AT A GLANCE

Why go?

Tucked beside the old Hisai Shrine in central Koshigaya, the Koshigaya Aritaki Botanical Garden is a compact, quietly remarkable arboretum of about 9,000 square metres. It grew out of the private collection of the botanist Aritaki Tatsuo, who spent decades gathering warm-temperate trees from Japan and around the world; since 2010 the city has tended his bequest as a public garden where labelled giant trees, camellias and seasonal wildflowers reward a slow, unhurried walk.↗↗↗

This is not a sprawling theme-park botanic garden but a leafy, scholarly green pocket a few minutes from a shrine approach road, and that is precisely its charm. With a hundred-yen admission, free parking and a friendly volunteer-guided tour on Sundays, it suits a short, restorative stop on a Koshigaya day out, especially for plant lovers, families with children and anyone curious about trees.↗↗