PaR nz Golfing Holidays
JAPAN 2025 2 - 16 APRIL, 2025
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WITH COMPLIMENTS
Katsura Imperial Villa, Nishikyo-Ku, Kyoto-Shi, Japan
JAPAN 2025 APRIL 2 - 16, 2025
Sakura Blossom
Shibuya, Tokyo
Konnichiwa Golfers PaR nz Golfing Holidays is thrilled to be travelling back to Japan in 2025. We hope you will join us. Our 15-day fully guided Golf Tour of Japan from 2 – 16 April 2025 is timed to capture the spring 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 symbolises 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 working with PaR nz’s Japanese golfing network, we have gained invitations to play on 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. Japan’s customs, while different from the West, only enhance the playing of this great game! This is a special invitation with limited places for 2025 – with every expectation that this will be a much-sought after tour each year. Read on and book your place now – thanks so much. Arigato!
Denise & Kim Denise & Kim Email denise@parnz.co.nz or kim@parnz.co.nz
Visit our website: www.parnz.co.nz Or call us on +64 9 486 1077
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Tokyo
Owakudani Hell Valley
Hakone Jinja Shrine
Tour Overview Japan 2025, April 2 – 16 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 and 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 significant 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 – yes 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.
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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 1970s 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
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Japan 2025
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.
Kyoto
Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Ground Zero)
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Fujizakura
Katsuragi Ugari
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Japan 2025
Rokko Kokusai
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.
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Japan 2025 Course Line up Yokohama West Course (Tokyo) • Designer: Takeo Aiyama & Hideo Takemura (1960) • Renovations: Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw (2016) We begin our Japanese golf adventure in Tokyo, playing on one of the country’s Top 10 Courses - Yokohama Country Club. The club, is a private member course with a 36-hole championship layout – the higher ranked West Course is used exclusively for members and by invitation only. Both West/East have beautifully groomed tree-lined fairways with undulating layouts and the hinterland as their backdrops. The courses are flanked by the historic por t cities of Yokohama, Kawasaki and Yokosuka to the south. Yokohama Country Club was founded in 1960 and over the following six years architect Takeo Aiyama designed and built both the East and West 18-hole layouts. The West course hosted the 1978 Japan Open, which was one of the first professional events won by Seve Ballesteros. Both courses underwent a major renovation by American architects Coore & Crenshaw and re-opened in 2016 in time to host the 2018 Japan Open. Trademark features of the new West Course include its bunkering (all 83), heavily contoured greens and a swag of swooping dogleg par 4s. Yokohama West was the original contender to host the 2020 Olympics and it was a great disappointment to Coore & Crenshaw to miss out on that prestigious honour. Narita Hills Country Club (Tokyo) • Designer: Pete & Alice Dye (1991) and refurbished in 2015 Narita Hills, a member’s course, was built by one of the world’s most famous architect team – Pete & Alice Dye of TPC Sawgrass, and Whistling Straits fame. Said to have designed some of the most exciting golf courses in the world, Dye’s creation at Narita Hills has attracted an international audience since it opened in 1991. Located in a hilly area of Chiba Prefecture, the undulating curves of the course are reminiscent of authentic links. From the glistening blue ponds to the smooth white sands and the vibrant greens of the turf, Narita Hills is as stunning as it is strategic. A renovation by the Dye team in 2015 replaced the grass with New Vent giving the course invincibility during the summer and winter.
Yokohama West
Hakone Country Club (Hakone) • Designer: Shiro Akaboshi (1954) The private member Hakone Country Club is a truly beautiful course surrounded by mountains and forests within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The deceptively flat course with only very gentle undulations was built at 700m above sea level at the foothills of two volcanoes – Mount Hakone and Mount Kamiyama and around meandering creeks feeding from Lake Ashinoko. Each hole on the course offers a different view of the inner and outer rims of the volcanos. Japanese architect Shiro Akaboshi was greatly inspired by famous British designer Charles ‘Hugh’ Alison who travelled through Japan in the 1930s building some the country’s finest courses including the 2020 Olympic Games Host Course Kasumigaseki. Akaboshi was a veteran of WW2 and Japanese Amateur Champion. He took up architecture late in life and was employed by the Hakone Hot Spring Company who acquired the land in 1933 to develop holiday lots and a championship course.
Narita Hills
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Japan 2025
Hakone
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Katsuragi Yamana
Fujizakura Country Club (Hakone) • Designer: Noriyuki Miyoshi (1976) Located in the northern foothills of Mount Fuji, Fujizakura Country Club is set at 1000m in the heart of the popular resort area of Fuji Five Lakes. Designed in 1976 by Noriyuki Miyoshi, who consecutively won the Japan Amateur Championship three times between 1953 and 1955, the layout is a supremely testing course that is long and narrow with plenty of strategic shots required to out distance the ponds and bunkers. The course is about an hour drive from our hotel but with the prospect of viewing Mt Fuji from the tee box of every hole on a clear day the trip is definitely worth it. The camera is a must playing this course with Japanese pine forests lining the fairways and mirror ponds offering unique reflections of Mt Fuji. The signature hole is definitely #15 with the active volcano right in your firing line. Katsuragi Yamana & Ugari Courses • Designer: Siichi Inoue (1976) Katsuragi Course architect Siichi Inoue is recognised as Japan’s design King with a pre-war career starting in the 1930s and spanning until his death in 1981, aged 73. Inoue is one of the most prolific course designers in Japan and is in fact the most highly decorated with 17 of his 38 designs in the Japan Top 100 including the 2 Katsuragi Courses – Yamana and Ugari. Inoue invented the unique double green system in Japan which is still used today. He was also the original course designer of Kasumigaseki, the Olympic Course. Interestingly he is more famous after death - three of his best designs were completed in the years following his death and even 30 years on, a coffee-table book was published celebrating the beauty of all the golf courses he created. For many, his courses were indeed a work of art. At Katsuragi, Siichi Inoue created two majestic golf courses which beautifully flow over the large-scale rolling hills and both have played host to many professional tournaments sponsored by the Yamaha Motor Company. The Yamana Course is tighter, loaded with more hazards and more strategic than the Ugari Course which is characterised by wider fairways. Both courses feature the Japanese double green system – two games for the price of one! On both courses each hole is beautifully framed by lines of Japanese native trees, the wood from which features in the interior of the hotel we stay at. To be eligible to play the Katsuragi courses, golfers must stay at the hotel. Quote by Siichi Inoue “With a beautiful natural setting, the course should not only have great form but should also transport the player to a kind of paradise”.
