I know that studying koryu is a life long exercise.
But then, since hardly any koryu is taught outside of Japan, one would have to live in Japan for many years. For most people this is not possible.
However, I can imagine that people would be able to save up money for an extended stay of say six to twelve months. Now, if one does this it would of course be great to learn as much as possible in this time. But how often are koryu classes. It seems that most shihan have a regular job and teach two, three times a week. Or are there ryu which offer daily classes?
Studying different arts at different days is a theoretical possibility, but I got the impression that most long time practitioners advise against this.
Do you have any suggestions?
Another question is about meditation, breathing and healing techniques. It seems that mikkyo is often part of koryu. In The Way of the Warrior we can see Otake sensei explain the kuji kiri and tell us that he uses it among other I guess to heal people. Is this regularly taught to students and still part of the curriculum? If not, why not? When is it taught? If only after living in Japan for many years, why is that so? Is it because the teacher has to be very sure of the student's character and can only be so after many years or does it take a lot of ground work? Otherwise if these practices are benefitial for health of oneself and others why aren't they passed on early on?