Warzone

Warzone

War zone is the largest paintball field in Japan about an hour east of Shinjuku in Saitama. This place is legit and has authentic military training replete with running courses, tire hops, rope bridges, and shooting ranges, all of which are designed to destroy your kneecaps.

I took a trip out there to have a few games of survivor with friends and of course brought the phantom just in case, uncertain of whether it would be permitted. Incidentally the course was built by an ex-Israeli special forces offer who immigrated to Japan 12 years ago. He wields a high powered military-grade laser that burns through leather and bet me that he could take burn the propellers on my DJI from 300 meters away. I chose wisely not to take him up on the bet.

Not surprisingly he is not the least bothered by flying machines and actually has a DJI phantom of his own. He kindly let us take some videos on the battlefield. We came with a small group of 6 people and there wasn’t anyone out on the field as weather forecast wasn’t looking to pretty later that afternoon (we got our shooting in late morning), which meant there weren’t many people on the field. It was like playing basketball over a full court with only 2 people —a bit exhausting and not much happened. Regardless, we got some good shots!

If you want to check it out there is an airport nearby so be careful not to bring above 150m or so. I imagine it would be pretty fun if it was packed full and theres plenty of forest surrounding the course, a deep ravine, and not too many power-lines. I give this place a a 7/10. Good place to go even if you’re relatively new to drone photography and still getting a hang of the controls, but still a bit regulated because of the airport nearby.

Lastly, I sensed a business opportunity as this is a pretty popular spot for company outings, birthday parties, and team building activities. I asked the owner whether he had considered offering  drone photo/video packages so people could have some memorabilia of the day. Interestingly he’d tried this a while back but failed to get traction as people didn’t really get it, or didn’t feel like the price was justified. Since our chat I’m not sure if he has reconsidered trying it again, but for any readers out there who are looking for places to shoot I think this is a place worth exploring.

Happy Flying!