Tokyo is home to several immaculately kept and beautifully landscaped gardens. These are owned and maintained by the district wards, and each charge an entrance fee of a couple of hundred yen. Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is the largest and most famous, but gardens like Koishikawa Korakuen and Rikugien make up for in beauty what they lack in size. These gardens are separate to the parks of the capital, which are free to use and less restrictive on what you can do inside the park (e.g. drinking alcohol and cycling is allowed).

Hamarikyu Gardens

Famous garden that lies on land that was reclaimed in the late 17th century by Tokugawa Tsunashige, and was renovated and landscaped by his son Ienobu.
9:00-17:00
Adults ¥300, primary school children and younger can enter for free

Kiyosumi Gardens

Beautiful Japanese-style gardens around a large pond built on the site of a mansion owned by a wealthy merchant during the Edo period.
9:00-17:00 (last entry at 16:30)
Adults ¥150, 65 and over ¥70

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden

Dating back to the early 17th century, Koishikawa Korakuen is one of Tokyo’s most spectacular gardens. Designed by…
9:00-17:00
Adults ¥300, primary school children and younger can enter for free

Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden

Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden (旧芝離宮, Kyū Shiba Rikyū) was, like Rikugien and Koishikawa Korakuen, once a private garden of…
9am to 5pm
¥150, primary school children and younger can enter for free

Mukojima-Hyakkaen Gardens

Mukojima-Hyakkaen (向島百花園) was the idea of a wealthy antique dealer by the name of Sahara Kiku who wanted…
9:00-17:00 (last admission 16:30)
Adults ¥150, 65 and over ¥70

Rikugien Gardens

300 year old garden designed by Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and based on the “six tenets of poetry”.
9:00-17:00 (until 21:00 for the annual Light-Up)
¥300, free for primary school children and younger

Former Yasuda Garden

Garden with a pond in the shape of a heart that is filled directly with water from the Sumida River, and thus rises and falls with the river’s tide.
9:00-16:30
Free

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

One of the most famous gardens in central Tokyo covering an area of almost 60 hectares. It opened to the public in 1949 and today is home to three gardens (traditional Japanese, French formal, English landscape) and a rock-landscaped greenhouse.
9:00-16:30. Closed on Mondays (unless a public holiday).
Adults ¥500, students ¥250, children under 15 free.