A+Taste+of+Japan+-+Ikebana

In Ikebana the flowers and branches are arranged so that they appear in a beautiful, simple, and natural way. In this session Motoko-san showed us how to do an ikebana arrangement.
 * [|Ikebana]**is the art of arranging flowers. In Japanese "//ike//" means to arrange and "//bana//" comes from the word "hana" meaning flower.

But Motoko-san said that the way to make a beautiful arrangement is by using your eyes and heart.
Source:3businessideas.blogspot.co.nz || Source:www.flickr.com || Source:flower-arrangement-ideas.com || Source: www.thegardener.btinternet.co.uk ||
 * [[image:ikebana1.jpg width="180" height="242"]]
 * [[image:water kanji.jpg width="155" height="155" align="center"]]

mizu - water
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tsuchi - earth
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ame - heaven
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hana - flower
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We watched her quietly thinking and imagining as she made her choice.... we wondered if she would choose three of the most colourful flowers....
====but instead she chose a twig of pale pink cherry blossom and two smaller leafy branches of different shapes and shades .... the cherry blossoms looked very delicate against the green.... each stem had to be trimmed to a different length. We watched as Motoko-san thoughtfully placed her stems in a beautiful arrangement. Afterwards we chose stems to make our own Ikebana arrangements and practised some Ikebana kanji...====
 * [[image:P1320436.JPG]] || [[image:P1320438.JPG width="320" height="240"]] || [[image:P1320474.JPG]] ||
 * [[image:P1320446.JPG width="256" height="336" align="center"]] || [[image:P1320447.JPG width="241" height="336" align="center"]] || [[image:P1320449.JPG width="229" height="328" align="center"]] ||
 * [[image:P1320448.JPG width="328" height="259"]] || [[image:P1320455.JPG]] || [[image:P1320473.JPG width="328" height="263"]] ||
 * [[image:P1320468.JPG]] || [[image:P1320467.JPG width="328" height="255"]] || [[image:P1320460.JPG width="328" height="246"]] ||
 * [[image:P1320463.JPG]] || [[image:P1320459.JPG]] || [[image:P1320457.JPG]] ||
 * [[image:P1320465.JPG width="275" height="328" align="center"]] || [[image:P1320464.JPG width="275" height="328" align="center"]] || [[image:P1320466.JPG width="254" height="328" align="center"]] ||
 * ===**The Special Rules:**===

|| ===Angles to print and cut out:=== || ===Ikebana Kanji=== ||