FOREST GOLF

Shirai sits in the quiet northwestern corner of Chiba Prefecture, where the Tone River lowlands give way to the wooded Shimōsa Plateau — a landscape of second-growth forest, gentle undulation, and the kind of unhurried suburban calm that defines much of Greater Tokyo's golf belt. The area hosts a dense concentration of courses, many built during Japan's postwar golf boom, catering to the enormous demand from Tokyo commuters and weekend players who have long made Chiba one of the country's busiest golfing prefectures.

Forest Golf — the name is straightforward about what to expect — plays through tree-lined corridors in the manner common to this part of Chiba, where mature woodland frames virtually every hole and demands accuracy off the tee at least as much as distance. Courses of this type in the Shimōsa region tend to reward patient, straight ball-strikers over bombers, with fairways that can feel generously wide until the trees close in on a wayward shot.

Shirai itself is a small, largely residential city that grew alongside the Hokuso Line railway expansion, giving Tokyo-based golfers reasonable access without the longer drives required for Chiba's coastal resort layouts. A round here is an everyday, no-frills affair — honest inland golf in a genuine forest setting rather than a manufactured one.