Sleeping in a Temple: Shukubo Etiquette, and Where to Go Instead of Kōyasan

You arrive before five, because you were told to. Someone in work clothes takes your shoes, shows you to a tatami room with a low table and no lock on the door, and pours you tea. Dinner is at 17:30 and contains no meat, no fish, and — traditionally — no garlic or onion. It is much better than that sounds. The building goes quiet by nine. At six the next morning a bell rings, and you can either sleep through it or walk down a cold corridor in socks and sit at the back of a hall while several monks chant for forty minutes.

This is shukubo (宿坊) — temple lodging — and it's one of the few things in Japanese tourism that hasn't been redesigned for tourists, because it wasn't built for them in the first place. Shukubo exist because pilgrims needed somewhere to sleep. You're staying in the pilgrim accommodation.

Almost every English guide sends you to Kōyasan for this, which is a fine recommendation and also the reason Kōyasan now has a lot of people in it. So this guide covers two things: how to behave in a shukubo, and four places to do it that aren't Kōyasan.

What you're paying for

Expect ¥10,000–20,000 per person per night with dinner and breakfast included at a typical temple; the famous Kōyasan ones run higher, up to ¥40,000 for the best rooms.

What that gets you: a tatami room with a futon laid out for you, two vegetarian meals, and use of a shared bath. What it doesn't get you: an en-suite bathroom, a lock on your door, a television, or a late check-in.

Bring cash. Many temples don't take cards, and some don't take them at all.

The etiquette

None of this is difficult. It's just unstated, because everyone else in the building already knows it.

Arrive by 5pm. This is the rule people break most. Monks have a schedule, dinner is at 17:30 or 18:00, and someone has to be free to receive you. Turning up at eight because your train was slow is a genuine problem, not a minor inconvenience. If you're delayed, phone.

Shoes off at the entrance, and mind the slippers. Corridor slippers stay in the corridor. Toilet slippers stay in the toilet — and the classic foreigner mistake is walking back out still wearing them.

Your room is not private. Sliding paper doors are not soundproof and often don't lock. Keep your voice down, especially after dark, and keep valuables with you.

Eat what you're given. Shōjin ryōri is Buddhist vegetarian cuisine developed over centuries around the precept against taking life. It is beautifully made and, to a palate expecting salt and fat, quite plain at first. Finishing your food matters more here than in a restaurant. Tell them in advance about allergies — the kitchen will accommodate a genuine allergy, but it's a monastery kitchen, not a restaurant, and "I don't like tofu" is not something they can work around.

Bathe before the bath closes, and follow onsen rules: wash completely at the shower station first, small towel out of the water, quiet. Bath hours are often short and fixed.

The morning service is optional but it's the point. Nobody will wake you or judge you for sleeping. But you came here to sleep in a temple, and gongyō — the morning service, usually around 6am and lasting 30–45 minutes — is the reason the building exists. Sit at the back, kneel or sit cross-legged, don't photograph, don't leave in the middle. You won't understand the sutras. That's fine; neither do most Japanese visitors.

Quiet after 9pm. Doors, footsteps, conversations. Monks are up before you.

Alcohol varies. Some temples serve a little; some don't allow it; a few will let you bring your own quietly. Ask rather than assume, and don't get drunk anywhere in the building.

Tattoos may matter at the shared bath, same as anywhere. Ask when you book.

Don't tip, and don't try to give the monks money beyond your bill. If you want to give something, there's an offering box.

Four places that aren't Kōyasan

Mount Mitake, Tokyo

The easiest shukubo in Japan to reach, and almost unknown to visitors. Mitake-san is inside Tokyo — about two hours from Shinjuku by train and cable car — and there's a small village of shukubo around the shrine at the top, many run by the same families for generations.

You can leave central Tokyo after lunch, sleep on a mountain, join the morning ritual, walk down through the Rock Garden the next day, and be back in the city by afternoon. For anyone who wants this experience but doesn't have a spare two days for Wakayama, this is the answer.

Dewa Sanzan, Yamagata

The three sacred mountains of Dewa are the home of shugendō — mountain asceticism — and its practitioners, the yamabushi, in their white robes and conch-shell horns.

You stay in a shukubo in the village of Tōge at the base of Haguro-san, eat mountain vegetables prepared in a tradition that's been protected as intangible cultural heritage, and climb 2,446 stone steps through a cedar avenue to the shrine at the top. Some temples run introductory yamabushi training for outsiders. This is the deep end, in the far north, and it is extraordinary.

Yoshino, Nara

A mountain town famous for cherry blossom, and a centre of shugendō built around Kinpusen-ji, whose main hall is one of the largest wooden buildings in Japan. Several temples take overnight guests.

Go outside blossom season — Yoshino in autumn or winter is nearly empty, which for this particular experience is an improvement.

The Shikoku pilgrimage

The 88-temple circuit around Shikoku is Japan's great walking pilgrimage, and many of its temples run shukubo for the henro who walk it. You do not have to walk the whole thing — or any of it — to stay.

What's different here is the company. You'll eat dinner beside people who have been walking for three weeks, and the local custom of o-settai, giving small gifts to pilgrims, is still alive. If you accept one, accept it graciously; refusing is the rude move.

How to book

Directly with the temple, usually by phone or a simple web form, sometimes in Japanese only. Local tourist associations often handle bookings for a whole shukubo village — that's the easiest route for Mitake and Tōge.

Some are listed on the usual booking sites, and a temple stay can also be booked as part of a guided trip if arranging it yourself feels like too much.

Book earlier than you think for weekends, blossom season and autumn colour.

Why do it at all

Because it's the one form of accommodation in Japan where you are not a customer.

A ryokan is hospitality, and a beautiful version of it — everything is arranged so that you feel looked after. A shukubo is a working religious building that has a spare room. The tea is poured by someone who will be up at five whether you are or not. Nothing is performed.

You get one evening of a life organised entirely around something other than productivity, and one morning of sitting at the back of a room while people do the thing they were going to do anyway.

Then you put your shoes back on and rejoin your holiday.

Most shukubo take bookings by phone, form or a Japanese-only page — see how to book when the only page is in Japanese, and read the cancellation etiquette before you book, because dinner is cooked for the number of people expected.

Quick reference