Nitenman, you should do it. My character, Bayushi Isao, is interested in having a nemesis. Someone from the Kolat would do nicely.

So looking at it again, the first time in the chapter, it says "another character." The others, it says "a character." In both intrigue and duel examples it specifically calls out considering how to protect or compensate for your own flaws, so EITHER it changes and it's only "another" during a mass battle maybe, or that first one is a typo.

We houseruled the earth assessments immediately with language along the lines of "can only target disadvantages that could conceivably be affected by this technique."
I'm all about creative uses of this ("don't see the enemy, feel the enemy"), but only as one-offs, allowed at dramatic moments by GM fiat. Otherwise it's not hard to imagine PCs asking the earth assessment guy to cure their missing leg every scene.

I guess that's essentially the zatoichi 'listening to your footsteps montage' option - yes he's blind but what made you think a duel was a good idea?

I assumed that would be possible, but maybe a little more clarification would be good!

it only says it in the example outbursts (P17)
"At the end of the scene, the character removes strife until
their strife is equal to half their composure"
That sentence is a consistent mention of strife after outburst removal for the five examples given.

If a DM understands Rokugan, absolutely. The book has a note that in combat, it should lead to more dangerous and crazy decisions in combat (see Battle Rage note pg. 17 of beta). Aside from that, someone watching the combat and seeing things relating to the world culture being ignored (attacking an opponent engaged with an ally, raging, crying) could have social impacts. Honor loss, glory loss, status loss, and NPC's treating you differently.

My mental image while writing that fic was that the children were adopted at a much younger age -- infancy to toddlerhood at the latest -- but that hasn't been nailed down as canonical. Younger makes it easier to raise them as samurai, though.

In Togashi Ize Zumi school it says you can learn "earth fist" in techniques list there is only "earthen fist"

I made this simple Summary Sheet
I hope you find it useful.
If you find any error or you have any sugesstions, please let me know.
 

I'm not expecting leaping like fleas or punching with fire, but I am hoping niten is a benefit (as in X, plus Y while wielding the daisho), rather than a disguised penalty. (don't suffer Z for wielding a daisho)

Also, wouldn't Meiling with its very Chinese sounding, could be considered a Gaijin Name?

It sounds reasonable and I'm unable to recall any rules preventing that

Do you get to use opportunities from assessment checks at the start of a conflict?
For example, at the start of a skirmish, if I make a TN 1 Tactics (Water) check, and gain one opportunity from that roll, do I get to move one range band? Or, if I make it as a Tactics (Fire) check, can I use that one opportunity to increase my initiative by one at the start of the next round?
I haven't seen anything explicitly state that you can not spend the opportunity, but I wanted to get the community's feelings on the subject. Does spending opportunity from the assessment check sound like RAI, and do you think that is a good thing? Or have you read in the rules anything that says there are specific circumstances you can't spend opportunities?

It looks like it depends on the type of conflict. For intrigues, it's whoever has the highest focus. For skirmishes, it's the character with the lowest honor.

I tossed together a few documents you guys might want to use including form fillable pdfs of the character sheet and the 20 questions.
20 QuestionsFF.pdf
L5R Cheat Sheet.pdf
L5RBetaCharSheetFF.pdf

Holler if you see things that should be changed.
 
EDIT - Updated 9 OCT 2017
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7egkvys5QFoRmpfVnZQSUFYeEE/view?usp=sharing
p
 

Have to go to a court setting where you must wear ceremonial garb that doesn't offer any protection.  Travel clothing is for just that, traveling.  It would be uncouth to wear travel clothes if you were at home hosting visitors.