I Traveled to Japan In Search of Peace—What I Found Was So Much More

Last year was a rough one for me, for many reasons. Aside from the usual life stressors that accompany being a thirty-something woman in America in 2025, I was struggling to emerge from the depths of my grief after losing my dad in the spring. There is nothing that can prepare you for that type of heartache, even when you're surrounded by boundless love and support from your friends and loved ones. The toll it takes on your heart, and your mental health, cannot be overstated. Still, after several months cocooning myself in my Brooklyn apartment, I found myself with the opportunity to travel to Japan, a dream destination that I had always wanted to visit. It felt like a sign that maybe, just maybe, the weight of my circumstances wouldn't continue to feel like it had for the previous five months (namely endless and unyielding). In other words, when Shizu Okusa, the founder of Apothékary, calls, you answer—and then you get on the damn plane.

Though our circumstances for coming to Japan (or in Okusa's sake, coming back) are different, the purpose is relatively similar. "When shit hits the fan, you really have the opportunity to do an inventory of your mental health," she tells me over Zoom. The Wall Street alum knows a thing or two about a high intensity lifestyle. So, "I took some time off and I went to Japan." Her parents were both born and eventually emigrated to Canada separately (they met and married in Vancouver). But the call of her ancestral homeland never faded from Okusa's mind.

"I was just really curious about the traditions, and my family," she tells me. "My mom was a photographer and potter, and we kind of grew up on a farm because of the nature of my dad being a Japanese gardener. He brought Zen Japanese gardens to Canada. He used to make the clay for [her] pottery through the dirt of our farm. They would join forces to make everything that we ate from and everything that we ate, period, because everything was grown right there. So that was the real connection of nature."

Five years later, her healing journey to Japan ultimately inspired her latest business venture, Apothékary, a brand of herbal remedies that marry Japanese tradition with modern wellness. "It started to really come to be because of seeking a more natural form of remedy for my own mental health, which really [is connected] to stress and sleep," she says. "[Those] are the core pillars of wellness." She believed that there could be a better was to bring natural, ancient medicine that has existed for thousands of years, both rituals and product, to the market. But, ever a knowing businesswoman, Okusa understood that the American consumer had already grown wary of the seemingly endless supplement options and their lofty claims.

"The word 'supplements' just feels really dirty and not trusted, and [there is] a lot of skepticism behind it," she acknowledges. "But I think when we look at Japanese or Eastern medicine broadly, we don't think of it as a supplement, [or] as a category in those countries. It's really the form of healthcare." For better or worse, the pandemic inspired many people to seek out alternative forms of medicine, which Apothékary's line of tinctures offers, but the founder was still eager to revisit the in-person practices that are so central to the Japanese approach to health and wellness, and to her brand, and incorporate them into its ethos.

Now, fours years after those social distancing measures have been lifted, they very much are a core tenet of Apothékary, which is why I found myself, bleary-eyed but elated, stepping off a plane to join Okusa and a handful of fellow editors in Kyoto for a few Japanese rituals. "Kyoko is just an incredible bridge between ancient and modern traditions, and also science," she tells me. "You really get that juxtaposition with the shopping and modern technology, but you get the temples and then you get the shrines and then the meditation. That's kind of the feeling that I get with Japan—this authority of heritage meets the authenticity of culture."

Her goal for the three days we spent together? To help calm our frazzled Western nervous systems. "The whole journey East is around nervous system reset, but also building out how nature actually exists and anchoring each of these rituals with a element," she explains. "So we tied it to fire, water, air, and earth." That meant a guided breath work session, a visit to the Japanese onsen, a matcha tea ceremony guided by a monk, and a Kintsugi class, or the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with precious metals, which embraces the idea of wabi-sabi (finding beauty in the imperfections) and mushin (accepting change).

As I spent my final day with the group, painting a delicate line of gold down the side of a cracked tea cup, I realized how comfortable I felt, even 7,000 miles from home. Here, among former strangers in a bustling (if still very calm) city, full of hot tea and a few drops of Apothékary Mindcraft, my mind felt more at peace than it had in months.

With my phone tucked away in my bag and my hands preoccupied with the delicate work of mending something that was broken—but growing more beautiful by the minute—I allowed myself to take a deep breath. And then another. And then another, until I walked along the edge of the city's Kamo river, feeling, if not quite weightless, lighter than I had in very long time. If this is what it means to embrace Japanese wellness—slowing down, appreciating imperfection, experiencing more nature—even you can't always hop on a plane to the other side of the world, then I think 2026 will shape up to be a much softer, calmer, and wonderfully intentional year. But by all means, book a flight to Japan as soon as you can. I know that I'll be doing the same.

Why Trust Marie Claire

For more than 30 years, Marie Claire has been an internationally recognized destination for news, fashion, and beauty trends, investigative packages, and more. When it comes to the products Marie Claire recommends, we take your faith in us seriously. Every product that we feature comes personally recommended by a Marie Claire writer or editor, or by an expert we’ve spoken to firsthand.