Beaver,

You're right. With no weight, you fish dries, emergers or wets a few inches under the surface. Wets tied on a heavy hook, like a Daiichi 1120 or even a Mustad R90 will fish a bit deeper. There are people in the US and UK fishing beadhead nymphs, but I don't think people do in Japan where tenkara originated. I used to, but I gradually realized that I caught a lot of fish on unweighted flies, and the casting is a lot smoother. For that matter, wets cast better than dries (less wind resistance).

TyroneFly,

Pulse the rod tip, but just a little. With an 11 to 13 foot rod, it takes very little hand motion to really move the fly. There are specific Japanese techniques, one of which is just a slight pulsing of the rod tip to make the hackle open and close. It's called "the invitation."