Fujizakura
Katsuragi Clubhouse Tearoom
Katsuragi Clubhouse Lobby
Katsuragi Ugari
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Golden Valley
Rokko Kokusai West
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Japan 2025
Golden Valley Country Club (Kobe) • Designer: Robert Trent Jones Jnr (1987) Located in the Hyogo Prefecture in Kobe, Golden Valley Country Club is surrounded by dense pine forests across an undulating layout. Of the 18 holes, 16 holes have creeks and ponds making it a picturesque but difficult course to play. The greens are large and inviting to attack but quite often tricky pins on windy days make for high scores! In 2014, the 82nd Japan Golf Championship was held at Golden Valley. The 18th hole is the signature hole, a spectacular par-5 hole that has ponds everywhere. Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s philosophy “Danger and Reward” is expressed in this hole and he stated that this hole is tougher than the 18th hole of Pebble Beach. Rokko Kokusai Country Club (Kobe) • Designer: East Course - Fukuichi Kato (1975) and re-modelled Nicklaus Design (1996) • Designer: West Course - Nicklaus Design (1997) Rokko Kokusai Golf Club located near the Kobe city centre is home to two magnificent 18-hole courses, East and West. Both courses are surrounded by natural forests in hilly terrain but have relatively flat and spacious layouts. Playing the East, a classical Japanese design, golfers will not only have to focus on hitting it long and straight, but also exercise good course management to avoid bunkers, lakes, rough and trees. Most greens are elevated and surrounded by deep bunkers, the aprons of the greens are narrow, so approach shots require a sense of distance and accuracy. The East Course is a popular venue for the Japan Open, Senior Open and Asian tour events. West has a completely different personality and is a big American style course preferred by the LPGA Japan Tour and is the host venue of the Suntory Ladies Tournament. West has clever undulating greens, no two alike, and beautiful sweeping fairways with true Jack Nicklaus ‘Risk and Reward’ options available to the golfer as they play each hole. Our closing hole on tour, the 18th, was described by Jumbo Ozaki, Japan’s favourite golfer, as the best finishing hole in Japan.
Miyajima Tori Gate
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TRAVEL APP
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SPECIAL FEATURE – PaR nz TRAVEL APP When you register for Japan 2025, you will receive a link to our special PaR nz Travel App. A detailed electronic itinerary can be downloaded on your laptop, iPad or smartphone, enabling you to review tour highlights and access daily updates while on tour.
Japan 2025
Japan 2025 2 - 16 April, 2025
List of Inclusions 14 nights Luxury Accommodation • 3 nights Westin Hotel Tokyo • 4 nights Hotel Indigo Hakone • 2 nights Yamaha Resort Katsuragi Hotel Kitanomaru • 5 nights The Oriental Hotel Kobe 8 rounds of championship golf 1. Yokohama West Country Club (Tokyo) 2. Narita Hills Golf Club (Tokyo) 3. Hakone Country Club (Hakone) 4. Fujizakura Country Club (Hakone) 5. Katsuragi Yamana (Fukuroi) 6. Katsuragi Ugari (Fukuroi) 7. Golden Valley Country Club (Kobe) 8. Rokko Kokusai Country Club (Kobe) Sightseeing • Guided city tour of downtown Tokyo • Guided city tour in Hakone including Lake Ashi, Sculpture Park and Gotemba Outlet Shops • Guided city tour of Kyoto • Shinkansen ride and guided Ground Zero Tour of Hiroshima
Transport • Meet & Greet Tokyo Airport and private transfers to Tokyo hotel • Coach transfers in Tokyo, Hakone, Katsuragi and Kobe • Shinkansen train tickets one-way Katsuragi to Kobe (main luggage by road) • Shinkansen train tickets return Kobe to Hiroshima • Osaka Kansai International Airport private transfers from Kobe Hotel • All driver and guide tips Services • On tour PaR nz Golfing Holidays experienced tour guides and golfers • Japanese speaking tour guide accompanying the group throughout • Souvenir tour clothing • Exclusive electronic Tour APP • Souvenir tour booklet • Travel tips, maps and restaurant suggestions • Relaxed travel itinerary with many inclusions • PaR nz fun daily golf competition
Food & Beverage • Welcome Dinner with drinks - Tokyo • Breakfast throughout • Drinks hours hosted by PaR nz in Hakone and Katsuragi • Farewell Dinner with drinks - Kobe
Visit our website: www.parnz.co.nz Or call us on +64 9 486 1077
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