Sumo Tournament in Fukuoka (Nov)
Last update; Nov 1st, 2024 with status for the upcoming tournament - tickets are all sold out.
The November tournament is held in Fukuoka, the largest city in the island of Kyushu.
The venue is the Fukuoka Kokusai Center, a convention hall that was completed in 1981. Capacity for Sumo is around 7,500. Unlike Nagoya, there are no pillars that obstruct the view and the small size provides good viewing opportunity regardless of which seats you got.
The chair seats at the back of the arena are hard plastic and can be a pain to sit for few hours. The pair seat (Row 14, the seats in front of the handrail in the photo above) come with more space, a cushion and table so they might be worth the additional cost.
Tickets are sold through the official Ticket Osumo site.
Compared with the other cities, sales are always sluggish. For the 2023 tournament, same-day tickets were available the arena ticket office for a few weekdays. However for the 2024 tournament, all dates sold out within the first few weeks of sale. It's the first full sellout in Fukuoka since 1996.
There are some food trucks and a seating area outside the arena. If the weather is warm, it is a nice place to sit down and watch the wrestlers arrive and enter the arena. Merchandise is also sold inside the arena. Like the other venues, there is not sufficient signs inside; to access the chair seats go up the stairs and then ask the staff wearing the colored vests for details.
Kyushu-born wrestlers will attract the largest cheers at the November. Shodai (from neighboring Kumamoto Prefecture) will be greeted with a large ovation and groups of fans holding a towel with his name.
ACCESS: The nearest subway station is Nakasu-kawabata, and the venue is about a 20 minute walk away. Taking a bus will be more convenient.
There are frequent services from Hakata Station (Shinkansen stop) which takes about 15 minutes and all accept IC cards such as SUICA and PASMO in addition to the locally issued SUGOCA.
You board from the rear door and exit from front, tapping your IC card both times.
There are direct buses going back to Hakata Station once the matches are finished.
One of the huge advantage of Fukuoka is that the airport is extremely close to the city center. A taxi from the airport will take only around 15 minutes to the Kokusai Center. Note that you will not be able to catch a taxi from the street directly in front of the arena after the last match has finished as traffic will be limited to buses and authorized vehicles.