Lou speaks the truth although you can get into a basic or mid level kit for about half of what he quoted. If you want to go "traditional" you had better pony up for a few grand for the real supplies and some good "Deshi" (apprentice) groveling. They do offer tourist urushi classes in the well known urushi spots,,Ishikawa, Nagano, Kanagawa and Aizu-Wakamatsu.
Ski season is coming soon and we spend a lot of time in Nagano and it is one of my goals to get beyond the basics of urushi.
BUT, there are other very viable options if you aren't hung up on sticking to strict tradition. There is a company here called "Cashew" that offers an urushi that approximates Hon-urushi and is reasonably priced (still expensive) and sold at most hardware stores here in Japan AND no skin irritation like Hon-urushi. You can get very involved finishes with cashew urushi and can take weeks to finish.
There is also a urethane based kit by Washin Co that is not quite the same result as Cashew or Hon but dries a lot faster and is pretty cheap at $60 bucks for a starter set. I haven't tried this one yet. Again, this is available at any hardware store in Japan but I guess that doesn't help you much, does it?:biggrin: