Institute for Nature Study, National Museum of Nature and Science

The Shizen Kyoiku-en in Shirokanedai, Minato ward, is a deliberately under-managed remnant of the Musashino forest landscape that once covered the Tokyo plain. The 20-hectare site belonged in the Edo era to a daimyo's city estate, served as military ground in the Meiji period and was attached in 1949 to the National Museum of Nature and Science as a conservation and research reserve. The administration caps daily visitors at 300 and avoids any gardening, so you can observe old oaks, marsh ponds and endemic bird species as they shaped the Kanto plain before urbanization. A botanical counterweight to dense southern Tokyo.