Great Greenhouse, Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park (Nonhoi Park)

The Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park, which locals call Nonhoi Park, grew in stages in the Ōiwa district of the city. Its natural history museum opened in 1988, followed in spring 1992 by the African Garden and the amusement zone; the Japanese Wikipedia dates the opening of the park under its present name to 29 April 1992, before the botanical garden existed.

The botanical zone, with its large greenhouse, opened on 27 April 1996. To mark the occasion the park received water lilies, a weeping willow and wisteria from Claude Monet's garden in France, now gathered in the Monet corner of the water-lily garden.

The park kept growing after the greenhouse opened, adding an Australian Garden in spring 2006 and a monkey observation deck in spring 2008. It now covers 39.6 hectares divided into four zones (zoo, botanical garden, natural history museum and amusement park), and the city presents it as a major leisure complex where visitors can easily spend a whole day.

The official website calls the large greenhouse the symbol of the botanical garden: it is the huge glass building that visitors see first as they come through the park's east gate. It covers about 2,700 m², and its whole layout follows a single theme, that of an 'everlasting summer landscape'.

The route inside is designed as a sequence. Visitors first pass succulents with unusual shapes, then walk through a cave with dripping water before emerging onto a viewing area that looks out over the colourful planting. Around the main jungle hall are five rooms with distinct atmospheres, devoted to plants of dry habitats, water lilies, fruit trees, epiphytes and decorative flowers. A further room is set aside for temporary events held throughout the year.

The greenhouse displays about 850 species of tropical and subtropical plants. The main hall evokes the jungle with gajumaru figs, Amazon lilies, bananas, papayas, rubber trees and gardenias. The cactus room gathers plants adapted to drought, including baobabs. In the water-lily room tropical water lilies grow alongside pitcher plants and the jade vine.

The fruit room shows jaboticaba, vanilla and passion fruit, the epiphyte room staghorn ferns and air plants, and the decorative flower room changes its pelargoniums, cyclamens and poinsettias with the seasons. Outside, the Monet corner has red, yellow, pink and white water lilies descended from the painter's garden in flower from mid-May to September.

The greenhouse stands in the botanical zone and can be seen as soon as visitors enter by the east gate. The park is about six minutes' walk from the south exit of JR Futagawa Station on the Tōkaidō Line, and buses run from Toyohashi Station. The outdoor botanical garden extends the visit: a large flower bed of about 1,100 m² with 10,000 plants, a cherry plaza with more than a hundred trees of some thirty varieties, a woodland of about 200 tree species, a garden of around 140 roses, a Japanese garden, a maple forest and a boating pond. The zoo and the natural history museum share the same park, which makes it worth a full day.