How to get Tokyo tickets?

[4U2Play]

If the 3 Tokyo shows sell out quickly, I can totally see them adding another show. I don't have any concrete info per say, but it's just common sense. If you were U2, wouldn't you do that?

Yes, if the next scheduled concert was in the same country and only 120 miles apart, as Philly and NYC are. Different situation here, though.

I understand that U2 will likely ship their outdoor stage directly from Auckland to Honolulu, using their indoor setup for the Tokyo shows, thereby eliminating shipping time between Japan and Hawaii.

However, if U2 were to play a fourth show on the 5th, their crew must still stay in Tokyo at least through the 6th in order to tear down the Saitama stage and forward it via Narita (or via Yokohama if they use a boat) to wherever they plan on storing it, then be in Honolulu at least by the evening of the 7th in order to get ready for the Aloha Stadium stage setup commencing the next day on the 8th.

Yes, I realize that they will cross the international date line, giving them an additional 19 hours or so, but with a flying time of 9 hours between NRT and HNL, not to mention three hours' worth of transportation from their Tokyo hotels to Narita plus check-in time, and perhaps an additional two hours in customs, baggage and transportation in Honolulu, I just don't see them risking bad weather, flight delays and major jetlag by the U2 crew to potentially screw up their final show of the Vertigo Tour just to squeeze in one last Tokyo gig in front of 23,000 fans.

Hopefully, I'm wrong, though.

 

[U2shanghai]

I received my ticket verification.


Your ticket purchase has been confirmed.

Show information:

[U2 Japan Tour]
Date: 20061204
Venue: Saitama Super Arena(Saitama)

Seat/Price: General General Admission Standing on the floor JPY 10,000 (tax included)
Number of tickets: 4

*Tickets purchased through this site will be issued at Will-Call on the day of the show.
*Details for picking up your tickets will be announced via e-mail.
*Please note that tickets will NOT be sent by mail.

Best regards,

U2 Japan Tour Ticket Office
Email: u2-e@pia.co.jp


A friend in Japan is verifying her order right now. She was able to get tickets to each of the three shows.


Now all we need is info about the general sales...

I will keep you posted as info comes out of Japan.

Wouahou well done!
Nothing at my end so far, and I have to confirm my plane tickets this evening, argh!

 

[Fer Castillo]

Fragrant - You ROCK!

Thanks so much for all of the information and congrats on getting your tickets!

Hope to see you in Tokyo with cranes in-hand - that's a lovely idea.

Totally agree!! You rock fragrant! Thanks a lot for all your help and I'm glad you got your tickets!

 

[fragrant]

I'm glad that the info is helpful.


Another friend from inside of Japan printed out his tickets at the local Pia. His GA's say "A-block" on them. We won't know what that means until we see a GA map on Pia's site. Let's see who can find that map first....

 

[U2FanPeter]

I thought the set-up crew was a different that the tear-down?

 

[U2shanghai]

I'm glad that the info is helpful.


Another friend from inside of Japan printed out his tickets at the local Pia. His GA's say "A-block" on them. We won't know what that means until we see a GA map on Pia's site. Let's see who can find that map first....

Aouch they do have blocks for the saitama shows as well... It made sense for Yokohama but I would have hoped for no blocks for this smaller area.

I still did not get the email from PIA, starting to stress...
Anyone else who applied back in August and supposed to be informed this week still waiting for an email?

 

[fragrant]

Shanghai, please email Pia. They were supposed to contact you on the 5th if you're out of Japan.



More info on the blocks coming in...

My friend picked up her tickets and her 12/29's....2 GA's are BR, and 2 are BL.

So now we have A, BR, BL blocks in the GA. Your guess is good as mine.

 

[bratty_cat]

Shanghai, please email Pia. They were supposed to contact you on the 5th if you're out of Japan.



More info on the blocks coming in...

My friend picked up her tickets and her 12/29's....2 GA's are BR, and 2 are BL.

So now we have A, BR, BL blocks in the GA. Your guess is good as mine.

Perhaps it's just a way of tracking GA tickets sold? I just looked at about 10 GA ticket stubs I have from various shows attended in the past year and all of they specify a row/seat/section (eg, GA2, GA1, GA6...), even though the floor was always open and "seating" was on first come, first served basis. It'll be interesting if they ever post a seating chart for this event.

Does anyone know if they typically have open floor, GA shows in Japan at such large venues?

 

[U2shanghai]

Still nothing at my end, I emailed PIA twice but so far they have not replied.
This is starting to scare me out. Is anyone in the same situation?

 

[U2shanghai]

The third time was the good one!
Received the confirmation, I have had worst week starts in my life!

 

[AlliDreamsOutLoud]

Here is what the stage and venue will be like...looks like they'll be using the stadium set....

http://www.u2japan.com/ticketpia.html

Also, I know that the general sale will be on Sept 24th. Does anyone know if they'll put an English page on their website? I've emailed ticketpia but haven't heard anything yet.

Thanks for all the info everyone has posted so far!

 

[fragrant]

*GASP*

Holy sh*t AlliDreamsOutLoud! Thank you, thank you, thank you for finding and posting this.

That A, BL and BR block map jives with the tickets in hand.

Was this just posted on U2Japan and how the heck did they get hold of it? I do not believe that anything of the sort has been posted on the official Pia site yet.

I really just want to make sure that this is the final word on the set up given all of the ups and downs we've been having getting official verification about things.

Thank you so much.



Shanghai, what was the confirmation on your tickets? Did that make your week start off badly or did it change things around?

 

[U2FanPeter]

Does this mean that all of the Tokyo shows will have a total of 75-90,000 tickets available rather than 69,000?

It also makes sense with the number of GA tickets leftover from Yokohama.

u2fp

 

[fragrant]

Where are you getting those numbers from U2fp?

