Akan Golf Club

Akan Golf Club rotates three nine-hole loops — Marimo, Pirika and Tancho — across a woodland property near Kushiro in eastern Hokkaido, giving members and visitors a fresh 18-hole combination on every visit. Designed by Seizo Tomizawa and opened in 1972, the three nines play to remarkably even par-36 halves, with the various 18-hole pairings stretching from roughly 7,000 to over 7,100 yards from the back markers and carrying course ratings in the 73-74 range with a slope near 131. Bent grass greens and a wooded setting typical of Hokkaido's interior give the course a quiet, scenic character, and the Tancho nine takes its name from the red-crowned crane that nests in the surrounding marshland — a fitting emblem for a course built in one of Japan's great birdwatching regions. The semi-private club offers caddie service and golf carts as standard, along with a driving range and putting green for warm-up. Golfers coordinating a trip through CoGolfers to eastern Hokkaido, perhaps combining a game here with a visit to Lake Akan or the Kushiro wetlands, will find the club well-equipped for visiting groups. With three interchangeable nines, regular players rarely repeat the same round twice, which keeps the course appealing for CoGolfers members organizing repeat outings or building a local golf community around Kushiro. It remains one of the more distinctive multi-course clubs in Hokkaido's eastern reaches.