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View Full Version : What was your favourite venue for a Dojo? And the worst?



Tripitaka of AA
22nd October 2002, 02:46
Mike Carew mentioned that Sensei Paul White has a club at Addington Palace, commenting that it was "One of the nicest venues for a dojo I have seen". See here; http://www.addington-palace.co.uk/

I have fond memories of the San Francisco Dojo in a tiny Temple in the upper rooms of a strange-looking Church/Theatre/Bingo Hall(!) at 1886 Sutter Street (have I remembered this correctly? I only went once, while on holiday, as a nervous white belt). Tiny practice area, in front of a proper Buddhist shrine-type display.

The worst?... well you'd be hard pushed to find a less attractive place to train than the disused Scout Hut in Hendon that was at one time slated to become the Headquarters for the BSKF :( :eek: :( . Teeny weeny, draughty, ramshackle, desolate and prime Graffitti-target. I can't remember the floor, but I'm getting images of dusty concrete. The whole place is probably a pile of dust and rust by now (it was halfway there already...).

How about you chaps? Past, present or future, where was/is the nicest place to train? Saying Hombu, in Tadotsu, just doesn't count. Unless you can say one hall in particular and why.

MikeCarew
22nd October 2002, 20:06
Gassho
Following on from my comment about Addingtom Palace let me qualify as such. I have never trained outside of the UK. Not that I wouldn't like to, in fact i have every intention of sorting out that detail as soon as I can. The Addington palace is not just a great location, but the facilities are also very good. complete fitness Gyms, saunas etc and a studio with two mirrored walls. Do mind the columns in the middle. the Teikyo school is also nice. When I helped Steve Williams there with the student we were able to use the swimming and other facilities. Very nice indeed. The main problem with Teikyo, as Mizuno Sensi has observered, is the floor.

Kesshu
Mike Carew

Steve Williams
27th October 2002, 10:17
Originally posted by Tripitaka of AA
The worst?... well you'd be hard pushed to find a less attractive place to train than the disused Scout Hut in Hendon that was at one time slated to become the Headquarters for the BSKF :( :eek: :( . Teeny weeny, draughty, ramshackle, desolate and prime Graffitti-target. I can't remember the floor, but I'm getting images of dusty concrete. The whole place is probably a pile of dust and rust by now (it was halfway there already...).


Hey....

That was our branch.....


And it had a sort of "charm" that grew on you....

I remember arriving about 1 hour before class on many an occasion just to put on a couple of gas heaters so that there was not too much ice on the floor in the winter..... Character building.....

I have some good memories of that place... :)


BTW all that you said is true about the condition of the place..... so all of you who complain about your "terrible venue" just think back to the scout hut..... and we used it 3 times a week for over 2 years.....

Tripitaka of AA
27th October 2002, 10:47
Hee hee Steve. I guess it helped if you had read about the kind of places where Kaiso first taught. I took my grading for second Dan there and several of the Abbey Dojo were there for grading too (including Mizuno Sensei's son Osamu, going for Yellow belt, at around five years old:eek: .) Some of the club had come to watch, girlfriends and parents, etc. and my wife Yoriko was there. She sat in line with one of those icy draughts and got a crick in her neck that lasted for a month
:( .

In truth, I have fond memories of the place, and yes, everywhere else felt like a palace (Addington or otherwise) after that :)

tb055
8th November 2002, 10:36
Gassho,

Could anyone help out with information about Sensei Paul White's club at Addington Palace? Since I moved from Glasgow to Croydon, I have found it difficult to get to the Brixton Dojo. There is no mention of his club on the BSKF website, so any information would be most helpful.

Thanks again.

Steve Williams
8th November 2002, 16:04
Hi tb055.....

Firstly, follow the rules and sign with your full name.

Secondly, send me an e-mail or PM and I will tell you all I know (not a lot, but I can give you Paul sensei's number, don't want to do it in the forum.

Thirdly, welcome to e-budo.

Tripitaka of AA
15th October 2003, 13:53
Time for some more nimnations I think...

Jenny
15th October 2003, 14:30
Southampton Uni used to train in a beautiful room--the ballroom in the student's union. It had windows on three sides, a decent wooden floor, nice view, plenty of windows to open when it got hot, etc. Most of the venues we've had to train in since it became a bar just haven't been quite as good!

BUT it also was used as a party venue for the students on a Saturday night, and we train on a Sunday morning! Samu was a nightmare! One such memorable occasion was when there had been a 'drumstick lolly' evening there, and half-sucked, hardened lollies were stuck all over the floor! I'll leave it to your imagination what other party paraphanalia we used to find on a regular basis!

