I found the quote botton that's cool!
You know I was just asking because one of the important things for me is that I should be able to place my activities in the here and now of my own life and culture.
It is not so that I do not respect other cultures (this does not imply by the way that I do respect other cultures just like that because they are different - a culture needs to have some elements in it to deserve my respect. This is very un-Dutchlike of me.
(lookiing at the state the world is in today it might be better to say some elements of other cultures should be lacking in them to deserve my respect - but that is an aside)
Back to the floor:
For instance in case I have do a certain ritual during training or if I have to pray to or make amends to let's say Japanese spirits or Gods or whatever.
That is all very well for me as long as I have a teacher who can explain - read: translate - it for me so that it makes sense to me and it can mean something to me.
In the absence of such a teacher the gestures and all would be meaningless to me and I would soon feel I am ' playacting' samurai.
Growing a full beard and a Toshiro Mifune hairdo is what some people find cool. And it probably is cool. It is just that I am not one of those people.
Happy landings,
Johan Smits