For over 20 years, Soka University has been something of an enigma in Aliso Viejo – a private college with Japanese roots that typically enrolls fewer than 130 students per graduating class, despite meticulously maintaining a gorgeous campus with multiple photogenic modern structures. Known in southern Orange County as a great (and nearly empty) destination for high school graduation and wedding photography, the campus has its own library, performing arts center, dining hall, bookstore, and art gallery, as well as European-inspired fountains, a coastline-styled mini-lake, and buildings named after scientific, political, and religious leaders.
Visiting Soka University is free, including parking: a one-day permit can be obtained for no charge at the front gate. Most of the campus is easily walkable from the Peace Lake/Founder’s Hall area, though residential halls are further back from the main buildings, and visitors won’t likely be able to enter the buildings outside of scheduled events.
