MIDTOWN GARDEN / ミッドタウン・ガーデン
Location: 9-7-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052
Access: Directly connected to Roppongi Station (Toei Oedo Line, Exit 8)
3 min walk from Roppongi Station (Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line)
3 min walk from Nogizaka Station (Chiyoda Line)
Hours: Garden (lawn area) open 24 hours
Midtown facilities 11:00 - 21:00
Admission: Free
Midtown Garden is the green space at the center of Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi, built on the former site of the Defense Agency.
When the complex was built, around 140 mature trees from the old grounds were kept and moved rather than cut, so some of the wood here is older than the buildings around it.
Today, Midtown Garden lays as a basis for Tokyo Midtown's facilities, including the 21-21 art museum and a high-end multipurpose mall.
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A visual documentation of Midtown Garden, capturing the quiet rhythm of nature within the dense urban fabric of Tokyo.
Photo Essay
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Characteristics
Designed Green
Everything here was planned. The landscape borrows ideas from Japanese garden design, and the borders between path and soil, planting and open space, are kept soft rather than sharp. It does not pretend to be wild. It is a constructed calm, and it is honest about that.
The Kept Trees
About 140 trees were moved from the old Defense Agency grounds and replanted, some over a hundred years old. They carry the memory of the place that stood here before. Standing under them, you are standing in the one part of this very new development that is genuinely old.
The Evergreen Lawn
The grass is kept green through the whole year by layering summer and winter varieties. People lie on it, read, picnic, walk dogs. It is the most relaxed thing in an otherwise polished luxury complex, and it is the part everyone actually uses.
Reflection
Midtown Garden seems fairly unique in comparison to other conventional parks in Tokyo, that often emphasize nature's freedom and wildness. Natural greenery sprawls across Tokyo Midtown's boundaries, yet in a seemingly calculated and polished style. Trees are planted in intentional locations, fences protect artistically manicured bushes, a stream flows through a concrete path, and modern artworks are installed in carefully planned spaces. Yet, the balance between nature and human control is immaculate--just enough to satisfy visitors both visually and mentally. Through this harmony between wild nature and careful human calculation, Midtown Garden functions as perfectly as a conventional park, simply using a fresh approach.