Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Last updated: September 13, 2026
Shinjuku Gyoen is 58.3 hectares of calm in the middle of Tokyo, where three garden traditions meet: an English landscape garden of great trees and open lawns, a French formal garden ranged around rose beds and avenues of plane trees, and a traditional Japanese strolling garden built for quiet. Its ten thousand trees run the full year — a thousand cherries of about 65 varieties in spring, deep summer green, a blaze of autumn foliage, serene winter bareness — with historic buildings dotted among them and cafes and a gift shop of season-inspired sweets to close the loop, all ten minutes on foot from Shinjuku Station.
Itinerary
- Stop at: Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Frequently Asked Questions
There isn't a wrong one — that's the garden's design. Spring is the headline act, when about a thousand cherry trees of some 65 varieties bloom in waves rather than all at once, stretching the season; summer turns everything deep green, autumn sets the maples and plane avenues alight, and winter strips the landscape garden back to its bones.
It's about a ten-minute walk from the South Exit of Shinjuku Station. The garden has three gates — Shinjuku Gate is the main one and nearest the station, Okido Gate sits by the greenhouse, and Sendagaya Gate opens near the cherry trees and Maple Hill, handy if you're coming from the Sendagaya side.
A scatter of historic buildings that let you read the garden's imperial past as you stroll, plus restaurants and cafes for a pause among the trees. The gift shop is worth the stop on the way out — seasonal sweets inspired by whatever the garden is doing that month, and Japanese-designed souvenirs.