.
- If you're not staying in Tokyo, look up train costs from Tokyo (Narita) where your flight will most likely land. Don't forget about a return ticket.
- Google for hostels (Hostels is the cheaper alternative to hotels). Just go "town/area name hostels" at google.com, without the quotation marks.
- As for the concert tickets, count on 20,000 yen for a ticket and you'll be sure to get into the arena.
- For food, count on 10-20$/day you stay. Want to eat sushi every day? Count on 20-40$/day.
- For public transport, count on 5-10$/day and you're on the safe side.
- For shopping: bring as much spare cash as you feel like. This spare cash can also be used if you run out on cash in any of your other areas, such as food and so, but that shouldn't happen if you just stick to your plans, which isn't hard.
- Buying tour goods? The tour items usually range from 500-3000 yen each, use www.xe.com to exchange into your currency. Examples:
T-shirt: 1,500 yen
Towel: 1,500 yen
Light stick: 1,000 yen
Uchiwa (fan): 1,500 yen
F.A.Q.
Spoiler:
Make sure to read the entire Tutorial before you ask any questions, if there's something I'm not covering entirely or if it's unclear post here and I will try to change it.
-When are the tickets released?
Usually around 1 month before the actual performance. Tickets for April would be released in March. TeamAyu members get access to tickets a bit earlier.
Introduction of Me and My Trip to Tokyo
Spoiler:
Let me first tell you a little story about how I got into Ayu, I feel that is a good way to start this thread. The actual tutorial is further down, what you can read here first is my introduction to how this trip came to being, I would be very happy if you spent time reading it too. Thank you!
At the moment of writing I am 18 years old and from Sweden, Stockholm. My name is Martin.
5 years ago a good friend to me showed me the video of Ayu and Gack performing Silent Night together. We laughed at it, and that was it. It was the first time ever I saw or heard of Ayumi. Since about that time I've had a general interest in the Asian culture.
I have always been addicted to music, all kinds of music. After having known about Ayu for 5 years I, 3 months ago, decided that maybe I should actually listen to some of her music. Why hadn't I done so before? I had earlier automatically put her in the same category as artists like Britney Spears and such, guess if I regret that now.
The first song I listened to was evolution.
During the following few days my life sort of made a U-turn. I know I'm not, but today I really feel like and old fan of Ayu. I've seen, listened and read up on everything. I guess I'm sort of obsessed but not in an all too exaggerated way, I'm still a normal person .
I could keep on writing about this forever, this is an extremely short version of how I came into Ayu. But that isn't what you came here to read about, so, after this introduction, let's move on. (I'm still only at the stage of introducing the whole thing, if you only want to read the actual tutorial do so at the bottom of this post).
Around two months ago was the first time I heard about Arena Tour 2006, at that time it was around 1 month left untill it would start. Ofcourse the thought It'd be so cool going there! hit me, but it was nothing more than a thought.
A week later I accidentaly read about someone from Australia who had won two tickets for the tour. That brought back my old thought, but stronger, I really wanted to go aswell. I started researching on how much going to, and staying in, Tokyo would cost, mostly because I wanted to know, I still did not have any real plans on going. I spent one month just looking things up, through the Internet. My mom thought I was funny with all my talk about going to Tokyo.
I started realising this dream was actually possible to fullfill, now it wasn't only about going to see Ayu live, I became obsessed with the idea of going to Tokyo, alone, at the age of 18. I wanted to feel free, I wanted to see if I could really do this on my own.
The days passed and I kept up my research, my parents was first against the idea, as I would be using all my money I had saved up for the trip. The days passed, the first performances at the Saitama Arena came and went. Then it happened... SunshineSlayer posted her review of the concert. That was the final blow, I had to go to Tokyo. My parents still wouldn't allow me to, but they became fascinated with my persistence and that I kept up with my research even though they had already said no.
I contacted a friend, because I was actually a bit worried about travelling all alone. He was unsure on if he wanted to go or not.
Then, one thursday morning, 20 days or so before the performances in Yoyogi I told my parents; I'm ordering tickets to Tokyo now, I'll be leaving in 7 days. I was quite surprised when their reply was Oh, okay. I guess they had gotten used to the idea over time and didn't have the heart to stop me when I had put down so much work at planning this. My friend hooked on the last second and we went together. I sort of wanted to go alone so what we did was more or less to split up when we arrived and spent most of our time trying to get lost in Tokyo on our own, but what I did while I was in Tokyo is another story, now lets go on to the the actual HOW TO... part.
How to Make it to Tokyo, See Ayumi Hamasaki Live and Get Back in One Piece
Use www.xe.com to translate the numbers into any currency you like. Any time the $-sign is used it refers to American dollars. € refers to European Euro.
