The Japanese traditionally make their gardens part of their house by using many techniques that create the illusion of space. The sense of scale is exquisite, the use of materials from outside like twigs, bark, stones, and bamboo bring a sense of garden inside. The trick is to have plenty of space so nothing looks crowded. The Japanese decorative style is truly at one with nature. Scales are also reduced in their real gardens outside; a small pond symbolizes a lake, a stone is a mountain, Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, takes for its asymmetrical theme the idea of earth, man, and sky, and represents these three in the three heights of flowers.
