{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}

--PLANNING--
--WHAT DOES IT COST?--

Cost Calculator

I think it is obvious that the cost of this pilgrimage is going to vary widely depending on whether or not you are starting from a home in Japan or overseas, whether you stay at a minshuku each night or sleep outdoors, whether you walk it in two months, one month, or go around in some other way, etc. There is no way to say what this trip is going to cost each and every henro — we are all different. Having said that, these are some guidelines to use as a benchmark and help you make plans.

Below i have included two tools to help you figure out what the trip might cost you. First is a list of the items that you may need to buy and the range in their approximate prices. At the very bottom of the page is a calculator that uses those costs and should allow you to come up with an approximate total for your trip.

In general, though, it can be said right up front that this trip is not cheap, even if you camp out each and every night. Almost all henro will end up carrying large sums of money — usually thousands of dollars. Take and carry this as a mixture of cash and travellers checks. Take several days of cash with you when you go or plan on spending part of your first day looking for a bank to cash them when you get there. With cash already in hand from home, you can start on the trail as soon as you get to Shikoku.

You are not going to see a bank that cashes travellers checks every day once you start walking. Most banks in the larger cities can cash them, but in the smaller towns and viliages most banks will not be able to. If they can, the words Authorized Foreign Exchange Bank will be written on the front window or door, sometimes in both Japanese and English. What you'll see in Japanese are the kanji on the top line in the image to the right. The bottom tells you the pronunciation in Japanese, in case you want to try and ask for directions. Just learn to look for and recognize those characters if you can't read Japanese. They'll be fairly prominent. I don't remember ever asking for directions to a bank in order to change travellers checks. I think i just started looking at the front window of each bank i passed in the large towns, and ran across one within the first few banks i passed.

Banks are usually open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Some branches in the larger cities may keep later hours, and some may be open on Saturdays until 2:00 p.m., but as a general rule, plan on cashing your travellers checks during the day on Monday through Friday. My understanding is that the main post office in the larger cities can also cash travellers checks, although i have never tried. In addition, according to the internet, the ATM machines at all except the smallest post offices in Japan now accept foreign Visa and Master Cards, so in a pinch you can get cash there.

A Few Words of Caution
Because you are travelling in a cash oriented country, you are going to end up carrying a lot more cash (as opposed to travellers checks) than you may be used to. However, my recommendation is NOT to carry only cash. During each week of the walk, cash just enough travellers checks to cover your planned expenses for the next week, plus a little extra just in case. Keep the rest of your money in travellers checks. If the worst should happen and you lose your money (through foolishness or robbery), if all you had was cash you are out of luck; if most of what you had was still in the form of travellers checks, you have some recourse and the chance of getting them replaced.

The good news is that the crime rate in Japan is still very low. I never once felt threatened while on the island, and never once felt worried about my money. With common sense precautions, carrying all this money will not be a problem. These precautions include:

• Never show how much money you have. I.E., don't flash large wads of cash at the convenience store.
• Keep the vast majority of your money in your money belt or in the bottom of your pack. Only keep small amounts of cash readily available. People rarely saw more than ¥20,000 in my possession. The rest was always out of sight.
• If you are going to have your money stolen, my guess is that it will happen at your lodging for the night. There are no such things as locks on the doors, and when you are in the bath, you can't very well take your money with you. This means that at some point you are going to leave your money unattended. While i was there i very early decided that i was comfortable just burying all of my money at the very bottom of my pack when i checked in, and then not worrying about. And i never had a problem.
• You usually pay for your room in the morning just after eating breakfast. My recommendation (based on the policy of never showing how much you really have) is to get out enough money to last the entire day and set that aside while still in the privacy of your room. Bury the rest in your pack or money belt. At breakfast, when you pay for your room, pay from this small amount of money. When you pull out your wallet or money pouch, no one sees more than about ¥20,000 in your possession.

In general
Excluding the costs of outfitting yourself, the costs of any books & maps, and the costs of getting there, in general you can use these average costs as a starting point in your plans:

• $80 – $100/day, if you stay in a minshuku every night
• $50/day, if you stay at minshuku, but use free lodging whenever it is available.
• Less than that if you camp out every night.

Specifically
Anthony Kimple (Known Henro) walked the trail in 2005, and either camped out or stayed in a Tsūyadō or Zenkonyado every night. Regarding his total cost, he says:
"My total cost for food and lodging was around $900, paying for lodging only twice at two tsūyadō (¥300 and ¥200). This total is mostly camping and maybe 10 tsūyadō, and eating food at convenience and grocery stores."