martial arts

"Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practices, which are practiced for a variety of reasons: self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, entertainment, as well as mental, physical, and spiritual development.
Although the term martial art has become heavily associated with the fighting arts of eastern Asia, it was originally used in regard to the combat systems of Europe as early as the 1550s. An English fencing manual of 1639 used the term in reference specifically to the "Science and Art" of swordplay. The term is ultimately derived from Latin, and means "arts of Mars," where Mars is the Roman god of war."


Of course, I am interested by Eastern martial arts ( Japanese Aikido and Chinese Taiji quan in the West it is called as Tai chi chuan). I trained aikido for two years as part of physical education in Toruń. The reason why I do not do this here in Poznań is that those classes were free and I could practice 7 hours / week .
Now I found a school of Tai chi chuan (Piotr Ziemba is a leader,he is a multiple champion of Polish and European Champions). The most people associate Tai chi chuan with the Chinese who doing the gentle movements in the parks. Of course they are right, but this is a very simplistic image of this martial art.
Style name appeared hundreds of years ago. Tai chi chuan is a term found in the Chinese philosophy of Yin Yang and Taoist philosophy. The concept of Tai chi, describes a world in which the original unity ( wuji ) emerged complementary elements of yin and yang. Tai chi chuan can  be translated as " fist / style taiji ".
Training includes the basic exercises, forms, or complex forms including weapons (eg, with a sword, spear, stick, halberd, two swords, hand fan, etc., exercise with a partner ( pushing hands ), teaching combat and self-defense, meditation and breathing exercises called as Qigong (chi kung). The training is significantly different from most martial arts because the most important in Tai chi chuan is the coordination between mind and body.
Tai chi chuan is divided into different styles, of which the most famous and popular are: Chen, Yang, Wu, Hao and Sun. Tai chi chuan training is usually associated with a slow movements of the exercise called as forms. However, many forms of Tai chi chuan combines both slow movements and dynamic.
I  exercise the Yang style, which is the basic style and I just started to exercise the Chen style, which was the first and the most difficult. To be honest, Tai chi chuan is for me one of the most important elements of my life at the moment. By training this, I feel that I finally found something that I love ;)
 
Here you have a link at the web side of this school of Tai chi chuan :http://www.taichi.com.pl/

30 reasons to go to Japan

I have always wanted to go to Japan. In total, I came to the conclusion that this is my biggest dream (about two others I will write some other time;)). On the web page, I found 30 beautiful photos that make you really want to go to Japan. One of the reasons why I did not go there yet is the cost of the trip ... unfortunately. However, when I will go there, I would like to visit e.g. Tokyo in the footsteps of heroes of Haruki Murakami's books, take a bath in hot springs, to visit the cultural capital of Japan - Kyoto, to eat real sushi and sweets made ​​with red beans and to sleep in a capsule. 

 

http://www.tsunagujapan.com/c/view/en/2213
Enjoy watching photos :)

Diego Velázquez "Peasants at the Table"

Diego Velázquez "Peasants at the Table" (1620)

"Peasants at the Table" was painted by Diego Velázquez. It was the Spanish painter who lived from 1599 to 1660. He painted this picture in 1620 in Seville. The dimensions of the picture are 96 cm x 112 cm, and the type of the painting is an oil on canvas. The picture can be admired in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. 

In the foreground we can see a still life which is connected with the scene in the background. 

The artist painted three peasants having breakfast. Two men are sitting at the table nicely decorating, and in the middle there is a woman who is filling one goblet with wine. The oldest man is listening to the youngest man, and he is holding the goblet. The youngest man is probably telling something with holding his arm up. 

The still life which is presented in the foreground is exposed by the whiteness of the tablecloth. On the table we can see a loaf of bread, some fish, a lemon, a carrot, a glass and a teapot. When we look at the elements of the still life, they seem to be tangibles.

An one hand the background of the picture is dark and hardly visible, and in the other hand the light directed on the table is bright and strong. It is difficult to find a source of the light. 

In my opinion, the picture is extremely realistic and this proved of how talented artist Diego Velázquez was. He knew a lot about a human body. 

Japanese animation

I recommend to you one of Japanese animations "Tsumiki no Ie" (The House of Small Cubes) directed by Kunio Kato which won Oscar in 2009.

 As his town is flooded by water, an old man is forced to add additional levels onto his home with cubes in order to stay dry. But when he accidentally drops his favourite smoking pipe into the lower levels of his home, he recalled the nice family moments.

At the beginning of this animation bored me, but in the end I found that it was touching. It takes only 12 minutes, so I think that you can see something good :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_2Sc8fD_Kc