Tsugaike Nature Garden

Tsugaike Nature Garden sits at an elevation of 1,900 meters in the Northern Japanese Alps of Nagano Prefecture, making it one of Japan's highest altitude marshland gardens. Established in 1954, the garden was developed to preserve and showcase the unique alpine ecosystem of the Tsugaike Kogen plateau. The 5.5-kilometer wooden boardwalk trail was constructed to allow visitors access to this fragile highland environment while minimizing ecological impact on the delicate wetland vegetation.

The garden holds significant natural value as a protected alpine botanical area, home to over 100 species of alpine plants that thrive in the cool, high-altitude climate. The wetland ecosystem features rare flora including Asian skunk cabbage, cotton grass, and various species of alpine flowers that bloom in waves throughout the snow-free months. The area serves as an important ecological study site for understanding Japan's subalpine and alpine plant communities, with the garden's distinctive landscape shaped by snowmelt from surrounding peaks including Mount Shirouma.

Visitors experience the garden by walking along the elevated wooden boardwalk that winds through marshland, grassland, and forest zones. The trail requires approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours to complete at a leisurely pace and offers panoramic views of the surrounding Northern Alps mountain range. Peak bloom season runs from late June through August, with different species flowering in succession throughout this period. The autumn season from late September to early October attracts visitors for the brilliant foliage displays of alpine vegetation.

Access to Tsugaike Nature Garden requires taking the Tsugaike Panorama Lift followed by the Tsugaike Nature Garden Lift from Tsugaike Kogen ski resort. The journey from the base takes approximately 50 minutes between the two lifts. From Hakuba Station on the JR Oito Line, local buses run to Tsugaike Kogen and take about 25 minutes. The combined lift ticket for accessing the nature garden costs approximately 3,400 yen for adults during the operating season, which typically runs from early June through mid-October depending on snow conditions.