Omiya Bonsai Art Museum, Saitama — Attraction in Saitama

This was a fantastic experience full of many surprises! Based on the reviews we thought we were going to spend 1-2 hours at the museum and then return to Tokyo for the rest of the day. What the reviews fail to mention is that there is not only the beautifully curated museum (with an excellent audio tour of every bonsai), but once you have spent anywhere from 1-3 hours there depending on your depth of interest (bring a sketch book!), you can have lunch at the bonsai restaurant across the street (assuming they are open) and then tour the 6 remaining historical bonsai gardens in the neighborhood for free. Not to mention the bonus manga museum (we ran out of time to visit but had we known, we would have started the day earlier). ALSO, if you go during blossom season, make sure to fit in Omiya Koen just a little further south- there is an incredible huge grove of cherry blossom trees!

My recommended itinerary would be to get to Toro station by 10am, take the short walk south to the museum; have lunch after; tour the gardens and manga museum; have a tea break or pick up snacks from the convenience store and head to the park to picnic. Depart from Omiya Koen station. This could fill your whole day and makes the long trip to get there worthwhile. The walking distances are not far at all. You might spend anywhere from 10-30 minutes per garden depending on how much you want to immerse yourself.

The only warning I have is to bring a parasol in hot weather and that the neighborhood is surprisingly lacking in restaurants/cafes/convenience stores, so you may want to come prepared with your own lunch and lots of snacks/drinks just in case! Best done in fine weather to make the most of...

A small museum but it is very informative, there was an interesting introduction to the culture around Bonsai including three wonderful architectural examples of the traditional room styles where Bonsai might be displayed. The exhibits are bi-lingual in English and Japanese and there were English speaking staff. Photography is not permitted in most areas, if you are visiting please respect this, there is an area with many beautiful Bonsai where photography is permitted. Also there are very high quality postcards of many of the Bonsai in the shop for only ¥100. The outside garden is superb, on a sunny day you may wish to bring a sun hat as there is not much shade, although the garden is small it is packed with Bonsai of all shapes, I sat for around 30 minutes on the raised platform under a shady umbrella watching many dragonflies and butterflies near the large...

This was a high priority for us and it did not disappoint. The interior displays (which you can’t take pictures of) are stunning. We especially like a series of three rooms, built in different Japanese decorative styles with matching bonsai. The descriptive texts about history and process are very English friendly.

The tour guides and security guard were incredibly friendly. They pointed us to various things depending on our interests, brought out historical photos for trees we liked, and made us origami from our tickets. Such a nice slice of cultural history and a sense of real people excited to share it. Definitely recommend walking through the bonsai village and getting soba from...