My shrine was styled off several shrines I looked at in my reasearch.  The shrine has a Torri (prayer gate) in frount of it which is a common feature on Japanese shrines.  Neither the shrine nor the torri are replicas of any particular shrine because I didn't want that but that is a valid option and is sure to produce an authentic looking shrine.  The shrine is a simple structure made of balsa wood with a card board top.  The torri is also made of balsa wood.  There is a koi pond next to the the shrine and a kuwaga tree shades the setting.  The path is made by painting a diluted wood glue to the surface then sprinkeling the glue with healthy ammounts of sand.  The koi pond is made the same way as rivers and lakes and I will explain that in those sections.  The stones arround the pond are dried beans but you could also make them out of small rocks.  The kuwaga tree is explained in the evergreen tree section as well.  The base of the entire structure is made of masonite.
    Basically I made the shrine, torri, and tree trunk then glued them down.

 Next I outlined the koi pond with the beans and put in the path.  After letting the whole thing dry I painted it flat black with spray paint.  When the paint dried I drybrushed everything with a medium chestnut brown.  This gives the entire piece a sense of unity.  I then highlighted the shrine it's self and dryburshed the torri white.  I then drybrushed the ground with lighter tan.  After that I drybrushed the path and rocks arround the koi pond off white.

    Then I painted the pond with a dark blue and lighter blue near the edges.  After that I painted a diluted wood glue mixture on the ground and flocked it.  When the flock dried I painted several coats of gloss varnish over the pond to give it the illustion of water.  Last I added foliage to the tree.