So in the past month I've been travelling and I've brough my gear with me to dojos in Chicago, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Here are some remarks on both the pointers I've gotten as well as the ways of practice.
In Chicago, there was a cohort of beginners, who seemed rather muscle-bound, and practice was much less sempai-focused, less circular, in that the beginners rotated and the more senior students didn't move on the sensei-side. The exercises focused on footwork in a hexagon (very confusing) and solid men strikes which fully reach the top of the men--completely straight right arm. There seemed to be more of a focus on big swings and coordinated action. In a big dojo, it felt my kiai didn't go far enough most of the time. The eldest sensei mostly observed until keiko-time. Keiko was very energetic and difficult for me--I was reminded to loosen up and straighten up for a more bouncy and relaxed strike. It all seemed rather short.
In Tokyo, I was worried at first that it was just a kiddie dojo, but that was just the beginning: I was working with the Sensei I knew and the kids (about 10-12?) and our focus was on speed, mostly doing three-in-a-row waza and focused on good footwork, snapping the left foot. I of course was too tense. In keiko with the senior sensei, I was told that I lean back a little too much. Most of the adults in armor (and some of the younger folks (teens and up)) only showed up for jigeiko, with no appreciable group warmup or anything--just practice.
In Hong Kong, the segregation of beginners from more advanced players was even more extreme: the beginners practiced for an hour and a half, starting with fixed pairs practicing strikes with bokuto, which was very interesting, especially with the wrist-twisty strikes (think kata-4) which I was just terrible with. These strikes included men, small men, kote, small kote, kote-men, degote, and debana-men, as well as various harai-waza. The feeling was very different and the rei was very abbreviated, but the feeling of striking with an actual bokuto as opposed to a shinai (with no impact (we hope!)) was helpful in adopting the right tone. Once in actual armor, I think we pretty much went straight to keiko. I was relatively high-ranked in the beginners group, but the teaching sensei definitely disarmed me without much trouble.
In the second class, the focus was on fluidity of strikes for a while: men-men-do-do, then kote-men-kote-do. I don't remember what other drills we did, but it felt like there weren't all that many, what with suiting up (no group warm-up). Keiko was only with senior instructors (oops), and I did better with some than others. The continual correction was my posture--more forward in the torso, not leaning back all the time....
I should take better notes and revive this blog...
