Cost of trip to Okinawa

[Steve Hatfield]

Bill if this is the wrong place please move it. Can anyone give me a basic rundown of what it would cost to spend about a week in Okinawa training. Places to stay, cost of food, etc..

Thanks

Steve

[Bill Glasheen]

Steve

This is a very reasonable topic for this forum. I hope you get the input you need.

If nobody posts, I'll poll my buddy Nestor Folta. I'm sure he'll know, being married to an Okinawan and having Uechi Kanmei as his instructor.

- Bill

[Stevie B]

Last I was there was 2003..May have gone up a bit..

Depending on who you know, you can either pick up hotel for anywhere from $70 per night to about $150 a night depending on how well you wish to stay.. We had the Americans coming over for 10 days at $60 per night, but that was through friends..That was at the American Hotel in Sunabe... Probably can get close to same still.. Nice Hotel, just a little old, but well maintained..
Usually the association will help you around some, depending on if they know you or your Sensei (in your case, absolutely no problem). About maybe $1300 for round trip in advance (of course flights have gone up since then)
I was getting Gis from Shurei Do back then at $120 full embroidered, but we again had discount.. figure $200 now without..
$20 a day for food ... Drinks aren't cheap.. Anywhere from $6 to $10 for a beer in a bar.. Best is to have hook ups in a organization and they help with that through their American GI students.. If you go out with Shinjo Sensei bring $100 anyhow.. $70 for the drinks and Karaoke and $30 for a Taxi... Better is double that..But you will drink for free at the Hombu before you go out.
If you really are going, tell Rick Sensei ahead of time and I can get you hooked up... Need about 3 months to make preparation on their end..

[GIESECK]

Steve,

You can shoot me an email at urumashubukan@live.com and I can try and help with some estimated costs . Everything is up right now due to the bad exchange rate.

Mike

[Stevie B]

Mike's been over there for over 20 + years now... Best hook up you will find on island.

[cdoucet]

I'm doing this very same trip at the end of march for 2 months

my Round trip with Air Canada was 1300 round trip to Tokyo,

Then probably another $130-140 for the flight to Okinawa.
I am planning on finding some long term stay hostels to stay a since I'll be there for 2 months. I am also factoring in $30-40 a day for food.

Current exchange rate is:
1.00 CAD = 84.8536 JPY
1.00 USD = 83.7791 JPY

[Seizan]

You can also try a diver's hostel (called "minshuku") for about 5000 yen per night, maybe less if you're lucky. Just a place for visiting Mainlanders on diving holidays to crash out after a hard day's diving, and maybe breakfast. No security for your things so pack light to carry with you daily when you go out.
Handy if you plan on moving from dojo to dojo around the island, training for a few days at each place.
Mike (Gieseck) probably knows a lot more of these places than I do, since he travels extensively around the island.