-
Discover new ways to elevate your game with the updated DGCourseReview app!
It's entirely free and enhanced with features shaped by user feedback to ensure your best experience on the course. (App Store or Google Play)
NGP Umi-no-naka-michi Kaihin reviews
11
0
Japan's Best: Good, not great. 2+ years
Reviewed:
Updated:
Played on:Jul 5, 2015
Played the course:2-4 times
Pros:
- Park located on a major railway
- Numbered tee signs with distances
- Full 18 with an additional short short 9 for beginners.
- Mach 3 baskets
- Many "long" holes that require a variety of discs
- The course is landscaped
- Multiple bathrooms, snack bar, and even showers on location.
- Close to the beach
- Numbered tee signs with distances
- Full 18 with an additional short short 9 for beginners.
- Mach 3 baskets
- Many "long" holes that require a variety of discs
- The course is landscaped
- Multiple bathrooms, snack bar, and even showers on location.
- Close to the beach
Cons:
- Pay Park, pay parking
- Multi use park can get busy with pedestrians
- The course is not properly indicated on park map, no map for individual hole layouts
- Holes 1 through 9 do not sync up with hole's 11 through 18
- Blind tees near pedestrian walking pathways
- Natural tee pads
- There were obstructions very close to the pad on the short holes
- Excessively overgrown and narrow fairways on some short holes
- No ceiling preventing you from going up and over for many of the holes
- Baskets blend into the background. They desperately need a splash of color
- No elevation change
- Multi use park can get busy with pedestrians
- The course is not properly indicated on park map, no map for individual hole layouts
- Holes 1 through 9 do not sync up with hole's 11 through 18
- Blind tees near pedestrian walking pathways
- Natural tee pads
- There were obstructions very close to the pad on the short holes
- Excessively overgrown and narrow fairways on some short holes
- No ceiling preventing you from going up and over for many of the holes
- Baskets blend into the background. They desperately need a splash of color
- No elevation change
Other Thoughts:
TRAVEL
I traveled here from Tokyo via the Shinkansen on a four day weekend to see the city and throw. The Shinkansen train tickets costed a little over 500$ round trip for 2 people. The nice thing about the train is that there's not security checkpoints to bog you down, the train cars are spacious, and the views are amazing. You simply go to the station, buy a ticket, and get on a train, that's it. I defiantly prefer train to plane.
Here is the regular travel route from Fukuoka's Hakata station , which was the destination station of our ride on the Shinkansen from Tokyo. Start at Hakata Station, ride to Kashi on the Kagoshima line, transfer at Kashii and ride the Kashii line to Saitozaki. Saitozaki is not the first stop at the park, but it is the closest to the DG course.
There is also a free semi-cheating free way to get from Hakata station to the park. The Luigan Hotel Resort has a free shuttle that picks up at Hakata station. Their hotel is directly across from the Uminonakamichi rail station, which is a single stop away from Saitozaki station and technically an entrance into the park. If you can keep a straight face and walk away when you get out it probably saves you about 920¥ round trip for Hakata station. My wife and I stayed at the Luigan Resort, it's more of a 2 star than a 5 star (FYI)
COURSE
There's a friendly group of players that oversee the running of the course inside the park. I might have been able navigate the park regardless of there not being a map and found all the holes myself, but decided to contact the most recent reviewer and prodded him for information instead. Andy is pretty much the American/English speaking POC for the course. He showed us the course, much fun ensued.
It's not normal to find a course in Japan where a player can use their full tourney bag set up. You would be hard-pressed to find even temp course tournaments that have fairway layouts as competitive as Fukuoka's regular set up. I spent two days throwing on the course, one regular and the other from alternate tees during a monthly league event.
The park has a lot of usable land to work with, which adds to the course versatility. The league has a shack near hole #1 where they store supplies and portable baskets that we used for the safari-type layout.
Even though I throughly enjoyed one of Japan's top courses, it's important to keep it all in prospective. Sadly, Japan's best is still very average when compared to American courses. It was a little bit of a let down. The teepads are natural, rutted, uneven, and sometimes buried in thick over growth. I hate this the most out of all the cons. I've yet to play any tournament or regular course, besides the Japan Open, that has halfway decent tees. If it rains you're especially screwed......it rained the first day.
