I learned Japanese flower arranging for five years while I was living in Japan. This is obviously not ikebana here (I can't find the kenzan /Steckigel/ tiny bed of nails I need to do that sort of flower arranging at the moment) but even in western arrangements, I like to incorporate some Japanese elements, like allowing space around the flowers, emphasizing lines and not only mass.
I especially like to have a bit of asymmetry in my arrangements. Asymmetry was something that took me a long time to get used to when I was first learning ikebana. I kept longing to do a traditional western arrangement, bountiful and symmetrical. But now, I find an arrangement almost boring if it's too symmetrical. And if it's too full, i feel you can't fully appreciate the individual flowers.