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Shinjuku Gyoen National GardenShinjuku Gyoen National GardenShinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Photo: Basile Morin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Garden · ShinjukuWeb-checked · Aug ’26

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

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A former imperial garden of 58 hectares, holding three garden styles in one plan.

Strollers are welcome right onto the landscape garden's lawn.

MoreWhat kind of place

This ground held a feudal lord's mansion in the Edo period, then a government agricultural experiment station after the Meiji Restoration, and in 1906 it became a garden of the imperial household.

It served as a palace garden for international diplomacy until 1949, when it opened to the public as a national garden, meaning a garden the state runs.

Inside its 58.3 hectares (144 acres) a French landscape architect fitted three gardens into one plan: a European landscape garden, a formal garden, and a Japanese garden around a pond that was once a duck-hunting ground.

With kidsThe part that matters

You can push the stroller straight off the path and onto the lawn here, because the park's accessibility map says the grass takes strollers and wheelchairs as they are.

Ball games are out everywhere except Kids' Square, where children through elementary school may use a soft rubber ball or a jump rope, and coming in at Sendagaya Gate rather than the other two open gates puts you closest to it.

Changing tables are at 18 spots including the men's restrooms, so either parent can handle a change, and the restaurant will heat water for formula, since the nursing rooms have none.

The paths around the Japanese garden and the formal garden are gravel, so keep to the paved paths and the lawn if you want the wheels to roll.

Cherry blossom season gets extremely crowded and the park may switch to advance booking on weekends and holidays, so buy the web ticket ahead and you go through the gate with the QR code on your phone.

Sources and evidence (6)
  • Walking minutes between stops, which is what you need when the stroller sets the pace.sourceParents' visit reports · 2026
  • Run by the garden itself: no hot water in the rooms — ask the restaurant for formula water.sourceParents' visit reports · 2026
  • Written by the garden in August 2026, so the shops and the seasonal menus are current.sourceParents' visit reports · 2026
  • The garden's own account names all four and says to use them against the heat — under a roof, no charge.sourceParents' visit reports · 2026
  • The Sendagaya gate is nearest the children's playground; it says which station suits which gate.sourceParents' visit reports · 2023
  • Reissued through the year; the map means a short walk to one thing rather than a full lap.sourceParents' visit reports · 2026
By age0-1 / 2-3 / 4-6
  • Ages 0-1The landscape garden is all broad lawn and huge trees left to grow as they please. The official universal design map states that wheelchairs and strollers may go onto the grass itself, so you can wheel the stroller straight out onto the lawn. At the center of the sight line running straight in from the Shinjuku Gate stands the garden's symbol tree, a tulip tree over 30 meters tall.There are four nursing rooms in the garden (behind the Yurinoki restaurant, at the back of the women's restroom by the greenhouse, beside Starbucks, and in the Shinjuku Gyoen Museum), and only women may use them. The one beside Starbucks has two nursing spaces and three baby seats with heating and cooling; the greenhouse one takes one person at a time. There is no hot water in the nursing rooms, but the restaurant will provide hot water for formula. Diaper changing tables are in 18 places including the men's restrooms, and bins for disposable diapers are provided. The unisex multipurpose restrooms can be entered with the stroller. Note that the paths around the formal garden and the Japanese garden are gravel and unpaved.
  • Ages 2-3Haha to Ko no Mori, the Mother and Child Forest, is a nature observation field created in 1985 so that children living in the city could enjoy contact with nature, among everyday trees, wildflowers and insects; the Ministry of the Environment's map calls it a satoyama woodland where many plants and animals live. At the Children's Square, children of elementary school age and under may use soft toys that pose no danger to others, such as rubber balls for small children and skipping ropes.The Children's Square sits south of the middle of the garden (south of Naka-no-ike pond, southeast of the Kyu-Goryotei, northwest of the Sendagaya rest house), and the Sendagaya Gate is the closest gate to it. Insect nets and insect cages may not be brought in, so any insect you find is watched where it is. Tricycles, balance bikes, bicycles and unicycles may not be brought in either. From May 7 to October 31 a kids' tent against heatstroke (sides no longer than 150 cm) may be pitched, but only at the Children's Square. Playing in the pond or the moat is not allowed. There are water refill stations, so you can top up a water bottle.
  • Ages 4-6Within 58.3 hectares and a 3.5-kilometer perimeter, a European landscape garden, a formal garden and a Japanese garden are combined, so a child can walk from one to the next and compare them. The formal garden centers on a rose bed of about 100 varieties and 500 plants, with about 140 plane trees set symmetrically in four rows. The greenhouse grows about 2,700 species, mainly tropical and subtropical plants. The signposts carry location numbers (N1, E1, W1, S1 and so on), so a child can work out where they are in the large grounds.Running is allowed only on the designated course, and not during the cherry blossom season (which includes the special opening period from March 25 to April 24). Climbing the trees, feeding the animals and picking plants are also prohibited. Three gates are in use, Shinjuku, Okido and Sendagaya (the Main Gate is closed), and Sendagaya is the closest to the Children's Square. Coin lockers stand on the inner side of each ticket office; the large size is 41 cm wide, 81 cm high and 48 cm deep. The cherry blossom season is very crowded and the garden may move to advance reservations, mainly on weekends and holidays. It is closed on Mondays (the next weekday if Monday is a holiday), and admission is free for junior high school age and under.
By weatherRain, heat, cold
  • Rainy dayYou walk a garden of 58.3 hectares with a 3.5 km perimeter, taking in the landscape garden, the formal garden, and the Japanese garden. The glass greenhouse is indoors, growing about 2,700 kinds of mostly tropical and subtropical plants.
  • Hot dayNot checked yet
  • Cold dayNot checked yet
Family checks
Tap a mark for details
* Other not checked (7)

