training

Today I would to go to the concerts, but I had spent 8 houres on the training of the tai chi chuan. We practised chan si gong, it is a spiral motion of the whole body and each body part separately and at the same time. It is really difficult but important to do right the tai chi chuan. This training was additional so there were fewer people than usual. This pleased me because the coach could focus on each one of us and say what we were doing wrong. I'm really tried (but HAPPY) now and I don't what it my name is ;) and of course I'm sending this evening at home...

Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is my favourite Japanese writer. He is genius, really ! For this moment I read all his books which are translated in Polish and French. Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949. He grew up in Kobe, a port city in which particularly easy contact with other cultures. He is interested in the others cultures, he reads an American literature, he listens to jazz. He graduated from the Faculty of Drama Classical Literature at Waseda University. In the years 1974-1981, he had a jazz club. Now he is living in New York.

He made his debut as a novelist in 1979 Encouraged by Naoma Literary Prize for Beginners Writers continues writing career. The first novel, Hear the Wind Sing was available only in Japan for a long time. In this year this novel was translated in Polish. 

His books are interesting, it's a mix of the real world with the fantastic, but in terms of the subconscious and imagination of heroes. In his books, Murakami is not focused on action, but on the internal development of heroes.

The books which I recommend to you :

- A Wild Sheep Chase

- Dance Dance Dance 

- Norwegian Wood 

- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 

- Kafka on the Shore

- 1Q84

summer holidays

Approaching terrible exam session, but then they will be holidays :) This year, the holiday will be great. July and half of August outside the home, I'm going to camp of tai chi chuan, where they will be training all day of long forms and sword. Then I'm going to Belgium to volunteer, and then to Paris for the weekend to visit friends. I really can not wait :)

And you have any plans for summer holidays?

London

I was in London 4 years ago. I remember, this trip was really exciting because I had only 3 days for visit London ;). The pace of the sightseeing was crazy, but I had enough time for visit the most important monuments and places in this city (and for a cup of tee at 5 o'clock ;)). I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Big Ben, the modern part of London with a skyscraper in the shape of "cucumber", I was also in China Town, known as Soho, I was sunning  on a lounger in the park Buckingham, I also saw Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. I was in a waxworks museum of Madame Tussauds, in a museum of modern art and in the national museum. The most I was impressed by the natural art museum. and the science museum, which were huge and the entrance was free. The exhibitions were fantastic, it was possible to touch them.
I hope that I will ever come back, because London also is impressive at night, I wasn't enough time to benefit it. Besides, I also dream of a trip in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper and Harry Potter.

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.