Some temples run small cafes on their own grounds, in old halls or on verandas that look onto the main hall or garden. After visiting the temple, sit down with matcha or coffee and a sweet and enjoy the quiet of the grounds. These cafes are spread across Japan and many open only a few days a week, so check before you go.
This cafe sits in the grounds of Shimabuji, the first of the 34 temples on the Chichibu pilgrimage route in Saitama, and its seats on the engawa, a wooden veranda, face the main hall. Rest here with matcha or another tea and a sweet, as pilgrims do on their way from temple to temple. It is closed on some weekdays, so check the cafe's page before you go.
Zengyoji, a temple in the hot-spring village of Unazuki in Toyama, near the start of the Kurobe Gorge Railway, has turned its members' hall into this small cafe. After praying at the main hall, sit down with coffee, black tea or amacha, a naturally sweet tea made from hydrangea leaves, along with a simple snack. It opens only a few afternoons a week, and even fewer in winter, so check the temple's page first.
A cafe with a calm, modern Japanese interior in a corner of the grounds of Gokurakuji temple. Its name, Sukhavati, is the Sanskrit word for the Buddhist Pure Land, called gokuraku in Japanese, which is also where the temple takes its name. Stop in for a drink or a sweet before or after your visit; it is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
This tea room is in Gankuin, an old hall moved into the grounds of Shinshoji, a Zen temple in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, whose grounds are laid out as a museum of Zen and gardens. Sit inside with sencha, Japanese green tea, or matcha and a sweet after walking through the gardens and buildings. Entry to the grounds needs an admission ticket, and the temple is a bus or taxi ride from Fukuyama Station.