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| Main Dojo (Dai Dojo) |
One of the things that tends to get a reaction out of people when I am talking about my training trips to Japan is usually a sense of disbelief. "You fly that far to train every day? For 7 to 8 hours a day?" These sorts of comments are generally followed up by a general expression of disbelief.
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| Kenshu Center - Katsuura, Japan |
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| Entrance to the Dai Dojo |
Attending this sort of training has all of the advantages of doing something like a physical hike with the disadvantage that it is all in the same place: we eat, sleep, bathe, train, relax (a bit) and wash our clothes within a 1000 foot /330 meter radius. One can go the whole training period without going outside from the beginning to the end of training.
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| Kamiza, or Deity Shelf. Formal dojo will have such a residence for the kami) |
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| Taiko drum in the Dai dojo. |
Our training schedule has varied over the years, but essentially has an early morning training, breakfast, a morning training, lunch, an afternoon training, bathing, dinner, and some brief period of time between dinner and going to sleep (in general, no-one makes it much past 8:30 PM). On average, we train for 7 to 8 hours a day.
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| Standard room - fortunately there were only two of us. |
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| Sleeping accommodations |
The accommodations themselves are rather Spartan: The rooms are four bunk beds with tatami mats on each bunk, on which a futon is placed with a sheet and a duvet for a cover. Pillows are small and filled with buckwheat. The room itself is almost irrelevant, as we spend so little time there other than changing and sleeping at night.
One difference this year from past years is that instead of sharing the facility with other groups, we were the only group present until Thursday, which was our last day of training. As a result, the usual buffet lines for food that we had were exchanged for prepared plates (mostly). Rice is served with most meals, and some kind of soup and cold barley tea with all meals. I cannot say in this year or indeed in any year, any of the food has not been less than good - certainly a step above the "cafeteria style" food one might associate with some such venues.
Laundry - One of the biggest differences is that instead of driers (which they have two of, but are about $3.00 for 10 minutes) they have a "drying room", which is a large room with places to hang clothes which is warmed by an oversized industrial heater. This was really pleasant year to dry things; in years past we have had to share the room with kendo gear (which is incredibly smelly due to the sweat involved; think your worst gym locker smell and multiply by 10).
Bathing - Perhaps somewhat obviously, there are no pictures of the bathing facilities. In this facility - and at least one other we were at - they are communal. One sits on a small stool in front of a combination faucet shower which has a temperature control on one side of the fixture and a push down fixture on the other to activate the showerhead. The most useful ones have the control at the height that one can use it with one's knee. One showers and then has the option of drying off or getting into the ofuro (hot soaking bath). The first year I passed this up; the following years including this year I did it every night. Prudery eliminates itself quickly in the presence of sore muscles.
The thing that never occurred to me when I originally started training but has become evident to me to me know, is the nature of the simplicity of all of this. By concentrating everything in a single place and having no need to go anywhere else, we are graced with the ability to focus on training and nothing else: not "Where will we eat?" or "How long will it take us to get from the hotel to the gym?" or "Where is there even a laundry facility here?". All of that is taken care of.
We need do nothing but show up - and train.
Simplicity has great benefits! Interesting post with interesting pictures.
ReplyDeleteIt does Leigh (He says, thinking of how he should apply this to real life).
DeleteIt occurred to me that almost no-one outside of a narrow band of people ever actually see the behind the scenes of such activities.
Fascinating post, thanks for the photos TB, how many were in the training session? That "drying room".....I have several lines strung up in the laundry room to hang the wash during the cold season in order to dry overnight. Everything there at the center is for simplicity and for training. Curious, that small town has been dropping in population for the last 70 years, 33,000 down to 16,000 odd now.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, we had about 14 students plus the headmaster from a variety of countries. As this was the first time we have had the training in four years, that amount is not surprising. Also, as we are an international group, the ability for individuals to attend is based ont heir own national economies - for example, many South American students that have been there in the past are not able to come because of the local economy.
DeleteMany small towns in Japan are slowly dying. Part of it is due to the overall decline in birthrate, part of it is due to the fact that the jobs are largely in the larger cities (Tokyo, by contrast, has a population of over 40 million).
To me, I see it no different than any other hobby. I know many who spend large sums of money on hobbies, that serve little purpose to me. At least with your hobby, there is a benefit of health unlike say, someone who collects beer steins.
ReplyDeleteOn your top food picture, what kind of egg was that? It is hard to tell but scale seems to indicate it was much larger than a chicken egg.
It certainly does provide mental and physical benefits a strictly physical collection does not.
DeleteThe egg in the picture is really the form of egg (tamago) you would see on a piece of sushi. It is an egg which has had some sugar added to it and is cooked in a square or rectangular pan and then sliced up after cooling.
When I was pursuing kung fu, we did weekend training like that. We'd drive up to Longview / Tyler, crash on Friday at a local student's apt, then start training in the early am Saturday. We'd work all day on forms and testing. Usually had a light breakfast, decent lunch and supper was out. There was no time for anything else. When sifu was present, we took advantage of it. He could spot the tiniest deviations. We saw him about 4 times a year.
ReplyDeleteIt is very similar to that, STxAR.
DeleteThe Plague was quite an interruption for us. Before, we would usually see our headmaster (jukucho) twice a year, once in Japan and once a year locally. This was the first time we had been able to go to Japan since 2020, and only the second time we had seen him since then (we saw him in June 2023 as well).