Steps & slope caution, Kids' toilet seat & step stool, Microwave, Child switch (rider swap), Indoor / outdoor, Lost-child support, Official family-friendly certification

Green = we confirmed it. Gray = not checked yet. Gray with a line through = the place does not have it.

Where to go next

Where it is

11 Naito-machi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0014, Japansource2

Before you go

More notes (8)
  • The landscape garden is all easy, open lawn and huge trees left to grow as they liked. At the center of the sightline that runs straight from Shinjuku Gate to the formal garden stands the park's signature tulip tree, more than 30 meters (100 feet) tall.source2026-08-08
  • The Mother and Child Forest was created in 1985 as a nature observation field, so that children growing up in the city could spend time close to nature and grow curious about it. Everyday trees, wildflowers, and insects are all within reach. The Ministry of the Environment map describes it as a satoyama woodland, the kind of country woods that grows up alongside farms and villages, where a range of plants and animals live.source2026-08-08
  • The Japanese garden is a stroll garden around a large pond, meant to be taken in a piece at a time as you walk around it. It was originally made as a duck-hunting ground and rebuilt as a Japanese garden in the early Showa years. In November it hosts the chrysanthemum display connected with the imperial family.source2026-08-08
  • The greenhouse goes back to a glass house built in 1875, and in 2012 it became an environmentally designed greenhouse for preserving and displaying endangered species. It grows about 2,700 species, mostly tropical and subtropical plants.source2026-08-08
  • The formal garden is built around a rose bed of about 500 plants in some 100 varieties, with about 140 plane trees set symmetrically in four rows.source2026-08-08
  • At Kids' Square, children through elementary school may use toys that put no one else at risk, such as a soft rubber ball or a jump rope. Hard balls like soccer balls, baseball gear, skateboards, and radio-controlled toys are out even there. A kids' tent for keeping small children from overheating, with no side longer than 150 cm (about 5 feet), is allowed from May 7 to October 31, but only pitched at Kids' Square. The square sits in the center-south of the park, south of the Naka-no-ike pond, southeast of the old Gyoryotei and northwest of the Sendagaya rest house, and Sendagaya Gate is the nearest entrance.source2026-08-08
  • What the park rules keep out: alcohol; bicycles, balance bikes, tricycles, and unicycles; carts or trolleys that take up 5,000 square centimeters (about 5.4 square feet) or more in use; insect nets and bug cages; animals other than service dogs; plants, household trash, and drones. What you may not do: light fires or use portable gas stoves, which rules out cooking; smoke anything, e-cigarettes included, as the whole park is nonsmoking; swim or play in the ponds and moats; occupy one bench or patch of lawn for a long stretch; use anything that makes a loud noise; climb the trees, feed animals, or pick plants. Running is limited to the designated courses, not allowed in groups of 10 or more, and off entirely during cherry blossom season, which includes the special opening period from March 25 to April 24.source2026-08-08
  • From the Ministry of the Environment's universal design map: the legend covers free wi-fi and refill taps where you can fill your own bottle, and it includes a baby chair icon. Direction signs carry location numbers (N1, E1, W1, S1 and so on) so you can place yourself in a park this large. The map's recommended legend has a category of its own for spots parents and children can enjoy together. The Information Center, holding the help desk, an art gallery, and a cafe space, is outside the entry gates.source2026-08-08

