Beautiful Camelia garden at Tomakomaishi Sun Garden.

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It's a great place to relax in all seasons, and there is even a cute Cafe inside that has delicious food and drinks.

A place I'm grateful for, where colorful flowers and plants cheer me up in winter. It's connected to the library, so it's calm and quiet, a nice environment. The café inside was tasty too, so I want to go again. Happy that both admission and parking are free.

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A botanical garden that's free, including parking and admission. All sorts of plants you rarely get to see in Hokkaido are growing here. There's the "Satsuma mandarin tree" famous from "mandarins at the kotatsu," the "tea plant" that's the origin of green tea, black tea, and oolong tea, that green bamboo famous from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, and so on. There's also a banana tree, with leaves so huge that "you could serve a one-plate meal on this alone" — actually more like two plates' worth. When I went, they were giving away for free some plant that looks like shiso but isn't shiso — no idea what it is but you see it a lot — and there were various aroma mist experiences and what seemed like some kind of musical performance or something going on.

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Free to use. Its silhouette, especially distinctive even within Idemitsu Culture Park, stands out even from far away. Built as a combined facility next to the library, it's a multi-purpose botanical garden with rest areas that anyone can use freely. It's nothing grand, and there's only a token variety of plants, but the inside is like a glass greenhouse and feels pleasantly warm. There's also a café with not very long opening hours, and dedicated free WiFi is available throughout the premises. It's divided into 1st and 2nd floors, with benches and table seats all over the place, so it might be nice once in a while to find your favorite spot and spend some time idly gazing at the trees, bathed in warm sunlight filtering through the leaves.

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