The Japanese garden was an adjunct to the tea house. Plants, stone lanterns, bronze cranes, and a winding stream were squeezed into a space so small that everything was foreground. There was no sense of depth or of "borrowed' scenery from afar. Even so, details were carefully executed and placed by gardeners aware of the techniques of bonsai and ikebana.

There is a new Japanese Friendship Garden growing in Balboa Park, just North of the Organ Pavilion.