Kawana Hotel

The hotel is a classic Japanese hotel currently celebrating its 85th anniversary. It's a beautiful old hotel with spectacular views of the sea, surrounded by two large golf courses. Our room was clean and on the top (5th) floor, with a king size bed facing the water. That alone was worth the trip.

What could be improved: It's an expensive stay, inasmuch as while the room price was reasonable, the fact that it is quite isolated (a relatively long taxi or car only from the nearest train station) and the onsite food is extremely expensive, it's easy to feel a bit trapped there. Unless money is no object you'll want to taxi into town for all your meals, even breakfast.
Neither of us are golfers so the golf courses held no interest.
The interior of the building (at least the common areas and our room) were kept in good condition, but the exterior of the building and the grounds are clearly not being maintained to their prior standard. The large glass doors that used to be the grand entrance facing the sea have rusted shut so one is forced to use a smaller side-door, and the stone steps up to the doors are being left to crumble. If the architect were still alive I'm sure he'd be devastated. What used to be a Japanese garden has gone wild and the pond filled with weeds. The park next to that has been turned into a golf green, which is clearly lower maintenance but has lost most of its beauty. This seems a real shame, and I'd guess that the hotel is having a difficult time financially so this is understandable, but part of the charm of the hotel is its prior opulence, which is fading now.
Finally, the front desk staff were rather snooty and clearly have a Showa-era attitude about their jobs, as if the customer weren't quite good enough for the hotel. I suppose if we'd showed up in a suit-and-tie and a fancy dress things might have been different... maybe I should've flashed a Rolex or some obvious wealth indicators. Polite but no more than that.

surrounding and scenery with gold and ses view are stunning.

What could be improved: basically no greetings nor real service from check in to check out , the maintenance of the property is apparently an issue , from entrance with spider webs and cracks to lobby itself , a shame as the property as a great history and could be truly a luxury hotel if some care was given with an appropriate hospitality and management.