While looking for information about Stupas I came across this site. The Stupa in the picture at the top (click on it) looks quite imposing, though I doubt it would suit most Japanese gardens.

But more interesting, at the bottom of the page, you can click on an item called "Zen Shop".

Click on "Zen Shop" and it will take you to a page headed 'Zen Books and Stuff'. Scroll down that page to an item headed 'Mini Zen Gardening kit'.

That item isn't of much interest in itself, but you'll also see a sentence that reads -

" By the way, here is a mini-Zen (ish) garden I saw in a shop window in Kyoto."

In Kyoto? (You can click on it to see what he saw.) It seems unlikely that it's aimed only at foreign tourists. My guess is that this sort of thing must be considered quite acceptable and in good taste among Japanese in general: should some of us start discarding some of our prejudices?

Click here