The Japanese garden at the heart of San Mateo's Central Park was designed in 1966 by Nagao Sakurai to mark the sister-city relationship between San Mateo and Toyonaka, Japan. It is a classic strolling garden: a koi pond, a teahouse, a curved Moon Bridge, cherry trees, and Japanese maples planted around a gently landscaped hill. On a weekday morning, when school groups and weekend crowds are absent, it is genuinely quiet — a rarity in the dense Bay Area suburbs.
The garden is free to enter and sits within the larger Central Park. The park also contains a rose garden, a children's train, and a bandstand. The San Mateo Arboretum Society manages plant collections throughout the park including century-old stands of redwood, pine, and cedar. A farmers market runs here on Saturday mornings.