Yes, still alive. Sorry to anyone who actually follows this.
I've been to five dojo this past forthnight. The old and the new sites of one of the city's classics, another city classic I'd never been to myself, my normal practice dojo and one for a seminar.
The first "city classic" was a small four story building, with useful roof and basement, which is going to be turned into apartments. Once one of the almost pilgrimage like sites of the city, for martial artists, together with a sister site in a different neighbourhood, it's been significantly dwindling. But once upon it was a main center for Judo, Karate, Aikido, emergency services... They've kept Karate (Shotokan), but I don't think anything else is remotely "classic", and they've moved to a former florist, with two rooms and a half; the first one full of two rows brand new static bikes and weights, in full view of a McFit. The tatami is uneven, oversoft, and full of holes, inherited from the Olympics back when. The changing area is the size of a single bed.
The other classic is an attic, of sorts, in an old office building. A single room, full of old canvas lined tatami, properly matched, the wall full of mementos of the main focus of the school (Shito ryû karate), with some others peppered around. There's a lack if distractions in the ambience, a certain tinge of sweat and mat and wood, that helps.
My usual dojo is a repurposed garage, with cheap fake wood floor, a changing area the size of a yoga mat, some Okinawan mementos in the kamiza... The floor is kinda hard, but it works.
And the last one... the last one I visited yesterday, for a seminar in the suburbs. The most even tatami I've walked on, in a place the size of a living room (column included), smallish changing area (but still bigger than the two above, and likely the bigger share of the whole). Its walls filled with training pads, light and heavy, and assorted aids. No flags, no symbols of style... only the belt of a member who died suddenly a couple years ago.
The most "classic" art they practice in that room is Brazilian JJ. The rest... Kajukenbo, Krav Maga, Muay Thai... You get the idea. It's a place that you'd think is full of testosteroned idiots, training hard, laughing high.
The one that changed places is being "turned into more of a dojo", but the owner won't even greet you on the very last/first day of her place. The old schoolers have been progressively turned away.
If they want a dojo, there are places to learn how to run one. Meanwhile, they've swapped the inheritance for a serving of lentils... and they're not even keeping any seeds.