Each of the three shows is supposed to have 23,000.

If what is posted on the U2japan.com site is true about the stage set up, Saitama arena can probably fit it.

 

[U2FanPeter]

The Saitama website says that an endzone stadium concert setup can hold 30,000. Seats behind the stage being unsold.

Someone in this very thread got an official email saying the attendance for each show will be 23,000.

What's right?

u2fp

 

[fragrant]

Hmmm, good point.

Let me dig up my email from Pia concerning the venue size.

Who knows, maybe they changed things.

 

[fragrant]

I received this from Pia on Aug.23



Thank you for your email.
We apologize it took a while to respond to your email.
We understand your frustration of the fans and we are putting in our best
effort to sastisfy as many fans as
possible. Our main goal of this pre-sale is to relocate as many fans who
bought tickets to the previous show to the new shows.

We think there is a misunderstanding in the definition of the lottery
system.
There will not be a lottery unless there are more orders than the saleable
capacity.
The capacity for Yokohama was 60,000, the total capacity of the new shows
are 70,000.
All the previous purchasers would be able to attend at least one show.

Fans who have ordered though this pre-sale should not have any problems
obtaining tickets to the new show. Your order that was placed on 8/8, for
the 12/4 should go through fine and should not be a problem
unless we have difficulties obtaining authorization from your credit card.

We thank you for your great patience regarding this order.

Best Regards

 

[fragrant]

And this from them on Aug.8


2.The capacity has changed due to venue change.(60000 to 23000). For example, if all 60000customers wanted to attend the first day show, we would have to do a ballot and direct some of the customers to the other dates.
However, our main focus is to grant the previous purchasers requests as much as possible.

 

[U2FanPeter]

Is the photo, posted in the last day, of the Arena set-up?

 

[fragrant]

This image from the U2Japan site? I'm not sure what the photo is from U2fp, but I'm assuming that it is Saitama.

Here's the unofficial block map from that page too. If this is true I'm so psyched to see those headphones.

 

[U2FanPeter]

Yes.

On the right side of the image you can see where the top tier seperates. There's a divide line between the "300" and "500" numbers placed on the image.

I think the Stadium set-up also had boxsuites.

The Saitama website also has some picture on all japanese link.

Judging by the picture it looks about the same size as The Tacoma Dome and the Chicago DVD venue - which can both be classified as Arenas.

u2fp

 

[fragrant]

This map is being shown to the Japanese fans when they go to a Pia location to print out their tickets. So that's good news about the stadium stage set up, b stages/headphones, and getting your hands of A-block tickets.


On the tickets there are reference numbers in addition to the block name. It is being said, from the Japanese fans, that these reference numbers indicate your position in the GA line to get into the venue. First come, first serve in the GA line does not apply.

As of right now I don't know my block or my reference number because I'm in the States. I'm supposed to pick up on the day of the show, but I'm going to ask Pia for my ticket info via email.

 

[fragrant]

It says this on the tickets in Japanese:

"You should enter to arena by reference number that is written on the your ticket".

 

[4U2Play]

It says this on the tickets in Japanese:

"You should enter to arena by reference number that is written on the your ticket".

That's a serious bummer.

As chaotic as the GA line situations in Mexico were, I'll take them anyday over this sort of over-organized bureaucracy.

Not only do we have to think about how to get GA tickets, we now have to try to get GA Block A tickets, and then GA Block A tickets with a high reference number.

It all sounds far too random, no reward for hardcore fans like us who are willing to line up for hours to secure a good spot on the floor. Will we have to resort to scalped tickets costing hundreds of dollars to get near the stage?

I always thought US concerts were far too restrictive and controlled compared to gigs in Europe and South America, but this takes the cake.

 

[U2FanPeter]

Maybe "reference number" means "enter gate 6" like the US?

It also doesn't account for latecomers - and is ripe for abuse by the priviledged that know the promoter.

u2fp

 

[U2shanghai]

No matter how hardcore fans we are, for us who have purchased our tickets as "residents outside Japan", we will only get them on the morning of the show, if we are lucky enough we may start queing at 10am...

Received a confirmation email, but still waiting for my access code to pick-up the tickets...

I guess it should be coming soon

 

[Raoul Duke]

Hi, I am in south korea and would like to get one ticket, is it too late? i saw an sept 24th sale date is that through the arena?

hell, maybe i will just fly over and try to scalp outside of the arena, i am only looking for one, so how hard can that be?

for the 12/4 show, and what is the conversion in dollars for a g.a. upper level seat?

i saw them in hotlanta in november of 05 and was sitting up in heaven but at a u2 show there is no bad seat!

 

[fragrant]

Hello Raoul. Nothing has been announced about that 9/24 presale yet. Ticket Pia u2-e@pia.co.jp should have info for you. Good luck.


I did receive a Pia email early this AM regarding my GA ticket block.


Thank you for your email.
We will let you know as soon as we finalize all seat locations.
We appreicate your patience.
Best Regards


*Sigh*
Shouldn't they have known my location already since I was in the first presale?


As for the reference numbers on the tickets u2fc, they do indicate how you are to line up to go into the venue. A friend in Japan let me know how these things work in general. Group A is 1-100, Group B is 101-200, and so on. If you are ref #220, you are directed to Grp B by a staff member. Within this line it is first come, first serve, so you could be waiting ahead of #200. Once the doors open, the lines enter in order
of the 100's, 200's, etc. This is how it is organized within each of the blocks.

Taken this is based on his experience, so things could be different for the U2 shows.

 

[fragrant]

Oops u2fp, not u2fc.

 

[bratty_cat]

I guess no updates re: an english language link for the public onsale this weekend? I know a bunch of us have emailed PIA but has anyone gotten an actual response?