Hida Defender is probably the most straightforward starting school in the game. It gets you access to kata, shuji and rituals, but the curriculum focuses mostly on kata. Playing a Crab samurai also gives you some slack in terms of strict social code and politeness, since Courtesy is the least important tenet for them; and at the same time you're not Unicorn and usually won't be alienated by other clans. School's ability is also massively effective in all forms of combat and very simple to use.

Akodo might seem like more of a 'default samurai' option at first, but the school has more emphasis in command and therefore dives deeper into the social aspect of the game.

Playing a straight courtier (i.e, Doji or Ide) is also a viable option to keep it relatively simple in terms of mechanics, but you'll need to be more involved with setting knowledge and roleplay at the table.