As a practitioner. As an initiate. With someone who actually lived there, who knows the temples from the inside — and who knows where Japan is still truly alive.
Travel agencies take you to the temples. Mark takes you inside.
Mark did three years of research at Kyoto University, much of it in the temples — as a practitioner, as an initiate, as someone who actually arrived there. He knows the monks. He knows the rituals. He knows the places no guidebook will name. This journey gives you access to a Japan that opens itself to almost no one.
The home of Kōbō Daishi — the founder of Shingon Buddhism. The Shikoku Pilgrimage with its 88 temples is a living initiation, not a tourist route. Mark has walked the entire path himself.
Fushimi Inari, Koyasan, the Shingon temples — Kyoto is a living present. It is the beating centre of Japanese spirituality. Mark studied here. Practiced here. Lived here for three years.
The starting point of the Shikoku Pilgrimage — quiet, far less touristic, close to the ancient temples. The Seto Inland Sea with its islands is a place that lies between worlds.
A small-group journey with kindred practitioners — or a few days of personal guidance, only for you. Both lead to the same places. What changes is the depth.
Together with other practitioners —
Shikoku, Kyoto, living temples.
A small circle — maximum ten people — travels together through Japan's sacred power places. Mark and Eileen guide and accompany. Each person stays in the lodging of their choice.
No travel agency. No packaged tour. Personal recommendations for accommodation, temples and places that open themselves to very few.
A few days only for you —
deeper, more personal, more intense.
Mark or Eileen — or both of them — guide you personally through Japan for a few days. No group. No programme that has to fit everyone. Only you, and the path that opens for you.
This is for people who want to go all the way down — into the temples, into the practice, into themselves. Available only by personal request.
Mid-May is the window. The cherry-blossom crowds have gone home, Golden Week is over, and the rainy season has not yet begun. The mountains are green, the mornings are cool, and the coast roads belong to the people who live on them.
The exact days are set by the temple ritual calendar, not by us — we go when the rituals are held. As soon as they are confirmed, the dates go out to the mailing list first.
"I can only recommend going in very deeply, clearing your father and mother themes, and listening closely to your initiator. Mark Hosak is a brilliant shaman, and there is so much I can keep discovering through him."
"Mark holds a doctorate in art history and is an expert on Eastern and Western wisdom paths. He passes spiritual knowledge on at the highest level. At the same time, he opens up the essence of Reiki, Shingon Buddhism and the further paths he has experienced first-hand for decades — in Japan and in real practice."
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Each place in Japan carries its own story. Here are the pieces that walk into single mountains, temples and pilgrimages.