After putting this off of my itinerary, I finally found time to visit Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden today. And I’m glad that I postponed it to a day when I had more free time, because the place is enormous! The last time I went here with my friends, we were in a rush. We arrived at around 3PM, then had to leave by the time the garden closed at 4PM! This time around, I spent around 4 hours exploring the entire area!

Getting there

Shinjuku Gyoen has three gates that you can enter from – Shinjuku, Okido and Sendagaya gates. On both visits, I went through the Shinjuku gate, alighting from Shinjuku-sanchome station. The park has an entrance fee of 200 JPY, which is unusual as most parks in Tokyo are free. However, upon entering, you will understand why they are collecting an entrance fee because of how well maintained the park is!

Take note that the park is open from 9AM to 4PM only so make sure you have enough time to explore. You’ll need more than an hour to cover the entire area, but you can also easily spend half a day or until closing time relaxing in this wonderful park!

Mother & Child’s Forest

Ready to explore, I took the path opposite where people are headed. While everyone was scrambling to get to the cherry blossoms, I went to the forest. Mother & Child’s Forest is a section of Shinjuku Gyoen that is basically just like a forest inside the city. There are big trees and signs that show animals/insects that live in the area (although I didn’t see any of them).  I spent a good 30-45 minutes walking around, taking all of the oxygen from the trees in, and getting scared of wild animals that may jump at me any minute. Of course, there are no such scary animals inside a park like this, but this place has the feeling of a real forest!

At this point, I got scared because I ended up somewhere off-beaten – there’s a walkway, but it’s not paved so I felt lost and scared that a bear may show up! Haha.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I am a scaredy cat. After this, I saw a sign leading back to the toilet at the entrance of the forest, and got out of there unscathed. I needed to pee, too!

Rakuu-Tei Tea House

My next stop is a tea house in the Japanese garden part of Shinjuku Gyoen. They serve green tea and a confection/wagashi for 700 JPY.  I wanted to go in, but a queue was forming inside, so I ended up just taking photos of the beautiful sakura right beside the tea house.

Japanese Garden

I hope I’m labeling the locations right. I should have brought home an English pamphlet with me so that I could provide you guys with more accurate information! Anyhow – Shinjuku Gyoen was the setting for the anime Garden of Words – and a lot of those scenes are taken from the views you can see in my photos below!

What makes a garden a Japanese garden? There are some key characteristics, like well-trimmed shrubs, ponds usually with koi swimming in them, small bridges over those ponds, a minimalistic feel – I’m no expert in landscape architecture, but you’ll know when you see one.

More Sakura!

After the Japanese Garden, I ended up at an area where there’s even more sakura! In terms of overall experience, I enjoyed the sakura in Shinjuku Gyoen better than Ueno park. This may be because the ratio of people to sakura tree is lower in Shinjuku Gyoen. You couldn’t really do hanami with alcohol in this park, so that could explain why there are fewer people here. You can really take your time with the trees, take as much pictures as you want or until you get tired of it. There are also rest areas spread across the park where you can buy refreshments, coffee (hot or cold), and snacks. If you have a book, or brought your earphones with you for some music, you’re set to chill!

The following photos will need no captions so just dumping it all here!

Shinjuku Gyoen also has a French garden, which I didn’t go to anymore because my feet are already very tired from walking all day. So, I’m squeezing in a photo of the trees from that garden, taken from afar!

Shinjuku Garden Greenhouse

I was on my way back to Shinjuku gate to exit the park when I chanced upon this modern glass structure to my right. At first, I thought it was a building outside of the park itself. Turns out, it is a greenhouse and it is part of Shinjuku Gyoen. It was getting really cold, and since there was no additional fee to get in the garden, I thought I could use the warmth from the greenhouse effect for myself!

I have become fascinated with plants lately – and chancing upon this greenhouse was a pleasant surprise for me. I saw a lot of plants I wanted to take home with me (of course, I couldn’t) – especially those small flowering plants that are so minimalistic! No specific captions for these, but I love them all!

The greenhouse also contains plants from the tropics, and some of these are familiar to me as they grew on my grandma’s backyard when I was a kid! It’s weird seeing them exhibited in a place like this!

There are also some interesting plants that deserve to be photographed.

There used to be an older greenhouse in the same park back in the day, just beside where the current greenhouse is. The imperial family put-up a rest house where they could stay in when they want to relax and observe the plants in the greenhouse. These are the photos of that house. Unfortunately, it’s closed to the public, so no photos from the inside. It looks haunted, to be honest! (Scaring myself again)

That concludes my almost 4 hour tour of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden! I recommend this place to anyone visiting Tokyo, most especially in the Spring and in Autumn (I saw a lot of maple trees as well)! Aside from those – there are other reasons to visit the place such as the Mother and Child’s Forest and the Greenhouse! You can also just chill in here, bring a mat, some food and (non-alcoholic drinks), a book maybe – do a picnic with friends, or just enjoy your alone time! Shinjuku Gyoen is worth the 200 JPY entrance fee!

Last stop: Kabuki-cho

After this, I played Pokemon Go which brought me all the way to Shinjuku Station and the Kabuki-cho area. I then had Ichiran Ramen for dinner. I have accepted that I will not be able to do Keto until I return to the Philippines!

 

Right around the corner is Kabuki-cho’s most famous landmark – the Godzilla Head of Toho Cinema! I love how Japan is just so random. Coming from the serene and calm Shinjuku Gyoen to a crazy area like Kabuki-cho – they’re opposite but they’re both very Japanese! This is why Japan is so interesting!

That’s all for now! I didn’t expect a full day, but it turned out that way! Two more days before I fly back to the Philippines!