Tokyo

I will travel across the land, searching far and wide...for a basketball court

I had initially planned to play basketball in Tokyo during my 2023 trip to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but unfortunately, that did not go as planned. 

Whenever I travel, I strive to optimize my route and time in each country. When booking my plane tickets to Asia that previous trip, I specifically chose a flight that included a 9-hour layover in Tokyo between 3 pm and 12 am midnight – optimal pickup basketball times. 

I hadn't played basketball in Tokyo before, so I thought I could get a quick run at Yoyogi Park. Everything was going smoothly: the flight left on time, the weather looked great in Tokyo, and I even carried all my luggage for a quick exit from the airport. It wasn't until I reached Terminal 3 of Haneda Airport (HND) that I encountered a problem.

I couldn’t exit the airport.

I soon discovered, after inquiring with several airport staff members, that the only way to exit the airport was through my next transfer flight. While I understand there might be various reasons for this, such as security, customs, or the need to keep people within the airport, it was a bummer that I couldn't play pickup basketball in Tokyo during that layover.

Travel Tip: If you have a layover in Terminal 3 in HND, you cannot exit the terminal.

As the honorable thief Edgin Darvis from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves once said, “We must never stop failing, because the minute we do, we've failed.” (Thank you United Airlines for making this film available on the airplane)

Not giving up, I found myself back in Tokyo later in the year, and this time, I gave myself more than just a layover to indulge in some pickup basketball. The original plan of playing at Yoyogi Park turned out to be a bit problematic as it rained the majority of the days I visited. 

Fortunately, I stumbled upon an indoor pickup basketball group at Basketball - Tokyo Gaijins, and they were playing on one of the days I was in Tokyo. Gaijins means foreigner in Japanese and 90% of the people there were foreigners. I would also assume locals would have another (and cheaper) place to play indoors. 

Supposedly they’ve been around for 20+ years so they have a lot of rules on how to join and guidelines for participating. I wanted to add some comments here just in case future ballers find them a bit unclear.

After familiarizing myself with all the rules and the location of the gym, I ventured to the Shibuya-ku Sports Center 30 minutes early, just to ensure I had a spot to play. I noticed that each pickup basketball session may have a different location, so make sure you know where to go. 

When I got there, I quickly identified the Admin and introduced myself. I was first and he even mentioned to me that he would put me on the “list” for the evening, because “it looks like it will get full today.” I paid my game fee of 1,500yen/session/player and that was that! First 10 people got to play the first game. Teams were made by finding another player of similar size, and then you rock-paper-scissor-shoed your way onto either the ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ teams. As more people trickled in, we eventually formed 4 teams.

Games were played to 13 by 2’s and 3’s with no clock. No winning team could play for more than 2 games in a row. If a team did win 2 teams in a row, then the 2 teams sitting out would play next. Those were the standard rules, though I’m sure each run will have special house rules thrown in there every once in a while. For example, one game got stuck at 10-2 for about 20+ minutes as neither team could score, so the Admin announced that the next team to score wins. The team with 2 scored and “won” the game to stay on next. I love how everyone just goes with it. That makes for a fun run, when no one complains.

As for the players, there were basketball players of all levels. There were players who were tall, short, athletic, plus those who were unable to dribble properly. Teams were split relatively evenly, and the admin did a good job adjusting teams throughout the day to ensure a competitive and fair matchup each game. 

Conclusion 

Definitely a great place to play pickup basketball in Tokyo, especially if it’s raining outdoors or if you just prefer the indoor runs. I’m not as familiar with the basketball scene here as I am with that in Singapore, but I did see that there were other pickup basketball groups as well. I will say, this Tokyo Gaijins run seems to be the most popular of the bunch. I would recommend anybody visiting Tokyo for the first time to check out this pickup basketball group for a fun and easy pickup basketball experience.

Tokyo Travel Tip as of January 2024

I would recommend that if you are arriving through Haneda (HND) or Narita (NRT), please look for these SUICA machines and get your Welcome Suica Cards.

These Suica cards will get you on pretty much all trains, buses and a variety of other things within Tokyo. 

One thing I will say is that Tokyo has one of the most confusing transportation systems because they are all operated by different companies, such as JR Lines, Tokyo Metro, and Toei Metro, and each one may have its own specialty passes for access. One way around that is to get a Suica card, which seemingly works with all transportation systems.

Supposedly, there is a chip shortage for these cards, and you can only buy them at airports (as of January 2024). You will need cash to load funds onto them. Alternatively, if you have an iPhone, you can directly add the Suica card to your Apple Wallet before even arriving in Tokyo. Suica on Apple Wallet accepts Mastercard and American Express, but NOT Visa. It seems to only work on the Apple wallet and not for visitors with an Android wallet.