The 45,000-seat Toyota Stadium is home to Nagoya Grampus Eight football club (the J1 club formerly of Gary Lineker and Arsene Wenger fame), and one of the most architecturally impressive of the lot. Yes, it’s the same Toyota as the car company – Toyota is in fact the name of the city where the company is based (Toyota-shi), now an outlying suburb of Greater Nagoya. Toyota will host 4 pool matches in the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Nagoya Transportation
Access to Toyota Stadium is via the Meitetsu railway (aka Nagoya Railroad), a privately operated train network covering the greater Nagoya region. Meitetsu Nagoya Station is just next to the main JR Nagoya Station, and it’s 50 to 60 minutes from there to Toyota-shi Station with a change at Chiryu.
You can also transfer to Meitetsu from JR at Toyo-hashi (possibly useful if coming from points east, it’s a shinkansen stop but note the faster Nozomi & Hikari trains skip it).
If you’re coming from within Nagoya but not staying near the Meitetsu terminus at Nagoya Station, it’s probably best to use the blue subway line as there are actually direct trains to Toyota-shi where the subway train runs through onto the Meitetsu tracks. This means you don’t need to physically change trains, but you do still have to pay both companies for a ticket – easiest way to do this is by using an IC card which works it all out automatically when you tap in & out. Also note that not every subway train runs through, with some terminating at Akaike – if your train does this, just hop off at Akaike and wait for the next train going on through to Toyota-shi.
Sound complicated? As always, check Hyperdia for train route details and just follow the suggested route (see here for an explanation on using Hyperdia). IC cards are accepted on all of the Meitetsu, JR, and subway lines; if you get a card in Nagoya it’ll be Toica (if issued by JR) or Manaca (if issued by non-JR companies), but they can be used interchangeably and all the IC cards from other regions also work e.g. Tokyo’s Suica and Pasmo cards. See here for more on IC cards.
Once you reach Toyota-shi Station it’s just a 15-minute walk east to the stadium over the futuristic Toyota Bridge crossing the Yahagi River.
Hotels near Toyota Stadium
For easiest access to the stadium, base yourself locally in Toyota-shi if you can (don’t expect too much by way of nightlife though, other than a reasonable selection of restaurants); search & book hotels in Toyota
If you prefer to be near the main nightlife, shopping, and city sights of Nagoya, Sakae would be a good call (search here), as would Osu-Kannon (search here). Staying near Nagoya Station (search here) is best for all-round convenience (easy access from other cities, easy access to the stadium, easy access to Sakae), or failing that anywhere with easy access to the blue subway line should work fine.
Airbnb is also a great option in Japan, in fact in Japan it seems to work particularly well – most hosts arrange self-checkin & checkout systems, allowing you to arrive & leave flexibly without needing to meet someone for the keys (the key’s often left in a lockbox for you). The wifi is always super-fast, and I’ve never had an Airbnb nightmare in Japan (have had a few elsewhere). There was a crackdown in 2018 with the introduction of new regulations which led to a collapse in the number of listings available and accordingly a jump in prices, with a lot of travellers reporting that their reservations were suddenly cancelled as a result. It was all a bit of a mess at first, but you can be confident that any listings remaining on there at this point are legit. Prices went up unfortunately, but then so did standards, and Airbnb is still my usual go to for accommodation in Japan.
New users can get a $35 discount from their first Airbnb rental through Rugby Guide Japan, simply click here and sign up.
This post was archived from my Rugby World Cup website; see here for more (including the Nagoya quick guide which was the other half of this original post)
See also my Japan travel guide and my other Japan posts
Hello! Could you advise the best route to go from Ecopa stadium to Toyota Stadium – I’m watching the Aus vs Georgia match and trying to get to the NZ v Italy one day after
Hi Jay,
If you want to go direct from one stadium to the other, it’s Aino Station to Toyota-shi Station. This entails taking the local JR train one stop from Aino to Kakegawa, then at Kakegawa changing to the Kodama shinkansen towards Nagoya. This makes a stop at Toyohashi where you change to the private Meitetsu Line to Toyota-shi with a change at Chiryu. I did this exact journey while researching this website, total journey time is around 1h45 and if you have a JR Pass it covers you as far as Toyohashi but then you have to pay separately for the Meitetsu Line as it’s a different company.
Also see my Ecopa page for a longer explanation of how the transport works around there.
Where are you actually staying that night though? The recommended route will probably be different if you’re not staying in the immediate vicinity of one of the stadiums.
Hi Simon
We are in transit from Shizuoka to Toyota with the RWC on 12 Oct and need somewhere to leave luggage in Toyota City . Any suggestions?
Thanks
Terri
Hi Terri,
Train stations in Japan have coin lockers where you can store bags – however, I’d imagine they’ll be full at Toyota Station on match days and I’m not sure if any extra storage will be provided. Another option would be to store them in lockers at another station en route, if you’ll be passing back through that station. This obviously depends what your route is – usually if going from Shizuoka to Toyota you’d change from the shinkansen at Toyohashi, so if you’re then going back east again you could store your bags at Toyohashi and get them on the way back through. However, if you’re planning to continue further west after the match to e.g. Kyoto/Osaka, you wouldn’t go through Toyohashi but rather Nagoya Station. So in this latter case, I’d suggest going from Shizuoka to Toyota via Nagoya Station and storing your bags at Nagoya. This would be a but more time-consuming in terms of journey duration so requiring a slightly earlier start from Shizuoka, but would be better logistically with your bags. Where are you headed after the match?
Thanks so much for the information. We have booked a brilliant service- luggage- free-trade.Com to take our suitcases ahead. So will only have backpacks for the match.
Love your site – so much information. We will be using it the whole time we are in Japan
Cheers Terri, good to hear it’s been useful. Though I must confess I failed to give you good info in my last response – there was actually a really obvious solution that skipped my mind, which is to use a takkyubin (宅急便) service. It’s a package forwarding service which you can use to send your luggage ahead to anywhere in Japan, hotel front desk staff can arrange this for you easily and the price is reasonable. It seems you’ve found a similar solution anyway, but for future reference of other readers I still wanted to mention takkyubin.
Anyway, sounds like you’re sorted but you might want to check the prices in case there’s a big difference. Hope you have a great trip and give me a shout with any further questions!
Hi Simon,
fantastic site.. has given us some really good info for our travels – Just wondering if you have any information on the best place to park when heading to Toyota Stadium.
We are heading to the Samoa v Japan game, driving in from Shizuoka – then hitting the road for Tokyo straight after game.
Hoping you might have some insights on parking at/around this stadium..cant seem to find this information anywhere, including on the Official RWC site – which has a broken link 🙁
Cheers Amanda, glad it’s been useful.
It’s a park & ride system, so you have to park in one of the designated areas then ride a shuttle bus to the stadium – looks like they’re not that close, so I’d allow plenty of time for this. Advance reservations are required, you have to pay 1000 yen by credit card to get an access coupon.
Full access info is here, it’s in Japanese but you can use the language button at the top to auto-translate it (6th image down shows the location of the park & ride areas). I’ll try to post the direct link here to the English version of the park & ride section, hopefully that works. The translation is pretty terrible, but understandable enough to work it all out.
Let me know if you manage to get it sorted or not
Hi Simon! You’re a star! Thank you so much! I have managed to book and pay for the Park and Ride system with no issues at all.
Thank you once again! Love your site and the wealth of info you have shared – extremely helpful.
regards
Amanda