On the last day of August, I reflect what the forests, my ‘soft’ therapists, and the mountains, my ‘raw’ therapists taught me this summer in Japan. Middle of June – Mt Fuji from below Ten […]
Tag: Japan
Fireworks, Bamboo and the Height of Japanese Summer
After Summer solstice (and my bestie from Norway left), the weather changed very dramatically in Nagoya, Japan. In the last week of June, I felt myself suffocating in the evenings. The temperature and humidity started […]
Wood weaving & forest bathing in Nagano, Japan
Last weekend, I co-organised a trilingual forest retreat weekend in Nagano, Japan I helped to organize. Yes, trilingual 😃. At some point I was mixing Japanese, Spanish and English 😅. On the program we had wood weaving, yoga, […]
Lugnasadh: the first corn, rice and berries
Lugnasadh, also known as Lammas- is the start of the harvest season, marking the point where the first fruit of the land has ripened. This is also the time of Lugnasadh, a festival my ancestors […]
What did a visit to Japan’s suicide forest teach me about forest therapy?
Unbalanced society Once upon a time, Japanese society was more a forest civilisation than nowadays. People used the wood to build castles, temples and houses, or made bowls, cutlery and furniture. Today, most Japanese no […]
Birch cake and the colonization of Hokkaido’s nature and Ainu
Last month, my Norwegian friend and I explored Hokkaido, the northernmost bigger island of Japan, for almost ten days. I waited almost two years to visit this place, as I always imagined this friend to […]
Meeting Japan’s curse spirits during a Forest Bath
Several weeks ago I experienced a first forest bath in one of the 62 certified forest therapy bases in Japan. You can read and see photographs in this blog: Forest therapy Taking Root. What I […]
Forest Therapy Taking Root
Our hectic society gives us little or no rest, so we often get overworked and overtired. Since the 21st century, forest therapy has been prescribed as a medicine for city dwellers to deal with stress […]
Nakansendo’s whispers – or different interpretations of Silence
“The entire kisoji is in the mountains” was the first sentence of the famous Japanese novel “Before the dawn” by Toson Shimazaki. The best way to explore the Kiso region of Japan, with its stunning […]
Okinawa: from its longevity secrets to mischievous tree trolls
Some weeks ago I visited Okinawa, the subtropical island of Japan which is famous to count the most centenarians per capita in whole the world. Why do people get so old? – the diet I […]
