People will be happy to have you in a dojo if you are polite. Aikido is difficult because the moves are very subtle and requires you re-learn how to use your body. I liked it because I'm n ot fast, so I could spend a lot of time conceptualizing movement.

As far as Karate styles, just join a dojo. If you like it, don't worry about style. You'll just get confused. You'll still learn self defense.

Yeah, I agree to a point. Aikido only becomes practical if you do it a long time. At that point your not resorting to "moves" anymore, but able to understand balance and body mechanics enough to deal with whatever is presented.

I found that my aikido training adequately prepared me for jui jitsu folks because I was able to soften up, move and counter. But you got to mix it up. Modern Aikido folk sometimes think it's like a religeon and say theres no punching, etc.

If you take it as a martial art and throw in your punches, kicks, you should be ok.

Thats nice, I used to do boxing before, so I'm wondering if I'm gonna try it again in Japan. But I'm a 173cm tall Norwegian girl probably weighing 10 kg more that most of the Japanese girls -.- so I'm a little afraid I will be to heavy.

I thought about Aikido, but I know very little about that martial art. I know it's more like throwing your opponent using his strenght against him and such.

I prefer more "fighting martial arts" with kicks, punches and such, where you need to be strong and work hard, so I keep my shape up until I'm going back to norway again. If you understand my point : p

But in Japan, if you join a dojo for instance, how many days each week do you need to practice with the club/dojo? In Norway it's usually 3 days a week, is it more in japan?

I don't know if i agree that Judo and Jiujitsu being the "dominating" art. I am a firm believer that any art is useful as long as you train hard and properly in it.

As far as one art going up another is concern, there is no studies done to backup any claim, to be able to conclude which is a better art, you need to setup and compare apples to apples. There is also the rules involved, putting up a Thai Boxer against a Jiujitsu person using grappling rules will benefit the Jiujitsu person, while if you put them up against a Strike Only rule, that will probably beneif the thai boxer, and of course, putting someone that has 1 year training, but train 8 hours a day in Muay thai versus someone that train part time in Jiujitsu.. etc etc etc... there are all king of factors involved to justify such a claim

Do as little or a s much as you want. Most dojos in Japan are similar to others in that respect. However, you will find the dojo culture a bit different. Most dojos will let you chack them out, just like most places. Just check out dodjos until you find one you like. Ask new acquaintences and they might have suggestions for local dojos.

Train photography tourism is pretty big. Oh wait, you had a question about sports. Yeah, the Brazilian jujitsu places accept women just be prepared to lose some hair.

As far as I know, you can go as many days as you feel like as long as they have classes for your belt rank.

Karate is not JUST Karate, style does make a difference. Traditional Goju and Shoto ryu already have a huge difference. I myself for example, am in Goju, its a very very different style than Shoto, and definitely different from Combat Karate. So it really depends on what your goals are

And as fro martial art that train you hard, I don't think its only limited to striking art, try Judo and tell me if it trains you hard or not

What do you want to gain from Martial Art? Like what kind of things you are looking at to learn?