So, I think it could be the best AND worst venue!

David Dunn
15th October 2003, 14:47
I thought I'd contributed to this before.

Best long term venue for me was The Place, near Euston Station. Not so much because it was a decent venue - although it was a nice studio - but because that's where I saw Shorinji Kempo unfolding, and corresponded to a good period of my life. I'm amazed how many of those kenshi are still around. For the same reason I enjoy going to Mayfair, because it feels like 'my' dojo.

Best one-offs were hombu and Tokyo University.

Worst was the 'sub-basement' gym at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies). Sub-basement was just that, go to the basement, then go down a floor. 'Gym' was stretching it a bit too. No windows, and asbestos warnings on the walls.

[Aside: Kimpatsu started that dojo. When he went to Japan John Linney took it over for a couple of years. Sensei asked Tony Leith and I to carry it on when John went into a Buddhist order. Now Dan Garton is the instructor, and he has a shiny new venue.]

tony leith
15th October 2003, 15:27
Ha. Thanks for reviving this thread. I'd almost forgotten about the old SOAS venue - it wasn't quite in a disused lavatory with a sign saying 'beware of the leopard' on the door, but it was close. It did have the virtue of probably being the only training hall in the world capable of withstanding nuclear attack however. I'd like to blame the lack of success we had there on the venue, but given what Rob Villiers (assisted by Dave and George) was subsequently able to achieve at UCL etc., I'm probably deluding myself...

The Place also has a place in my heart as my 'home' dojo when I was resident in London, largely due to being under Mizuno Sensei's direct instruction (I say again to London kenshi get your arses to his dojos and train with him while you can, you don't know how lucky you are), but also because of the people I was training with. The ones I'm still in touch with are still close friends, which is what Kempo is really all about (group hug, anyone? - don't worry, I'm kidding. Remember I'm Scottish).

For all time 'wow' factor, main hall at Honbu is hard to beat. Doing the tenchi ken kata there when there was basically no other bugger around is one of my top ten favourite training moments.
actually, now I think about it, training in the Honbu doin down in Tadotsu was probably even more 'wow worthy', given that its as close as we can get to where it all began..

Tony leith

David Dunn
15th October 2003, 15:37
SOAS was always a hard recruiting ground. I used to blame the Met's special 'turn a blind eye' to the substances being burned upstairs. Although the venue didn't help. I guess Dan finds it easier these days.

cheunglo
15th October 2003, 15:38
The only occasions that I have trained at the Scout Hut was during randori competitions. If you spent time forming opinions of the decor, you were about to become a statistic. Otherwise I have rather fond memories of going head-to-head with Steve.

James Hales
15th October 2003, 15:48
Hurrah for the SOAS sub basement! It is probably the worst venue I have ever trained in, but it is also one of my favourites as it was pretty much where I started Shorinji Kempo (Sam Majed was taking the classes at the time). It is true that we now have a shiny new venue in Vernon Square but I still miss the old one.

Other best venue would be the Honbu Doin.

All the best

tony leith
15th October 2003, 18:50
I note with interest that apparently e-budo's inbuilt censor can't cope with 'arse'. This is the same piece of software that hitches up its skirts and runs away shrieking at the sight of Fukodukohon. Pile of wank.

Tony leith

tony leith
15th October 2003, 18:55
My last comment was in a spirit of scientific enquiry - it seems the Fukodukon is no longer on the list of proscribed utterances. It also appears UK 'colloquialisms' are pretty much stealthed anyway...

Tony leith

John McCollum
15th October 2003, 20:38
Originally posted by tony leith
I note with interest that apparently e-budo's inbuilt censor can't cope with 'arse'. This is the same piece of software that hitches up its skirts and runs away shrieking at the sight of Fukodukohon. Pile of wank.

Tony leith

*AHEM*

Pulling this thread back on topic, TONY, the San Francisco branch has to be nicest venue I've trained at. It's located in the basement of a Buddhist temple in the heart of Japantown. I visited as an ikkyu, and was slightly perturbed at the huge numbers of yudansha training there. Also, about 90% of the kenshi there were Japanese; it was a relief to find them using marginally less Japanese than we would normally use in the Glasgow branch! A really good experience all round.

Worst venue? I don't really have one. I'll make do with anywhere where I can thump people. :)

We are blessed with a nicely sprung wooden floor at GUSKC, though, so anywhere with a concrete/marble/brick floor immediately worsens my mood....

aran
15th October 2003, 22:58
At the start of my time in Japan I spent a few months in Tokyo. Mizuno sensei suggested I look for a dojo once I knew where I'd be living; one of my Japanese teachers did some phoning around for me.

