Akihiro Wada

From Hakone to Yakushima, then home again

I was born and raised at the foot of the Hakone mountains. My career as a guide began somewhere else: Yakushima, the World Heritage island south of Kyushu.

I lived and worked there for more than thirteen years as a hiking and field guide. Yakushima taught me how to read weather, terrain and the needs of the person walking beside me. It also deepened something that had always been true: I feel at home and connected among trees.

In 2021, I returned to my hometown and started Coconuts Hike Japan, guiding visitors through the landscapes and old paths where I grew up.

The temple that changed our direction

Near my childhood home is a beautiful temple surrounded by cedars more than six hundred years old. I went to the kindergarten run by this temple. My wife, Carmen, suggested creating a tour there because simply walking through the grounds felt so soothing.

While we were naming the experience, Carmen remembered the phrase forest bathing. At first, it was only a feeling to us. We called the tour “Forest Bathing in Hakone Geopark and Onsen,” and guests loved it.

We gradually understood that shinrin-yoku is more than walking through a forest. In 2025, I completed formal training and became a certified forest bathing facilitator. We began finding locations specifically for stillness, sensory attention and rest. Breathe Hakone grew from that journey — a separate home for the quieter side of our work.

Read the full story of how Breathe Hakone began →

How I guide

We walk slowly. I will ask you to stop more often than feels reasonable, and at some point I may invite you to lie down on the forest floor and look up. It can feel unfamiliar at first, but many guests later remember it as one of the most meaningful parts of the session.

I do not lecture. I will tell you what a tree is, or why the air smells like that, if you want to know. But mostly I get out of the way and let the forest do the work. It is better at this than I am.

Credentials

• ✓Certified shinrin-yoku facilitator — formally trained in forest bathing practice.
• ✓Government-certified national guide (全国通訳案内士).
• ✓Certified Japan Mountain Guide.
• ✓Wilderness First Aid trained.
• ✓Deep local knowledge. Since returning home in 2021, I have continued exploring Hakone’s paths and forests in every season.
• ✓Aki guides in English and French; Carmen can guide in Mandarin and Cantonese.

— Aki