Asakusa is very well known as one of the most popular sightseeing spots in Tokyo. It is also home to a place where you can get some exercise and reinvigorate your body in-between your temple tours, meals, and strolls through the area. That place is Asakusa Batting Stadium. It’s conveniently located just a five-minute walk from Asakusa Station and Sensoji Temple. Look for the gigantic baseball glove above your head!
There’s a tendency to think that you can only enjoy batting centers if you have experience playing baseball, but that is definitely not the case. At Asakusa Batting Stadium, you can choose ball speeds as low as 70 km/h, so even beginners can enjoy the thrill of hitting baseballs with a bat. Speeds go as high as 150 km/h. There are also pitches such as curveballs and forkballs, so it’s also a great place to get some batting practice. There are three or four speeds to choose from in one lane, so you can up the speed little by little as you go. Even if you strike out, you’ll still be having a good time.
Another standout feature offered at Asakusa Batting Stadium is the virtual Pitching Machine. Monitors in all five lanes show images of pro baseball pitchers, giving the batters the feeling that they’re actually going head-to-head against them.
There is also the Ball Judge feature, which uses a high-performance camera to measure the speed, distance, and angle of the ball you hit to determine whether it’s a home run, a hit, or an out. This allows you to enjoy comparing your results with your friends after a round of batting.
There’s more to enjoy here than just batting. At Asakusa Batting Stadium, there are also two lanes of Struck Out, where you can enjoy pitching. Struck Out is a pitching game where you pitch from a mound, aiming your pitches at a target in the strike zone. Asakusa Batting Stadium’s Struck Out has four different types of games to choose from, such as “Struck 9”, where you try to hit all nine targets, “Struck 16”, in which two players compete against each other, and “Struck Reverse”, a fun Othello-style game. In addition to being able to measure the speed of your pitches, Struck Out also turns pitching into a fun game where points are awarded according to the degree of difficulty.
Game results can even be registered on a dedicated cloud by scanning the QR code on the receipt that you get afterwards with your smartphone. You can also see nationwide rankings, so if you have some confidence in your pitching, why not give it a try and see how you measure up?
Bats are provided here, so you don’t have to bring anything with you. Perhaps because of its easygoing nature and the fact that it’s located in the middle of Asakusa, a diverse range of customers come to enjoy batting and pitching, including people by themselves, parents and children, couples, as well as groups of foreign visitors. Some visitors even bring their own bats for serious practice. The great thing about batting centers is that everyone, from beginners to advanced players, can play at their own level.
Another nice thing about this batting center is that there are other games aside from baseball for you to play, so there are a variety of ways to have a good time. It’s open year round, and the hours go from 10:30 in the morning to 11:00 at night. It’s a great place to visit during your downtime while sightseeing. Some light batting after a meal is also nice. It’s indoors as well, so it’s always an option on rainy days, too. Just hearing the clank of the bat and seeing the ball fly is enough to boost your spirits. Batting makes for great stress relief, and it’s a great way to get some exercise. In addition to the prizes you can win for hitting home runs, there are also prizes for getting high scores in other games. So, when you’re visiting Asakusa for sightseeing, come have some fun and get some exercise at Asakusa Batting Stadium!
(As of publication on October 23, 2024)
Reinvigorate Yourself During Your Sightseeing Downtime at Asakusa Batting Stadium
Asakusa Batting Stadium
WEB SITEArea: Asakusa Address: 1-27-5 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo, ROX DOME 2F Experience: Asakusa Batting Stadium
