Description:
One of the most beautiful Japanese gardens in Tokyo is in the grounds of the mammoth Hotel New Otani complex. This ten-acre Japanese garden has a history of over 400 years and surely must be the most expensive privately owned piece of greenbelt in all of Tokyo.
This garden has all the elements you would expect in a traditional Japanese garden: water features, stone lanterns, narrow walkways, steep stairs, bamboo fencing, carefully pruned trees, vermilion bridges, several ponds and streams, a famous horseshoe shaped waterfall, khoi and several places to sit down and relax. Narrow walkways lead to dead ends with surprising views – often of the same pond but offering a totally different perspective from the previous stop.
The garden is meticulously maintained, as befits a hotel of the New Otani’s prestigious image, and is a pleasure to stroll in during any season. It is always picturesque, even in the midst of winter (when some of the accompanying photos were taken). Somehow they always manage to have at least some flowers in bloom whatever the season.
There are a few small restaurants inside the garden but they are somewhat pricey and reservations are recommended. The teppanyaki restaurant has the best view and serves fixed dinner sets for yen 13,000 ($ 100 at current exchange rates), which is reasonable for this kind of meal in Tokyo.
Several restaurants inside the hotel offer fine views of the garden should you manage to secure a window seat. In fact it is difficult to see the raked gravel and rock garden from the garden itself unless you are fairly tall – the best views of this part of the garden is from restaurants in the Tower Building of the hotel complex.
The hotel does surprisingly little to guide people to the garden – it is marked on the maps but with little information where to enter it. However, any of the ample hotel personnel could point the way. The easiest way is through the Garden Court, the office and shopping part of the complex – the entrance is on the second level next to the modern wedding amphitheater. With a little bit of luck you can see a modern Japanese hotel wedding ceremony in progress (weekends are a good time to see this important money spinner for Japanese hotels!). The other entrance is from the banquet floor in the Main building.
Most of the garden is inaccessible to wheel chairs or stroller of any kind. Many of the stairs are even without handrails and not recommended for the infirm. However, the entrance from the Main building is level and would allow at least a limited view of some parts of the garden.
Entrance is free and the garden is open during daytime and partly at night.
The Hotel New Otani is a few minutes walk from either Akasaka-Mitsuke station (Ginza & Marunouchi lines) or Yotsuya station (Marunouchi, Namboku & JR Chuo lines).
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