Shinjuku Gyoen

Shinjuku Gyoen (新宿御苑)

We visited Shinjuku Gyoen twice during our trip because it was such a lovely park. The park is divided into three distinctive gardens: 1) Japanese Traditional; 2) French Formal; and 3) English Landscape. All three are wonderful on their own. There is also a greenhouse with over 1,000 tropical/subtropical plant species. The park is very spacious and it can easily take a whole morning/afternoon to explore all the grounds. There are also a few large open lawn areas to sit down and relax (we even took a nap!). During the cherry blossom season, you will see many locals gather and picnic under the cherry blossoms.

End of March is still a bit early for cherry blossoms as early April is the typical peak season. Nevertheless, we got to enjoy some early bloomers in Shinjuku Gyoen. The once-royal park has about 1,300 cherry trees vs. the other two popular spots, Ueno Park ~1,200 and Meguro River ~800. We visited all those 3 spots during our visit - our favorite was hands down Shinjuku Gyoen, which had about half of the cherry trees in blossoms at the time while most trees in Ueno or along Meguro River were still bare.

Bring a picnic blanket when you visit. We found a jumbo-size straw mat for under 500 yen (~$5) in a Family Mart (a local convenience chain store). It was a perfect disposable picnic/nap blanket for parks.

In search of the cherry trees in bloom in the beautiful Gyoen Garden! 🌸

Pretty foliage in the park ... wish I had taken more photos!