These gardens are ordered, more or less, north to south, which was the general direction of my travels.

Kairaku-en in Mito, is one of three gardens, with similar names, always mentioned together.

A residential garden in the pottery town of Kasama, near Mito.

A spring in the Inner Garden of Tokyo's Meiji Shrine.

Stone lantern and "tsukubai" in a large austere Zen temple court-yard, in Takaoka, Toyama.

Ginkaku-jin (Silver Pavilion) is a very popular site in Kyoto.

Stumbled upon gardeners doing a major updating of the garden's central sand element.

Ginkaku-ji's Pavilion sits on the pond which is adjacent to the sand element.

Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) is also very popular. The pavilion fronts onto a large pond, probably once used for boating parties.

Honen-in has a sand element with an ever changing design on it.

Koto-in, in Daitoku-ji, features moss over rock or sand,

The central stone lantern at Koto-in.

Stone lanterns? Oh, we have a few for sale….

Hogon-in, in the Arashiyama area of Kyoto, is a top autumn foliage site, along with its rock waterfall and pond.

Another area of Hogon-in features moss and a 13 story stone tower.

Another one of the "Three's", Koraku-en, in Okayama.

A bent stone bridge to a tea house in Koraku-en.

In Fukuoka, Sentou-tei represents the Genkai-sea off NW Kyushu.

A pond with koi in Suwa-jinja, a Shinto Shrine in Nagasaki.