After a full day on your feet eating and sightseeing, a slow lap of a Japanese garden hits different. It's not exercise in the conventional sense — but it's one of the most genuinely restorative things we do on these trips.

We stumbled onto this by accident on the 2022 trip. We'd done Kinkaku-ji in the morning, eaten too much at lunch, and needed somewhere to decompress before dinner. Someone suggested the garden nearby. We spent an hour walking slowly around a pond, looking at trees, saying very little. We both felt considerably better afterwards.

What's Actually Happening

Japanese gardens are designed with intention in a way that Western parks generally aren't. Every element — the placement of stones, the shape of the pond, the pruning of the trees — is deliberate. Walking through one forces you to slow down simply because rushing feels wrong. The pace the space sets is gentle and unhurried, and you end up matching it without thinking about it.

There's a concept in Japanese culture called shinrin-yoku — forest bathing — which describes the restorative effect of spending time in nature at low intensity. A Japanese garden is essentially a curated version of this: all the calm of being in a natural space, with the added layer of human craft and consideration.

Japanese garden with pond, pine trees and autumn foliage
One of the gardens near Kyoto on the 2022 trip. We came back here twice.

The Physical Side

It's still movement. A proper lap of a large garden — Kenroku-en in Kanazawa, Kokedera in Kyoto, the gardens around Nara Park — can be 3 to 5km of gentle walking on varied terrain. Your legs are working, your posture is upright, and you're breathing fresh air. After days of pounding city pavement it's a different kind of load on your body and genuinely helps.

Red and gold autumn maple foliage over water
The autumn colours in the Kyoto gardens were extraordinary. Hard to feel stressed in a place that looks like this.

Our Favourite Gardens So Far

The gardens at Tofuku-ji, Kyoto — especially during koyo season. The main garden is geometric and modern, the surrounding temple grounds are wilder. Worth a full morning.

Nara Park — technically a park rather than a garden, but the combination of ancient temple grounds, deer wandering freely, and mature trees makes it one of the most calming places we've been in Japan.

The gardens around Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto — most people rush through after seeing the pavilion. Don't. The path continues up through the garden and the views back down are worth taking slowly.

Build it into the plan. Don't treat a garden visit as a backup option if there's nothing else to do. Schedule one deliberately on your longest eating day — you'll feel the benefit immediately.