On the southern slopes of Yatsugatake, above 1,000 meters in Hokuto, Yamanashi, Grand Mercure Yatsugatake Resort & Spa held the grand opening of six dedicated outdoor pickleball courts on August 10, 2026. They are converted from tennis courts that had been in use, and play is free for hotel guests. Paddles, balls and shoes can all be borrowed, so guests can play empty-handed. The operator is Grand Mercure, a brand of the Accor group. A summer-retreat resort putting not tennis or golf but six courts of pickleball out front — there is plenty to look at in that move, both for players hunting courts in Japan and for operators thinking about how to keep a facility busy.
Grand Mercure Yatsugatake opens six outdoor courts free to guests on August 10
According to Iko-yo News (published August 6, 2026) and the hotel's official site, what opened is six dedicated outdoor pickleball courts. The address is 8240-1039 Nishiide, Oizumi-cho, Hokuto, Yamanashi, a stay-focused resort on the Yatsugatake highlands. Use is for hotel guests, and play is free. Paddles, balls and shoes all rent for nothing, so guests who brought no gear can try it as they are.
Rooms are all-inclusive, from 26,000 yen per night (per person, two sharing a room). Meals and activities during the stay are rolled into the rate, and pickleball sits inside that same included circle. Because the courts came from a tennis-court conversion, they reuse flat ground that was already there. Both the hotel and press coverage note that the courts may be unavailable depending on weather and operating conditions, so the limits of an outdoor court remain.
Hakone charges 1,000 yen per court per hour, Yatsugatake gives six courts away — resorts split on how to price play
Even within hotel pickleball, pricing splits by property. Where Yatsugatake dissolves the cost into the room rate and charges nothing, Hakone Sengokuhara Prince Hotel has converted one tennis court, court No. 4, into a dedicated court from July 1 to November 30, 2026, offering it by reservation at 1,000 yen per court per hour (per its press release). Free equipment rental is common to both, but the number of courts and the pricing design are nothing alike.
| Facility | Number of courts | Play fee | Equipment rental |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Mercure Yatsugatake Resort & Spa (Yamanashi) | 6 outdoor courts | Free for guests (included in the all-inclusive rate) | Paddles, balls and shoes free |
| Hakone Sengokuhara Prince Hotel (Kanagawa) | 1 outdoor court (converted from tennis court No. 4) | 1,000 yen per court per hour, by reservation | Paddles, balls and shoes free |
Hakone, renting a single court by the hour, is a pilot: it will consider extending the period while watching demand. Yatsugatake opened six courts at once and folded them into the value of the stay at no charge. One is trying it out, the other is making it a centerpiece, and that difference in commitment shows up directly in court counts and prices. How seriously you can play on a trip can be read from that gap in design.
Six courts from a tennis conversion, and why pickleball fits a highland resort
Yatsugatake and Hakone share one thing: both came from tennis-court conversions rather than new construction. A pickleball court is smaller than a tennis court, and one tennis court yields several pickleball courts. Existing flat ground and fencing can be put to work to raise the court count, which keeps the cost realistic when a resort remakes tennis facilities that tend to sit idle. That ease of conversion is why Yatsugatake could open six courts at once.
The nature of the sport also fits a family resort. The court is small, the paddle is light, and the rules can be learned in half a day. Rallies keep going even for generations who are not athletic, so grandparents, parents and children can play on the same court. With free equipment, guests add nothing to their luggage and can start the moment they feel like it. As a slot for everyone to move a little during a stay, it asks less than tennis or golf. It also suits the cool morning and evening hours of a summer retreat.
Places to play are splitting into downtown share-a-space and resorts on the road
Places to play pickleball in Japan are spreading in two directions with different characters. One is the downtown share-a-space model. In Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo,Pickle9, attached to an indoor golf facility, put a court next to golf and showed a winning formula for downtown. In cities where land is expensive, sharing space with another revenue source works better than having pickleball cover the rent by itself.
The other is the resort model of places like Yatsugatake, found where people travel. In Shizuoka,Tokyu Resort Town Hamanako has four USA Pickleball approved outdoor courts, and facilities around the prefecture are up and running. Places where a stay comes with play, such as Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido and the large court clusters in Izu, Shizuoka, have grown too, mostly in summer. Yatsugatake's six free courts sit at the bolder end of this travel model in both court count and terms. For where to play around an itinerary,a guide to court information across Japan and how to find ithelps you narrow things down before you move.
Fees, rentals and weather to know before you stay and play
Here are the practical points to settle before playing at Yatsugatake. On price, play is free for guests, but that means it is included in the all-inclusive rate from 26,000 yen per night (per person, two sharing), not that anyone can walk onto the courts on their own. Neither the hotel nor press coverage states whether day use is allowed, so if playing is the goal, a room booking is the premise.
Next, equipment. Paddles, balls and shoes rent for free, so there is no need to add gear to your luggage. Only players attached to their own paddle need to bring one. Last, weather. With six outdoor courts, rain or operating conditions can close them for a day. If you want to be sure of playing during a stay, aim for a clear window and check the day's court status at the front desk on arrival to avoid a wasted trip. Afternoon rain is common in the mountains of a summer retreat, so building the day around the morning is the safer call.
Summary
Grand Mercure Yatsugatake's six free courts place pickleball not as a paid activity on a menu but as value that comes with the stay, a different bet from Hakone's one court at 1,000 yen. Securing courts through a tennis conversion and building a path for three generations to play empty-handed turns the sport's lightness and easy conversion into a highland resort's strength. A stay where you pick up a paddle first thing on a summer morning in Yatsugatake has been quietly folded inside the room rate.
Sources
- Fun for three generations! Pickleball, the next-generation sport, arrives at a Yatsugatake highland resort (Iko-yo News, August 6, 2026)
- Grand Mercure Yatsugatake Resort & Spa official site
- [Hakone Sengokuhara Prince Hotel] Offering pickleball, the new sport popular worldwide, for a limited period (PR TIMES)
- Pickleball moves into hotels and shopping centers, aiming for synergy with the core business (Nikkei)
