Makino Botanical Gardens

Over 3000 species of plants and countless animal species call the Makino Botanical Gardens their home. The Museum of Plants and People was opened in 1999 to carry on the legacy of Dr. Tomitaro Makino, the celebrated botanist, by educating visitors about the wildlife living all around them.

Perfect for an afternoon walk during good weather, walking the grounds alone would take you around two hours. Alongside the gardens themselves is a research facility, an exhibition hall displaying information about Dr. Makino’s life and a conservatory of exotic plants.

If you want to relax and spend a chunk of your day here, enjoy local food with a French flair at the Arbre cafe and restaurant. There are two shops selling merchandise such as speciality foods and Kochi souvenirs: Byca-auren and Nonoca. Both sell seasonal plants so those gifted with green fingers can take back a little bit of this sunny prefecture to your home country.

Staff members are friendly and helpful, and always happy to talk about the gardens they love as well as dispensing advice to those wanting to cultivate their own. Because of the various plantlife, the garden changes completely from season to season. In springtime, it’s one of the prime spots for cherry blossom viewing and in autumn, the leaves are a fiery array of reds and gold. So you might just have to come back again.