Flight Tickets
Spoiler:
This part was simple, there are several pages that compare travelling with different companies. I used www.pricerunner.com. My two-way flight ticket to Tokyo, Narita from Stockholm, Arlanda cost me 750€. I flew with British Airways they were, I guess still are, the cheapest company to fly with, by far. Also they have a good standard, I enjoyed the food, especially the cup noodles .
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer
Just want to interject here, that if you live in a city with a large Asian population there should be at least one Asian travel agency. They will have the cheapest rates to Japan. I can't remember the exact price of my ticket, but it was less than $650 roundtrip.
Concert Tickets
Spoiler:
I got one of my tickets before I went to Tokyo, for the performance at the 22/4. I knew the location of one ticket re-seller store before I went, I decided I would get the 23/4 ticket when I arrived there.
I've written some on this before so I will copy a lot of that to here, also I will use/quote/link to the guide that SunshineSlayer wrote.
How to Get Tickets Before You Arrive in Tokyo
www.fdjp.com. From here I got my tickets for the first performance. I bought block B1 front row tickets, they were 26000 yen each. FDJP charges an additional 30% for handling if you buy things from a store (for example a reseller store), the handling cost is less if you use them to buy through auction pages. They ship via EMS parcel so the order should reach you within 4 to 5 days no matter where in the world you live.
http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp. This is the best place to get concert tickets, one of Japans biggest auction pages, lots of concert tickets up here. See following entries for more information of buying through Yahoo Auctions Japan.
Troubles you will encounter when using Yahoo Auctions Japan (Do not despair, there's services that will help you with tackling those):
The page is entirely in Japanese, you will have to be able to read and understand Japanese in order to use it.
In over 99% of the cases sellers ship only within Japan, not world wide.
www.akibado.com. A page through which you can bid on Japanese auction pages, such as http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp. Akibado charge some extra and will handle everything and ship the items to you.
http://celga.com. A page like akibado, but according to someone I know this place is a lot more effective, with very nice staff and quick replies to emails.
http://rinkya.com. Another page which I know that people have been using with satisfaction, I heard they are a little more expensive than celga.com but they are also more popular.
Having a friend in Japan. You could ask this friend to go to a ticket reseller store and buy tickets for you, which he could either mail or hand over to you when you arrive. Possibly you could have this friend call and buy tickets on the official release date. Maybe you could even join Team Ayu through him/her and preorder tickets.
Ok, how you get concert tickets: (many of these have already been mentioned here)
1. The official way - Just forget it, it ain't gonna happen if you aren't living in Japan and you likely will not be able to get the very best seats because they all go to fan club members and foreigners can not join the fanclub. So just resign yourself to that.
4. THE BEST way to get tickets is to not get them until you are actually in Japan. It sounds very risky, I know. If you are flying to Japan and getting a hotel room and spending all that money just to see Ayu live, you would generally like to have the tickets first so that you know for sure you are going. But trust me that this way is the easiest, least confusing, and ultimately cheapest way to go.
If your concert is in Tokyo or the surrounding area (Yokohama, Saitama, Chiba, Tochigi etc) what you want to do is go to a ticket reseller shop in Harajuku. It's very easy to find since it is on the famous Takashita Dori st.(famous for its crepes, fasion, and idol shops.) On the Tokyo Metro system, take the green Chiyoda line to the Meiji-Jingumae stop. Exit the station and you should see a big store across the street called Snoopy Town.(this is a cool place to check out since it has more Snoopy merchandise than anywhere in the US.^_^) Cross the street to Snoopy Town and then continue down the sidewalk to the left. Soon you will see Takashita Dori on the right. (You really can't miss it, there is a big archway over the start of the street that says Takashita Dori) It's a narrow crowded street filled with Idol shops that sell every photo, key chain, pen etc with Ayumi, Gackt, MM, L'arc and zillions of boy bands on them - Don't spend all of your money before you get to the Ayumi tickets! lol. About 3/4s of the way down the street there will be a lingerie store called LOVX on your left.(don't confuse it with the LOVX building that will be on your right about 1/2 way down the street. That store just sells cosmetics.) There are a set of stairs in front that lead up to the second level of the LOVX building and inside of there is concert ticket mecca. They have tickets for sale for every major concert tour currently going on as well as sell tour goods from past tours, all in glass displays, so you can easily pick out what you want. Best of all, the prices are reasonable. I actually paid less at that shop for Ayu tickets than I did through Yahoo!Auctions and the seats were comprable. Also, as the concert gets closer they will seriously mark down tickets that haven't sold yet. I saw one 400 level ticket that they had for the Saitama show which hadn't sold yet(the concert was the next day) and they were selling it for 3000 yen! Pretty amazing considering that the ticket originally cost 7,800. They have tickets for all over Japan, but obviously the area they are the most well stocked for is the Tokyo area.
