Greetings all, I train at the Jinenkan Los Angeles dojo for a few months, am currently 9th kyu, and will test for 8th kyu soon. Note that I have started cross-training in an unrelated jujutsu school nearby, but have kept this fact to myself at the Jinenkan dojo.
The international organization recognizes the following ranks:
3rd kyu: green belt
2nd kyu: purple belt
1st kyu: brown belt
I believe to be 3rd kyu or higher, you must be a member of the international organization.
The L.A. dojo has the following additional ranks:
9th kyu: yellow-white
8th kyu: yellow
7th kyu: orange-white
6th kyu: orange
5th kyu: red
4th kyu: blue
Basic c
urriculum is on a sixth month rotation. That means a student starting at any point at the dojo will get back to what that student was studying at the start after six months. They trains 2 times per week, for ONLY 30 minutes (the students can warm up on their own for up to 20 minutes before hand) Imediately after this 30 minutes is over, the students only enrolled in the basic program leave the mat, and only those paying for the "Masters" program remain, and train for an additional 25 minutes or so.
Additionally, students that pay for (and *only* students that pay for) the "masters" program also learn the advanced curriculum, which I believe also rotates every six months. The "Masters" program is open to any student, not just advanced ones, and allows the student to train a 3rd time each week, and also train in the advanced classes that occur immediately after the basic technique classes
Fees for the basic curriculum is $100.00 per month, but with a minimum commitment of six months.
Fees for the "Masters" program is $150.00 per month, with a minimum commitment of 12 months.
Testing is every two months, for the lesser kyus (9th-4th).
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My concerns:
1) Commitment period. Neither the Bujinkan nor the Ginenkan [sic] require lengthy contracts like this. As a consultant, my income tends to be feast-or-famine cycle, with me on a famine cycle atm (at the moment). This makes long-term commitments for large amount of money somewhat problematic for me.
2) The length of each training session. At the Jujutsu place I train, we train for two hours. That is a far cry from 30 minutes, or even 1 hour. I believe 2 hours is longer than most places (Most other places I have investigated are in the hour to hour and a half range); however, a half hour is a bit of a ..scam?
3) Rank promotion. The rank testing comes every two months, and is nearly automatic for the lesser kyus (9th-4th), with students rarely being "refused" promotion. However, on a good note: appears to be much slower promotion after that (perhaps due to international dojo standards).
4) The general over-all cost.
This is somewhat less of a concern.
$150 a month is not as high as some places...at the Jujutsu place I started at, a lady there was telling me some Karate schools she had looked into wanted as much at $250 a month! However, $150 is not "cheap" either. The kyokushin karate school in downtown Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, charges $85 a month for
unlimited access...that means up to 4 times a week for the lesser kyus (which start at 6th, I believe), and they are a re-nowned hard-hitting and effictive style.
Meanwhile, the jujutsu place I train at charges $45 for THREE months...that is $15 a month. However, it is at a community center, so a low fee structure is to be expected.
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Things that are NOT concerns:
1) The techniques themselves. They appear to be very effective, and possibly superior and generally less complicated to implement in a real fight, than what I am getting at the community center.
2) The plethora of belts. Have a belt color for every kyu might seem like "belt farming" to some folks, but I don't mind that part ( I like lots of "levels"; goes back to my D&D days
). The belt fees are only $30, which is MUCH lower than some places I've been told about.
It is humbling to have somebody half my size bounce me off the floor at will, or tie me into a pretzel showing a technique and having to tap out while they are casually explaining to the rest of the class where you could go from there. 
; so really, its more a personal issue than a problem with the dojo. This dojo is located in Westwood, a quite affluent part of Los Angeles…most of those that live in this area can probably afford the 12 month commitment easily; and those that can afford the commitment, get the full 50+ minutes, which is probably sufficiently intense for most people, as you described.
