Japan · 35.01° N · 135.67° E
Arashiyama
Moss, cedar, and the discipline of attention
Kyoto PrefectureTemperate · four precise seasons
The place
West of Kyoto, Arashiyama's mountains hold some of the oldest managed forest in Japan — bamboo groves, cedar stands, moss gardens tended for eight centuries. The Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, forest bathing, was clinically formalised here.
SOMA's machiya-style house sits at the forest edge with its own tea pavilion and a private path into the cedar. The work is quiet and precise: walking meditation, tea ceremony, calligraphy, long unhurried meals.
- Coordinates
- 35.01° N · 135.67° E
- Climate
- Temperate · four precise seasons
- Getting there
- Osaka (KIX) · 75 min transfer
- Landscape
- Bamboo grove, cedar forest, river gorge
The signature moment
Dawn walking meditation through the bamboo, before the town wakes
Every SOMA destination keeps one experience that belongs to it alone — unbookable elsewhere, unrepeatable anywhere.
The retreat
Practised in Arashiyama
Begin
Wake up in Arashiyama.
Speak with our concierge, or let the retreat finder listen first.