Played May 24, 2014
Reviewed by the Pink Putter
As part of a fellowship that I received this past year, Mr. Tee and I found ourselves in Tokyo for 2.5 weeks visiting amusement parks, children’s museums, themed restaurants and mini golf (all in the name of research, of course!). With a culture chock full of cute kitsch, it’s surprising that mini golf isn’t big in Japan. We looked hard and managed to find only one course in all of Tokyo, well actually Yokohama, and another in Osaka (review to come).
Yokohama is known as “Minatomurai” or “City of the Future.” It’s home to Nissan headquarters, an amusement park, a beautiful Chinatown, the Anpanman Children’s Museum, a cruise ship port, the Cup Noodle Museum, Sweets Cranes and Bahn Golf. If you don’t know the area, Bahn Golf was a bit tricky to find, but the view alone is worth the journey. Lucky for us, our friends Hideo and Danielle joined, and guided, us in the adventure. In case you are looking, it’s on the roof of a mall just across the street from the Cup Noodle Museum.
Rating:
Birdie – While playing overseas was certainly a unique experience, this course fell just above average. The classic tournament style layout reminded us a lot of Tee Time 2 in Stone Harbor, NJ, which we also gave a Birdie rating. The rules here were slightly different, each hole had small divots built into it so that if your ball lands outside the painted line, you were directed place your ball on the divot to start your next shot. There was also a rule about getting your ball past the red line on the first shot. The rooftop was windy and the view was amazing. Everything was clean and just a little faded from being out in the sun.
Japan Mini Golf Sport Association
Pros
Lovely view
Clean and relatively well-maintained
Fun and challenging play
Shopping mall below had lots of shops, restaurants, movie theater, massage parlors and sweets cranes
Cons
Very sunny and windy
Tricky to find, especially for foreigners
Everything needed a layer of new paint
Nerdy Notes
- 18 holes, no par
- rubber covered putters with suction cups at the top to remove golf ball from cup
- golf ball surface is smooth, no divots
- 900 jpy per game (approximately $9 USD)
