Here in Tokyo, Japan, there are already brilliant basketball bars to catch a game, and enough 3×3 events to feed your hoops fill. But what about a place to get a run in?
This is where Toyota Arena Tokyo’s Adidas Sports Park comes into play.
Harajuku’s Yoyogi Park may be dubbed “Tokyo’s Rucker”, but behold what is on offer near Odaiba, Tokyo. A peaceful place that feels a million miles away from the sights, sounds, and stresses, of Shibuya and Shinjuku’s city streets. Across the beautiful, white Rainbow Bridge, with Tokyo Tower in the background, Odaiba is home to many top concert venues, and the tourist famous TeamLab Borderless exhibition. Not to mention, a shopping mall, DiverCity, with a giant Gundam robot guarding out-front.
The only thing that holds a bigger torch in this region of Tokyo is the replica Statue of Liberty. That’s more Shaq sized than it is like New York’s crown of the Hudson.
All this, yet the hoop heads in this city might have more of their mind in the game of this gorgeous blacktop. And they may as well. Not only is Japan making it’s up-court push, the artificial island of Odaiba, and surrounding areas like Tokyo Teleport and Big Sight, are on the rise when it comes to sports. Holding some of the more street-level sports of skateboarding and 3×3 during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, subway stops and changes away from the official Olympic stadium of track and field.
With street hoops taking over the block, Japan’s B. League has next to put the world on notice after one of its biggest stars, Yuki Kawamura, formerly of the Yokohama B-Corsairs, made his Rui like journey to the NBA.
One of the league’s biggest teams, the Toyota Tokyo Alvark, now have one of the biggest arenas to rival that of top team, the Chiba Jets, led by former Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies downtown gunner Yuta Watanabe.
Behind that automobile money, the Alvark have added an amazing arena to the town’s skyline. One with a football pitch on its roof for all you World Cup aficionados.
Yet it’s the awesome Adidas Sports Park playing neighbour that you want to have next on. With Toyota Alvark mascot Rook Robo, the red bear, cheering you on, as he leans on a basket courtside.
The “Our Shoes, Our Court” concept, supported by the “you got this” of Adidas completes a court made up of old, unwanted basketball sneakers, recycled and reused. Now, that really is ingrained in the game.
Collected over the last calendar, more than 1,000 shoes were crushed at a factory and laced with waste tire chips to become part of the floor you can now play on in the park.
These rubber soles, like The Beatles, were reborn last October, debuting in their very own court. A one-of-a-kind basketball playground engraved with the souls of all the players that have played before.
Designed by painter and artist MHAK. The canvas features red and blue hues across the floor, not to mention, the Tokyo name, in baseball Giants’ italics. It follows the Toyota Arena’s concept quote of ‘Betting On Possibilities’ and you can sure bet your bottom dollar off the top of the backboard.
The court plays like one straight out of your NBA Live dreams. Chain-link fences. Trains rolling and riding in the background with a Tokyo city skyline that lights up like the floodlights when the rising sun sets. And, like EA Sports, this really is in the game here, as everyone is welcome and free to play any time. Barring event days.
Speaking of events, rivalling the K-Arena, or “the world’s largest venue built specifically for music”, in this writer’s neighbouring city of Yokohama, the Toyota Arena Tokyo even played host to Japan’s prestigious Music Awards Japan, last month. One that featured Japan’s biggest musical numbers like winners Mrs. GREEN APPLE, Fujii Kaze and Sakanaction.
More music can be heard outside the arena with the concrete jungle rhythm of the ball bouncing on the blacktop to the beat.
How sweet that string music is.
