Kyu Shiba Rikyu Garden

One of the oldest surviving daimyo gardens in Tokyo, this compact strolling landscape centers on a large pond studded with islands and crossed by stone bridges, framed by clipped hills and prized rocks. Laid out in the seventeenth century and later used as an imperial detached palace, it survived earthquake and fire to be opened to the public. Now hemmed in by skyscrapers, the garden makes deliberate use of borrowed scenery, and its miniature versions of famous scenic spots reward a slow circuit around the water near Hamamatsucho.