We visited the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens on April 9, 2005. We started off by attending a tea ceremony. There is one ceremony each month, and we got lucky with ours. It is $5 per person. You walk into a small room, sit down, and a group of 2 people (one playing the host and one playing the guest) reenact a tea ceremony, explaining what each element and action means along the way. Then, the spectators are served bowls of green tea (only a little bit of tea in them though and not what we Westerners normally think of as tea; this tea had ground up tea leaves mixed with water - I love green tea so I was happy) andd Japanese sweets.
The ceremony lasted about 40 min.
After that, we had lunch at a cafe - very nice, good selection of Japanese food (sushi, bento box for lunch, miso soup, green tea ice cream) and very, very reasonable prices. We paid $12 each for a good size bento box with tempura, a few rolls, teriyaki salmon and chicken, rice, etc.
The gardens are very nice. For a few dollars you could rent one of these audio devices that tell you about each particular garden, but we decided to explore on our own (by the way, admission is $9, but if you are a AAA member, you get a discount, so don't forget to ask!).
There are many bridges, bamboo groves, and individual gardens - next to each of them there is a plaque explaining the time frame and the style of the garden. It was hot, so we really appreciated that they had cold water available throughout the gardens. We saw many turtles, a big iguana, several interesting birds and lizards. There is a great bonsai collection and a couple of beautiful waterfalls. There is also a small museum (actually two - one in the gardens themselves, the original Morikami museum, and another - the new museum building with the gift shop, the cafe, etc.)
At the end, we bought some wonderful green tea and two noodle bowls in the gift shop (again, very reasonably priced - $5 for a bowl, $8 for a good size tin of great tea).
Highly recommended!