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| Shinjuku's skyscrapers as the backdrop in Gyoen National Gardens. |
Tokyo took us by surprise would probably be an understatement. As imaginable, a city this size certainly has something for everyone and that's probably one of the reasons people love it so much - well, that plus the fact that you can have 'everything'. The amount of gardens and greeneries being one of those things that surprised us; in almost any part of the town we could find a sizeable park, where you sort of just forget that you're in the middle of this vast metropolitan city. I guess the only thing that didn't come as a big surprise was that these green areas were all super neat and well taken care of.
One of the parks we really enjoyed was the Gyoen National Garden, located in Shinjuku and bordering Shibuya on the other end. There's a small fee to pay as it is the national garden, but it was definitely worth it! They've got all these different garden styles such as the traditional Japanese, the English and the French formal garden that makes the visit that much more interesting. Aside from those, it's just generally a calm and charming place to hang out in order to balance out the busy streets...
GYOEN NATIONAL GARDEN 新宿御苑
Another pretty elegant park can be found within Tokyo's Imperial Palace. Actually it's a big complex of gardens and buildings - really everything from the private residences of the Imperial family to museums. Don't expect the see the Emperor though, since the general public is not allowed to enter the inner palace grounds where he resides. Nevertheless, with or without the actual entering to any of the buildings, we thought it was a pleasant stroll through the flourishing greeneries.
TOKYO IMPERIAL PALACE 皇居
{All pictures © Voyages of Discovery}
Apparently these parks are even more enchanting during April when the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom...
(Current information about the park)
- Located in Shinjuku, close to subway station Shinjuku-gyoemmae or Shinjuku-sanchome.
! Find the Tokyo subway/ train map here.
(with all necessary information on how to use the subway etc.)
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