While May may be the month best known for Peonies in Japan, we mustn’t forget the roses that are also out in bloom at this time. One of the best places to see roses in their full glory is the Fukuoka City Zoo and Botanical Garden, located in the heart of Fukuoka. The Fukuoka Botanical Garden includes many gardens, including a rather lavish rose garden.

The rose garden has a wide variety of roses that come from around the world. They also come in a variety of colours, from yellows to oranges and reds, through purples and pinks as well. Each flower also has a label that tells you the name and where it comes from, although some of the information is only in Japanese.

Here are some more photos of the roses:

Visiting Fukuoka Botanical Garden

An adult ticket currently (May 2022) costs ¥600 and a children’s ticket costs ¥300. If you go as a group of 30 or more, these prices are reduced to ¥480 and ¥240, respectively. Those students who are junior high school students are younger get in for free, as do those with a valid disability ID. You can pay with cash, IC card or most of the smartphone payment apps (e.g. PayPay, LinePay, etc) when you buy the tickets, which you get from a kiosk and then show the guard upon entering.

One Year Passports

If you want to visit the zoo multiple times, you can also buy one of the “1-year passports”, with which you can enter for the entire year. The “Animal supporter” (動物サポーター) is a donation of ¥1,500, which also gives you access to limited events called “supporters day” (サポーターズデイ). You will be able to go “behind the scenes” on these special days to see the animals closer. You can see them being fed from behind the animal house rather than out in front of the enclosure.

For ¥2,000 you can become a Botanical garden friends’ association member (植物園友の会会員). With this pass you get access to member-only events in the botanical garden and are entered into various lotteries, such as seedling gifts and garden courses, the newsletter and you also get discounts at shops and restaurants in the botanical garden (but not the zoo).

You can get these passports at the Zoo Main Gate, Zoo West Gate and Botanical Garden Main Gate. You cannot get them from the kiosk. Instead you have to sign up with the person at the desk, who may or may not speak English.

If you and they do not speak English, I recommend using the Google Translate app. The conversation mode and the camera mode will be very helpful in this situation.

How to get there

The botanical garden can be reached easily by public transport. From Tenjin station, take bus number 56 or 57. You can also take the Nanakuma subway line to Sakurazaka station and then walk 400 metres to the zoo entrance. From Hakata Station, take the number 58 bus or take buses 11, 15, 16, 17 or 214 and walk 400 metres to another one of the zoo’s entrances. The zoo and the botanical garden are connected and you only need one ticket to enter both.

Thanks for reading! Want to do some more exploring? Have a look at the travel map:

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