Traveling with purpose. Writing from the heart. Marie Journals is a personal travel blog about slow travel, hiking, and intentional journeys—mostly around Japan. Here, I share honest travel stories, detailed guides, reflections from the trail, and practical tips from my own experiences hiking and walking pilgrimages like the Camino de Santiago.
If you’re looking for a beginner friendly dayhike, Mitake-san is perfect for you. Mount Mitake has long been worshipped as a sacred mountain. Mitake Shrine dates back to as early as 90 B.C., making it one of the oldest in Japan. Known in Japanese as anzan sugi, Mt. Mitake’s sacred cedar trees are believed to…
I recently went on a waterfall meditation / sound healing retreat for my birthday. It was a very interesting experience for me because it was my first time doing waterfall meditation and my second time experiencing sound healing. I saw a reel from Yamatrips Japan about waterfalls meditation at Seizan-so right right around the time…
This is the hardest hike I’ve ever done in my life. We started our ascent at 8:30 and were supposed to be at Sonbutsu Sanso in Tonodake by 16:00, but we didn’t arrive until 18:40. It was already dark, and the last hour of the ascent was just too hard for me. I honestly thought…