By the way, there's a boarding school seminar on October 28 - Canada and USA mostly. (see front page of www.japanwithkids.org).

Before getting sticker shock, ask about scholarships. Unlike Japan, there seems to be a lot of financial assistance available in North America. Also, subtract the cost of your child living at home with you. This may be hard to do, but start with transportation, add all the after school costs for sports, clubs and music lessons, and then add cost of food and recreational allowance (my daughter started eating more than I when she was 9. I don't have a boy, but I've heard from my friends that they can't keep anything in the cupboards with teenage sons in the house).

Cheaper schools tend to have less scholarships, so they may effectively cost more!

Some of the more far flung international schools offer boarding, for example, Hokkaido IS and Fukuoka IS both have dormitories.