What to Do at Manabe Garden 真鍋庭園でできること

Manabe Garden has many different environments to explore: the Japanese Garden and carp pond, Rugosa Rose Hill, pine forest, Monster Garden, and an eight-meter waterfall and trout pond. The card pond is filled with nishikigoi (brocade carp). Visitors can feed these vividly hued fish. Hokkaido Ezo squirrels inhabit the Forest Floor Garden, where they have their own play apparatus.

Two buildings in the Japanese Garden are noteworthy. One is known as Shinshokaku. This building was in Obihiro before being dismantled and brought to Manabe Garden in 1962. Crown Prince Yoshihito (later Emperor Taisho, 1879-1926) once stayed there when he visited the town. The nearby tearoom was also originally part of Shinshokaku.

The café serves coffee, tea, homemade cakes and food. You may sit indoors or outdoors, and even carry your food elsewhere in the garden for a private picnic.

Manabe Garden provides free umbrellas and rain boots for guests, so visitors never need to worry about touring the garden in the rain or getting wet from dew. The main path is designed for universal accessibility, and much of the garden is wheelchair friendly.

Explore an Experiment in Life

Manabe Garden is a living laboratory and showroom of flora featuring examples of Japanese, Western, and natural landscape gardens. These different green environments are made for wandering through, and will have special appeal for anyone who grows or just loves plants.

Conifer Backdrop

Japan’s first and largest conifer garden features hundreds of conifers, particularly spruce. Many of the trees are from cold regions in North America that are hardy enough to grow in Hokkaido. These evergreens create a soaring and verdant canvas for all the other flowering and seasonal plants to paint on throughout the year.

Carp, Monsters and Roses

The focal point of the Japanese Garden is a pond filled with carp (nishikigoi). Visitors can feed the fish and observe the resulting kaleidoscope of colors swirling in the water. A collection of twisted trees that would be quite unnerving to come across at night are the main attractions in the Monster Garden. Rugosa Rose Hill brings together a fragrant collection of selected species. There is also an eight-meter waterfall and trout pond with water clear enough for photographing. In the Forest Floor Garden, Hokkaido Ezo squirrels play on a special apparatus built for them.

Botanical Experiment

Manabe Garden’s main purpose is to serve as a sample garden, showcasing trees, flowers, border plants, and grasses in an ongoing horticultural experiment. It is the only sample garden in Hokkaido certified by the Japan Tree Planting Association. Many landscape designers, architects, and gardeners visit to observe, research, and plan their green strategies.

Gardeners also visit the Forest to purchase plants, seeds, garden supplies, and tools. Many of the plants are international and domestic varieties that are difficult to find in Hokkaido and even elsewhere in Japan.

For Rainy Days

Manabe Garden provides free umbrellas and rain boots for guest top use on rainy days. Boots are recommended for early morning visitors as the dew can be quite heavy. With long boots, umbrellas, and the cover provided by the many trees, even visits in the rain can be pleasant.

The garden’s café serves coffee and teas, as well as homemade cakes and other dishes. There are places to dine both indoors and outdoors. Private picnic areas are provided elsewhere in the garden.

Access

Access is a major theme at Manabe Garden. Most of the grounds are wheelchair accessible, and the garden provides manual wheelchairs free of charge for guests to use. The main path has no steps and rises and falls in gentle slopes. The path traverses varied terrain through the entire garden, climbing low hills, crossing creeks and waterfalls, passing along elevated observation decks, and winding through rugged forest.

Manabe Garden is located near an Obihiro bus stop, so local residents often stop by the Garden to read, enjoy lunch or coffee in the café, and chat. Take the opportunity to meet and talk with some of them if you can.

Please follow this link [link to About page] to read the story behind Manabe Garden.