A small forest. A small practice. A long time.
This is a small place in a small forest on the Nagasaki coast.
Up to five guests at a time. Often fewer.
There is no spa, no pool, no gym. There is a path through the trees, a room for sitting, a small bath, simple food, and the sound of the sea about a kilometre away. The wind in the pines.
It is run by a research center listed on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s official website — the only one of its kind in Japan. The teacher here has practiced for many years, in Thailand and in Japan. He speaks quietly, and not too much.
People come here to do less. They stay for a few nights, or a week, or sometimes longer. They wake when they wake. They walk. They sit. They eat what is served. They read or do not read.
Most leave saying it was the most ordinary week of their year, and the one that changed something.
That is the place. If you read this far
and feel a small yes inside, the rest is for you.
A small house among pines.
Saikai sits between two seas, on the western edge of Kyushu — a region of forests, narrow inlets, and quiet villages. From Tokyo: a flight and a drive. From Fukuoka: about two hours by car. From most of the world: further still.
The house stands among pines and chestnut. Five small bedrooms, a common room, a kitchen, a bath. A wooden deck where one can sit in the morning. A path that goes down toward the sea.
It is built simply, the way old houses in this region are built. Not restored to look old. Just old.
When you stay, the whole house is yours. We do not mix groups. The five rooms together hold up to five guests; some come alone, some as a couple, some as a small group of friends. The arrangement is the same: the house, undivided, for the time you are here.
Slowly, and without instruction.
Nothing here is required.
The structure is offered. What you do with it is yours.
Mindfulness, before it became a brand.
The practice taught here is mindfulness in its original sense — before the word became something printed on water bottles.
It comes from two streams. The secular tradition known as MBSR, founded at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the 1970s and now taught in hospitals and universities around the world. And the Theravada Buddhist contemplative tradition, in which mindfulness has been studied and refined for some twenty-five centuries.
Our parent organisation, IMCJ, is the only mindfulness center in Japan listed on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s official website. Dr. Kabat-Zinn is the person who, more than any other, brought this practice into the modern world.
You do not need to be a meditator to come here. You do not need to be Buddhist; most guests are not. You do need to be willing to sit quietly for some hours each day, and to leave your phone in a drawer.
What is offered is not relaxation, exactly. Some days will feel restful. Some days will feel uncomfortable. Both are part of it.
“The practice is not to escape the world,
but to meet it more fully.”
— Jon Kabat-Zinn
Those who come, and who is here.
Those who come
A surgeon between practices. A novelist whose third book is overdue. A founder six months after the sale of her company, who hasn’t yet decided what is next.
A couple in their fifties who have decided to take stillness more seriously. A monk on sabbatical from his temple. A grieving father.
We have hosted lawyers, diplomats, dancers, parents on the last weekend before a child leaves home. Some come once. Many return.
We do not name them.
Who is here
Miyamoto Kenya
Practitioner in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Has sat long retreats in Thailand and Japan, including time at forest monasteries in the Ajahn Chah lineage. Has participated in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s program at the Omega Institute. Teaches in English. He is the one you will see most days.
A small kitchen team prepares the meals. Visiting teachers from our parent organisation occasionally pass through.
Plainly stated.
- Length of stay
-
From two nights upwards.
Most guests stay between four and seven nights.
Longer stays — two or three weeks — by arrangement.
- Capacity
-
Up to five guests at a time. The house is taken whole — five rooms together — by you and whoever comes with you.
We do not mix groups.
- What is included
-
A private room with shared bathing.
All meals, prepared from local ingredients.
All sittings, walks, and individual meetings with the teacher.
Pickup from Nagasaki Airport.
- What is not
-
Wifi in private rooms. Television.
Alcohol service. A schedule that must be followed.
- Fees
- From JPY ¥XXX,XXX per night per person, single occupancy. Full schedule shared on inquiry.
- Language
- All teaching, all conversation, all written material — in English.
How to come
By inquiry only. Please write to us in a few sentences about yourself and what brings you here. We respond within a week.
inquire@kuu-retreat.com“Wherever you go, there you are.”