Much Japanese isn't required to buy the tickets. You can simply point to the one you want and they'll get what you mean. Of course speaking at least some Japanese is helpful, but you should be able to get by mainly on gestures and their limited English ability.
So if you want to go to a concert in or around Tokyo all you need to be thinking about is that shop in Harajuku. It's easily the best option.
5. The last option are scalpers. Your likely to pay more, but usually they are better seats. For example, I had 2 tickets for the Sun. Saitama performance - both were for the 400 level(far back from the stage). So I found a scalper and traded my 2 400 level tickets for 1 200 level ticket + I had to pay 3000 yen. You generally don't have to try and spot the scalpers. If your concert is one of the main ones(like Saitama, Yoyogi, Osaka) they will be waiting to pounce on you just as you leave the train station. Authorities must not care about scalpers because they do it wide out in the open and very obviously. It's worth noting though that I didn't see any scalpers at the Hiroshima show last year. However, they were all over the Saitama show this year. For this option it's good to at least know how to count in Japanese and know what 'man' and 'sen' yen mean, that way you can bargain with them. As I found out, this is also an excellent option if you already have your tickets but want a better seat.
It should be mentioned that I did not see any scalper present at any of the performances at the Yoyogi Stadium at the 4/22 or 4/23.
This was posted by oro77, who went to one of the last performances in June and planned to go to the absolute last one at 6/11, depending on the price for the tickets:
Quote:
Originally Posted by oro77
The tickets were to expensive, I went to Harajuku in front of the stadium (1 hour before the concert), they told me 20 000 yen for 1 ticket (or 15 000). Maybe they increased the price because I'm gaijin... I asked for 5 000 yen ticket lol.
Additional information by SunshineSlayer:
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer
Anyways, I have a another reseller shop for immel to add to the list. It's called Ticket World (written in katakana) and is located in Shinjuku. It's hard for me to say exactly where as Shinjuku is crazy, but it's down one of the main streets after exiting the Tokyo metro station and is on the right hand side of the road. It's smaller than the Harajuku and Ueno ones and was extremely crowded when I went. (this was the night of the 30th and everyone was trying to get Ayu tickets at the last minute.)
You buy them when you get there, from ticket reseller stores. I knew the location of one before I went to Tokyo, I found 4 other while I was there. You are more or less GUARANTEED to get a ticket, even if you buy them the same day as the concert is. I arrived 2 weeks before the concert and bought the tickets a few days before them. You can use FDJP if you want the tickets in your hand before you go there.
Price Examples and Seating References
Spoiler:
Reference Picture 1. Thank you soysaucestar. Reference Picture 2
The set up in ARENA TOUR 2006 is not exactly the same as in those pictures, there is a catwalk with a center stage as well.
These are all examples of differently priced tickets I saw while I was in Tokyo at various reseller stores.
Arena/Center (The central floor right in front of the stage)
A-block front row tickets: 75000 yen +/- 15000 yen. (I didn't actually see any A-block tickets for sale while in Tokyo, but this is a qualified guess after looking at other artists, with similar pricing at their tickets, where those seats existed).
A-block tickets: 30-35000 yen.
B-block tickets: 20-26000 yen.
C-block tickets: 13-20000 yen.
D-block tickets: 10-15000 yen.
Elevated Positions
K1 front row tickets: 30-40000 yen.
Really Bad tickets: 6-7000 yen (Yes, lower than the original price).
If the reseller stores has any tickets left the same day as or a few hours before the performance chances are that the prices of them will be reduced drastically.
Pictures of tickets in the reseller stores, taken by me:
Takeshita Street (Harajuku): Click
Somewhere in Shibuya: Click
Ueno: Click
Where to Stay/Sleep
Spoiler:
This was my biggest problem at first, I found it very hard to find a place to stay for a decent price per night. I didn't want to stay at a hotel in central Tokyo for 120$/night, if I didn't find a solution to it I would have been unable to go.
My savior became http://www.hihostels.com/. Youth Hostels are cheap and functional places to stay. You can read a lot more about them on the page.
If you plan to stay at a Youth Hostel you do in many cases need a IYHA (International Youth Hostel Association) membership card, for more info on how to obtain one go here. Having this card makes it possible to stay at more places and much cheaper to stay at many of the hostels.
