Our Story

I walked into my first zen temple at 24, not because I was spiritual, but because I was exhausted. I had been working 70-hour weeks at a wellness resort in Arizona and my body had finally said no. A friend suggested I visit Japan. I ended up at a small temple in Kyoto for a week of silence.

I expected boredom. I found something else — a kind of rest I didn't know was possible. Not just sleep, but a slowing down of everything. The mind. The breath. The constant need to be doing something.

After that week, I started visiting temples and retreat centers across Japan. Eihei-ji in Fukui. Koyasan in Wakayama. A tiny onsen ryokan in Shuzenji where the sound of the river was the only music. Some were transformative. Others were just okay. A few were disappointing — overpriced, understaffed, more about Instagram than inner peace.

Zen Escapes Japan is the resource I wish I had when I started. Every retreat listed here has been personally visited by our team. We stayed there. We meditated there. We ate the food and slept in the rooms. We know which temples have English-speaking guides and which don't. We know which onsen actually have healing mineral water and which are just hot tap water.

We don't list everything. We list what moves us.