Fountains on a fine fall day (Photo: Haruna Miyashita)

(Writer: Paul Shields)

Tokyo, as a city limited on communal green spaces in which the populace at large and visitors from around the country or overseas can get together, the very existence of such a gem as Yoyogi Park in one of the busiest areas of the city is itself an oddity.

Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park was actually set to vanish in whole or in part had Tokyo won their late 2009, bid to attract the 2016 Olympic Games. In the end, Tokyo’s bid failed and so we still have the park – although it has been suggested that Tokyo will chase the 2020 Games.

In the past the park was the site of Japan’s first ever powered flight – in 1910 – served as a military drill area, later as a residential quartering zone for occupying American officers after World War II, before being turned into the athletes' village for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Three years later it made its debut as a park and is now known as one of the best places in the city to see cherry blossoms (in Spring) and ginkgo trees (in Autumn) whilst also being an area for sports lovers to flock to with its multiple facilities and athletic areas near the sail like shape of Yoyogi Gymnasium.