Japanese baseball has never been more popular. The rest of the baseball community is finally catching on to what JapanBallers have known for years: nothing beats the Japanese baseball experience. That’s why we are offering a bounty of Japanese tour options in 2025.
But it’s not all Japan in 2025 – we also offer tour packages to South Korea, Seattle, Alaska, Cooperstown, and the Dominican Republic (including our inaugural DR Fantasy Camp!).
Here’s a quick snapshot of our 2025 schedule, followed by in-depth descriptions and updates for each tour.
- February: NPB (and KBO!) Spring Training in Okinawa and Miyazaki – BOOK NOW!
- March: MLB Opening Series (Dodgers vs Cubs) in Tokyo
- May: Japan (NPB)
- May/June: South Korea (KBO)
- June: Pacific Northwest and Alaska Midnight Sun Game – BOOK NOW!
- July: Cooperstown HOF induction weekend (Ichiro and more) – BOOK NOW!
- August: Japan (Koshien tournament, NPB, and alternative baseball/softball)
- November: Dominican Republic
- November: Dominican Republic Fantasy Camp
If none of these fit your availability or needs, we offer custom tours too!
February: NPB (and KBO!) Spring Training in Okinawa and Miyazaki
Our first NPB spring training tour earlier this year was a rousing success, so we are going even bigger this year, extending our Okinawa spring training trip to Japan’s mainland in Miyazaki. We also will be sure to take advantage of KBO teams training alongside NPB teams and see them too.
March: MLB Opening Series – Dodgers vs Cubs at Tokyo Dome
Note: Are you just looking for tickets? We are not accepting, nor will fulfill, requests for individual tickets to these games. If we do manage to get tickets to any of the Dodgers-Cubs or MLB-NPB games, they will only be offered as part of a very limited supply of tour packages.
JapanBall hasn’t missed an MLB Opening Day in Japan yet, and we intend to keep that streak going. Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Seiya Suzuki, and Shota Imanaga coming home to open the MLB season (and half-Japanese manager Dave Roberts) will make this a must-see event.
We have a fantastic plan in place. However, at this point, I feel compelled to set realistic expectations.
First, we still do not yet have tickets in hand. As anticipated, obtaining tickets to these games is proving to be extremely difficult. These games could easily be the most in-demand games in the history of MLB’s regular season, and the corporate sponsors are taking an outsized share, making things even more difficult.
There has been two presales so far in Japan and we were unsuccessful. We are now taking our chances in a lottery, but even if we win, we will be very limited in how many tickets we can purchase. I am also working other connections to see if I have any luck.
Second, we are receiving hundreds of requests for these games. If we manage to obtain tickets, we will hold our own lottery to allocate tour packages; unfortunately, many interested parties will be disappointed.
May: Japan NPB Tour
Our flagship tour will still feature all that has made it a can’t-miss opportunity for adventurous baseball lovers since 1999, just with better weather! We decided to move our annual NPB tour from September to May in 2025 so that we can enjoy cooler temperatures and less humidity while avoiding typhoon season.
The NPB schedule worked out well for us this year, as the Full Tour features a fantastic route that lets you get acclimated in Tokyo with three games before seeing the two teams up north, including beautiful and still brand-new ES CON Field Hokkaido.
We stop again in Tokyo on our way back south to check off the last two Tokyo parks before heading south to cover the five NPB teams below Tokyo.
We have a few strategic off-days that will ease the travel load and allow you to take in some of Japan’s best sightseeing spots, as well as a handful of fantastic group outings, both baseball-related and not.
The tour ends in Nagoya, from where you can fly with the group to Seoul for our annual KBO tour, which will attend home games at all nine KBO ballparks this year!
If you can’t do the Full Tour this year, we have a few other options. The Full Tour is broken into two segments, so you can do a shorter version that only covers Tokyo plus the north or south. Or, you can do the Tokyo Tour, which will attend home games of all five NPB teams in the Tokyo region.
May/June: South Korea KBO
The only thing I’ve been wanting to change about our tour is the August weather, so this year, we move the South Korea tour to right after May’s Japan tour, when the weather is less oppressive on the Korean Peninsula.
Last year’s South Korea tour ventured outside of Seoul for the first time – we saw seven games in in four cities, and it went great! I now have the confidence to expand our South Korea tour in 2025 to all nine KBO ballparks – that’s right you can do the “See It All,” Korea-style!
June: Seattle + Alaska Midnight Sun Game
Our biennial Pacific Northwest Tour, highlighted by the Midnight Sun game in Alaska, is back in 2025. With the summer solstice landing on a weekend this year, the Midnight Sun Game perfectly aligns with the Fairbanks Summer Solstice Festival (and 10k run, for anyone interested in that), meaning that the festive vibes at this gem of a game will be at their highest level. For anyone who’s been, you know, the Midnight Sun Game is a truly unique, joyous, and unforgettable baseball experience.