If you are going to a performance in Tokyo, Yoyogi, I can recommend Yoyogi Youth Hostel. It's located a cozy 10-15 minute walk, through Yoyogi Kouen, from Harajuku, Shibuya and the Yoyogi Stadium itself. At 3000 yen per night it's a bargain. The staff speaks great english and the place is extremely fresh. My stay there was very pleasant. My room at the YH.
When looking at a YH to stay at, always read all the information you can find on the hostels homepage as well as the hihostels.com homepage because many of them have strict rules that you have to follow, like curfew.
Another option is the Capsule Hotels, I had intentionally planned my trip so that for 3 night I would have no where to sleep, I wanted to see if I could solve that on my own when I was in Tokyo. I tried a Capsule Hotel for 2 of the nights, it cost me 3000 yen per night. It was fresh, if only a bit hot in the "sleeping capsule". You'll have access to public shower and bath and bathroom. All Capsule Hotels does not accept female guests. The third night I went back to the YH.
How Much Did I Spend?
Spoiler:
Flight: 750€
Hotel: 3000 yen/day (about 280€ for 2 weeks)
Food: 800-2000 yen/day (for 1500 yen/day you can eat like a king) (150€)
Concert Tickets: 35000 yen + 10000 yen (300€)
Total for 2 weeks:
1480€
I shopped up another 1400€ when I was there too.
If all you want to do is see Ayu you can always choose to stay only 1 week instead, that would halve the price for food and hotel. If you live in Europe you could get away with around 1000€ for a week in Tokyo + seeing Ayu live, but then you're doing NO shopping and eating cheap food (the cheap food is the best food in Tokyo anyway ^_^).
On Cellphones
Spoiler:
Quote:
Originally Posted by mercuryspice
on the cell phone thing... almost all phone made today have 3 gms signals (or called TriBand phones).. and you can buy unlocked versions of almost any phone. An unlocked phone means it has 4 gms (or QuadBand) signals and can be used on any cell phone service worldwide. I have the Motorola RAZR, it has 3 gms signals, and can be used worldwide. It is called a world capable phone. You will have to call your service provider to find out their international rates for the country you are going to. I have Cingular Wireless and they charge $1.25 for any out going call I make while in Japan. The rates for incoming calls are the same as the American rates. Text messages are .10 cents for incoming and .50 cents for out going while in Japan. I live in America BTW.
With technology now, you can use just about any phone in any country, regardless of where you bought it and live.
_______________________________________
Other Relevant Discussion Threads About Going to Japan/Tokyo/Arena Tour/CDL
immels How to get around Tokyo? thread (from before I went): Click
Coryboborys World Tour 2006: Japan thread: Click
The "How to get Ayumi Hamasaki concert tickets" thread: Click
Other Links
Bringing a camera inside the arena: Click
SunshineSlayers Arena Tour 2006 Review: Click
tethevos Arena Tour 2006 Review: Click
immels Arena Tour 2006 Review: Click
oro77s AT2006 review: Click
immels Arena Tour 2006 Cam Download Thread: Click
oro77s words on COUNTDOWN LIVE 2006-2007 A: Click
Pictures
Spoiler:
A few pictures taken by me
Yoyogi National Stadium: Click
What Tokyo started looking like the last few days before I left (Harajuku JR Station): Click
Pictures taken by other users who went to ARENA TOUR 2006 oro77 went there for the 6/8 performance, thank you for sharing your pictures with us!
Picture of the Stadium: Click
Tour goods: Click
Tour goods: Click
ayupan shop: Click
Flyer: Click
Flyer back cover 1: Click
Flyer back cover 2: Click
Arena Tour 2006 Fan: Click
This is just above Shibuya 109, if you zoom out or scroll down a bit you will see the building a little lower down on your screen, characterized by the circle tower. It might be a little hard to see because the picture is so bad quality, but the re-seller store is on one of the 3 streets on the picture, I don't remember which one when I see it from above. Ticket re-seller store in Shibuya. Compare this to famous Shibuya crossing and entrance/exit to Shibuya JR Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunshineSlayer
Anyways, I have a another reseller shop for immel to add to the list. It's called Ticket World (written in katakana) and is located in Shinjuku. It's hard for me to say exactly where as Shinjuku is crazy, but it's down one of the main streets after exiting the Tokyo metro station and is on the right hand side of the road. It's smaller than the Harajuku and Ueno ones and was extremely crowded when I went. (this was the night of the 30th and everyone was trying to get Ayu tickets at the last minute.)
If you want any other locations just ask.
_______________________________________
If a "Thank You" is posted in this thread I want to direct it to the people that has helped me realizing this dream, anyone who answered my questions, inspired me or wrote a guide.
