Black cover plate with white serif title: Golf and Onsen, Leisure Journeys Across Japan

Golf and Onsen: Leisure Journeys Across Japan

The Japanese golf day ends in water. The clubhouse has its large locker room, and often, behind it, a bath; and the whole shape of the round, with its long lunch and its unhurried finish, makes sense once the bath is understood. A golfing holiday in Japan is therefore a particular kind of leisure: a course, a hot spring, a view, a table, and a night’s sleep that has earned its name.

This chapter belongs to the playing set within The Atlas of Japanese Golf. It sets out what the pages say about golf and bathing together, six places where the two meet in the references, and the questions to ask a package provider. It offers no invented itinerary: a sketch of a week is given at the end, labelled as ours, and every distance in it comes from a cited page.

The bath after the round

The national tourism body states that most clubhouses have large locker rooms, many with an onsen or bath. A travel guide adds that golfers typically bathe at the clubhouse afterwards, with towels, soap and shampoo usually provided. A specialist guide calls the bath optional, advises bathing before changing into street clothes, and notes that most onsen are nude and that tattoos should be covered. A booking service says most courses do not allow communal baths even when tattoos are covered. Ask before booking, and again at the desk: see Japanese Golf Etiquette: Dress, Pace and the Bath.

Six places where golf and water meet

  • The Izu coast: Kawana Hotel, Ito. The hotel opened in 1936, founded by Kishichiro Okura, with the Oshima course dating from 1928 and the Fuji course from 1936. The tourism body says the hotel has open-air baths, private baths and a spa; that any visitor can play the Oshima course; and that hotel guests have exclusive access to the Fuji course. The hotel’s history records that Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio spent two nights there on their honeymoon in 1954. The course is about twenty minutes by car or taxi from JR Ito Station.
  • Hakone: the Prince Hakone hotel. A 2020 blog post by the hotel group describes the hotel in the Ashigarashimo district as a golfing destination, with the Hakone-en Golf Course of eighteen holes, and with a pool, restaurants and a hot spring for guests. The post is dated 25 March 2020; confirm the current offer. The tourism body also lists Daihakone Country Club in Kanagawa.
  • Kagoshima: Ibusuki Golf Club. Eighteen holes at the foot of Mount Kaimon, established in 1968, designed by Seiichi Inoue, with the tourism body noting a seaside hot sand bath after play, an Ibusuki speciality. The club is about twenty-five minutes by car or taxi from JR Ibusuki Station.
  • Tohoku: Naruko Onsen Golf Club. A specialist guide describes it as set amid hot springs and forests; it is the only course that guide ties explicitly to onsen. The tourism body lists Appi Kogen in Iwate among the region’s courses.
  • Kyushu: Beppu. The same guide calls Beppu a hot-spring haven with mountain and sea views and does not say that a course there has its own bath. Treat the town as the bath and the course as the day.
  • Okinawa in winter. Not a hot-spring journey, but the leisure case is clear: an Okinawa sports-tourism page gives winter averages of 17 °C, notes that many courses offer an early-morning eighteen so that the afternoon is free for sightseeing, and lists courses where carts run on the fairways.

Beyond the bath

A specialist guide mentions that Hokkaido’s Niseko courses have mountain views and cooler summers, and that Kyoto, Osaka, Sendai, the Seto Inland Sea coast and Nagano all have courses. The tourism body’s own regional list puts Kyoto Golf Club, Osaka Golf Club and Arima Royal in Kansai. Sightseeing itself is outside these pages, which is as it should be; the point of the pairing is that a course takes a morning and the rest of the day is yours.

Competitions and the calendar

To pair a holiday with a tournament, see The Japanese Golf Calendar: Seasons, Rain and Tournaments, which lists the remaining 2026 events of the men’s and women’s tours, with the autumn majors, the Japan Open and the Dunlop Phoenix, among them. The pairing needs advance planning: a booking service warns that popular slots fill weeks ahead.

Questions for a package provider

  • Which courses, and are they public, resort or hotel-linked?
  • Is the green fee quoted with the course-use tax, lunch and a cart? See What Golf Costs in Japan: Fees, Tax and Membership.
  • Who books the tee times, and what happens if a pair becomes a single?
  • Are clubs shipped by courier, and who pays?
  • Is the hotel bath, or the course bath, open to guests with tattoos?
  • Is a caddie included, and does the caddie speak English?
  • What are the cancellation terms for weather?
  • What does the holiday include on a day that is not golf?

A sketch of a week, in our reading

The following is a logistical sketch assembled from the pages above, and not a package. It is built for October or November, the tourism body’s season.

  • Day one. Arrive in Tokyo; send clubs ahead by courier, at least two days before play.
  • Day two. A Kanto public course, booked well ahead.
  • Day three. Travel to the Izu coast and stay at Kawana Hotel; the hotel’s baths and the Oshima course, twenty minutes from Ito Station.
  • Day four. The Fuji course as a hotel guest, subject to availability and fee; see What Golf Costs in Japan: Fees, Tax and Membership.
  • Days five to seven. A second region by choice, Kansai or Kagoshima, with a sand bath at Ibusuki, depending on the flight home.

Where the accounts differ

  • Baths and tattoos. As in Japanese Golf Etiquette: Dress, Pace and the Bath.
  • Hakone. The hotel group’s post is dated 2020; the tourism body’s page lists only Daihakone Country Club for the region.
  • Kawana’s dates. “Established 1928” on the tourism body’s page, which matches the Oshima course; the hotel and Fuji course date from 1936.

The water, then

Golf in Japan asks one thing of the traveller: to stay for the bath. It is the part of the day that no other country keeps so well.

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Index terms: golf and onsen japan · golf holiday japan hot spring · kawana hotel golf stay · ibusuki golf sand bath · hakone golf hot spring · naruko onsen golf club · golf trip japan itinerary · japan golf travel package · golf tattoo onsen japan · okinawa golf winter holiday

References

Dates and figures in this chapter were checked against these pages. Where accounts differ, the text says so.

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