Forest golf in the pottery country of Mashiko

Mashiko Golf Club sits in the quiet hills of Mashiko, a small town in southeastern Tochigi Prefecture. Opened in 1996 under its former name, Golf & Sports Mashiko Club, the 18-hole, par-72 layout was designed under the supervision of Japanese tour professional Nobuo Serizawa. It stretches to 7,075 yards through mature forest, yet it plays as a gentle, largely flat course with only around 21 meters of elevation change, and ponds placed at key moments to test your nerve.

From every tee you can see where your drive should land, a welcome comfort when playing without a caddie.

That visibility, along with GPS-equipped riding carts, makes Mashiko a relaxed choice for self-play rounds and for golfers newer to Japanese courses, while the full length still offers a real challenge from the back tees. Afterwards, the town itself is the reward: Mashiko is one of Japan's best-known pottery towns, with kilns, galleries and craft shops lining its streets, and its spring and autumn pottery fairs draw visitors from across the country. The course is roughly 25 km from the Moka interchange on the Kita-Kanto Expressway, and about a 10-minute taxi ride from Mashiko Station on the Moka Railway, so it pairs naturally with a drive through rural Tochigi or onward to Nikko.