Non-white Gis

[oneya]

With your kind of weather that is a fantastic dojo Mike.! Do you have lighting at night.?

Reason I ask is because when I first came to Australia we trained on a concrete slab at the local school for two years, winter and summer with one single 60 watt light bulb through the winter nights. That's when I found out Australians told porkies about good OZ weather all year round.

Train for two hours with each half an hour training followed by holding the feet over a gas hot plate to thaw out..

and yes.. only white dogi and reality.

oneya

[kyudo]

As for the study to find out if black and white had neurological significance, what I recall is the study used the speed of reaction to the color to tell the difference between neurological and psychological response. That is about as much as I remember of what I glanced at on that one. It did sound interesting at the time.

Being the color geek around here, I can enlighten you on some of this. Here's a surprise: our eyes don't perceive colors. Colors 'happen' in our brain as a response to perceived contrasts. Contrasts, then, can only be perceived by movement. If your eyes don't move, you're effectively blind. This explains why we're more sensitive to movement than to a 'still' image. It also tells us that all colors are illusion. Not only in a spiritual or philosophical sense, but also as a matter of scientific fact. And if you think about it, it sure explains a few things we learn about perception in the dojo...

Oneya is correct about the black hakama, in that they have less contrast and therefor color and movement is more difficult to discern.

[mspain]

With your kind of weather that is a fantastic dojo Mike.! Do you have lighting at night.?

Reason I ask is because when I first came to Australia we trained on a concrete slab at the local school for two years, winter and summer with one single 60 watt light bulb through the winter nights. That's when I found out Australians told porkies about good OZ weather all year round.

Train for two hours with each half an hour training followed by holding the feet over a gas hot plate to thaw out..

and yes.. only white dogi and reality.

oneya

The weather is definitely tropical. However, coming here from Hawaii is a little bit of a shock even though on the island I lived there was snow at the top of the mountain sometimes. What I have experienced, born and raised in California, going to Vietnam, returning to California, moving to Hawaii, and now having moved to Thailand, is that the body gets used to the environment. Still, I don't think getting used to frozen is ever worth getting used to! When I went to train in Japan in the months of December, February, and March, I was not there long enough to acclimate. It was difficult for me, including training in Mr. Takagi's dojo, which was a school gymnasium and in the evenings....... COLD ! My hands and feet suffered, as you speak about.

Once a person is acclimated (is that a word?) to Thailand weather, the person feels cold relative to the weather here.

There is lighting in that area. That work is going to be there for another couple weeks and we may move to a building across the parking lot. It isn't quite as open as the current area, yet it is still open. There are rooms on one side and part of another side. I'm not sure if we will stay there. It may turn out the the newer place will be cleaner because I don't think it has the foot traffic that our current training area has. One downside is how visible the training area is, which is our main way of advertising in the university. Another downside of the newer area is my own inability to communicate clearly, so it will be hard for me to explain to people how to get there. It takes going up a stairway, turning right, and there we are.... Hey! Maybe I will be able to communicate directions! Now if I can just read the long Thai words over the stairway to indicate what building it is.

Maybe the warming of your feet took the place of standing under a waterfall for training? (I am joking, Oneya)

By the way, the dojo at my house is just as open as the current area at the university, although quite a bit smaller. At least I have mats, bags, BOB, etc. at my house. I'll put an old picture taken at the home dojo in the bottom of this message.

MSPain

DSCN2451[1].jpg (67.62 KiB) Viewed 4119 times

[oneya]

Good size dojo area Mike. Makes me think of the different dynamics at work at University dojo with a short term - four or five year - rollover and the smaller dojo with wado vets of thirty plus years still training..

oneya