Japanese gardens are beautiful, and also take a heck of a lot of work to maintain, so I respect the hustle.
They also complement traditional architecture like this beautifully. I shot this in a large gathering room of a traditional style hotel called Yanagawa Tachibana-Tei Ohana located in Yanagawa city, a couple hours south of Fukuoka. The hotel used to be the residence of a powerful Daimyo who was from this region. The hotel also serves as a place to host local events and has an absolutely fabulous garden as you can see. It does have western beds though, so it's not quite a ryokan, though there might be a few tatami and futon-only rooms available.
The city itself is known for its canal waterways and fresh water eel (unagi). In fact one of the best restaurants in the city for it, 楠川 (Kusukawa), is right next to the hotel. You'll pay a good $20 for lunch but it's worth it. Absolutely delicious. Oh, and you can watch people take their narrowboat tours along the canals. It's a fun little town to visit, but not for more than a day (or even a half day). Still, it was great to wake up to balcony views of this garden. Can't beat that.
I should also note that this was an unusual splurge for me at the time, but even when I booked this it wasn't the full price because booking.com was doing some kind of promo in the off season. They do a lot of weddings here so I imagine in peak season the price really goes up. I tend to budget where I stay so I have more for food (lol) when I travel, so it was rare for me to be in a hotel this nice.