Around the area of Jingu is an enormous park known as Meiji Jingu Gaen. Jingu Park includes an art gallery, baseball fields and tennis courts, the national stadium, rugby stadium and Jingu Baseball Stadium — home of the Yakult Swallows.
There are two other sites of interest that might grab your attention, particularly if you enjoy sports or if you are in need of a legal method of relieving stress and frustration from whatever ails you: A batting cage and driving rage.
Located between the National Stadium and the Jingu Baseball Stadium, sits the Jingu Golf Center. The complex has retail sales of golf equipment and also allows patrons to rent golf clubs to be used on the three-level range. Each roof-covered stall has its own automatic ball dispenser, auto setter unit and seating area. The cost of using the stall is dependent on the level you choose to hit balls from. The main level is more expensive because it provides the most accurate gauge of how far you are hitting the ball. For those that want an immediate ego-boost, I suggest heading up to the third level where you can convince yourself that can actually hit the ball 300 yards. Then again, golf has always been a battle of how honest or dishonest you are with yourself.
If golf isn’t your game, then walk a little further on toward the baseball fields and you will find the Jingu Batting Dome. Unlike the driving range, the batting cage may be as humbling as it is cathartic — depending on how many times you swing and miss.
Like the range, the batting cage sells punch cards for specific amounts of balls and at varying price levels. Each cage stall has an automatic setter where you choose the location of the pitch and its speed. You can also decide just how “fast” you want to go. While each stall allows for three speed settings, the minimum and maximum speed varies. I decided to go for one with 90-110-130 kilometer per hour settings. After whiffing on a couple of pitches at 110, I sheepishly reduced the speed to 90 and was relieved to make contact with the rest of the pitches. The batting cage is also a great place to visit when the Yakult Swallows are a playing a game at Jingu stadium and the batting dome sells a number of Swallows merchandise items.
If you are in need of a little pre-game fun or just want to take out some of your frustrations, whatever the cause may be, then the batting dome and driving range in Jingu Park may be the place for you.