Many of the holes have wide open fairways that lack ceilings. Nothing prevents you from just throwing over sections for the course. The long holes lacked obstacles that shape fairways. Other holes were short and feature impossibly tight fairways of overgrowth from lack of tree maintenance. Hole 5 is especially ridiculous. Nothing is worse than having a short hole that you can't ace run. I swear, the Japanese have some sort of weird phobia of trimming fairway branches. The areas of the park that were near other park activities were well groomed, while the specifically disc golf related areas were neglected and overgrown. Also, the baskets are not all uniform height and impossible to see from lack of flags or coloring.
Another thing I wasn't wild about was throwing over water just to throw over water (holes 8&9) . I don't mind hazards, however there are much better sections of the park that could be developed instead that don't involve paying tribute to the man-made pond gods. The water is too deep and murky to find your disc once it takes a dip, unless it floats. As a note of caution, not all lightweight discs float.
Normally, courses in Japan are short and relatively unremarkable. This course stands out because of its variety of hole length and versatility of alternate hole layouts. NGP Umi-no-naka-michi Kaihin may not blow your socks off, but truly is Japan's best permanent course and is worth checking out.
I traveled here from Tokyo via the Shinkansen on a four day weekend to see the city and throw. The Shinkansen train tickets costed a little over 500$ round trip for 2 people. The nice thing about the train is that there's not security checkpoints to bog you down, the train cars are spacious, and the views are amazing. You simply go to the station, buy a ticket, and get on a train, that's it. I defiantly prefer train to plane.
Here is the regular travel route from Fukuoka's Hakata station , which was the destination station of our ride on the Shinkansen from Tokyo. Start at Hakata Station, ride to Kashi on the Kagoshima line, transfer at Kashii and ride the Kashii line to Saitozaki. Saitozaki is not the first stop at the park, but it is the closest to the DG course.
There is also a free semi-cheating free way to get from Hakata station to the park. The Luigan Hotel Resort has a free shuttle that picks up at Hakata station. Their hotel is directly across from the Uminonakamichi rail station, which is a single stop away from Saitozaki station and technically an entrance into the park. If you can keep a straight face and walk away when you get out it probably saves you about 920¥ round trip for Hakata station. My wife and I stayed at the Luigan Resort, it's more of a 2 star than a 5 star (FYI)
COURSE
There's a friendly group of players that oversee the running of the course inside the park. I might have been able navigate the park regardless of there not being a map and found all the holes myself, but decided to contact the most recent reviewer and prodded him for information instead. Andy is pretty much the American/English speaking POC for the course. He showed us the course, much fun ensued.
It's not normal to find a course in Japan where a player can use their full tourney bag set up. You would be hard-pressed to find even temp course tournaments that have fairway layouts as competitive as Fukuoka's regular set up. I spent two days throwing on the course, one regular and the other from alternate tees during a monthly league event.
The park has a lot of usable land to work with, which adds to the course versatility. The league has a shack near hole #1 where they store supplies and portable baskets that we used for the safari-type layout.
Even though I throughly enjoyed one of Japan's top courses, it's important to keep it all in prospective. Sadly, Japan's best is still very average when compared to American courses. It was a little bit of a let down. The teepads are natural, rutted, uneven, and sometimes buried in thick over growth. I hate this the most out of all the cons. I've yet to play any tournament or regular course, besides the Japan Open, that has halfway decent tees. If it rains you're especially screwed......it rained the first day.
Many of the holes have wide open fairways that lack ceilings. Nothing prevents you from just throwing over sections for the course. The long holes lacked obstacles that shape fairways. Other holes were short and feature impossibly tight fairways of overgrowth from lack of tree maintenance. Hole 5 is especially ridiculous. Nothing is worse than having a short hole that you can't ace run. I swear, the Japanese have some sort of weird phobia of trimming fairway branches. The areas of the park that were near other park activities were well groomed, while the specifically disc golf related areas were neglected and overgrown. Also, the baskets are not all uniform height and impossible to see from lack of flags or coloring.
Another thing I wasn't wild about was throwing over water just to throw over water (holes 8&9) . I don't mind hazards, however there are much better sections of the park that could be developed instead that don't involve paying tribute to the man-made pond gods. The water is too deep and murky to find your disc once it takes a dip, unless it floats. As a note of caution, not all lightweight discs float.
Normally, courses in Japan are short and relatively unremarkable. This course stands out because of its variety of hole length and versatility of alternate hole layouts. NGP Umi-no-naka-michi Kaihin may not blow your socks off, but truly is Japan's best permanent course and is worth checking out.
