Championship golf, held to the Japanese standard.
Four rounds with Jayden Hunt. Eight days. Nothing to arrange.
Championship golf, held to the Japanese standard.
Four rounds with Jayden Hunt. Eight days. Nothing to arrange.
I played 172 games of AFL over twelve years. Then I walked away from it. What I did next surprised most people, including me. I started investing all my energy into golf and haven't let go since. I play six, seven times a week now. I'm sore in places I never was playing football, which tells you something about how hard I'm chasing it.
Part of that chase has been the courses. I've been working through the Top 100 in the world, one at a time. I'm fifteen in. It's a slow list and an intense one and I'm in no hurry, because the whole point is that these are the places worth going out of your way for.
Japan is where I keep coming back to. I've played there, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. The courses are conditioned in a way that doesn't happen anywhere else. Nothing is softened for visitors. Narashino, where Tiger won his eighty-second, plays the way it plays for the pros. That's rare. It's why I wanted to build the week around it.
This isn't a clinic, and nobody's getting a lesson plan. But I'll be out there with you for four rounds, and I've spent the last few years thinking about very little else, so if you want to talk through a hole, a club, or what your hands are doing, I'm more than happy to. You don't need to be a pro. You just need to know your way around a golf course, and to actually want to be there.
Four rounds. Caddies. Lunch between nines the way they do it there. And in between, Japan takes care of the rest.
It is a country that does not do things approximately. The ramen shop that has perfected one dish for forty years. The station attendant who bows to the train. The greenkeeper who cuts the same fairway every morning to the same height whether anyone important is playing or not.
You feel it before you can name it. Everything is a little more considered than you expected, and nobody is making a fuss about it. That is the thing about Japan: the standard is not for show. It is simply the standard.
Which is why the golf is what it is here. And why a week in this country is not the same as a week anywhere else.
Where Tiger won his eighty-second and tied Snead's record, at the first PGA Tour event ever held in Japan. Maintained to tournament specification year-round. The conditioning is not softened for visitors.
Highland links at the foot of the mountain. Fuji fills the northern skyline for all eighteen. The wind is not scenery, it is club selection.
Mountain championship in the Ikoma range. Elevation changes that alter the shot almost every time you stand over one. The one that will hurt.
Host of the TOTO Japan Classic on the LPGA Tour. Seven thousand yards of tournament-maintained bent grass. The correct way to finish.
Full caddie service throughout. Hot lunch between nines, because that is how it is done there.
Nothing here has been softened for you. The greens are quicker than you want and the rough is real rough. You did not fly to Japan to play the same golf you can play at home on a Saturday.
Golf is why you come. Not all of why you'll remember it.
Ryogoku, in a working sumo stable, watching rikishi drill on the clay from a few metres away. No barrier, no commentary track, just the sound of two very large men colliding before breakfast. It is a training session, not a performance, and you are in the room for it.
A day west on the Shinkansen. A single building still stands exactly as it was in August 1945, untouched since. The museum beside it is worth the time it takes. Then a ferry to Miyajima, where the torii gate stands out in the water and the deer wander through the crowds like they own the place.
Every meal on the schedule, and there are a lot of them. Yakitori under the railway arches in Tokyo, a bowl of ramen the traditional way, a hot lunch between nines. And on the last night, kaiseki in Kyoto, where the four rounds finally get argued over properly.
Four groups of four at the very most. Four tee times. Small enough that by the third round you already know who tends to find the trees.
It's a mixed bag by design. Some will play off single figures and some won't, and after four rounds nobody cares, because these courses are hard enough to humble anyone and the days are long enough for the conversation to get good. What everyone shares is that they wanted to be here, on these courses, badly enough to come a long way for it.
Jayden leads the group. We handle everything else.
You see a week that simply works. Behind it: a Swiss company that designs journeys most people never find. This is one of them.
It is all arranged. Accommodations, every round, every transfer, the experiences. For one week, the only thing you do is show up.
This is one week of what we do. Come earlier, stay longer, or let us build something entirely your own, here or anywhere else worth going. The trip is fixed. The rest is open.
Our travellers consistently rate us five stars. Read what they say.
We've travelled a lot, but this one felt different.— Maximilian R.
Basically everything. The four rounds with full caddie service, all transfers including the Shinkansen between cities, and your stay. Every scheduled meal, with the drinks alongside (excl. premium wines and spirits). The days away from the courses too, the sumo stable, Hiroshima and Miyajima. And Jayden alongside you.
Your international flights, and anything you eat or do on your own outside the schedule. Visa, travel insurance.
This is for people who love this game, travel well, and are good company over a long dinner.
We read every application ourselves, and reply to each one personally.
Still have a question? A few practical answers just below.
Applying isn't paying, and it isn't a commitment you can't step back from. When you apply, you're requesting a place while we confirm details together, it's the start of a conversation, not the final step. A deposit is what secures your participation on the trip; nothing is binding before that.
We'll be in touch personally to go through the details, dates, room arrangements, anything specific to you, before anything is confirmed. Once you're ready, a deposit secures your place. Everything from there (documents, logistics, the finer points) we handle with you directly.
We'd rather you knew this upfront than discovered it later: deposits are non-refundable once paid, reflecting the commitments we make to hotels and courses on your behalf. But you're not necessarily stuck, if someone can take your place, and both we and the host are happy with the fit, we'll do what we can to arrange the transfer. We also strongly recommend travel insurance, which covers you for the situations we can't.
This is the one to feel secure about: if a trip doesn't go ahead, you receive a full refund. That risk sits with us, not you.
The golf and the week around it: four rounds with full caddie service, all transfers including the Shinkansen between cities, and your stay. Every scheduled meal, with the drinks alongside (excl. premium wines and spirits). The days away from the courses too, the sumo stable, Hiroshima and Miyajima. And Jayden with you throughout. What's not included: your international flights, anything you decide to eat or do on your own outside the schedule, visas, and travel insurance.
You need to be able to play, but you do not need to be a pro. Some of the group will play off single figures and some will not, and after four rounds nobody cares. What matters is that you can keep a reasonable pace. These are championship courses conditioned the way the professionals play them, so they will ask more of you than your home course does. If you have only just taken up the game, this is probably not the week to learn it. If you play, and you love it, you will fit.
Two bases across the week, Tokyo and Kyoto, with the Shinkansen between them. Both are hotels of the standard you would expect at this level, in good locations and worth coming back to after a long round. You unpack twice in eight days, not every night.
Every meal on the schedule is included, with the drinks alongside, and there are a lot of them. From yakitori under the railway arches to the kaiseki dinner in Kyoto on the last night, the food is not an afterthought on this trip, it is part of why the week is built the way it is. If you wander off and find your own table when there is downtime, that one is on you.
The price is based on two sharing. If you would rather not share, a single supplement of A$1'600 applies. Plenty of people come on their own; you will be in good company by the first tee.
Comfortable for any golfer. Four rounds across eight days, with days off the course in between. The courses are walkable or by cart. Away from the golf, the sumo morning and the Hiroshima day are as easy or as engaged as you want them to be. Nothing in the week asks more of you than a good round and a long dinner.
Still have a question? Write to us at info@theoccasionist.ch.