Hotels near Isuien Garden

Isuien is Nara's only stroll garden built on the shakkei principle, in which distant scenery is deliberately pulled into the composition. Stand at the rear pond and the tiled roof of Todai-ji's Nandaimon Gate and the bare slopes of Mount Wakakusa sit inside the frame as though someone had planted them there. The garden comes in two halves laid out more than two centuries apart: the front section dates from 1673, the rear from 1899.

Entry is 1,200 yen and includes the Neiraku Museum next door, with its collection of Chinese bronzes and Korean ceramics. Hours run 9:30am to 4:30pm, closed Tuesdays and from late December into mid-January. Sanshu, the teahouse by the front pond, serves matcha and warabi mochi looking straight over the water. Forty-five minutes covers the circuit at a walking pace. Budget an hour and a half if you stop for tea, which you should.

Pro Tip: Come on a weekday in late November. The maples over the rear pond peak about a week later than the ones out in Nara Park, and if you arrive for the 9:30am opening you get the front pond to yourself for a good twenty minutes before anyone else drifts in.