Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens

Nagoya, Japan, Japan

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Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens is one of Nagoya’s most popular attractions, a large about‑60‑hectare park in Chikusa Ward that opened in 1937 and combines a zoo, botanical gardens, an amusement area, and the 134‑meter Higashiyama Sky Tower. The zoo is home to around 450–500 animal species, making it among the most diverse in Japan and the second‑busiest zoo in the country, with popular animals including Asian elephants, koalas, red pandas, gorillas and chimpanzees, plus educational displays about habitats and ecologies. The botanical gardens feature about 7,000 plant varieties, including a greenhouse, camellia and rose gardens, a field of flowers, natural woodland on the hillsides, a cherry‑blossom pathway with roughly 1,000 cherry trees of about 100 species that bloom in spring, and around 500 maple trees that create a top fall‑foliage spot around the back pond and Japanese garden.