Japan

Golf is a popular sport in Japan. There are around 10 million golfers in Japan, making the country second only to the US (with 25 million) in terms of total players. A large variety of courses to fit golfers of every budget and skill level can be found across all regions of Japan, with some of the best located around famous resort areas such as Mount Fuji, the Izu Peninsula, Karuizawa and Miyazaki, where they offer beautiful mountain views or coastal scenery. Golf in Japan can be played year round except in the snowy regions where courses close in winter. In past decades, it was fairly expensive to play golf in Japan. However, these days a large majority of courses are open to the public, and it is not uncommon to pay under 10,000 yen (70/75 euros) per person for an 18-hole round of golf, including lunch and golf cart, especially on regular weekdays. Prices are somewhat higher on weekends. Many courses do not accommodate single players and may have a surcharge for groups of two golfers. Rental clubs and caddies may be available for an additional fee although English speaking caddies are rare. The biggest challenge for foreign visitors without Japanese knowledge to play golf in Japan is the difficulty of making reservations at golf courses, as there are only a handful of courses that allow for easy reservations in English, although most courses accept online reservations in Japanese. Furthermore, signs and rules on the course are usually written in Japanese only, and most staff members at the golf clubs do not speak English. Foreign visitors may try to make reservations via a travel agent or their hotel's concierge.