Tokyo Gardens

by Philip Greenspun, 2000

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Everyone will tell you to visit the Hama Detached Palace Garden (Hama Rikyu). This is a vast garden on Tokyo Bay with a salt water pond, an attractive tea house, some flower beds, and a ferry terminal that will get you up the Sumida River to Asakusa. The whole place was burned by an American bombing raid on November 29, 1944. Personally I don't like the scale of Hama Rikyu and there aren't any Koi ponds.

Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden

Kyu Shiba Rikyu appears to be "right around the corner" from Hama Rikyu. In fact it is a 20-minute walk, enervating in the hot humid summer. This is an old garden with frisky Koi and a pleasant human scale, surrounded by towers and a train station that provide evidence of the contrast between Edo and modern Tokyo.

Koishikawa Korakuen garden

This is the 16-acre remnant of what was built from 1629 as a 64-acre garden. The garden took 30 years to build and required consultations from Zu Shu Shui, an exiled Chinese scholar. The center of the garden is a huge pond stocked with undistinguished Koi.

Getting there: Take the Maunouchi or Namboku lines to the Korakuen station. From there it is a 10-minute walk along an expressway to the gardens.

New Otani Hotel

The New Otani Hotel was built around an existing Edo-era stroll garden. The 400-year-old garden has been preserved and contains a wealth of beautiful koi.

Practical Details

Gardens are usually open from 9-5 every day. They'll sell refreshments and have a clean restroom. A typical entrance fee is $3 or $5. Restrictions on photography or tripod use are rare.