Basics

Basics in detail (9)
other
  • Alcohol may not be brought in. Ball games are prohibited as a rule, and Kids' Square is the one exception, where children through elementary school may use a soft rubber ball, a jump rope, and the like.source2026-08-08
  • The park opens at 9 a.m. year-round, and closing time moves with the season: 4:30 p.m. from October 1 to March 14 (last entry 4 p.m.), 6 p.m. from March 15 to June 10 and from August 1 to September 30 (last entry 5:30 p.m.), and 7 p.m. from June 11 to July 31 (last entry 6:30 p.m.). The greenhouse opens at 9:30 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m., 5:30 p.m., or 6:30 p.m. to match the season, with last entry 30 minutes before. The park closes every Monday, or the next weekday when Monday falls on a holiday, and from December 29 to January 3. During the special opening periods, spring from March 25 to April 24 and fall from November 1 to 15, it stays open throughout.source2026-08-18
  • Admission is 500 yen general, 250 yen for ages 65 and over, 250 yen for students from high school up, and free for children through junior high. Groups of 30 or more pay 400 yen general, 250 yen for 65 and over, and 250 yen for students, and children are not counted toward the group number. Holders of a physical disability, therapy, or mental health welfare certificate enter free along with one helper, showing the certificate at a staffed window. Service dogs are admitted. The annual pass is 2,000 yen general and 1,000 yen for high school students, valid one year from the date of issue, with the high school version ending on March 31 after graduation even if that falls within the year.source2026-08-18
  • With an advance web ticket you hold the QR code on your phone up to the reader at the Shinjuku, Okido, or Sendagaya entry gate, and the ticket is valid within six months of purchase. Same-day tickets come from the machines at those three gates, which take cash, credit cards, electronic money, transit IC cards, and code payments. If you pay right at the entry gate instead, only transit IC cards work. The group discount for 30 or more needs no advance application. The official notice adds that cherry blossom season gets extremely crowded and the park may move to advance booking, mainly on weekends and public holidays.source2026-08-18
  • 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., last entry 5:30 p.m. The greenhouse closes at 5:30 p.m., last entry 5 p.m.source2026-08-08
  • 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., last entry 6:30 p.m. The greenhouse closes at 6:30 p.m., last entry 6 p.m.source2026-08-08
  • 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., last entry 4 p.m. The greenhouse closes at 4 p.m., last entry 3:30 p.m.source2026-08-08
  • During the special opening periods the park runs every day, Mondays included: spring for the cherry blossoms, fall for the chrysanthemum display.source2026-08-08
  • In this period a kids' tent for keeping small children from overheating, with no side longer than 150 cm (about 5 feet), may be used, but only pitched at Kids' Square. The dates are set with the heatstroke alert season and similar factors in mind.source2026-08-08

Once you've decided

See places nearby

This former imperial garden spreads broad lawns and great old trees across a huge stretch of Shinjuku. Landscape, formal and Japanese gardens share a plan drawn by a French designer in the Meiji era. The garden's own map welcomes strollers onto the landscape garden's lawn and marks spots for parents with children. Mother and Child Woods, a forest made for city children, puts insects and wildflowers within reach. Down the straight lawn from the Shinjuku Gate rises the garden's symbol, a tulip tree over thirty meters tall.

