Why not a workation in the wilderness of Wakayama?
Today
06:00 am JST
Today | 06:57 am JST
WAKAYAMA
Deep breaths. One foot in front of the other. I’m ascending a section of the Kumano Kodo, a network of ancient roads that run through the mountains of Japan’s Kii Peninsula. A canopy of cedars towers above me. The stones that comprise my path have been worn smooth after centuries under the feet of spiritual pilgrims and other travelers. Surrounded by lush ferns, I pause for a sip of water, and that’s when I noticed it. The quiet. The peaceful, enveloping stillness. It had been a long time since I had experienced silence like that, something so far removed from the noise of trains and sirens and sidewalk chatter. In that moment, only an otherworldly calm, but something else as well. Something more. I had just registered the sensation when I broke the silence with another deep breath.