29 October 2025
Stop and smell the roses
Jindai botanical gardens
Rest day today, to celebrate I went to one of the rose gardens of Japan, and it was in full bloom, signs told me so from miles around.
Getting there was a challenge if you are bus phobic. The garden is far from any train, and so my journey started at Chofu station on the Keio line and ended in Mitaka on the Chuo rapid line. The garden is somewhere in between. It is about 23,000 steps including a lap of the garden.
The garden itself is mainly about the roses, the other parts were mainly weeds or dead. The entry fee is about $5 and since they take credit card, that seems perfectly reasonable.
The staff seemed extremely thrilled to see me, chased me around with various brochures, then chased me again with a QR code for a survey which they absolutely pleaded with me to fill out, prayer hands, bowing, everything. I have not filled it out yet.
The Chofu station area is vast and under re construction.
There is a shopping street of sorts, uncovered.
The nearby temple had good toilets.
The first part of the garden is over the road from the main shrine and main garden. It focuses on aquatic plants, and or weeds. Parts of the decking seemed like a law suit waiting to happen, it was making cracking noises while I was walking on it.
The approach to the main temple/shrine featured many ice cream shops. I checked google maps, Jindaiji temple.
Here is the main temple. There is construction going on all around me but I expertly framed the shot to hide it.
The way to the main garden is to climb up over the back of the main temple, nice view.
Before heading to the rose garden, I first took in the plum grove. It is clearly at its peak, dead and twiggy.
Behold, the rose garden of Japan. It was impressive.
There are maps explaining where to see every kind of rose, and a rose garden annex with new varieties with names yet to be ratified by the world rose organisation. The committee meets every 5 years in April in Bucharest, the last meeting was suspended without any names being agreed following protests from the Albanians. Nice sky.
Here is some more of the rose garden, with grass.
Inside that impressive building were the usual cacti and tropical plants, and whatever these are.
You can also take in the lilies in their concrete troughs.
Most Japanese gardens have an area where grandmas who have stolen plants from the garden and placed them in pots can then sell them to the public. The authorities round them up every few days, some get deported.
There is also an area with lilies not in concrete troughs.
After leaving the park, I continued north, and in about 90 minutes, arrived at Mitaka. The special rapid train stops here so it must be a sizeable area. The station is elevated, so please enjoy the view.
The Mitaka station itself is large and busy, not that you can tell from this photo. So that was my day auditing the roses. Everything seems above board.