Let me start out with the positives of this place. 1. Atmosphere is fantastic! They have a great medievil theme going on. Our silverware and plates were all metal. Unique atmosphere definitely! 2. Service was great! Helpful, friendly, professional, and fast. Now onto the negatives... 1. Food - The food was alright. You get a huge salad which was good. But I purposely didn't eat much of it because I wanted to save myself for the main course. I shouldn't have done that. The salad was the highlight of the whole night. They then brought out cheese with vegetables, fruit, and bread. Again I saved myself for the main course. Then they brought out a sizzler plate for you to cook off of for your meats and veggies. I seriously didn't think this was fondue. It felt more like Korean BBQ. Not enough for the people in our table, and we had to cook it ourselves. I seriously thought they brought out the meats that were already cook and you simply dip it in the fondue of cheese or sauces. That wasn't the case. I didn't stick around for the dessert so I have no comment on that. 2. EXPENSIVE You don't get what you paid for!

Several TravBuddy members have already done blogs and reviews on this very nice Japanese Gardens. We just happened to be there on a record setting day. It was raining. Did that a difference to me or my wife.? Not one bit. We just opened our umbrella and even accepted the use of one that they offered. We strolled thru, taking our time to snap many wonderful pictures at the outstanding gardens. There are four sections, The Hill and Pond Garden, The Tea Garden, The Zen Garden, and Kizuna-en (Bamboo) Garden, and each is well kept, neatly manicured, and treated with the respect it needs. If you enjoy serene, beautiful, Japanese Gardens, this is surely one not to miss if you are in the area. There is a small fee to enter the gardens (see the internet site for prices ) and you purchase the entry coin in the gift shop which has many wonderful items available. There was no charge for parking.

Hakone gardens is the planned first stop. oochmpgnoo did a review on this site and so we feel it's well worth seeing.

After leaving Casa de Fruita it was only about forty-five minutes before we were into Saratoga, where the weather has changed totally.  Dark grey clouds and soon light misty rain.  As we reach Hakone Gardens, our first real stop of the day, it is raining enough that windshield wipers are on full.  This is a record for the area.  Never has it rained at all in any part of the San Francisco bay area on July 18^th since records have been kept.  In a few areas it was only .01 inch, but in others it was four or five times that much.  Not a lot, but a record none the less.

A very thin deer is nibbling on vegetation as we turned in.  Poor thing looked so slender. 

Only two other vehicles are in the parking lot when we got to the top of the hill.  We grabbed our umbrella and went into the gift shop where you pay your entry fee and the lady offered another umbrella for us to use.  Even with everything wet it was still pretty and worth the entry fee.  We took many pictures and had only a few not turn out.  Usually the ones I tried to get artsy with.

It was definitely an hour well spent.

As far as I know, there is no charge besides parking, which is like $4, cheaper for students/seniors. If you don't even want to pay that much, you can always just park at the bottom of the hill and walk up. Hakone is I think the largest, oldest Japanese garden in the western hemisphere. This place is absolutely gorgeous, with a koi pond, a bamboo garden, and plenty of historic buildings. Classes teach students how to do ikebana or hold tea ceremonies in these "houses." Weddings and festivals are often held in the gardens, the perfect backdrop for any event. A part of the movie Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed here as well. Don't forget to visit the gift shop, where you can buy anything from a kimono to origami paper to instructional books on drawing anime characters. Lastly, the staff there is super-nice (I would know; I used to volunteer there).

Today we  drove to Santa Cruz and stopped at a Japanese garden in Saratoga, California. It was built in 1915 as a  private retreat for friends and relatives of San Francisco art patrons, Oliver and Isabel Stine. Built on 18 acres on a Saratoga hillside, the city purchased the gardens in 1966 to protect it from subdivision and development.

The gardens consist of the Upper House, Lower House and four gardens, the Hill and Pond Garden, the Tea Garden, the Zen Garden and Kizuna-En which is the bamboo garden.

It was very peaceful and serene walking around the gardens. We spotted a deer in the bamboo garden munching away on the grass and small bamboo stems. There was a TV crew filming a commercial in the Pond garden near the bridge.

The cost was only $4 for each of us and well worth the price of admission. Dodie gave us a great history tour of the gardens and was very enthusiastic about her job.