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Old 09-08-2002, 01:44 AM   #19
Chris Li
 
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Dojo: Aikido Sangenkai
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 3,313
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Quote:
evan sobel (pointy) wrote:
so how do you pay the rent? of course it'd be easier to not have to pay dues but there are certain realities like rent, phone bill, electric, etc..
IIRC, they have an unusual situation where they get the space for free.

In Japan (at least in the Tokyo area) very few people get actually paid for teaching. It's not unusual to be able to train with 7th and 8th dans (for example) for 10 or 15 dollars a month - that to cover the use fees at the facilities (usually a city or university gymnasium). Permanent private martial arts facilities are fairly rare in Japan because of the very high cost for space, and because there are very few professional martial arts instructors (relatively speaking) in Japan.

OTOH, the few places with permanent establishments (ie, Aikikai Hombu) run a little more because they have to pay the rent - an usually pay the teacher or teachers too, because anyone putting the (very large, in Japan) investment into a permanent facility is probably going to be doing if for a living. Aikikai Hombu runs around 80 dollars a month (depends on the exchange rate), which is pretty cheap considering that you can train 5 times a day. IIRC, Yoshinkan hombu was fairly similar, but they have (or had, last time I looked) a couple of different pricing structures.

Best,

Chris

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