East-West Center Japanese Garden — Attraction in Honolulu

Yes, it's a nice, small Japanese garden. That said, I wouldn't suggest making a special trip unless you're already on UH campus grounds for something.

Public parking is not so clear (the public can park and pay for spaces that are green) and the meter by where we parked was out of order, so we had to find another lot with a functional meter.

Also, make sure to have your phone available to find the Japanese garden. It's not clearly marked, and is tucked behind a conference center. Hardly worth a special trip. It took us maybe 5m to walk through the grounds. Going by the posted photos it looks like we missed the more colorful structures, perhaps they were removed...? Or maybe there was more to this garden that isn't...

A very pretty place to visit and ideally recommend to go on Sundays to visit due to free parking, it's super busy otherwise. I'd also recommend if you visit during times when it is/has been raining to maybe bring sturdy shoes for mud/wet grassland terrain, but otherwise on sunny days or staying near the ledge of the auditorium building overlooking the garden is the ideal spot for staying safe from sun/rain conditions. I'd often see families or students relaxing/sunbathing in the gardens enjoying themselves. Since it's on a college campus, anytime I've visited during the week, it's extremely busy and hard to find parking (and you have to pay), so do take caution when visiting on any other days that aren't sundays...

This garden was difficult to find as there were no signs posted. We were told it was behind one of the main buildings. There was ample parking on the street, and no signs anywhere, so we parked there. We viewed the gardens for maybe 15 minutes at most (they are pretty, but small). When we came back to the car, we had a $40 parking ticket! Say what?? There were no signs anywhere about no parking or paying for parking. We were disappointed to...