I used to use the spot northwest of the dojo but now mostly go to the spot with the yamandon. Pull the yamandon away and it is much easier to do your taming there. Have never spotted a ninja there (thank goodness, what a nuisance they are) and rarely do the tsuki wander up there.
If you do have to use the spot northwest of the dojo, I usually run about halfway up the side of the hills to where there is an opening in the trees that run parallel to the hill. Generally nothing new spawns in that location, right next to the hill. If you have a rune marked for that spot, even better so you don't pull any ninjas from somewhere else along with you so the little fiends wait until you get distracted to bop ya.
If all is clear in that hillside area, then I run sort of southwest and try to lure a beetle down over from where the healer usually hangs out by the small fenced area. If I end up with a mage too, they are pretty easy to kill. Doesn't always work out as planned, but that spot halfway up along the hillside may be a good second-choice area if you're good at getting things to follow you.
I usually use a peace tamer and area peace if there's other spawn around in the "selection area," and then go into war mode and tap tap tap on the one I want to keep it following me. Area peace again as you go if the rest of the crowd tries to follow and keep tapping on the victim....err...candidate. Since it was area peaced along with the rest of the gang, it is usually not in an extremely nasty frame of mind and the tapping in war mode is just enough of an annoyance to keep it following. Any spells it casts generally don't hurt too much. The area peacing, of course, doesn't last as long as direct peacing does but it does seem to make a difference. And if you use KR, I LOVE being able to see the little blue notes hovering around the critter to show it is being calmed. Hehe. (Don't mind me and my little plugs for KR. Kinda chatty this morning.)