A couple of days ago, I was speaking with a friend about Amuro Namie’s final tour, titled Finally, after my cousin Z texted me about her wish to catch the concert. The choice of title makes it sound like someone couldn’t wait for this to be over. As with many concerts, fans in the fan club get the first go at applying for the tickets, followed by other groups depending on the campaign. For Amuro’s tour, following the fan club, those with d-account get to apply for the tickets for free since the singer is collaborating with docomo. And following that comes those who purchased the album and apply with the serial number in the CDs. Only after this, will it be open to the general public.
Note that all the applications are by lottery; not first-come-first-serve. So there’s no guarantee you can go even if you have the money.
The album costs about 5,000 yen and comes with 3 CDs+DVD or Blu-ray. Since it is a little costly, I didn’t want to buy the album but learned that some people who bought the album but are unable to go for the concerts are selling the serial numbers online. So, I went to purchase a serial number at 888 yen, and later learned about that I could apply with the d-account for free.
Dang!
But since I already got the serial number, I might as well up my chances of catching it and apply for 2 different days, right?
The last day of the tour will be Amuro’s last concert ever, and so, I would expect a lot of people applying for that day. Hence, I decided to not fight the crowded battle and picked the day before as well as the one a month earlier. Why fight for a million dollars with a million people when you can win $10,000 dollars against 10,000 people? The odds of you winning is increased 100 times. Even though the second last day would probably also be crowded, the Tokyo Dome location means more seats are available. And as long as I get to catch her last tour, I don’t even care if I am seated so far, she looks like a dot. After a couple of concerts here, I’ve learned that what makes concerts interesting is the crowd.
The organizing authority is very smart about making sure not to let tickets go to the black market by requiring all applicants to register for an account not just for themselves, but also for those whom the extra tickets are for. So, if I were to apply for 2 tickets, 1 for myself and 1 for you, you would have to be registered as well and I have to enter your registered email address during application. Also, everyone is required to bring documents of identification to prove they are who they claim to be.
Sure, I believe there are still loopholes such as that you can probably just hand your photo-less insurance card to someone else and that person can enter as you. But this would mean you can only let the ticket out to people you know, because, why would you trust some stranger with your identification card? Of course, there still are ways around it, but would you go through that much trouble?
The ticket is priced at about 10,000 yen including handling fees, and if it can be sold on the black market, I believe it can easily fetch 50,000 or 100,000 yen. That’s some really good money to be made. Which is why, despite the stringent checks, I believe the tickets will still be available for sale online, either by people who try to game the system, by unethical people trying to cheat those not in-the-know, or simply by people who didn’t read the fine prints during application.
Fan club members also got to order special customized versions of the album with their names printed alongside Amuro’s on the album sleeve. Pretty cool, eh?
Results to my first application will be out on December 8, and the second on December 22.
Wish me luck!
Dang! Didnt know about the 888 yen. haha
Wish us luck!
An acquaintance of mine got his tickets! But he’s in Nagoya; competition is probably less intensive.
Pray hard we get the second last show in June.
I bought the album and want to try and apply for tickets but I don’t know enough Japanese to use the serial number. Would you be able to explain how to apply or know of somewhere that has a translation of the process?
Hi Chelsea, I feel that the website isn’t very well organized, so it’s really difficult to locate the application section for using the serial numbers.
Below are the links to the English pages to apply for the tickets.
Make sure you (and everyone you are getting the tickets for) are registered to Ticketboard as well.
Ticketboard registration: https://ticket.tickebo.jp/pc/en/index.html
Application by serial number: https://ticket.tickebo.jp/pc/en/namieamuro2018-ba/
I’ll write a more detailed post on the process.
I think it’s the last draw that will be happening this week… It’s the 3rd time i’m trying… I sincerely wish I’ll get access to these tickets. It would be a privilege to see her live at least once, especially coming back to Japan after 10 years… I can’t wait!!
Wish you all the best! Did you pick one of those weekdays or the extended shows?
I tried for one show in Osaka and the other in Tokyo. I wasn’t lucky. It’s always a full let down when I get the emails from Tickebo. I wake up to these emails and it’s never a good day starter…
I tried for 3 times as well and failed to get the tickets twice as well. So, don’t lose hope yet!
I won’t! 🙂 Let me know if you find any alternatives, I’ll also be looking for new draws if there are any, the issue is, they are never announced properly on her Facebook page and the Tickebo website is a real pain to learn hahaha!
Don’t you get notifications on new draws? I keep receiving emails on new draws. But since I already got a ticket, I don’t intend to participate in any more. And yes, Ticketboard is really horribly designed. Encryption probably isn’t even done as you can see their password field is in visible text format =\
I don’t… and for the flyer, I learned only yesterday by reading your blog that we could purchase one for 880 yen. I also wanted to buy the Blu-Ray version of Finally via cdjapan but I decided (before the whole tickebo process) that I would buy the album at Tsutaya when I will be there… bad decision… I really hope i’ll get some luck! ⭐️
As for the notifications, is it via tickebo’s website? Or her facebook or FanClub?
The notifications are from Ticketboard. I don’t remember signing up for it, so I thought they just send it to everyone who applied for the tickets.