Sounds good. That sounds like shandy in England or a panaché in France. I'm sure you already know Japanese beer is very good - light and refreshing.

(continued)The Canary Islands are known to have the whole year spring temperatures between 20º and 30º, But sometimes the sirocco wind comes from the Sahara desert and if it is in summer the temperature goes up until 40º, our teacher always says to train soft, but then we are doing one kokyunage after the other, I'll tell him: that is what you call soft? And after that training the best is a little beer with seven up called clarita, that brings you in form again

Niall this comment is to warm you up, if it is freezing again in your place

The handwarmers, a brilliant idea! I wish I had thought of that back then!

Thanks Eric. Yes, you're right. Numb feet and cold floors! I've seen a few people with pulled muscles and similar injuries down to the cold in January. Japan is a couple of degrees warmer than England in winter but I remember one training in kenjutsu when people were putting handwarmers down the back of their keikogis.

I always had a harder time with winter trainings. Every morning, practicing at 7:30. Putting on a cold gi. The cold floors. Fighting over the little patch of sunshine for the morning stretches. One day we were practicing jo kata, and after each, we would slam our jo down so hard it would echo throughout the dojo. On one of the last ones, I looked down, and I had smashed it right into my foot--but it was so numb and didn't feel it at all. Left a mighty nasty bruise!

Thanks Ziv - great point about cramps and stiffness. Natural conditions are best if possible. By the way I talked about some sounds of summer but there is also a distinctive smell of summer in Japan - burning mosquito coils (katori senko). We used them in an old dojo where we had to put out the tatami before practice.

{continued...} After attending several seminars in fully air conditioned practice halls, I can understand my teacher reluctance towards air conditions. After such seminars I usually suffer from muscle cramps. I recon the reason is the occasional sitting with a sweaty gi in these cool (or even freezing) halls. After such seminars, I feel relieved to return to the natural hot and humid atmosphere of my dojo.

I can relate to the hot and humid summer practices. The Israeli summer is not as hot and humid as in Tokyo, from what you and my teacher say, but somewhat close. Until recently the gym hall where we practice was not air conditioned, so summer training is usually done in hot and humid atmosphere. Even after the air condition was installed, we rarely turn it on. My teacher insists on keeping it off, saying (as you describe) that these are the conditions in hombu dojo.

I should tell the free beer refill story. After training on Thursdays we always went for a meal with our teacher Asoh Sensei. And one hot summer they had a special unlimited free beer refill offer for a fixed price. One of the students was a big American ex-marine who after the hard training could put beer away faster than they could bring it. At the end of the evening the manager of the restaurant gave him an envelope with 20,000 yen ($200) in it and said, "Please don't come back!"

I mentioned the sound of a wind-chime giving a cooling feeling. Somehow one other summer sound - fireworks - gave a refreshing feeling during training. From the Hombu Dojo in Shinjuku-ku we could hear them sometimes (from Harajuku?) and from Minato-ku too (maybe from the Odaiba waterfront?). One more cooling thing I didn't mention was cold beer and beer gardens! Cheers Billy.

Hey thanks Billy. I remember in the south of France we had to use a special pure local soap to prevent heat rash on our wrists (where the uke gripped). Hawaii was hot too but not uncomfortable. But the heat and humidity in the concrete of Tokyo is so oppressive if there's no breeze.

The hottest training I can remember was at the open air dojo in the base of (probably the car park) the YMCA building in Bangkok Thailand. That was something. Loved the post Niall, I will show Susan. Best, Billy

Thank you Daisy.

Our dojo is not temperature-regulated, and during the particularly cold winter evenings or hot-and-humid summer training days, I totally get how training can be a test of physical and mental endurance. It's really something when you can feel how hot the mat is and pour tons of sweat just putting on your gi and hakama! Thanks for this entry--I learned quite a bit from it.