With the Red Sox in Seattle the week before the Midnight Sun game, we will have a pre-tour in Seattle to see the Sox and M’s at T-Mobile Park, as well as either a Tacoma Rainiers or summer wood bat league game. We’ll then hop on a flight up to Fairbanks together for the midnight summer bonanza. Also new this year – you can extend your trip by a day to take a scenic summer train ride to Denali National Park.
Bookings are now open. We sold out last time, so reserve your spot now!
July: Ichiro Hall-of-Fame Induction Weekend in Cooperstown
For years now, JapanBallers have inquired whether we would offer a trip to Cooperstown to see Ichiro’s inevitable formal introduction into baseball immortality. I can finally say that the answer is a resounding “YES!”
We have a tremendous HOF class of 2025! Sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, as well as dominant southpaws CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner will be joining Ichiro Suzuki in Immortality that weekend in July.
We are partnering with Sports Travel and Tours, the official tour provider of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, to offer an exclusive Ichiro induction weekend experience in July 2025. You are welcome to book any of STAT’s tour offerings through us, but we encourage you to opt for the official JapanBall package. Some of the reasons why you might want to join us:
- Travel with fellow JapanBallers!
- STAT has better access than any other tour provider. Our package will include VIP reserved seats at the induction ceremony, and access to various other events throughout the weekend.
- Potential for unique baseball cultural exchange, as we are going to market this package to Japanese baseball fans too. Bringing people together through baseball is what we’re all about, and experiencing this weekend alongside Japanese fans making the pilgrimage will be a fantastic experience.
August: Alternative Japanese Baseball Tour
Tour dates: August 18-25. Highlighted by attending the legendary Koshien National High School Baseball Championship, this new tour offering will focus on alternative Japanese baseball and athletic offerings. Potential tour activities include: Koshien National High School Baseball Championship, minor and independent leagues, women’s college baseball championship, sumo wrestling, other Japanese pro sports, cultural sightseeing, and, OK fine – probably at least one NPB game! Stay tuned for dates and sign-up info.
September: Mini NPB Tour
Tour Dates: September 4-11. Why not get some more NPB action? We have always traveled to Japan in September in the past, and although our primary tour moved to May this year, we want to give guests a late-summer option as well.
This tour focuses on some of our favorite ballparks and cities south of Tokyo. We’ll spend two nights in Yokohama, embark on the “Ichiro Suzuki Pilgrimage” before a game in Nagoya, and then settle in at our Osaka hotel to see the Orix Buffaloes at Osaka Dome, the Hanshin Tigers at historic Koshien Stadium, and a fun Orix @ Hanshin minor league game!
November: Dominican Republic Winter League Tour (with new tour stops!)
Tour Dates: November 7-17 (with shorter segment options)Any past tour guest will tell you that the DR is a baseball wonderland, and with five years under our belt now, Pachy and I want to take this tour to the next level!
We will continue to offer our deep dive into the Dominican Baseball Machine next November, allowing you to be immersed in the vibrant Dominican culture on and off the field. However since many parts of our itinerary haven’t changed since our inaugural tour I have been discussing ideas with our local guide, Pachy, on how to incorporate new activities, games, destinations, and meetings in order to attract past DR tour guests while still maintaining the spirit of our annual tour. And don’t worry, we are definitely still going to dine at the famed gas station with “the best ribs in the Caribbean!”
The DR tour is our most exclusive, with behind-the-scenes, insider access, and it’s our most inclusive too, with most of your food and drink included in the tour price. If you haven’t been yet, have been and want to experience our new itinerary, or haven’t completed the six LIDOM ballparks yet, then let 2025 be your year!
November: Dominican Republic Fantasy Camp
Camp Dates: November 3-9. But we aren’t just offering our annual DR tour in 2025 – we are also offering Dominican Fantasy Camp next winter! Our fantasy camp will follow the model of MLB team fantasy camps, in which adults get to live out their childhood dreams of playing on big-league fields and yakking it up with former big-league stars. But this fantasy camp differs from your typical camp due to its location on a beautiful Caribbean island where baseball reigns and ex-pros are shockingly accessible.
Shoutout to JapanBaller Doug Miller for inspiring me to make this endeavor happen. Doug and I are working with Pachi to finalize the details.
Custom and Team/Group/Student Travel
Even with our biggest year yet of offerings, we’d love to work with you on custom or group travel. This year we have already arranged tours for a student group from the University of South Carolina and a father in Colorado who wanted to have a special, baseball-centric trip with his teenage son. We are in talks with universities, youth travel ball teams, and high school teams to offer customized tours that meet their group’s needs.
Whether you’re interested in traveling as an individual or with a team, school, or other group, I’d love to have the opportunity to put together an incredible trip for you.
