I agree with those who say: it’s going to depend on the season you go. I went on March 20th, 2023. The Monet garden… didn’t really look like the pictures. All of the water lilies were gone or dead (most likely because of winter, not extermination). The bridge is nice enough, but it is a metal replica and doesn’t quite match what I imagined. As the Monet garden is THE sales point for this place, it felt like a let down. Summer is probably great though.

The floral garden is lovely. There were plenty of blooms. That said, I live in Mie prefecture, and there are at least two gardens here which have much vaster floral displays for comparable prices, Nabana no Sato and Red Hills Hisa. The flowers here in Kitagawa were nice but the garden was fairly small in comparison.

The Mediterranean area is interesting and clearly much effort was put into making it, but again not much was blooming.

A couple minor negative points: there are a few places where there clearly used to be something, and they just gave up. “No entry” signs and whatever was there is starting to be engulfed by forest/weeds. Also, there are signs for a long hike to “Wind Hill”. It is all uphill and basically just a standard “lookout point” over the city. Nothing there of interest at all. If you like lookout points (they’re everywhere in Japan) go for it. Otherwise, wind hill can be skipped and you won’t miss anything but time.

Price is reasonable at ¥1000. On the other hand, this garden was listed in a book of “1000 wonderful Japanese views” and I wouldn’t put it that high. Nice enough if you’re in the area, I wouldn’t make a special trip.