“You teach people forest bathing?
For us, that’s just hanging out!”
This was the playful reaction from a Japanese friend during my recent visit to Japan—the birthplace of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing). It highlighted a beautiful discovery – that in everyday Japanese, the term shinrin-yoku has evolved since the 1980s when it was coined. Beyond referring to a specific set of practices, it now expresses something that we don’t a word for in English: simply hanging out in nature, opening oneself to its presence, as an everyday thing.
“It’s sort of like when you say ‘going for a walk,'” my friend explained, “except you don’t even need to be walking. In English, you’re always doing something in nature – like walking, picnicking or meditating. But for us, shinrin-yoku is just what everyone does on weekends. It’s funny to think you can train people in that.”
Yet beneath this casual simplicity lies a profound cultural intentionality—a fundamental principle permeating Japanese life. You cross a threshold and remove your shoes; unlacing them becomes a mindful transition into a new space. Objects seem to glow with intention, noticeable in the careful two-handed offering of a shopping bag, the thoughtful presentation of food, or even the deliberate way tea towels are hung up in the kitchen. Looking down the carriage on Tokyo’s crowded subway, there is not a garish colour in sight; the passengers’ muted clothing palettes seem to reflect a visual calmness chosen intentionally. Even fear has its own intentional space, as my daughter and I discovered in Kyoto’s haunted doll horror house – not an experience we will quickly forget!
Interestingly, despite its Japanese origins and extensive scientific validation, I also discovered that formal shinrin-yoku sessions in Japan remain minimally integrated into Japan’s national healthcare system. Structured sessions at certified Forest Therapy Bases usually come at a cost, and council-subsidised sessions, while they exist, aren’t widespread. Despite over 40 years of evidence, you can’t go to your doctor in Japan and be prescribed Forest Bathing as a mainstream health intervention that you can claim on National Health Insurance.
This insight surprised and intrigued me, especially as we work to integrate nature-based practices into the NHS here in Britain. It highlighted the distinction between institutional support for therapeutic practices and embedding intentional nature connection into everyday life as a cultural habit.
Perhaps, inspired by Japan, our goal in the UK might extend beyond structured forest bathing sessions. Could we aim to nurture a broader cultural intentionality toward simply being in nature—absorbing its presence in ways beyond walking, talking, or meditating—and perhaps find a new everyday word that captures the essence of that connection, just as the term shinrin-yoku has now become in Japanese?
— Natalia, Programme Director, Nature & Therapy