Stroller friendlyYesThe official universal-design map says of the landscape garden that you can stay on the lawn with a wheelchair or a stroller, so you can take a stroller onto the grass. The unisex accessible toilets also say you can go in together with a stroller. Strollers are not on the list of things you cannot bring in — the vehicles on that list are bicycles, balance bikes, tricycles and unicycles, plus any trolley or cart needing 5,000 square centimeters or more of floor space. The paths around the formal garden and the Japanese garden, though, are gravel and unpavedWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26policies.env.go.jpfng.or.jppolicies.env.go.jp
Diaper changing tableYes (18)Eighteen places, in the toilets around the garden and in the nursing rooms. Fathers can use them too: there are changing tables in the men's toilets — two each in the men's and women's at the Shinjuku Gate and behind the restaurant, two women's and one men's beside the Starbucks, and one each beside Shotentei, at Gotenyama, at the Okido Gate and at the parking lot — and also inside the unisex accessible toilets. At the Information Center there is one, in the women's toilet onlyWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26fng.or.jp
Diaper disposal binYesThe garden says it has bins for disposable diapersWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26fng.or.jp
Nursing spaceYes (4)Four places in the garden: behind the restaurant Yurinoki, in the women's toilet at the greenhouse, beside the Starbucks and at the Shinjuku Gyoen Museum. Only women may use them. The space beside the Starbucks has two rooms and three changing tables, and the museum has one room and one changing table; both are heated and air-conditioned. The greenhouse space takes one person. There is no hot-water supply in the nursing rooms — for formula, the restaurant helpsWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26fng.or.jp
Fathers welcomeNoOnly women may use the nursing rooms, so a father cannot go in. Diaper changing is a different matter — there are changing tables in the men's toilets and in the unisex accessible toiletsWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26fng.or.jpfng.or.jp
Hot water for formulaYesHot water for formula is handled at the restaurant. There is no hot-water supply inside the nursing roomsWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26fng.or.jp
Family restroomYes (17)Seventeen wheelchair-accessible (multipurpose) toilets in the garden. Counted separately, fourteen places have a baby-keep seat for holding your child — this is the seat the official map marks with a baby-chair icon. Where they are: inside the unisex accessible toilets at the greenhouse, the Okido Gate, the Sendagaya rest house, beside the Starbucks, around the Japanese garden, at Gotenyama and at the Shinjuku Gyoen Museum (two there); in the men's and women's cubicles at the Shinjuku Gate, Mori-no-ie, behind the restaurant, around the Japanese garden, beside Shotentei, at the central rest house, beside the Starbucks, at the greenhouse, at Gotenyama and at the Okido Gate; and in the women's toilet only at the Information Center, the Sendagaya rest house and the Kyu-Goryotei. The unisex ones say you can go in together with a stroller. Those at the Shinjuku Gate, behind the restaurant and at the parking lot are separate for men and women; elsewhere they are unisex. At the central rest house, beside the Kyu-Goryotei, at the museum and at the Okido Gate there are two rooms. The handrail beside the toilet is the movable type, and its shape differs from place to placeWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26fng.or.jpfng.or.jp
Non-smokingCompletely non-smokingThe whole garden is non-smoking, electronic cigarettes included, and that covers the walking paths and the parking lotWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26policies.env.go.jp
Outside food allowedNot checked yet
Steps & slope cautionNot checked yet
Stroller rentalNot checked yet
Kids' toilet seat & step stoolNot checked yet
ElevatorNot checked yet
MicrowaveNot checked yet
Child switch (rider swap)Not checked yet
English supportNot checked yet
Indoor / outdoorNot checked yet
Crowding (guide)Extra info — guide onlyYesThe garden itself says the cherry-blossom season is very crowded, and that it may move to advance booking then, mainly on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidaysWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26policies.env.go.jp
Stroller access notesExtra info — guide onlyYesPaved paths take a stroller and you may go onto the lawn, but the paths around the formal garden and the Japanese garden are gravel and unpaved. The official map marks steep slopes as places where a wheelchair user may need help, and says plainly that at the greenhouse a wheelchair user does need help. Three gates are in use — Shinjuku, Okido and Sendagaya (the Main Gate is closed) — and Sendagaya is the nearest one to Kodomo Hiroba, the children's field. Coin lockers are inside the gates, past each ticket window, and the large size is 41cm wide, 81cm high and 48cm deep, with an opening 36cm wide and 77cm high. The Information Center — an information counter, an art gallery and a café space — is outside the entry gates, and its café, NATIONAL PARKS CAFÉ Under the Tree, is listed by the garden as a café, shop and free rest area. Whether you need an admission ticket to use it is not stated anywhere official, so treat that as unconfirmedWeb-checkedchecked Aug ’26policies.env.go.jpfng.or.jppolicies.env.go.jpfng.or.jp
Lost-child supportExtra info — guide onlyNot checked yet
Official family-friendly certificationExtra info — guide onlyNot checked yet

Information changes — check the dates above.

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