Supplies: Good source for jos? - 0 Replies

From: David Norton on Wed, 05 Aug 2020 08:21:27 -0600

I'm trying to find a source for decent quality jos, at a reasonable price. (Previous forum posts on this subject are quite dated.) In the past I've used Dowels on Demand, but lately he has gotten more flaky than usual (slow response time, shipping errors, mistakes in ordering, etc.). So I'm looking for some place new. I've tried reaching out to a few martial art suppliers (SDK, Crane Mountain), but haven't heard back yet. I'm open to hearing about people's experience; quality, price, customer service, etc. I've also reached out to several lumber suppliers. This, in my opinion, is the most economical solution. In general, it seems that when a dowel is billed as a "martial arts weapon", the price tends to be around $75-100 (in some cases much more). Whereas a dowel of comparable material from a lumber supplier can run between $10-30. As much as I appreciate craftsmanship, this is a hard pill to swallow. Anyway, thanks for reading. I look forward to responses.

General: Racism and Aikido - 21 Replies

From: Bernd Lehnen on Wed, 05 Aug 2020 04:11:42 -0600

PAG wrote in Re: Racism and Aikido Hello. Sorry for the delay in answering this question, for I have just seen your posts. It is quite a difficult question. There appear to be two extremes. One is to get married to a Japanese and to fit as far as possible into that respective facet of Japanese culture: married life with children. This can fit the Japanese model. Today I went shopping and saw a young Japanese family, with kids who were old enough to be curious and run around being kids. The proud father wandered around showing his pride -- and showed little interest in what the kids were doing. He left this matter to his wife, who exhibited a kind of motherly panic, as she tried to hold them in check. A foreign father can also do this but the scales are heavily loaded on the Japanese side and in the examples I have seen the man is assimilated into the Japanese system and plays the role of husband and father as much as he is allowed to. Fluency in Japanese is crucial here, or else the husband will become a kind of dumb mannequin There other is to remain single and the problem then is to what degree one can retain a sense of self as English, or American, or Indonesian, in a situation where all the desirable social objectives are for the Japanese, with the foreigners being the inhabitants of a kind of social gomi bakko (trash bin). Some friends of mine could not cope with this and returned home. Others acquired enough social resilience to be able to accept both, and switch from one to the other. So foreigners are different from burakumin / eta because they have their own culture to support them, whereas burakumin are Japanese, but are also 'untouchable' so have to create their own versions of the Japanese culture of which they are members. Another point is that I am a professor, which is a position of some status here. I can thus teach 'secret mysteries' that Japanese can 'never' understand. This is playing their own game and I do this in the aikido dojo sometimes.The difference is that I do it with a sense of humor, and the more perceptive Japanese can see the game I am playing. Last edited by Peter Goldsbury : 08-03-2020 at 06:42 AM. P A Goldsbury _______________________ Kokusai Dojo, Hiroshima, Japan [QUOTE=Peter A Goldsbury;354945]I regularly drink Ahmad Tea: English No. 1 and English Breakfast, served in teabags, or loose in a china teapot; sometimes Wedgwood and various types of Twinings. My favorite Twinings tea is Ceylon Orange Pekoe. Do you approve? Do you think it helps my aikido training? Best wishes, PAG[/QUOTE] Yes, of course, I do. I always found drinking tea an appropriate ritual to keep ones calm, good humour and integrity even under the most adverse conditions. Best wishes, Bernd