I recently rediscovered my love for tennis, but it’s impossible to play anywhere here. Most public courts are reserved for those who live within the municipality/prefecture, and even then, most are run by a raffle system (many with reservations months out!!) so you can’t even reliably play on a consistent basis. I live on the edge of Kanagawa where it meets Tokyo, and have a lot of friends who live in the Tokyo area, so even if any of us could eventually find a court, we can’t play together. I downloaded the TennisBear app to search for any and all courts, but they are all either member-based or citizen-based. This is possibly the only thing I miss about California.
If anybody has any relevant information, please, I am desperate. I just want to play tennis.
27 comments
Become a club member?
Probably the most expensive option but I’ve played at the Takanawa Tennis Centre ([EN](
https://www.princehotels.com/shinagawa/facilities/tennis/), [JP](https://www.princehotels.co.jp/shinagawa/sports/tennis/)) (next to Shinagawa station) where it was easy to make a reservation for the following week. I guess the pricing itself keeps most people away.
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Example: I’m currently looking into the Futakotamagawa Municipal Sports Facilities, which is by far the most convenient location. To reserve, you need a user number which you can only get by going in person with minimum 5 people and applying as a group, and after getting approved you have to wait a month before you can reserve. Shit’s ridiculous yo. Sometimes I just want to play with one other person.
Use Meetup.
I just checked, there are tennis groups.
It’s not only tennis. Trying to play any sport that requires a court is an enormously convoluted pain in the ass.
Edit: or it’s expensive af.
Same with basketball. Join a meetup, you start to feel like you don’t belong there as everyone’s too competitive. Bruv I just wanted to shoot a few casual hoops, not win the local ku championship
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Mario Tennis. Enjoy tennis from the comfort of your home!
Yeah…I don’t play in the city anymore bc it’s a pain. Luckily our second house community has a few courts that are always open.
>why is it so hard to play tennis here
Well first the ball comes at you. Then You have to hit it back but a lot of times you have to run for it before you do. . That’s not easy, but if you do hit it back, the enemy returns it and you have to hit it back
Again. It’ can seem endless and It’s always difficult
There’s so many tennis clubs here in Kansai, thought there would be more in Kanto.
Are there any gyms with tennis courts you could join? Maybe if you look out towards the inaka you might find something?
A single tennis court is way bigger than most bars and cafes in Tokyo and real estate is at an absolute premium. Is it really any wonder it would be expensive or in high demand.
It’s densely populated and tennis courts take up some space. Same could be said for football, baseball, basketball or hockey. Japan and California are roughly the same amount of land but Japan has ~ 5 times as many people as CA.
Hey yeah I came across the same problem in Setagaya ward. Court reservation is complex with booking months in advance. Some places seem easier, like [this one](https://www.city.ota.tokyo.jp/shisetsu/sports/tennis/shimomaruko_park.html) if you don’t mind dropping a little coin.
I’m an avid tennis player and researched this to the extreme (up to looking for courts with google maps!)
If you’re looking to play in Tokyo, you work from home and have a flexible agenda it’s quite easy to get some slots at the Minato public courts at random hours outside of the raffle system (i.e., 2pm on a Tuesday).
As for other options such as meetups, tennis bear, tennis off, the tennis level is usually quite low, and they pack the courts too much to have any sort of fun (8 people for a single court over 2 hours).
Finally, in order to play consistently, the only real solutions are:
1) to get introduced into a club such as Tokyo Lawn and so on
2) speak some sort of Japanese and get to know a group that plays regularly, they all have some sort of connection for playing in schools or stuff like that
I was in the same boat as you. I ended up joining a tennis school but it is a fair bit expensive. If you have any weekdays off it should be somewhat easier to find open court time outside the raffle as people will cancel. Depending on your Japanese level you can also try websites such as [tennisoff.net](https://tennisoff.net) which was recommended to me by my Japanese tennis friends. If you’re lucky you can find a circle to join with members at the same level as you which would be the best way for consistent tennis play! Good luck!
There are some in Sumida ward, Tokyo. Courts in Kinshicho might be difficult to reserve, but one in Ryogoku aren’t being reserved at all.
I live near a park that has courts and there aren’t much people usually, so I guess you can play at there any time you like.
FYI There is a small town in Chiba-ken, south of Kujukurihama beach called “Shirako” they are the self proclaimed Tennis capital of Japan, there are courts everywhere.
Public schools will let you play on their courts outside of school hours, for a free of course.
It is less congested than the municipal sports plaza.
Some Round One locations have a sports area… Mostly for family/casual play. There’s sometimes a tennis court, such as the Iruma location.
Also it tends to be packed on holidays, so the best time to go is (unsurprisingly) during the week.
Living in Gero, Gifu so obviously my experience is different however when I first arrived found very similar issues.
Our small city has a lot of tennis facilities. One complex has 8 courts that look like they were built in the last 10 years and another three courts that were completed this year. Then there are four older courts, 2 clay and 2 very bad hard courts. There is also an indoor / covered court with three clay courts so your covered for bad weather.
Guess how much organised tennis is playable on these courts. Yep, you guessed it. None.
I’m driving 40km to the next town to play and every Saturday an hour and a half one way for our kids lessons / match practice.
We managed to pester the management of the newest courts enough that they allow us to train 3 days a week on the newly built courts but that involved a lot of nudging. The courts have been opened for 3 months now and they still don’t even have a cost of booking decided let alone a system for actually doing it. 3 high quality synthetic courts just sitting there with nobody playing on them.
The main reason we’ve been given for there being no organised tennis & not being able to book the courts directly / easily is that they are basically reserved for school club activities – which in reality means that only handful of the courts are ever used.
Yes frustrating.
Rant finished, I’ve managed to find my tennis. It took a lot of persisting and finding the right club to join but now that that hard work is done I’ve got a very enjoyable, and competitive, environment to play and I couldn’t be happier. If you are ever visiting Gifu feel free to look me up and I’ll gladly have a hit.
When I lived in Osaka I had the same problem. I found a tournament that I could play in once a month that was reasonably priced. Then through that I met someone whose company owned 2 Courts on their property and from then on I played every weekend for like 8 hours a day all for free.
The group I’m part of has one Japanese guy reserving a court and then about 10 of us rock up. We pay about 400yen each for 2 hours. Granted this is in Wakayama so not The Tokyo.
Its simple: move to the inaka.
I can think of 8-10 outdoor tennis courts near me, many see little-to-no use.
Welcome to Japan, where trivial things need planning several months in advance.
tried meetup.com?