Tea Garden Dr. off John F. Kennedy Dr
Golden Gate Park
The Japanese Tea Garden is the oldest public Japanese garden in California, created by Baron Makoto Hagiwara for the Mid-Winter Exhibition of 1894.
Visiting the Japanese Tea Garden
The Japanese Tea Garden covers four acres, densely packed with water features, humpbacked bridges and small-scale pagodas like the one above. Surrounding them, you'll find a variety of trees, flowers and bonsai trees.
In the middle of the Japanese Tea Garden, the tea house serves hot tea and cookies. According to the San Francisco Parks Trust, Hagiwara invented the fortune cookie, which he first served to guests of the Japanese Tea Garden. The tea and snacks are mediocre at best and the experience decidedly "touristy," but it doesn't deter visitors, and the Japanese Tea Garden is often packed. For a quieter experience, stay away when busloads of tourists descend. Instead, walk the trails into the far corners of the Japanese Tea Garden.
Some of the highlights of the Japanese Tea Garden include the gate, constructed from Japanese Hinoki Cypress and built without the use of nails, the drum bridge, a classical Zen Garden and the Lantern of Peace, a gift of the Japanese government as a gesture of reconciliation after World War II.
The Japanese Tea Garden is especially pretty in the spring, when the cherry trees bloom and in the fall, when the tree's leaves change color.
A good way to better understand the Japanese Tea Garden is on a guided tour. Docents from the San Francisco Parks Trust lead tours of the Japanese Tea Garden on Sundays and Wednesdays.
