Konnichiwa Golfers

PaR nz Golfing Holidays is thrilled to be adding Japan 2024, to our many golf tour destinations around the world. We hope you will join us.

Our 15-day fully guided Golf Tour of Japan is timed for 10 – 24 April 2024 in the spring to capture the splendour of the iconic ‘Sakura’ or cherry blossoms which blanket the country fleetingly for only a few weeks of the year. For the Japanese this symbolizes renewal and hope!

This luxury golf tour of Japan offers a wonderful introduction to the Japanese history, their artful cuisine, traditional culture and obsession with futuristic automation. It certainly ‘ticks off’ a number of must dos on a visit to Japan. We travel to four cities, starting in Tokyo to Hakone (Mt Fuji) to Fukuroi and finishing in Kobe.

Did you know there are over 2,300 golf courses in Japan? All are member courses, many exclusively private and complex to gain entry to. But through PaR nz’s Japan contacts, we have gained invitational access to play on tour, eight championship golf courses, two in each city. The courses offer different challenges from world class architects, amazing clubhouses with natural mineral spas (‘onsen’) and course panoramas. Playing golf in Japan will be a unique experience. Their customs, while different from ours, only enhance the playing of this great game! Read on and book your place now – thanks so much. This is a special invitation with limited places for 2024 – with every expectation that this will be a much-sought after tour each year. Arigato!

Denise & Kim Email denise@parnz.co.nz or

Tour Overview

Japan 2024, April 10 – 24, 2024

TOKYO

Arriving at Tokyo’s Narita or Haneda Airport, with private transfers included, we start our tour with a 3-night stay in Tokyo at the 5-star Westin Hotel Tokyo. Located in the upscale Ebisu area of the city, the hotel has nearby access to the famous high end fashion shops of Ginza, to the nightlife of Roppongi, Akihabara the electronics district, and Shinjuku Station the world’s busiest railway station. Plenty of time for shopping –but after we gain our first experience of Japanese cuisine and a celebratory drink of sake at our hotel for our Welcome Dinner. Tokyo is one of Asia’s most prominent cities home to over 20 million residents. Japan’s capital is a crazy mix of ultramodern and the traditional, from neon-lit skyscrapers to historic shrines. The city is constantly in rush hour – it boasts the world’s busiest intersection, the Shibuya or Scramble Crossing featured in the movie ‘Lost in Translation’. Tokyo has a crazy shortage of houses so residents have to ‘house share’ or live in coffin sized apartments. And on the streets, you can buy virtually anything from a vending machine 24 hours a day!

In Tokyo we play two rounds of golf – our first on the highly ranked, private Yokohama West Course near the historic port centre of Yokohama, which was the original foreign trading area of Tokyo. Our second round is on the Pete Dye designed Narita Hills Course in the Chiba Prefecture which is home to Disney World and Tokyo’s best surfing beaches. Our stay in Tokyo will include our own private guided city tour by coach taking in all the main highlights.

Hakone

From Tokyo we head south into the Kanagawa Prefecture to Hakone for four nights at the 5-star Hotel Indigo. This is one of

Japan’s favourite getaway destinations offering one of the best Mt Fuji viewing areas from Lake Ashinoko. Hakone is brimming with natural beauty and culture and is well-known as a lively hot mineral spring district – the Japanese are fanatical about their ‘onsen’ and you will be hooked too after experiencing one in your own hotel room! (Onsen water is filled with minerals useful to rejuvenate and moisturise the skin – yep to make us look younger!). With many stylish hotels, holiday homes and restaurants built along the lakeshore, Hakone has been home to visiting royalty and celebrities for over 100 years.

Must see tips for the local area include the Hakone Jinja Shrine on the banks of Lake Ashinoko which has centuries of distinguished history. Famous military commanders including shogun Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616) would come to pray here. Oddly, Pirate Ship rides are offered across the lake but most interesting is the craggy Owakudani Hell Valley where hot spring water bubbles underneath.

On Day 6 and Day 7 our stay in Hakone includes 2 rounds of awe-inspiring golf on perfectly manicured courses. Both courses offer panoramic views of the mountains from every hole. The private member Hakone Country Club built at the foothills of two volcanoes and our second course, the Fujizakura Country Club, sits at 1000m on the northern foothills of Mt Fuji in the famous resort area of Five Lakes.

Our stay in Hakone includes a visit to Gotemba which is a hugely popular outlet mall offering over 200 stores of wellknown fashion and food brands. The Hakone Open Air Museum is a favourite to stroll around the sculpture park and exhibition spaces at your own leisure – the Picasso Exhibition Hall is the most visited attraction. And no visit is complete without a gondola ride to view Hell Valley.

