Jindai Botanical Garden
Jindai Botanical Garden in Chofu City is the Tokyo area's biggest and most beautiful expanse of flowers and trees, native and exotic, with something spectacular to be seen at all times of the year.
- Jindai Botanical Garden Overview
- History
- Features on the Keio Line
- Free Areas
- Hours & Admission
- Access
- Tokyo Parks & Gardens
Jindai Botanical Garden 神代植物公園
Jindai Botanical Garden is a world-class 42 hectare (105 acre) garden in Chofu City, in the west of Tokyo, that offers seasonal beauty all year round. Jindai Botanical Garden is Tokyo's main botanical garden, being the only one operated by Tokyo Metropolis. It has the biggest rose garden in Tokyo, and is famous too for its plum and cherry trees, which blossom in spring. The Garden includes adjacent free-entry facilities like an aquatic plant area and a plant information center.
Jindai Botanical Gardens are creatively designed, immaculately maintained, and are well worth the trip from Tokyo, together with a visit to the neighboring Jindaiji Temple, Tokyo's second oldest.
Tulip Garden, Jindai Botanical Garden
Jindai Botanical Garden History
Jindai Botanical Garden became a public botanical garden in 1961. Its botanical connections go back to before the Second World War when it was a nursery for trees to line the streets of Tokyo, and then, after the war, when it became the Jindai Green Zone.
Jindai Botanical Garden occupies the Musashino Plain, a huge fluvial terrace formed of the old alluvial fan of the Tama River, and that makes up most of western Tokyo. One section of the Garden preserves some of forest that typified the Musashino Plain in pre-modern times.
Main Gate of Jindai Botanical Garden
Pond at Jindai Botanical Garden
Jindai Botanical Garden Features
Jindai Botanical Garden has thirty different areas, each featuring a particular type of flora. They include the following gardens.
Azaleas: The Garden's azalea bushes are near the main gate, beside the pond, and are a riot of super-vivid pinks, whites, and reds.
Rose Garden: This symmetrically laid-out sunken garden with over 400 varieties of rose is further on from the azalea garden, turning right after entering the main gate. The Rose Garden blooms in spring (late May) and autumn (mid October).
Greenhouse: Next to the Rose Garden, by the outer edge of the premises, the Greenhouse is home to tropical and sub-tropical species that can be enjoyed all year round.
Natural Woods: The Natural Woods are on the other side of the Rose Garden from the Greenhouse, and feature the trees that grew on the Musashino Plain that the Gardens occupy before the advent of urbanization.
Lawn: A huge, neatly mown, round grassy field forms the center of the Gardens. In the middle of this relaxing natural space is a big clump of several decades-old pampas grass.
Blossoming Plum Tree, Jindai Botanical Garden
On the far side of the Lawn from the Main Gate is an area strewn with various pleasant groves and beds including the Garden's famous cherry trees, blooming from mid-March to mid-April; the Hama peach and Rose of Sharon garden; the dogwood garden; maple garden, bamboo field; Japanese apricot grove, also beautiful in spring; pomegranate garden, and more.
Maple Grove, Jindai Botanical Garden
Lawn with pampas grass, Jindai Botanical Garden, Chofu
Jindai Botanical Garden Free Areas
Jindai Botanical Garden has two areas that can be entered without an admission fee: the area south of the neighboring Jindaiji Temple, and the area just north of the Gardens proper.
Just south of Jindaiji Temple is a fairly sizable area that is mostly wooded, with a path through the trees, but which also has an aquatic plant garden as well as a paddy field. This area adjoins Jindaiji Temple and has the remains of Jindaiji Castle: just a few rather unspectacular stones. This area is accessible from the east gate of Jindai Botanical Garden.
Immediately north of the pay-for Garden is an area almost two-thirds the size of the main Garden that has the Center for Plant Diversity, a parking lot, a cultivation room, a free-use field, and a gymnasium (operated by Chofu City).
The Center for Plant Diversity has an indoor exhibition space with plants on display and interactive learning materials (Japanese language only), as well as an outdoor area with examples of plant life from different regions of Japan. Hours: 9:30am - 5pm, free entry. Closed Mondays, except when Monday is a holiday, in which case open on Monday and closed the next day. Closed December 29 - January 1. Tel. 042-485-1210
Fountain, Jindai Botanical Garden
Jindai Botanical Garden Hours & Admission
Jindai Botanical Garden hours: 9:30am - 5 pm (last entry 4pm). Closed Monday (except when Monday is a national holiday, when the Gardens are open, but closed the next day). Closed December 29 - January 1.
Admission: 500 yen for adults, 250 yen for children.
Access to Jindai Botanical Garden
From Chofu Station
Chofu Station, on the Keio Line, is the closest station to Jindai Botanical Garden. From Shinjuku Station to Chofu takes about 15 minutes on a limited express (tokkyu) train.
There are buses from the North Gate of Chofu Station (Keio Line) to Jindai Botanical Garden. Go out the North Gate (Kita-Guchi) of Chofu Station and go to the bus stop in front of Parco Department Store. Keio Bus no.34 leaves from there about every 20 minutes. It is eleven stops to the Gardens.
Bus from Mitaka Station
Mitaka Station is the closest station to Jindai Botanical Garden on the JR Chuo Line. From Shinjuku to Miktaka takes about 18 minutes on the Chuo Line Rapid (kaisoku) train.
From Mitaka Station, go out the South Exit. Bus stop no.5 is just on your right, in front of the station. Take a no.56 Odakyu Bus from there bound for the North Exit of Chofu Station (調布駅北口) and alight at Jindai Shokubutsu Koen Mae (神代植物公園前) bus stop.
Or, go down the road diagonally to the right (there is an elevated pedestrian walkway you can take), to the second bus stop along: bus stop no.3. and take Odakyu bus no.65, to Jindai Shokubutsu Koen Mae (神代植物公園前).
Bus from Kichijoji Station
There are also buses from Kichijoji Station on the JR Chuo Line if you are already at Kichijoji Station.
From the South Exit (Park Exit) of Kichijoji Station, head down the alley in front of you to the main road (Inokashira-dori Avenue). On the other side of Inokashira-dori, to your right, is a line of bus stops. From bus stop nos. 4 and 6 an Odakyu Bus departs for the North Exit of Chofu Station (調布駅北口) with a stop at Jindai Shokubutsu Koen Mae (神代植物公園前). Also, from bus stop no.6, an Odakyu Bus departs for Jindai Temple (深大寺) with a stop at at Jindai Shokubutsu Koen Mae (神代植物公園前).