Hikers walk through the forest on the Nakasendo Way between the towns of Nagiso and Nojiri, Japan. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
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Forest bathing is the opposite of whatever you’re probably doing right now, which I’m guessing is scrolling, searching and otherwise screen-timing your day into confetti. The Japanese call it shinrin-yoku, literally “forest bath,” a term coined in 1982 by Japan’s Forestry Agency to describe something people had been doing for centuries without a name. The simple idea is walking slowly among trees, breathing and taking it all in. Researchers have since linked the practice to lower cortisol, lower blood pressure and a measurable lift in mood, partly credited to phytoncides, the aromatic compounds trees exhale.
Now you can do it in with an itinerary in hand, and one company has been organizing it longer than almost anyone. Walk Japan, founded in 1992 by two Hong Kong University academics, pioneered walking tours through rural Japan decades before “slow travel” became a hashtag. Today the company offers 34 guided and self-guided tours, from four-day escapes to twelve-day odysseys, meandering through snow country, pilgrimage routes and fishing villages few visitors ever see. The most iconic is the Nakasendo Way, which can take as long as eleven days along the old samurai highway from Kyoto to Tokyo. Travelers sleep in inns that seem lifted from a Hiroshige woodblock print. The Kumano Kodo pilgrimage, through the cedar forests of the Kii Peninsula, is its spiritual (and slightly more arduous) sibling.
Signpost on the Kumano Kodo hiking pilgrimage trail, Totsukawa Commune, Nara Prefecture in Totsukawa, Japan (Photo by Antoine Boureau / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP) (Photo by ANTOINE BOUREAU/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
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I walked the Kumano Kodo ten years ago, and the experience still lives with me. The hush of the trees, the shrine bells, the onsen waters of those ancient inns. I recommend it to everyone looking for a deeper way to see Japan (my sister-in-law is planning her trek next spring).
Beyond Tokyo And Kyoto: The Japan You Discover On Foot
I recently emailed Paul Christie, Walk Japan’s CEO, who has lived in Japan for nearly forty years and runs the company from the Kunisaki Peninsula in rural Kyushu, to ask what walking can teach us.
David Hochman: Walk Japan helped define slow, rural travel in Japan before it became fashionable. Your competition now includes luxury operators (including MT Sobek, Wilderness Travel and Backroads) and countless “hidden Japan” itineraries. What do you still do better?
Paul Christie: We pioneered rural travel in Japan, and the growing number of imitators suggests we must still be doing something right. We have been deeply entwined with the country for a long time — in my case nearly forty years — in ways that even many Japanese people applaud. Besides our tours to little-visited regions, we run a rice and shiitake mushroom farming enterprise that keeps growing as aging farmers retire and ask us to take over their land; we have been rescuing vacant akiya buildings as homes and guest houses for over twenty years; and we provide rural employment that encourages young people to stay.
What we do better is not simply finding interesting places, but creating the conditions in which our customers can experience them with trust, ease and depth. Our tour leaders, office team and local partners share a belief that the best travel is not extractive or performative, but respectful, curious and human. That is difficult to imitate because it is not a product feature. It is the result of decades of accumulated relationships, knowledge and behavior.
Hikers pause at the Tateba Tea House along the Nakasendo Way in the Kiso Valley near the post town of Magome, Japan. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesJapan’s Ancient Trails Offer The Ultimate Slow-Travel Escape
David Hochman: Japan is seeing record tourism, and many visitors still follow the Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka circuit. What are three destinations equally worthy off that route?
Paul Christie: Three places immediately come to mind. The first is Aizu, in northerly Tohoku — old highways, samurai history and quiet rural warmth, with mountain villages along routes once walked by samurai and everyday travelers. The second is the old Nagasaki Kaido through Saga and Nagasaki prefectures, where Japan was connected to the rest of the world for centuries. The third is the Izu Peninsula, close to Tokyo but a very different world: rugged coast, wasabi fields, fishing villages, and the momentous history of Shimoda, where Japan’s seclusion was forcibly breached in the nineteenth century.
Each offers a Japan that is more open, local and less mediated by mass tourism. The caveat: good travel planning is not only identifying worthwhile destinations, but understanding seasonality and bringing people to places in a way that is welcome rather than burdensome.
David Hochman: Tell me about one person who captures what Walk Japan is trying to preserve.
Paul Christie: It has to be Etchan, an 82-year-old farmer who has been my friend since I moved to the Kunisaki Peninsula in 2002. Her unfailing positivity, sense of fun and warm hospitality have made her beloved on our Kunisaki tours. She has rarely left the peninsula and speaks only the local dialect, yet she is so expressive that everyone is captivated. Each year over 600 of our customers from around the world visit her — which probably makes her home the most international in Japan.
Etchan represents nothing staged. There is humour, warmth, curiosity and dignity in the encounter. She captures what we most want to share: not a polished performance of Japan, but the humanity of people and places too easily missed.
Japan’s Next Great Travel Experience Is A Different Relationship With Time
NARAI, JAPAN: A view of the hishtoric post town of Narai along the Nakasendo Way (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)
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David Hochman: How do you bring visitors to quieter parts of Japan without turning them into the next overexposed destinations?
Paul Christie: There is no easy way through that dilemma. The Kiso Valley, the central section of the Nakasendo, had no international visitors when we started in 1992. We were the catalyst for it becoming a major destination, much to the delight of the locals — a once-declining region now sees a brighter future, with young people moving in. Fortunately, this old highway was designed for many visitors, so it is coping.
The balance lies in pace, distribution and local consent. Some places actively want more visitors. Others need a much lighter touch. We try to understand that distinction carefully and build tours that spread the benefits without overwhelming any single place.
David Hochman: What’s the next big opportunity in Japan travel that most travelers haven’t noticed?
Paul Christie: Not another undiscovered destination, but a different relationship with time. Many visitors still treat Japan as a place to be covered efficiently: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, perhaps Hiroshima, then home. But Japan rewards time. It rewards repetition, attention, quietness and a willingness to let places reveal themselves slowly.
There is a growing hunger for travel that provides connection and reflection. Walking through rural Japan, staying in small inns, meeting people who live close to the land, observing the care given to ordinary things — it can be quietly profound. The opportunity, for travelers and travel companies alike, is to move beyond novelty.
This interview has been edited and lighted condensed for clarity.
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