I briefly mentioned in my last post that a friend who recently returned to Japan was surprised at having to wait for 45 minutes of a one hour practice for keiko with a hachidan sensei in the Osaka Shudokan. George who witnessed and commented on the scene, will I am sure, back me up when I say this is not an unusual situation.
At the shudokan, or any of the big civic dojo in Japan, you have to be quick and determined to practise with any of the senior sensei. The rule of thumb when I was regularly training there, was that you could have 2 keiko with hachidan , 4 with nanadan, or up to 8 at peer level in the allotted hour.
Getting face time with senior sensei is an acquired skill. You need to put your men on faster than any of your rivals and be prepared to run to position whilst pulling your kote on. Some kendoka train themselves to tie their men in record time, others develop ingenious ways to pre-tie their men so that it can be slipped on instantly.
These skills are equally useful for the monthly godokeiko sessions at the Nippon Budokan or asa-geiko at the Kyoto Taikai. Even though there may be 200+ hachidan in attendance, the chance of getting to your favourite hanshi is close to nil. On one occasion in Kyoto I made it my goal to be first in line with Sumi sensei. I got up at 4.30 a.m. , arrived almost an hour before practice started and placed myself approximately in front of the spot where he would be sitting. Fortunately for him, not so for me, he had been awarded hanshi the previous day, so whilst he initially sat facing the spot where I was waiting; he was pushed up the line by the longer time served, but still kyoshi sensei. I had to run an extra 20 metres to beat the queue and finished 5th in line. Nevertheless I got my keiko.
Keiko with senior teachers offers two opportunities, one to practise with them and benefit from their advice; plus the chance to watch them with other students whilst you wait. The watching or mitorigeiko part becomes more interesting if sensei’s opponents are other kodansha. The downside is that usually they have the right to queue jump. This is a sensible arrangement as it allows them to get back to acting as motodachi with a minimum of delay. If however you are last in line and there is five minutes of keiko time left and someone steps in front of you, you may not see it that way.
Returning to the challenges of making the most of your time in the dojo, the Japanese system for adult kendoka is essentially, well, adult. You can invest your time in waiting to train with the top teachers, or if you think it is needed, you can stay at the shimoseki end of the dojo and practice kihon geiko with a buddy of your own grade. As long as you take your keiko seriously no-one will mind.
kendoinfo.net 
My first time at Noma Dojo I had just held the tenugui up to my head when I heard a stampede towards one of the resident hachidan. I reckon that was about 3 seconds flat. National level players were in that group. I’ve been told that competitive high school kendoists can often do it in 5 seconds.
I guess I count myself lucky because we have the opportunity several times a years to practice with two hachidan sensei here in Cleveland, Ohio and other midwestern U.S. events) with no more than 15 minute wait each time. This is in additional to several nanadan sensei as well. In fact, there is opportunity to practice with them several times if one is really motivated and has the strength.
It is a little bit harder to get a chance with visiting Hachidan sensei from Japan, but from what have been told by some Japanese kenshi who are visiting the U.S. that they practice with more hachidan sensei here than in Japan! This the advantage I guess of having only about 5k kendoka spread out over the entire U.S.
Hello, my name is Charlie, I am aspiring to learn Kendo. My Father, Stephen J. Nice (formally of Granger Telecom/DSC) tells me he knows you, I would welcome the opportunity to chat and see if I can further my ambitions in Kendo.
Theres nothing I hate worse than people quickly tie-ing there stuff on, running to the front of the queue, then sitting down and re-tying their men or something. Damn annoying!!!
With the massive asageiko at Kyoto-taikai the secret is to skip the bow-in, mokuso, etc, and tie your stuff on in the corridor. This makes the dash for the sensei A LOT easier!!!!!
p.s. I havent dont this myself (and wont ever), but I’ve see it done.
Last night I went to the city budokan in Sendai and the rule of thumb applied perfectly again. I got two keiko with the hachidan instructors, but it included lining up for 35 minutes for each 5 minute keiko. Last week I felt like sweating a bit more and could do more than twice the keiko with the nana and rokudan instructors. So I guess that you can say that the rule applies similarly for smaller city budokan as well.
It’s nice when others validate your theory