A Year of Concerts Part 1: Purchasing Tickets and Goods
Back in September 2015 I saw a flier in Animate for a Sword Art Online exhibition. As I went about figuring out how to purchase tickets for the event, I stumbled upon a bunch of other shows and events that I wanted to see. Thus began the year of concerts. Here’s what I learned and experienced.
Buying Tickets: The first step to getting to a concert is of course getting your tickets! And don’t be fooled, this isn’t always as simple as it seems. When it comes to the more popular events, you may have to depend on luck and timing by entering a ticket lottery before the tickets go out on general sale. If that doesn’t go in your favor, you’ll have to buy the tickets the day that they come out. I strongly suggest being at a Lawson at 10am or whatever time they are set to release with your Loppi code ready if you suspect that the concert is a popular one. Ticket Camp is a good last resort for getting tickets if you really really want to go to a particular concert, but didn’t manage to get them through usual methods, but be warned it can get pricey. The earlier you get tickets the better, or you can wait til last minute to see if anyone is selling them for cheaper, though it’s a gamble.
You can register to get emails from all of these sites (below) if you’re interested in what’s happening concert wise. After purchasing tickets, you’ll get a code that you can use to print out a slip and pay at the counter or online.
Lawson: http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/
Loppi Guide: http://l-tike.com/guide/loppi_english.html
The thing that I like about Lawson ticketing is that you can use Loppi codes to buy tickets from their machines. You can look up these simple five digit codes on their website and nip to your local Lawson, input the code into one of their iconic red machines (careful though cuz not all Lawsons have one) and get your tickets pretty quickly instead of having to purchase them online first and pick them up later.
Family Mart: http://eplus.jp/sys/main.jsp
I think the Family Mart portal is the most helpful in terms of notifying you of artists you like. You can favorite artists in your account and they’ll send an email blast of artists you like or might like when performances of them are coming up. You may have to use google chrome/translate to help you input information once you have an account. Eplus is also really good for entering the ticket lotteries and will notify you of whether or not you got tickets. This is pretty vital in terms of the time sensitivity in which you have to pick the tickets up, usually within 3 days.
Ticket Camp: https://ticketcamp.net/
Ticket camp is a site where people who have already bought tickets or won in a ticket lottery can sell their tickets. This website verifies that both parties get their ticket or money. You can also put out a request for a ticket if you know that you want one, and a seller can contact you if they want to sell you their ticket.
There are two ways I’ve experienced getting tickets on this site after paying for the ticket,
- Through registered (trackable) mail where a post person physically hands you the envelope or you can pick it up at the post office.
- The seller sends you the code for the ticket and you pay for the ticket at the combini. Be warned, this means you have to pay for the original ticket price as well as the price listed on Ticket Camp.
After getting your tickets, you log back into your account and confirm that you’ve received your tickets and I believe that allows the seller to collect the money you paid on the site.
If You Want the Goods: Depending on the popularity of the show you’re seeing, you may want to get in line early to get the goods you want, or better yet, get them online ahead of time. Things like clothes and other wearable things are usually what sell out first is what I’ve noticed. At most concerts you’ll find a towel, a light stick, and CDs at minimum for that event, among lots of other possible goodies like books detailing the making of the event, eco bags, hand towels, plaid shirts, stickers, cookies, guitar pick necklaces, postcards, or yes, even plastic box cutter keychains.
Happy ticket hunting!
*mandy*
