Saturday's class was great. Bushey Sensei had me leading Okuden Tachi Waza. We would go through the kata, then the bunkai. When we got to shinobu, Bushey Sensei had us work a drill with the lights off. The basis of shinobu is that you know an enemy exists, but can't see him because it is dark, very heavy fog, etc. You make two taps with the kissaki of your sword on the ground to call attention to that spot. When the enemy hears the sound, he will attack that spot, and you are able to land a kirioroshi while the enemy is focusing on the sound. The key is to be very quite, with your footsteps and nukitsuke (No point in tapping your sword if the enemy can hear your movement).
When Bushey Sensei turned off the lights and has us do shinobu in the dark, you really got a feel of how the kata worked. You could hardly see anything and really had to rely on sound. As we worked through the drill we added more attackers and different ways to make noise to throw them off. I can't wait to show this drill to my future students when I teach in Austin.