Eventually everything worked out, in that I found the outstanding Meguro Douin, run by Kubo Hiroshi sensei. (One of the more entertaining features of this group is that they train every Friday evening and Sunday morning - which pretty well rules out weekend drinking - and also the morning of every public holiday. Despite this, their classes typically have forty or fifty people. One thing to remember is that in Japan it's not unusual for your hobby to provide your entire social life too.)

Anyway... in my initial search I was warmly invited to watch the training at a couple of other dojos. One of these was at that time (1997) training in the basement elevator lobby of a trade-union office next to Shiba Koen (smack in the middle of Tokyo - like being near St James's Park in London).

I think there were about a dozen kenshi, including a couple of teenagers. Everyone was very friendly (of course), and the training was enthusiastic - although the low ceiling and lino floor naturally ruled out certain forms of nage. I also don't remember anything by way of Chinkon or Howa. Afterwards we loitered for a while by the building's main entrance, drinking cans of beer from the local convenience store while the sensei smoked a few cigarettes.

I've suggested elsewhere that there are many ways to run a dojo. This one probably represents an extreme on one scale or another.

--
Aran Lunzer
in sunny Copenhagen. Ok, right now it's starry.

sean dixie
15th October 2003, 23:34
BEST
I've trained in many great Dojos. The 'Place' as this is where I first started my training with Sensei Mizuno. I've made many friends here, some gone, many still around. Honbu- a given. But I'd like to put up Imperial College Dojo. A beautiful big space, great floor and massive windows that let in the Sunday morning light that simply shimmers off the speedily executed Goho waza! Oh, and the music college girls have their 1st year halls of residence just opposite and sometimes I never let them distract me despite what their wearing early on a Sunday mornings :D

WORST

Got to be a very low period in Euston/Mayfair history when we were training in a local school behind the sports centre where we used to train. Changing in the school toilets(seemed the cleaners came in later) Crappy hall, bad floor and funnily enough too few students. Still, happy days now.

Off topic, good luck to everyone going to Paris to grade or compete in Embu.:p

David Dunn
16th October 2003, 00:20
Sean,
Imperial is great isn't it? Gets all the sun on a Sunday morning, Albert Hall and Albert's memorial in Hyde Park in view. Some of the randori video was filmed in there. I noticed that you never spent kihon looking at the halls of residence opposite. When we filmed the video the Brixton kenshi decided to open the changing room window and do their best 'Naked Mr Universe' impressions. It raised a few waves and laughs.

jonboy
16th October 2003, 12:36
Southampton Uni used to train in a beautiful room--the ballroom in the student's union.....BUT it also was used as a party venue....Samu was a nightmare
Jenny, you're not wrong there. The worst I've experienced is when your dojo had a drop-in session for Bristol uni three or four years ago. The idea was a party the night before a really hard training session. The party was brilliant. I remember Sensei Adrian laughing at me after I had apologised to a notice board for walking into it. mmmm drinking games and cheap cocktails.

But to come to the point, the party - named sex and debauchery night - was organised by the university to promote safe sex. So they were giving out free condoms, some of which we had to clean up the morning after. Truly horrible. Still glad to see the students took the safe sex thing seriously.

Steve Williams
16th October 2003, 23:52
Originally posted by cheunglo
The only occasions that I have trained at the Scout Hut was during randori competitions. If you spent time forming opinions of the decor, you were about to become a statistic. Otherwise I have rather fond memories of going head-to-head with Steve.

For "fond" read "painful"?? and thats painful on both sides ;) (of the mat, not of the body......).






The decor was very "zen", i.e. there was no decor (if you don't include the rising damp and dry rot on the walls.......
You do keep bringing back some very "fond" memories for me though.......

Oh, and David N...... the floor was not concrete, but was concrete with a layer of (what can best be described as) compacted cardboard with a varnish on it......... in a dark brown colour....... lovely ;) :D

Tripitaka of AA
17th October 2003, 05:24
A new motto for Steve Sensei:

My study of Budo
can trace its roots
to a distant time in the
Land of the Rising Damp

Steve Williams
20th October 2003, 20:12
Thanks David :rolleyes: ;)


Another "dodgy" venue......

The basement at City uni...... in the old building.... when Jeremy Shackelton was sensei....... The actual basement was not too bad, just the route to it was not...... "desirable"..... ;)