The Fuji Course at Kawana is the kind of place visiting golfers describe by ratio rather than score — how many fairways look like postcards, how many tee shots make you stop and breathe before you swing. In April, that ratio is closer to one-to-one than at any other time of year.
We arrange Kawana through a single relationship with the hotel. Tee times are limited and never published openly, which means the trip lives or dies on small operational details — the right car, the right hotel night, a quiet word with the starter about pace.
The arrival
From Tokyo, the cleanest path is the Odoriko limited express to Ito, then a hotel car for the final climb up the bluff. Allow three hours door-to-door; budget another thirty minutes if you want to take the longer coastal road past Atami.
- Pack for layered weather — sea spray is real here, even in April
- The first morning round is the most photogenic; book it
- Stay at the hotel's main wing for the shortest walk to the first tee
On the course
Alison's routing leans into the cliffs from the second hole onward. The famous 15th sits 150 metres above the ocean and routinely plays a club longer than the yardage says — coastal wind tunnels through the gap and pushes most shots short.
“It's not the hardest course in Japan, and it isn't trying to be. It's the most rewarding, in the sense that every shot worth playing has been carved out and offered to you on a plate.”
— Belinda Hawthorn, course architect
We'll keep a watch on dates and surface Kawana's spring windows to anyone on the Preserve waitlist first. Reach out and we'll put your trip in front of the hotel before the season fills up.
