Japanese garden are also designed as a sanctuary from the complexities of day to day life but the emphasis is on a more refined and rarified air instead of rich color and luxuriant flowers simple plants and grasses are favoured while areas of swept sand or while pebbles create a serene and spiritual effect pebbles or gravel are used to suggest ripples on the surface of still water while large rounded standing stone convey stability in a changing world and are thought to represent different moods or spirits colorful blooms are eschewed in favour of less ostentatious grasses which blend with the pebbles or gravel fountains are considered distracting but a flat clam pond thought to create a feeling of abundance