Shinjuku Gyoen

Background

Shinjuku Gyoen, also known as Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, lies in Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo. It covers 58.3 hectares with a circumference of 3.5 kilometres and has more than twenty thousand trees, including about 1500 cherry trees. The French formal and English landscape gardens are in the north and the traditional Japanese garden is in the south; the large greenhouse displays over a thousand kinds of tropical and subtropical plants all year round. The Kyu-Goryo-Tei (Taiwan Pavilion) is a pavilion in southern Chinese style, said to have been built in 1927 to mark the Showa Emperor's wedding; it survived the 1945 air raids. The garden also has the Meiji-era old Western-style rest house, said to have been built in 1896 and now a national Important Cultural Property — the two are different buildings. In the Edo period this was the residence of the Naito family. It became an imperial garden in 1906, opened to the public as a national garden on 21 May 1949, and is now managed by the Ministry of the Environment.

Local customs

• Cherry-blossom viewing in spring, from the weeping cherries of late March and the Somei-Yoshino of early April to the Kanzan cherries of late April
• the chrysanthemum exhibition in the first half of November
• seeing tropical plants in the large greenhouse and strolling by the tea house in the Japanese garden.

Travel tips

• There are three entrances: Shinjuku Gate, Okido Gate and Sendagaya Gate. The garden is normally closed on Mondays (or the following day when Monday is a public holiday), but opens every day during cherry-blossom season and the chrysanthemum exhibition
• advance booking is required on some cherry-blossom dates, so check official announcements before visiting.
• Take the Marunouchi Line to Shinjuku Gyoenmae Station or the Chuo-Sobu Line to Sendagaya Station, both within walking distance
• Shinjuku-sanchome Station on the Fukutoshin Line is about four minutes' walk from Exit C1. Spring cherry blossoms are the highlight
• autumn brings coloured leaves and the chrysanthemum exhibition
• in winter you can see plum blossoms and greenhouse plants.