K-Arena VIP Lounge Report - The Luxury Concert Experience

Posted on Oct. 4, 2024, 3:48 p.m.
6 min read

So I posted a Japanese lounge report a couple weeks ago. I figured I'd write the english one eventually.

Context for the people who have no idea what this is about, the last live was held in K-Arena Yokohama, a venue where Idolmaster concerts have recently started offering an infamous expensive ticket which promises access to the VIP lounge and VIP seating known as the SP Lounge ticket. For Starlight Fantasy, the lounge tickets were priced at 80,000 JPY, about 6 times the price of a normal ticket. Not only do you have to pay a high price for the ticket, but you also have to win the ability to purchase it in the lottery round.

Having won Day 2 of the lounge ticket, I can now share what is possibly one of the most unique live experiences you can currently buy in Japan.

Let's start with before the live.

So a few days before the live you receive a mail in your inbox reminding you there is a dedicated entrance for lounge ticket winners. This is not normal, the wording for this email is only used specifically for this kind of ticket win. Even if you won the more expensive balcony seats, or previously had won like some of the premium seating in Constellation Gradation, there was no special email because there was no dedicated entrance.

At the live itself, entering the venue is similar that of a regular ticket, except there was a dedicated lane just for the SP Lounge on the extreme left side of the venue. The only other difference between my day 1 regular ticket experience is that you get a white bag containing your special gift. This means that at the end of the check in lane, you are right next to where the corporate flower stands are positioned at the left side of level 3.

Unfortunately being on this side of the venue means you have to cut across to the right to get to the dedicated elevator required to reach the VIP Lounge. This means you have to walk past all the other people who have checked in through the regular lanes still funneling through the venue, not quite the most elegant experience. Once you find the elevator, the staff will check your ticket and then send you up to the lounge floor. This requires the staff's pass to activate the lift access to that floor.

When you reach level 6, there is another staff stationed over there to usher you out of the lift. If you have experienced other high end lounges and hotel reception before the feeling should be immediately familiar, lush thick carpet, ornate decoration and your typical high end hotel flair in design help remind you where you are in the venue. Right in the middle opposite the largest V room is the lounge cashier. Here you can order collaboration drinks as a set and anything from 500 yen soft drinks to 1200000 yen fine wine. I have attached pictures of the menu for others who are interested to visit in the future. Do note that cash is not accepted at the VIP Lounge.

Once you have placed your order, you will be given a number and can take your seat anywhere in the lounge. The staff will walk up and down to find your number and deliver you whatever you ordered earlier. If you ordered any drinks, the drink will come with a VIP Lounge special coaster. This item can actually be purchased individually, but at 500 yen each alacarte, I recommend just ordering soft drinks instead.

Of course you can go view the special goods display they set up just for the lounge people to check out. Including a sample of the glass pinya seated on top of a rotating disc

As for the lounge itself, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. The fourth pic in this picture set was taken by the staff which asked if I wanted to take a photo before I left for my seat. Also there's even a piano in the lounge, though I don't suppose you should play it given that a live is being prepared....

Once you are ready, you can make your way over to the allocated room. In my case I did not win the largest and more grand V room, but I got one of the smaller rooms instead. These rooms hold up to 10 people each, and from checking the number of open doors, I found that around 4 of them were used for SP Lounge ticket holders, the rest are probably reserved for the real VIPs. This means that the total number of people who can win an SP Lounge ticket for this live was around 60 after accounting for the larger and fancier V room.

Each room has a table, a nice couch to sit on and a set of blinds against a glass that face the venue. You can raise the blinds and that actually does give you that director/producer feeling standing behind the glass pane looking down on the stage. Outside of the glass box there are your seats. Each seat is nicely cushioned, has tons of leg room and space for your bags and has a dedicated mini table for you to put your drinks. There are no row numbers in the VIP Rooms, instead the two rows of seats are just numbered 1-10 for these smaller rooms. Each room has a handwritten message from the VIP Lounge staff too, which is a nice touch.

After the live you are asked by staff to make sure to not leave anything behind as they will be evicting us from the room and closing the doors. However, you don't have to leave yet, you can still spend about another 1.5 hours in the lounge relaxing and making a few additional orders up until their last order time.

It was during this time that the live director JUNGO came up to the lounge to give a little talk to us. After turning down a free champagne from one of the attendees, he left and then came back a minute later asking if we wanted to take a group photo. I can't post much of the photo because there's a lot of faces in there but personally this was one of the coolest parts of the experience.

So at the end of it all, there's the question: Would I recommend going for the SP Lounge? I think it's not an easy answer. At 80,000 JPY, the asking price is steeper than two nights stay at Hilton right next to the venue. At the old price for other franchises of imas of 55,000 JPY and a guaranteed V room, it may have been easier to recommend just to experience something different. If you are someone who just wants to be close to the action and stage, this is not for you. If you want to try your hands at one of the most unique luxury concert experiences this franchise has to offer you, then I would say it's something that should be experienced at least once. If you love drinking alcohol and enjoying lives, this is the only legal way to do it too. Would I do it again? Well I would be lying if I said I didn't want to at least experience the bigger V room next time, but there's no guarantee. Winning a 60/20,000 seat is already difficult enough, what more a 20/20,000?

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