Inside the new Japanese island retreat inspired by Zen Buddhism

Travel

At a striking new island wellness retreat, meditation is combined with yoga and temple-inspired food to help guests unwind and reset.

Story and photographs byAlicia Miller

Published September 24, 2023

• 6 min read

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).

OK, so I cheated. But with a panorama like this, can you blame me? Our yogic sensei (master) is counting us through meditative breathing — inhale ichi, ni, san; exhale ichi, ni, san — and despite her instruction to keep eyes closed, I’ve cracked open my right lid. Beyond the deck where 20-odd people are breathing serenely in unison, I spy a rambling green expanse of forest stretching to meet the Seto Inland Sea. I feel suspended above the foliage, weightless in space. This definitely beats meditating in a packed London studio.

Set spectacularly among trees on lush Awaji, a teardrop-shaped island just off mainland Honshu close to Kobe and Osaka, Zenbo Seinei is a wellness retreat with distinct Japanese flavour. Loosely inspired by the meditation-based principles of Zen Buddhism, its day programmes draw visitors from Osaka and Tokyo looking to decompress with inner reflection, plant-based eating and gentle stretching. Occasionally, like today, it also hosts more immersive, overnight retreats. The one I’m attending — a ‘women-only’ retreat led by elite Tokyo personal trainer Tomo Ikezawa — is among the most popular.

The site is a sculpture as much as a place to stay. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban, Zenbo Seinei is a minimalist, indoor-outdoor wooden masterpiece, employing smooth lines and traditional Japanese craft techniques. There are 18 compact rooms with large picture windows and futon beds. Underneath the building, there’s an al fresco ashiyu (foot onsen) studded dramatically with boulders. At its pinnacle, a 100ft-long cedar deck — where I sit now — acts as the open-air space for a programme pinned around zazen — Zen seated meditation.

When I checked in earlier, an English-speaking staff member explained that she’d be on hand to translate as needed. I wasted no time settling into the tranquil dimensions of my wood-lined room by stretching out in front of my window. Branches rustled in the breeze. Birds flitted between branches. Compared to the urban crush of Kobe, from where I’d come, it was already a balm.

Zen Buddhism is a complex, multifaceted practice; one of its key tenets is living in the present. I grasp this for myself later during quiet calligraphy hour, basking in the sunshine on the furthest reaches of the deck. I can’t understand a word of the poem I am dutifully copying onto paper — and any Japanese-speaker would be horrified at my messy kanji script — but the permission to just sit and focus on a task that isn’t ‘productive’ is liberating. The only thing that’s required of me is to just be.

At dinner, the vegetarian, temple-inspired cuisine is colourful and delicate — a gourmet work of art. I eat sushi rice topped with rainbow vegetables and edible flowers, mochi with a zing of yuzu wrapped in bamboo leaf, and nutty soba noodles with grated yam.

Night falls quickly, with the blues and greens of the day merging into the blind buzz of crickets. When pinpricks of stars begin to glimmer, we don the fleecy ponchos provided and regroup back on deck for the evening meditation session — preparing our bodies for sleep, so we can rise naturally with the dawn.

But despite sensei’s deep-breathing techniques, sleep fails to come to me later that night. So, as lights click off in the other rooms, I descend to the ashiyu below the building. The night is pressing in, but the boulder-studded waters are illuminated and I slip knee-deep into the coddling warmth.

After a moment I hear a small splash, and my eyes find a woman perched on the rocks; another rule-breaker swapping bed for the soothing embrace of the warm water. There is a flicker as we both realise we’ve been caught breaking curfew. We sit in silence, savouring the fleeting night as it marches towards sunrise.

How to do it:
Inside Japan can organise tailormade cultural adventures including a night at Zenbo Seinei and time in Koya. Zenbo Seinei’s two-day retreats cost around ¥48,000pp (£275) with activities and meals.

Published in the Japan supplement, distributed with the October 2023 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).

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