The full schedule for the 2024 J-league is out! In Japan, fans often go to home stadiums near their homes to support their favorite teams, while another part of the fan base loves to draft away from home and take a little trip along the way, so let's take a look at how Japanese fans play!
There is a lot to be said for traveling to a game. For example, if you only have a weekend and a limited budget, in Japan, where there are many different means of transportation, you can combine railroads, buses, night buses, domestic flights, and even ferries to create the most suitable way to move around, and traveling to different cities to experience different flavors is the sweet spot of the trip. A fan said that although his team was unfortunately relegated from J1 to J2, he is even more fanatical about traveling to away games because the team belonging to J2 is usually more remote, with smaller stadiums and more opportunities for people to interact with each other, which makes it even more of a deeper travel experience.
In addition to cherry blossom viewing, hot springs, gourmet food, beautiful scenery, and countless other travel ideas, meeting people is also one of the charms of attending a game, and even more so when attending a game away from home. It's easy to see familiar faces at an away game, and it's easy to have dinner and drinks together after the game, or even to interact with the fans of the opposing team. When you have friends, you will naturally have the idea of "traveling" or "gathering" when there is a match.
For me, this game was the 2019 League Cup final between Kawasaki Striker and Sapporo Gonzaga Dorei, and the pre-game was full of misery for the fans, in my case, the plane arrived in Tokyo, and due to the heavy rain, external traffic was blocked, and I was stranded for four hours before I left the airport, and when I arrived in Saitama it was already midnight, but it was the tail-end of the bad weather after all, and the bad weather went straight for the Sapporo fans, many of whom used their domestic flights. The flights were canceled and fans paid to find first class flights to Haneda, while others moved to Hanamaki or Ibaraki airports for departure.
The most courageous story of the away game is like this, there is a Sapporo fan who works in a bar, at 21:30 the night before, he received a message from his friends who were going to watch the final with him, saying that their flight in the morning had been canceled, and the low-cost airline was unable to change the ticket, and they found out that the plane was unable to secure a ticket for two people, so they thought about it and decided to take the first Shinkansen from Hakodate, but all the transportation from Sapporo to Hakodate had been stopped, and even though they had their own car, they couldn't leave it behind after driving to Hakodate, but as a last resort, he posted a message on his community to ask for a driver. Even though he had a car, he couldn't just leave it behind after driving to Hakodate, but as a last resort, he posted a message on his own community to ask for a driver, and the result was that a fan friend he met at the stadium volunteered to be the driver, so he got off work at midnight, and the fan friend drove 5 hours and 300 kilometers to send them to Hakodate to take the shinkansen, and the earliest shinkansen reserved seats were already filled up, so they spent 20,000 Japanese yen to buy a standing ticket, and stood all the way to Omiya, and arrived at Omiya in 4 hours. They spent 20,000 yen on station tickets and stood for 4 hours before arriving in Omiya, and then took a taxi with other fans to the stadium. It took them 10 hours and 1,000 kilometers of overnight travel before they finally made it to the game.
Fortunately, the content of this game is very legendary, to the field before we ate the pain, have become the brightness of the stadium, the Sapporo fans said, although the "second place is meaningless" this sentence is true, but in this game does not apply, Sapporo Gonzaga Torrey performance was very good, every point is worth remembering, and I as a fan of the winning team, I agree with this statement, all players fought to the last moment, just God favored! We blocked the last 12-yard penalty to win the game. Without a great opponent, there will not be a great champion.
Teams, of course, want fans to show up on the sidelines to show their support, and more well-known teams such as Kawasaki Striker, Kashima Antlers, and Yokohama Marinos ...... have cooperated with travel agencies to allow fans to sign up for tour buses beforehand for the "Away Tour," which allows them to easily travel to the away stadiums.
I've used it a few times, and it's a lot more expensive than hitchhiking, but as a foreigner who doesn't speak the language and has a very poor sense of direction, the transfer from Kawasaki to Kashima's home stadium can kill your brain cells, so I'm thankful for the Away Tour service.
For 2024, expect to be able to travel away from home on your own without relying on away Tour services, and here's a look at this year's Japanese soccer tournaments:
Japan Professional League: J-league
Split into J1-J3, there could be 25 matches held across Japan in one weekend during the tournament period.
J1 schedule, J2 schedule, J3 schedule, THE National Day, Golden J
