Young samurai training in the Nishinkan in Aizu-Wakamatsu were trained in the fighting arts (swordwork, archery, unarmed combat, battle stategy etc) but also in astronomy, philosophy, etiquette, shodo and sometimes flower arranging!
Purhaps the most famous samurai was Miyamoto Musashi who fought more than 60 duels in his life and lost none.
On at least two occasions he fought whole schools of martial artists at the same time and won!
He wrote a famous book called "Go Rin No Sho" ("The Book of Five Rings" on the art of fighting which is a reference book for martial artists and business people alike until this day.
It is valued for the wisdoms on strategy and mindset.

If you have any experience in old Japanese culture please tell us about it!

Don't really like samurai movies usually but watched an excellent one last night on TV!
Never watched one in Japanese at home maybe that is why I like this one.. so cool in Japanese!

Here is a real samurai story about the byakotai (white tigers) group of young samurai who fought in the last civil war (the one they based "The Last Samurai" on).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV_pSYiCktQ&feature=channel_page

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I did not like the story of the White Tigers. I like Oda Nobunaga, Musashi, and the such. Miyamoto Musashi was the inspiration for all of those anime characters who use wooden swords because, according to his legend, toward the end of his fighting life, he began using a wooden sword so that he did not kill every enemy he faced, the light weight of the wooden sword was also beneficial to his win streak.
Don't know if all of that is true, probably a little legendary embellishment but, that is how
I was told.

Love samurai I haven't seen any modern samurai movies meaning ones that were made recently but i would love to. I have seen older films like ones with Sonny Chiba in them and Toshiro Mifune in them. But other then samurais in movies I love samurais in general I think they were very interesting type of warriors and the code they followed was interesting.