Originally Posted by
poppajon
the gardens in tokyo are sparse and boring with little hardscaping. i'm a landscape designer who went there soley to educate myself on japanese garden design. if you really want to just stay in tokyo, by all means, visit the gardens listed... I did. but if you truly want to see japanese design, head to kyoto for 2-3 days atleast. its only a few hours by high speed train. kyoto rikyu is vastly more impressive than hama rikyu.
Kyoto may seem near (for the full return journey: 5 and a half hours with a JR pass, 4 hour 40 minutes without) but the cost can be quite prohibitive.
I'm not disputing for a moment that there are particularly splendid gardens in Kyoto, it's hardly as if this information isn't already common knowledge particularly amongst those who are going to Japan to indulge their passion for garden design, but rubbishing the gardens in Tokyo that the OP could easily and economically get to with such a short itinerary is not exactly helpful.
I went to Ritsurin Koen in Shikoku recently, that hardly makes a visit to Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens any less delightful or my feeling compelled to announce here that other gardens are no "good".