Kobe

Fukuroi City

Day 8 on tour we depart Hakone and travel by coach to Fukuroi City, in the Shizuoka Prefecture where powerful samurai families once lived. Here we stay two nights in extraordinary luxury in the 5-star Yamaha Resort Katsuragi Hotel Kitanomaru, a modern-day castle with beautiful wooden architecture. The hotel owns two superb championship golf courses set in the surrounding forested foothills – Katsuragi Yamana and Katsuragi Ugari. Playing golf at Katsuragi is a dream – both courses are highly ranked, quite different from each other but the debate will go on as to which is best!

This is a ‘wow’ place to stay and one to remember for a long time! And yes, more Japanese onsen! The Katsuragi Resort built in the 1970’s and owned by the Yamaha Motor Group is a modern-day Japanese Castle was created from a historical home and transported to its current site. Its wooden structure built from ancient trees and all wooden surfaces including the quince wood brick corridor floors gives the hotel its timeless beautiful warm feel as it combines modern day luxury with traditional Japanese aesthetic ideals. The hotel has its own Japanese Garden located indoors.

KOBE/KYOTO/HIROSHIMA

From the Yamaha Resort we travel by ‘Shinkansen’ (bullet train) to our final destination, Kobe in the Kansai region to stay five nights in luxury at The Oriental Hotel Kobe in the city centre. The city of Kobe is famous for its mouth-watering Kobe Beef, home of Sake and did you know origin to the Asics sports brand.

We have a full programme during our stay in Kobe – yes golf and history in abundance. On Day 10 we take a full day guided tour to Kyoto, once the capital of Japan for 1,000 years until 1869. The city is famous for its historic architecture – Buddhist temples, imperial palaces, Shinto shrines and traditional wooden houses - much much more than we could fit in a day visit but we will view the most beautiful and famous. A visit to Kyoto is however not complete without entering the Geisha district of Gion and taking a walk through the bamboo groves. There is also time to see the UNESCO listed Nijo Castle, the Nishiki Food Markets and well-preserved ancient neighbourhood of Higashiyama.

Day 13 on tour will be a sombre reminder of Japan’s tragic atomic past with a day visit by ‘Shinkansen’ to Hiroshima in the Chugoku region. While Hiroshima is today, a modern city, it was largely destroyed along with Nagasaki with over 100,000 –200,000 dead during WW2. We will visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park which commemorates the 1945 event. In the park is the Genbaku Dome, one of the few buildings that was left standing near ground zero.

Day 12 and Day 14 in Kobe are reserved for golf. The Golden Valley Country Club will be one of the most beautiful golf courses you will ever visit set in a valley filled with reflection lakes and golden trees. For our final round on tour we play Rokko Kokusai, a popular stop on the Japan LPGA Tour and one of the best courses in Japan, a favourite of Jumbo Ozaki.

Our tour concludes on Day 14 in Kobe with a Farewell Dinner before saying ‘Sayonara’ and safe travel home. Private transfers have been arranged to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport or catch the 3-hour ‘Shinkansen’ journey back to Tokyo.

Golf in Japan – Overview

Japan is a country crazy about golf. The sport is so popular it ranks second only behind baseball. Japanese golfers on the PGA and LPGA Tours are household names and major celebrities.

Introduced to golf by the British back in 1901, Japan boasts more courses than Scotland and is third behind the USA and Canada! Golf courses in Japan are often far above international standards and nowhere else in the world can you find lavish facilities in such staggering numbers.

Virtually every famous course designer has played a part in creating a variety of great courses while the attention to detail and strict management ensures they are immaculately groomed and maintained. The Japanese are also proud of their four seasons, which can be quite extreme in terms of weather conditions. This is why many Japanese courses have a summer (green) and winter (yellow) look!

Did you know? Golf in Japan was once reserved for the affluent upper class and has long been an intricate part of its business culture. Japan today is however welcoming golf tourists and opening its doors to a wider membership base and now has the second biggest golfing population in the world with about two million golfers! Due to high demand, especially on weekends, tee times are at a premium hence the huge popularity of driving ranges.

Tokyo is one of the few cities in the world to stage an Olympic golf competition as the host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games where our Lydia won a bronze medal. The host club for the Olympics was Kasumigaseki Country Club, which is strictly a private member course but one we are offering our travellers for a pre-tour visit.