ES CON FIELD HOKKAIDO Baseball Stadium
If you have the opportunity to travel to Sapporo, Hokkaido, and you like baseball⚾️, you must visit the new stadium "ES CON FIELD HOKKAIDO" near Kitahiroshima Station, which will be opened in March 2023 for the Japanese professional baseball team Ham Fighters.
Whether it's in season or off-season, you can go inside the baseball stadium for free! You can also enter the auditorium and sit on the chairs to experience it. I believe I have seen many baseball stadiums in Japan and Taiwan, but this stadium struck me as having a wide field of vision, and it was comfortable and approachable at first sight. Even though I went there during the off-season, there were people buying food from the restaurant inside the stadium, eating in the dining area or in the audience seats, or just staring at the stadium.
Another popular spot in the stadium is the mural of MLB stars Darvish and Shohei Ohtani, who both played for the Nippon-Ham Fighters. You can also take photos of the mural of the famous Nippon-Ham Fighters star coach that was completed this year.
I also signed up for a one-hour stadium tour, with the Ham Fighters cheerleaders as the commentators. Starting from the VIP audience seats, the players and head coach rest areas, to entering the stadium where you can step on the red clay, sit in the players' and head coach's chairs, and experience the bullpen area.
Although the entire process was in Japanese, that was hardly important. But being able to enter the stadium and take photos with the sweet cheerleaders at the end was worth the trip.
Sometimes I feel that the Japanese did not just build a stadium for the sake of building it, but they put a lot of thought into making sure that people would still use the stadium for shopping and activities when there were no games.
That’s right! You can also take a hot spring bath in the stadium♨️
#I want to watch a game at this stadium if I have the chance
#Hokkaido
#100 Ways to Travel
#SapporoTourism