RED

Hi,

In my opinion:

Nothing is wrong with a small dojo. Teacher and quality instruction is important. However, consider branching out, going to seminars, see your Shihan and experience as much high level Aikido as possible. When training, IMO, seek out the highest ranked people you can as partners. There is a lot to be said about training with newbies, you can learn a lot from them, but starting out, IMO you need to learn as much quality as possible.

As far as how often as you should train...as often as humanly possible. Three days is a good start. Again in my opinion.

Buy a gi and hakama whenever your Sensei tells you to. Every teacher's preference is different.

As for self at home practice. This is my opinion, and some people disagree, but I'm against kyu ranks doing a lot of at home practice. My reasoning, a newbie doesn't know the "correct" form, only under the eyes of a seasoned instructor can they acquire the skills of good form. It takes years sometimes under the watchful instruction of your teacher to have good form at all. So doing repetitive kata or foot work with bad form will only ingrain bad form. Basically I believe it causes a lot of bad habits that your Sensei only has to correct later. Don't make their job harder. IMO, again.

Do whatever weapon's training your Sensei recommends. Some federations put a bokken in their student's hand on day one to help reinforce form. Some federations believe that weapons work is for black belts only, thus it is for refining what you already know. Ask your Sensei what he wants from you.

Also in my opinion the best exercise you can do to help your Aikido...is more Aikido.

Peace man!