Phoenix, AZ - Ikebana at Japanese Gardens

The Japanese Friendship Gardens held the 7th Annual Ikebana Exhibit in January 2019.  The Gardens are beautiful and serene, in the middle of Phoenix.  And the Ikebana Exhibit had a wide variety of styles.  I spoke to two little sisters and they showed me their Ikebana that they learned to make.

Here are my photographs of a few of the Ikebana flower displays, a feel of the beauty of the garden, and my friends the koi fish.  I had to really work to get food to them and away from the lightening quick ducks!

My favorites were the BBQ Grill and the Embroidery Hoops.

Link to Japanese Friendship Gardens
Link to Exhibit Information

Taneko Japanese Tavern

My mother Jane is visiting from Pittsburgh. She will be in Phoenix for about three weeks. Join us on our travels!

Taneko Japanese Tavern was suggested by Kalen. It is in Scottsdale and is owned by the people who own PF Changs and Pei Wei. We decided to give it a try as it is something different than anything on our list.

We started off with
Hot Rock* you sear it
Japanese Yellowtail $10 and
American Kobe Beef $14

This was quite interesting and it was a good thing that Kalen knew how to do this, as we would have been quite clueless. The rock was heated extremely hot, and you placed thin slices of the meet on it to cook. It was served with a variety of sauces and was very tasty.

Mom learned how to use chopsticks and we were both very proud of her! She has a very adventuresome side to her, and this was a good start to her trip. We talked that we were going to have to try a lot of new things during her visit, with a little of the old since we do love our Mexican food.

Here is the bathroom. No report is complete without a little peak at this. Quite fancy. A+ in my book.

http://www.tanekotavern.com/