Ballparks of Japan
Partially inspired by the River Ave. Blues header image, check out these Google Maps images of some of Japan’s ballparks.Â
Central League
- Yokohama Stadium, home of the Yokohama BayStars. That’s artificial turf there.
- Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers. Old, offseason image here.
- Hiroshima Civic Stadium, soon to be replaced home of the Hiroshima Carp. Note that the Genbaku Dome (原爆ドーム) is a short distance southwest of the stadium. The Genbaku Dome was the only structure fully encompassed in the atomic bomb blast that wasn’t destroyed.
- Meiji Jingu Ballpark, home of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. The smaller baseball field is the No. 2 Jingu Ballpark, used for college and amateur baseball.
- Tokyo Dome, and it’s predecessor Korakuen, both home to the Yomiuri Giants, Nippon Ham Fighters, and others.Â
Pacific League
- Yahoo Dome, home of the SoftBank Hawks. Note that the roof opens, but they only played one game with it open last year.
- The unfortunately named Kleenax Stadium Miyagi, home of the Rakuten Golden Eagles. This is an old image, Rakuten has fixed it up quite a bit.
- Skymark Stadium, the Kobe home of the Orix Buffaloes. This is my favorite ballpark in Japan. It’ll always be Green Stadium Kobe to me.
- Chiba Marine Stadium, home of the Chiba Lotte Marines. Zoom out to see how close it is to Tokyo Bay.
Others
- Nagano Olympic Stadium, built for the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, now home to the independant BC League’s Shinano Grandserows.
- Starfin Park in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. Named for early NPB ace and hometown hero Victor Starfin. The Yomiuri Giants played a few games at Starfin Park last season.
- Matsuyama Bocchan Park is out in the sticks but occasionally hosts NPB games. It’s day job is hosting the home games of the Island League’s Ehime Mandarin Pirates.
- A snow-covered Fukui Stadium, home of the BC League’s wonderfully named Fukui Miracle Elephants.Â
07/01/2009 at 9:10 am Permalink
That’s not Yahoo (Fukuoka) Dome. The stadium on the link looks like it’s in Osaka – maybe it’s Fujidera Stadium?
07/01/2009 at 9:16 am Permalink
I didn’t realize that the BC League had expanded to 6 teams as well. There’ll be 16 independent league teams in 2009!
07/01/2009 at 9:51 am Permalink
That’s not Yahoo (Fukuoka) Dome. The stadium on the link looks like it’s in Osaka – maybe it’s Fujidera Stadium?
It was Hiroshima Civic Stadium. Bad cut ‘n pasting on my part, I’ve corrected the link now. Thanks for pointing that out!
07/01/2009 at 6:25 pm Permalink
You know, I made this in 2007, didn’t update it for 2008 because I was lazy and didn’t think anyone would use it. Is it worth updating to 2009, do you think?
08/01/2009 at 2:12 am Permalink
Perhaps I have a one-track mind, but:
While the Tokyo Dome hasn’t had the honor, Korakuen was home of the Swallows until 1964, when Kokutetsu and the old Toei Flyers essentially did a stadium swap, with the Swallows moving to Jingu and the Flyers moving to Korakuen.
08/01/2009 at 2:29 am Permalink
That beats my Google Earth Asian Baseball Bookmarks (which only have the 1-gun and 2-gun NPB stadiums along with past KBO stadiums. That needs a serious update as well.
08/01/2009 at 5:55 am Permalink
> That’s not Yahoo (Fukuoka) Dome. The stadium on the link looks like it’s in
> Osaka – maybe it’s Fujidera Stadium?
> It was Hiroshima Civic Stadium.
D’oh! How’d I confuse Hiroshima with Osaka?
That’s what I get for not reading Japanese…
08/01/2009 at 6:39 pm Permalink
Note that the roof opens, but they only played one game with it open last year.
Correct me if I’m wrong, the last time the Hawks played before 2008 with the roof open was in June 19, 1999 against the Lions according to the wikipedia Japan.