Our story
Thirteen years in Yakushima, a temple in Aki's hometown, and a name that arrived before we fully understood it.
The Breathe Hakone story did not begin with a business plan. It began with a feeling among old cedar trees — followed by years of learning what that feeling was asking of us.
Aki's life as a guide began far from Hakone. After travelling to Yakushima — the World Heritage island south of Kyushu — he stayed. For more than thirteen years he lived and worked there as a hiking and field guide, leading guests through rain, mountain trails and forests of ancient yakusugi cedar.
He became the kind of guide who notices the ground, the weather and the person walking beside him. He also became a lifelong tree person. Hiking was the work, but being among trees was always the deeper reason.
In 2022, Aki moved back to the place where he grew up and founded Coconuts Hike Japan. The idea was simple: guide visitors through the landscapes, history and footpaths of his own home.
Near that home is a beautiful temple surrounded by cedar trees more than six hundred years old. The connection is personal. Even Aki's kindergarten was built by the temple. Walking through its grounds feels quiet and sheltering, as if the pace of the outside world stops at the gate.
As Aki's wife and the person planning many of our tours, Carmen suggested bringing guests to this off-the-beaten-track temple. We began shaping a day around the old trees, local history and an onsen at the end.
While we were searching for a name, Carmen remembered the phrase forest bathing. It seemed to describe the soothing feeling of walking among those huge cedars. At that point it was only a feeling to us. We did not yet understand shinrin-yoku as a distinct practice.
We listed the experience as “Forest Bathing in Hakone Geopark and Onsen.” Guests loved it. Again and again, people responded to the temple, the trees and the change of pace.
Their response made us curious. We started reading books about forest bathing and gradually understood that it was more than taking a walk through beautiful woodland. Shinrin-yoku has its own intention: sensory attention, stillness, invitation, rest and time for the nervous system to settle.
In 2024, Aki joined a formal course and became a certified forest bathing facilitator. Training changed the way we designed the experience. We began looking carefully for places that support the practice: quiet ground, gentle transitions, shelter, texture, sound and enough space to stop.
Aki remains a hiking guide. He loves movement, mountains and long days on the trail. Forest bathing asks him to use the same knowledge differently — less distance, more attention; less destination, more presence.
Over time, we realised that forest bathing needed a clearer home than a hiking company could give it. Coconuts Hike Japan still holds our hiking tours and all bookings. Breathe Hakone is the quieter branch: a place devoted to shinrin-yoku and the forests around Aki's hometown.
We are still learning. Shinrin-yoku has been a journey for us rather than a single discovery, and we want to keep that honesty. Each session teaches us more about the forest, about guiding, and about what people need when they finally give themselves permission to stop.
This is where we are now: rooted in Aki's experience, shaped by Carmen's curiosity, formally trained, and still listening. Meet Aki and see his credentials.
Join Aki in the forests around his hometown for a practice that is still teaching us.
Book a forest bathing session Or begin with what shinrin-yoku means