Nikko Botanical Garden is a vast botanical garden located in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture. With its variety of plants, you can see different kinds of flowering trees blooming in different seasons.
About Nikko Botanical Garden
Nikko Botanical Garden is a facility affiliated with the Graduate School of The University of Tokyo established in the early 1900s. There are around 2,000 kinds of plants grown in its vast garden of over 100,000 ㎡. The garden recreates various environments such as forests, grass, ponds, streams, and wetlands, and looks like a miniature of the natural world. In addition to plants, you can also observe many wild birds such as the pheasant and lesser cuckoo.
Highlights of Nikko Botanical Garden
A wide variety of plants are cultivated in various places within Nikko Botanical Garden, especially plants typically found in the temperate to subarctic zones such as cherry blossoms, azaleas and maples. We would like to introduce the highlights and seasons that we recommend particularly.
Areas Arranged according to the Special Growth Environments
Within the Nikko Botanical Garden, you can also admire "Alpine" and "Wetland" plants that require a special growth environment. In order to grow plants in their natural condition, alpine plants are gathered in the "Rock Garden", and wetland plants are gathered in the "Bog Garden".
Cherry Blossoms of the Spring
Various kinds of cherry blossoms with different colors and shapes bloom in the spring. Species such as "Midori-zakura" (Cerasus incisa f. yamadei ) or "Kasumi-zakura" (C. leveilleana ) with their beautiful whites,"Yama-zakura" (C. jamasakura ) or "Oyama-zakura" (C. sargentii ) where the flowers and leaves bloom simultaneously, and "Ito-zakura" (C. spachiana ‘Pendula’) with its softly drooping branches, "Uwamizu-zakura" (Padus grayana ) where the flowers bloom in tufts, and more, are found in the garden. It can be fun to admire the differences between each variety.
The Scenery of the Autumn Leaves
Many species of maple are also raised in the park. In the fall, red and yellow leaves color the entire park. In particular, the scenery of the falling leaves reflecting on the surface of the pond, as well as colored leaves covering the ground are beautiful sights.
Operating Hours and Admission Fee
Nikko Botanical Garden is open from mid April to the end of November and closed during the winter. Business hours are from 09:00 am to 6:30 pm, and closed on Mondays.
Admission fee is 400 yen for adults. (As of May 2019)
Access to Nikko Botanical Garden
The nearest station to Nikko Botanical Garden is "JR Nikko Station" or "Tobu Nikko Station". It takes about 10 minutes to get to Nikko Botanical Garden Bus Stop by taking a Tobu bus from either station. It is a 2-minute walk from the bus stop to the entrance of Nikko Botanical Garden.
Spot information
- Spot name: Nikko Botanical Garden
- Street address: 1842 Hanaishicho Nikko, Tochigi 321-1435
- Access: About 10 minutes by bus from JR Nikko Station or Tobu Nikko Station to Nikko Botanical Garden Bus Stop. About 2 minutes on foot from the bus stop
- Wi-Fi: unavailable
- Language: Japanese, English
- Ticket Purchase: At entrance
- Credit cards: No credit cards accepted
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