Yatsuhashi, Japanese garden "eight bridges"

Visiting the Japanese gardens, you may come across an atypical type of bridge, made of 8 quite narrow wooden planks, arranged in a zigzag pattern, like the one photographed here inside the Korakuen Garden in Okayama.

These bridges are called yatsuhashi (a term simply meaning "eight bridges"), and they are usually used to cross shallow ponds or marshes with iris flowers. Their simple but unusual name comes from an old Japanese story, The Tales of Ise (Ise Monogatari).