Waiting for Twenty-One People: Why I Wrote This Book About Mt. Fuji
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
6:30 in the morning.
At a driving range at the foot of Mt. Fuji.
The receptionist said, “There are still twenty-one people ahead of you.”
It was not said in a complaining tone, and it was not a special day.
It was simply an ordinary weekday morning.
At that moment, I suddenly understood that golf in Japan is not merely a sport. It is a structure quietly observed.
This book, Waiting for Twenty-One People, begins from that scene.
This is not a travel guide
Many people ask me whether this is a book recommending golf courses.
Is it a guide to playing golf around Mt. Fuji?
No.
It is not here to tell you which course is prettier,
nor to list ten must-stay hot spring inns.
What it is really about is this:
Why has the area around Mt. Fuji developed this particular distribution of golf courses?
Why is the north side defined by highland membership clubs?
Why is the east side dense, yet lacking depth?
Why must the southern foothills be paired with hot springs?
Why must Kawana be the final stop, rather than just one stop among many?
If all you want to know is which course is the most expensive, this book will not help you.
If you want to understand how to move through this region in a complete way, this book was written for you.
Mt. Fuji is not a backdrop. It is the center.
The early chapters of this book focus on one idea:
Mt. Fuji is not scenery. It is structure.
The southwest side is about water veins and faith.
The north side is about forests and membership systems.
The east side is about market logic and efficiency.
The southern foothills are about volcanoes and hot springs.
Izu is about time and sedimentation.
Once you layer together geography, faith, industry, and history, you begin to see that these golf courses were not built at random.
They grew out of geology and market logic.
This axis is not a sightseeing route. It is a way of understanding.
What this book truly wants to say
For many years, I have taken guests to play golf around Mt. Fuji.
Some wanted three rounds in three days.
Some only wanted luxury inns.
Some only wanted famous courses.
But the highest-quality itinerary is never the one that simply piles up expensive elements.
It is the one that follows the mountain.
Why should the first night be spent in Fujinomiya?
Why should the north side not be played for three days straight?
Why is the east side only one segment of the journey?
Why should the trip always end with one night in Kawana?
These choices are not romantic gestures. They are the result of real-world refinement.
This book lays out that logic.
Not the advertising version.
The thinking version.
Why Kawana has its own chapter
Kawana Fuji Course is the endpoint of the entire axis.
It is not important merely because the ocean view is beautiful.
It matters because it is where the volcanic belt reaches the Pacific Ocean.
When you stand on the 15th tee,
there is an eroded sea ravine below you and the Pacific ahead.
In that moment, you understand this:
Golf is not consumption. It is a way of understanding landforms and wind.
An experience like that cannot be compressed into a rushed two-hour transfer.
Why I am writing this book now
Thirty years on the road.
Europe, Beijing, Japan.
In the past, travel was work. It meant solving problems and controlling processes.
But in Japan, I encountered a place that cannot be understood through efficiency alone.
This country does not sustain order through passion.
It sustains order through design.
And Mt. Fuji is the center of that design.
I did not write this book to sell itineraries.
I wrote it to fully organize and express this entire axis.
Who this book is for
It is for people who have already played many rounds.
It is for those who have started to feel that beauty alone is not enough.
It is for those who want to understand Japan, rather than merely check it off.
If you only want to know the prices, the official website has that.
If you want to understand the logic of the route, this book is there.
In the end
When you complete the full axis, you begin to realize:
Mt. Fuji is not just a mountain.
Golf is not just a sport.
Travel is not just movement.
They are different entrances into the same system.
Waiting for Twenty-One People is now available.
If you are ready not only to play golf, but to understand Mt. Fuji,
this book is there.
Waiting for Twenty-One People is now available on Amazon.
Specializing in private golf tours across Japan, especially the Mt. Fuji golf region.
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