A big THANKS goes to SunshineSlayer, Corybobory, Jo-chan, tethevo and many other who I can't recall by name or nickname right now!
Wow, really great, comprehensive guide. You look cute in that last picture, hehe
It's always good to have a friend in Japan to help you out--probably if I didn't have my friend helping me on Yahoo Auctions I would have gone the ticket re-seller's way.
I have always been addicted to music, all kinds of music. After having known about Ayu for 5 years I, 3 months ago, decided that maybe I should actually listen to some of her music. Why hadn't I done so before? I had earlier automatically put her in the same category as artists like Britney Spears and such, guess if I regret that now.
Wow, only 3 months? Impressive. I actually had only known about Ayu for less than a year when I first went to see her. But that's kind of how you have to do it: you make the comitment to go and then just GO, or else you may never do it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
The days passed and I kept up my research, my parents was first against the idea, as I would be using all my money I had saved up for the trip. The days passed, the first performances at the Saitama Arena came and went. Then it happened... SunshineSlayer posted her review of the concert. That was the final blow, I had to go to Tokyo.
Thanks for mentioning me! I hope all my advice helped. Oh, and you can pm me again now - I cleaned out my mail box.
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
This part was simple, there are several pages that compare travelling with different companies. I used www.pricerunner.com. My two-way flight ticket to Tokyo, Narita from Stockholm, Arlanda cost me 750€.
Just want to interject here, that if you live in a city with a large Asian population there should be at least one Asian travel agency. They will have the cheapest rates to Japan. I can't remember the exact price of my ticket, but it was less than $650 roundtrip.
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
I got one of my tickets before I went to Tokyo, for the performance at the 22/4. I knew the location of one ticket re-seller store before I went, I decided I would get the 23/4 ticket when I arrived there.
Don't do the same mistake as me, I got my ticket before I went to Tokyo. I did so because I wanted to have them in my hand before I actually went. It's a total waste of cash.
Yep, I believe I talked about that in my thread. You end up spending an unnecassary amount if you buy your tickets online. But I know that it seems too scary to go to Japan without already having tickets in your hand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
Akibado charge some extra and then ship it home to you. I don't know how much they charge, I've never used them.
I e-mailed them once asking if they could ship to a hotel in Tokyo and I never recieved a reply, so I don't know how reliable they are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
Next year I will have contacts in Japan that can join Team Ayu for me, I'm looking forward so much to that .
I made some contacts for Morning Musume, so yay for me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
It should be mentioned that I did not see any scalper present at any of the performances at the Yoyogi Arena.
Maybe they hide it better at Yoyogi or crackdown more on scalpers there? Or they could have been at the train station. All I know is, they were at Saitama all over the place the second that you exited the train station.
Also, could you try to give directions for where you found the Shibuya reseller? Because I was looking for some around there but came up empty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by immel
Another option is the Capsule Hotels, I had intentionally planned my trip so that for 3 night I would have no where to sleep, I wanted to see if I could
solve that on my own when I was in Tokyo.
Maybe they hide it better at Yoyogi or crackdown more on scalpers there? Or they could have been at the train station. All I know is, they were at Saitama all over the place the second that you exited the train station.
They might have cracked down on scalpers in recent years at Yoyogi--when my friend and I went to CDL 04-05, there were tons of scalpers at Yoyogi. But yeah, when I attended the Arena concert on 4/22, there weren't any around.
Location: Oxford, UK (originally from Vancouver Island, Canada)
Posts: 8,208
Yay that was so fun to read!! I so glad you had a good time. That's some really really useful information Thank you!! I booked 6 days at the Yoyogi Hostel, and I'll be there in 10 days!! You sound so adventurous, purposly not having a place to stay for a few nights and seeing what will happen I'm paranoid and want my itinerary set in stone... although where I'll be and when is far from planned as of yet! It would be amazing to see an Ayu concert, I hope I get to do that one day. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!!!
wow
Thanks a lot.
I have bade 2 tickets from yahoo! Japan auction
They are B6 zone. The prices are 32000 yen (not including money transfer and posting fee) for 2 tickets
I will fly to see ayu on 10 June!!!
gosh!! thank you soo much! I could have never figured this out on my own! especially finding the cheapest way to do everything <3
but one question...I'm plannning for CDL07-08 ...would the ticket thing work there too? =\...i'll be arriving in Japan like ...the week of the december 20th or something
__________________
IF ANYONE, ANYONE!!! HAS THE POSTER FOR CAROLS...I WANT IT. K!? ;_____;
5th May 2006, 03:41 AM
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