Hibiya Park

Hibiya Park in Chiyoda opened in 1903 as Tokyo's first Western-style public park, covering 16 hectares between the Imperial Palace and Ginza. The site had served as a military parade ground and earlier still as a daimyo residence on the outer moat of Edo Castle. Landscape architect Honda Seiroku blended Japanese stone lanterns with German flower beds, fountains and a rose garden – a deliberate symbol of Meiji-era opening to the West. In 1905 the park hosted the Hibiya riots against the Treaty of Portsmouth. Today office workers eat bento by the great cascade fountain, koi flash in the Tsuru-no-Funsui pool, and lunchtime concerts fill the open-air bandshell. Autumn brings golden ginkgos and the ancient Kuze pine still spreads its limbs across the lawn.