Tenkawamura Højskole

Mornings start slow. Someone is usually already in the kitchen. We eat together, most days with people from the village, sometimes a shrine keeper, a farmer, or an old inn owner who has stories nobody has written down. Some days we walk the old pilgrim trails through the cedar forest. Some days we cook using vegetables grown a few hundred meters from where we sleep. In the evenings we sit together and talk, properly talk, about the things that don’t usually come up over dinner back home: what we’re doing with our lives, what we’re afraid of, what we still want to become. Nobody here is teaching a class in the way you’d expect. There are no grades. The people who lead sessions are here to open a conversation, not deliver a lecture, and often the most interesting things you’ll learn come from the person next to you at the table.

There’s no single profile. You might be taking a break between jobs, finishing your studies and wondering what’s next, newly retired with time to finally pay attention to something, or a Danish folk high school alum looking for a reason to come back to that feeling. What our participants tend to share isn’t an age or a background, it’s curiosity, and a willingness to sit at a table with strangers and actually talk.

Anyone 18 or older. We don’t ask about your nationality, gender, or professional background. What matters is that you’re willing to show up and take part.

Like Danish folk high schools, this is open to every adult, from 18 and up, and our past programs have drawn a genuinely wide age range. Don’t expect a room full of twenty somethings, and don’t expect a room full of retirees either, expect both.

Light hiking is part of the program, and we have a wide age range among our participants, plenty of younger people but also many seniors who enjoy the gentle exercise of walking through the village and its surrounding nature. If you have real difficulty walking, this program probably isn’t the right fit for you.

We recommend it, as with any international travel.

The Danish folk high school tradition is nearly 200 years old, built on the idea that people learn best not by memorizing facts for an exam, but by living together, talking honestly, and taking their own inner life seriously. We’ve brought that tradition to Japan and let it take root here, shaped by this place and the people of Tenkawa. It’s not a copy of a Danish school, it’s what happens when that idea meets a Japanese mountain village that’s been asking similar questions of its visitors for a very long time.

No. Like Danish folk high schools, we teach through dialogue, not lectures. Teachers and participants learn from each other, sitting at the same table, not on opposite sides of a classroom. There’s no test at the end and nothing to memorize, just real time to live alongside other people, talk honestly, and think seriously about your own life.

Just one week is fine. The program is split into independent parts, and you’re welcome to book only the ones that interest you.

In Tenkawa Village, in the mountains of Nara’s Yoshino district. Most of the program is based at Tenkawa Tenwa no Sato and Ryokan Yamatoya, with sessions and outings across the village itself.

Tenkawa isn’t a resort village, it’s a real, small, remote, mountainous place, with a river running through the middle of it and a long history of people coming here to think seriously about their lives. We didn’t choose it because it photographs well, though it does, especially in autumn. We chose it because the place itself does some of the work: something about the mountains, the quiet, and the people here makes it easier to be honest, with yourself and with the people around you.

The address is 477 Wada, Tenkawa Village, Yoshino District, Nara Prefecture (Tenkawa Tenwa no Sato), or in Japanese 奈良県吉野郡天川村大字和田４７７番地（てんかわ天和の里）. By public transport from Tokyo, take the train to Shimoichiguchi Station (about 4 hours 30 minutes), then a local bus to Tenkawa Kawai (about 54 minutes), roughly 6.5 hours in total. From Osaka’s Abeno Station, it’s about 1 hour 20 minutes to Shimoichiguchi, then the same bus, so about 2.5 hours total. By car, it’s about 1 hour 40 minutes from Nara City, 2 hours from Osaka, and 3 hours 50 minutes from Nagoya. If you’re arriving by public transport, we’ll pick you up at the Tenkawa Kawai bus stop, just let us know your arrival time in advance. Full meeting details are sent once you’ve applied.

You’ll be in Tenkawa, in the mountains of Nara Prefecture, through October and into early November, so pack for cool mountain weather that turns colder as autumn goes on, along with comfortable clothes and shoes for some light outdoor activity. We’ll send more detailed packing guidance once you’ve booked.

Just email us with what you have in mind and we’ll see what we can arrange.

No. We have bilingual staff, and the courses will be explained in both Japanese and English.

Yes. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to meet local residents and talk with them directly.

Every course includes your room, all meals, and the full program.

Yes. Every course includes accommodation, all meals, tuition, and tax.

Yamatoya Inn is a traditional Japanese guesthouse. Guests stay in shared, gender-separated Japanese-style rooms with futons. The rooms are divided by fusuma (traditional sliding partitions).

Cottage Yamatoya is a Western-style log cabin located across from Tenkawa Tenwa no Sato. Some participants may stay here instead. Depending on the number of participants, you may sleep on a futon placed on the wooden floor rather than on a bed.

Evenings at the cottage include a bonfire, and one dinner will be a garden BBQ—a truly hyggelig evening.

All rooms are heated. Please bring your own towel, shampoo, and toothbrush.

 If you have any dietary restrictions, just let us know in advance and we’ll do our best to accommodate them. The food throughout the program centers on Japanese ingredients and dishes, so expect plenty of rice, miso, soy sauce, seasonal vegetables, mountain vegetables (sansai), and fish, sometimes wild game too, since much of what we eat comes from what grows or is caught locally. If there’s anything you can’t or don’t eat, tell us before you arrive and we’ll work around it.

Expect a real variety of Japanese home style food throughout your stay, built around rice, miso soup, seasonal and mountain vegetables, and dishes that shift with whatever’s actually available in Tenkawa that week, from fresh river fish to wild herbs foraged nearby. Meals are as much a part of the program as anything else, and several of them will be ones you help cook yourself.

WiFi is available at the inns and at some cafes around the village.

Yes, and it’s free to use throughout your stay.

Most places accept card, but it’s a good idea to always carry some cash in Japan, for the times you’ll need it especially in a rural place like Tenkawamura. There is an ATM at the Post Office in Tenkawamura where you can withdraw yen. Since most of your living expenses are prepaid as part of your stay, you’ll mainly need cash for souvenirs, snacks, or a visit to the onsen.

Laundry is free throughout your stay. You’ll need to cover your own travel to and from Tenkawamura, but once the program starts, local transport during your stay is covered.

We’re Nara Folke, a small organization that’s been building this, one program at a time, since 2021. We’re not a university, a travel company, or a government initiative, even though Tenkawa Village and the Danish Embassy have both generously supported what we’re doing. It started small, and it’s still small: every year we run a program, learn from it, and build the next one a little better. If you come this autumn, you’ll be joining something a handful of people are still building, with real care, alongside the village that hosts us.

Tenkawa Village and the Royal Danish Embassy have both supported the program, and in 2026 we were written up in the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad. We’re proud of that, but we’d rather you judge us by what it’s actually like to spend time here than by who’s endorsed us.

Please make a bank transfer to our Japanese bank account. We will send you the bank account details after we receive your application.

If you become sick or injured during the program, we will take you to the local medical clinic in the village. We also have local residents with nursing qualifications who can provide advice and support if needed.

Please see our Cancellation and Refund Policy for details.