When I visited the Japanese Tea Garden for the first time last August, I mistakenly thought there were two pagodas in the garden.  However, I now understand that these shots are actually of an ornate temple gate that leads to a single pagoda in the serene garden.  Unfortunately, the temple gate has been cordoned off for renovations both times I’ve visited.  (That’s probably why I didn’t understand that it was a gate!)  There is a great shot of the gate about one-third of the way down the page here.

The Japanese Tea Garden was created for the California Midwinter Fair of 1894 (also called the World’s Fair) by Makoto Hagiwara.  The garden experienced neglect and vandalism during World War II, when even more sadly, Mr. Hagiwara and his family were sent to internment camps with other Japanese Americans.  Steps toward restoration began in 1952, and today it is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States.