June 26th: Which Stadium?

Hmm tough call. In terms of location, the Seibu game might not be the best as Omiya Stadium is a local stadium and not used regularly for pro games.

So that leaves you with the Giants and Marines as your best options.

I just checked one of the ticket websites and it seems there's a lot of tickets still available for the Giants/Swallows game so you could probably get a good infield seat on the 3rd base side.

My personal suggestion is to go for Chiba (Marines), but then again you may want to play it safe and head to the Tokyo Dome because you have to take in to account the weather this time of year (it's what we call "rainy season" here in Japan).

If you need anymore info, please don't hesitate to ask.

Well,

Giants-Swallows is indoors, so there's no chance it will rain out, but there IS a chance that it will sell out. (Not big, though.) The Giants are like the Yankees of Japan, so depending on how you feel about that sort of team, you may or may not want to go see them. I guess, though, coming from an NL town, if you feel strongly about the DH, then you might want to go to a CL game just because the pitchers bat. If you're just being a tourist, the Tokyo Dome is also a good choice because it's very touristy - and you can see the Swallows fans do their umbrella dance when they score runs against the Giants.

Seibu vs. Softbank at Omiya is actually not their normal stadium. Omiya Stadium is up in the middle part of Saitama and is a mile or so from the train station, so it might actually sort of be a pain for you to get to (unlike the Seibu Dome which is right by the train station). It's an older stadium and outdoors, and also kind of small, so the game might sell out, who knows. I rather enjoyed going to Omiya but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for your only game in Japan.

Fighters @ Chiba is a great choice if it's not raining -- it's a nice outdoor concrete stadium, has a bit of an MLB feel, but then still more than enough to remind you that you are in Japan. You can eat a Bobby Burger at the Lotteria inside the stadium, and get to see the crazy Chiba fans in their endless campaign of fighting against the front office to keep Bobby Valentine in Chiba for another year.

(I'm biased since I'm a Fighters fan and hate the Giants.)

Well I am obviously very biased as I am a Marines fan and I actively dislike the Tokyo Dome - but go for Chiba Marine.

Why? It's 360 Degree Beer Stadium night at the ol ballpark! 1,500yen entry, all general admission, 300 yen beer (200 yen soft drinks), fireworks. There's only 2 of these events scheduled this year, on the 26th and in late July. There will be a good crowd then and the price can't be beat.

I'll be there for sure so if you need any help with getting tickets, etc.

We ended going to the Tokyo Dome for the Giants/Swallows game last Friday night. We got our tickets ahead of time through JapanBall.com. Great lower level seats!

Japanese baseball is very entertaining and we had a great time. The only atmosphere I could begin to compare that to is a high level American college football game. The fans from both teams were great.

If I ever get back to Japan in the summer time, I will certainly take in another ball game (or two).

Glad you had a good trip and baseball experience! Both for baseball and travel in general, I recommend heading further west next trip. Although not a particularly beautiful or comfortable stadium, you can't beat Koshien (in Nishinomiya) for atmosphere. And if you keep going west to Hiroshima you can see one of the nicest cities in Japan and what I also think is currently the nicest stadium.