Viewing Exotic Plants in Winter?! Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden

Once you reach Hakodate, there is plenty to do as a traveler. If your interest is leaning more towards nature and plant life, a trip to the city's exotic botanical garden is a great and inexpensive activity.

Enjoy viewing rare tropical plants at the greenhouse within the botanical garden, where the turtles meet you at the entrance and fruit trees grace the surroundings with their beauty.

Experience Warm Temperatures in the Greenhouse

Hakodate is a city that is enjoyable in every season, but it does offer different experiences depending on the time of the year. If you travel in winter time, you can enjoy winter sports and the landscape covered in snow. If you come in spring or in summer, then you can fully enjoy outdoor activities.

An activity that can be very enjoyable in the winter is visiting the city’s tropical botanical garden. When you'll find yourself in the greenhouse, you'll surely appreciate you can escape the cold temperatures and get warm.

The Hakodate City Tropical Botanical Garden is a great place to spend an hour or more. During the winter season, a visit to the botanical garden is a good chance to take a break from the snow cold temperatures. Conveniently located outside the greenhouse, small foot hot springs (ashiyu) are available. Keeping your feet in the hot water of these springs can give you an extra boost when it's cold outside.

If you want to visit in spring or summer time, the botanical garden has surrounding water and summer activities you can enjoy. Let's now take a look at the greenhouse itself.

Enjoy Seeing Exotic Plants

Upon entering the greenhouse you will immediately notice the difference between the cold temperature outside and the humidity inside the greenhouse. The greenhouse is very spacious and the many plant and flower species it contains are arranged in categories. There are many kinds of cacti in different sizes, so are the flowers on display.

The greenhouse is arranged as a cozy pathway which you can stroll around as you watch the tropical plants from close. You will be impressed by their features exotic features.

In the greenhouse, there are also some turtles that enjoy their lives surrounded by the plants.

Because this botanical garden specializes in exotic plants, it contains a great variety of cacti and fruit trees, making this greenhouse a bit different from others around the city. Located in Hokkaido, the Hakodate City Tropical Botanical Garden takes pride in showcasing exclusive plant life that can usually be found only in the southern parts of Japan or abroad.

According to the garden staff itself, around 3000 plants are on display in the greenhouse at this time.

The facility also has an audience room with a small stage where various events and lectures are held every month. This room can also be taken advantage of as a room to take a rest in after some time spent viewing the plants.

Location and Surroundings of the Botanical Garden

Another great thing about the location of the botanical garden is that it's close to other famous sightseeing places. One of them is the hot spring enjoyed by the bathing monkeys, and anther one is the famous Yunokawa onsen -  a very popular spa in the city. In fact, all three of these destinations are connected to each other by being part of the hot spring and botanical garden complex, though they serve as individual sightseeings.

In Hakodate it is fairly easy to get from one sightseeing destination to another. If you have only a limited amount of time at your disposal, just by visiting this part of the city, you will be able to see many famous spots at one time.

How to Get to the Botanical Garden

The botanical garden can be easily accessed by taking the one line tram line from Hakodate Station to the stop “Yunokawa onsen”. The tram ride takes 30 minutes but will give you the chance to see many places around the city on the way. We recommend coming here in combination with other activities, such as a visit to the Yunokawa spa or to see the bathing monkeys.

Hakodate City Tropical Botanical Garden

042-0932 3-1-15 Yukawacho, Hakodate, Hokkaido

Approximately 3000 rare tropical flowers and trees of 300 species! You can enjoy the feeling of nature and eternal summer. The Japanese maca...