Hakone Gardens

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Hakone Gardens is a traditional Japanese garden in Saratoga, California. It claims to be the oldest Japanese-style residential garden in the Western Hemisphere. Notable features include a bamboo garden, a Zen garden, a strolling garden (the Hill and Pond Garden), tea houses, and the Cultural Exchange Center.

In 1916, two San Francisco arts patrons, Oliver and Isabel Stine, purchased 18 acres on which the garden now stands. Hakone Gardens was named after Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park in Japan. Japanese landscape architects and architects were hired to design the gardens and upper "Moon Viewing" house.

The Gardens fell into disrepair until 1966 when the city of Saratoga purchased it in order to protect it. The gardens are open to the public.

Hakone Gardens was a filming location for the movie Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005).