Tokyo Dome
(????? Tokyo Domu
, ) is a 55,000-seat
Tokyo Dome's original nickname was "The Big Egg", with some calling it the "Tokyo Egg Dome". However, the nickname had fallen from use as the years went on, and is nowadays rarely heard. It opened for business on March 17, 1988 and was built close to the site of its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Like Korakuen, the Dome hosts the Toei Superheroes of the year.
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TOKYO DOME TICKETS
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Tokyo Dome City
Tokyo Dome is part of a greater entertainment complex known as
Tokyo Dome City. Tokyo Dome City includes an
amusement park and Tokyo Dome City Attractions (formerly Korakuen Grounds). This amusement park occupies the former Korakuen Stadium site and includes a
roller coaster named
Thunder Dolphin and a Hubless
Ferris wheel. The grounds also have an
onsen called Spa LaQua, various shops, restaurants, video game centers, the largest
JRA WINS horse race betting complex in Tokyo, and
Oft Korakuen, which caters to rural horse races.
Notable performances
The Tokyo Dome is the largest concert facility in Japan. A number of famous concerts have been held here, including tour stops by big names like
Kylie Minogue,
Arashi,
B'z,
KAT-TUN,
NewS,
Avril Lavigne,
Backstreet Boys,
Britney Spears,
Céline Dion,
U2,
David Bowie,
Ayumi Hamasaki,
The Rolling Stones,
Duran Duran, ,
Paul McCartney,
Kiss,
Diana Ross,
Earth, Wind, and Fire,
Guns N' Roses,
The Courage,
Van Halen,
Bon Jovi,
Janet Jackson,
Michael Jackson,
t.A.T.u.,
Madonna,
Mariah Carey,
The Police,
Prince,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Billy Joel,
X Japan,
Vader and
Aerosmith, who broke attendance records in 1998 on their
Nine Lives Tour. On
December 31,
1991,
Europe,
Tesla,
Thunder, and
Metallica performed in the music event called "Final Countdown '91" here.
[1]Also, the famous band
X Japan held their three-day long reunion concerts there in the end of March 2008. In August 2008,
KAT-TUN broke the record for consecutive concerts when they performed at the stadium 4 days in a row.
Since February 2001, Tokyo Dome has hosted the two-day X-Trail Jam snowboarding competition seven times.
The
Chicago Cubs and the
New York Mets played a pair of games here to open the
2000 season, the first time American
Major League Baseball teams have played regular-season games in Asia. The
New York Yankees and the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays played two games there in March of
2004 to open that season. The
Boston Red Sox and the
Oakland Athletics opended the 2008 MLB season in Japan as well. These teams also competed against Japanese teams.
[2] The
Boston Red Sox beat the
Oakland Athletics 6–5 in extra innings in the first game.
[3]
In August 2005, the
Atlanta Falcons beat the
Indianapolis Colts 27–20 in the first
NFL preseason game of the year in the stadium.
The Tokyo Dome has hosted several championship prizefights, including the
heavyweight boxing championship fight on
February 10,
1990, where
Mike Tyson lost the championship to 42–1 shot
James "Buster" Douglas by a tenth-round knockout.
In 1997,
mixed martial arts organization
PRIDE Fighting Championships held
its first event in the dome and attracted 47,000 fans.
Before the team itself moving to Hokkaido in 2004, the
Nippon Ham Fighters also used Tokyo Dome as their home ground, and they would continue to use the dome for several regular season games a season, including interleague games.
New Japan Pro Wrestling holds an
annual Tokyo Dome event on January 4, attracting record crowds. It is considered the most anticipated puroresu event of the year.
Under the
ground rule set up by the dome, any ball that hits or is trapped by the hanging items in outfield area's roof will be ruled as home runs; hitting any other part of the roof will be considered as in-play.
In popular culture
- In their song, "The Sounder", the virtual band Gorillaz makes a reference to the Tokyo Dome, saying: "Gorillaz rock the dome just like the one in Tokyo."
Gallery
See also
- Thin-shell structure
- List of thin shell structures
References
- Tokyo Dome concerts, 1991-1993
- Red Sox, A's Japan-bound in 2008
- Moss, Manny fuel comeback