Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Shinjuku Gyoen is the great green lung of west Tokyo, a 58-hectare garden that begins just south of the skyscrapers and neon of Shinjuku and feels a world away from them. The land was the Edo-period estate of the Naito family, feudal lords whose mansion stood here, and it became an imperial garden in 1906, laid out by Japanese and French designers as a showcase of the Meiji era's international outlook. Destroyed in the war and rebuilt, it opened to the public in 1949 and is now run as a national garden by the Ministry of the Environment. Its genius is variety. The Japanese traditional garden, around a chain of ponds, has stone lanterns, pruned pines, teahouses and the Kyu-Goryotei, or Taiwan Pavilion, built in 1927 to commemorate the wedding of the future Emperor Showa and framed by maples in autumn. The French formal garden is laid out with rose beds and avenues of plane trees, and the English landscape garden opens into broad lawns perfect for picnics. A modern greenhouse holds tropical and rare plants, including endangered species from Japan's southern islands. Around nine hundred cherry trees of roughly seventy varieties bloom in waves from early March to late April, making this one of the best and longest cherry-blossom seasons in the city, and the autumn leaves peak in late November and early December. Each November the garden hosts its traditional chrysanthemum exhibition, an imperial-style display of meticulously trained blooms. Admission is a few hundred yen for adults, free for children of junior-high age and under, and alcohol is not allowed, which keeps the blossom season calmer than in other parks.

Why choose Shinjuku Gyoen over Tokyo's free parks? Because the small fee, the ban on alcohol and the closing times make it one of the most peaceful green spaces in a city where the free parks can feel crowded and rowdy in blossom season. It is ideal for a slow morning or a picnic break between the shopping and towers of Shinjuku, and a natural pairing with the evening at Omoide Yokocho and Golden Gai. The trade-off is that the gates close in the late afternoon, earlier in winter, and the garden is closed on Mondays (or the next weekday after a Monday holiday) except during the cherry-blossom season and the first half of November, when it opens daily.

A good route enters at the Shinjuku Gate, crosses the English lawns for the long view toward the NTT Docomo tower, which rises over the trees like a clock tower, loops through the French garden's plane-tree avenues and finishes in the Japanese garden at the Taiwan Pavilion. Allow an hour and a half for a relaxed walk, longer with a picnic or the greenhouse. In cherry-blossom season, arrive at opening on a weekday, expect a security check at the gates, and note that the late-blooming double-flowered varieties extend the season into April, after most of Tokyo's trees have finished.

There are three gates: the Shinjuku Gate, about ten minutes from the south exit of Shinjuku Station and five minutes from Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station on the Marunouchi Line; the Okido Gate on the west side; and the Sendagaya Gate near JR Sendagaya Station. Online tickets can save time on peak days. There are cafes and a restaurant inside, but bringing your own lunch is part of the local tradition. Department-store food halls at Shinjuku Station, such as those in Isetan and Takashimaya, are the place to assemble a bento picnic on the way in. Strollers and wheelchairs manage the main paths easily, and the restrooms are clean and plentiful, which makes the garden one of the most comfortable family stops in central Tokyo. In heavy rain, the greenhouse and the covered rest areas keep a visit worthwhile.