Tucking into our tofu hotpot at the end of our first day’s hike, our host started to play music. His three-stringed instrument, the sanshin, resembles a banjo, except that its body is covered in ...

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). In the hazy mid-morning sun, dappled light dances across the dank woodland soil as the tips of gangly black pines sway gently in the ...

Revered for guiding, the three-legged crow god surely had my back. In rural mountainous Japan, I hoofed up the steep Kumano Kodo trail, retracing ancient footsteps of emperors, shoguns, and nobles who ...

Considering a spiritual pilgrimage? Why not hike the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail in Japan? Several years ago, I traversed the Kumano Kodo trail on my own spiritual quest, after having walked snippets ...

In southern Japan there exists a 1,000-year-old trail that is stop-in-your-tracks stunning but almost completely devoid of crowds. It stars towering trees, fragrant forests, ancient stepping stones, ...

My concentration is completely focused on footfalls, specifically where my feet are landing among the cedar roots that form a natural staircase. I’m ascending Mount Tsurugi, on the Kii Peninsula, from ...

The dappled morning light illuminates the damp forest soil beneath our feet, while overhead the tops of the tall black pine, cedar and cypress trees sway in the breeze. Komorebi (木漏れ日), our guide ...