As we know in Karate Kid 2 Daniel follows Mr. Miyagi to Okinawa buying a very expensive last minute ticket.
"Very expensive ticket.", said Mr. Miyagi
"Oh no, I got the money out of my savings account, its all taken care of.", replied Daniel.
Daniel would have bought his airline ticket with only one or two days notice, and keep in mind this was long before the days of the internet and last minute airline ticket websites. A recent search of no advance purchase airline tickets from Los Angles to Okinawa turned up fares ranging from $3,500 up to $6,000.
Perhaps Daniel could have bought that ticket with the money his mother had saved up for his college education as Mr. Miyagi had mentioned, however I have my doubts.
How much money could Mrs. Larusso have saved up? My guess is that Daniel and his mother showed up in Reseda with very little money if any. They pretty much had the clothes on their backs and a few items for their home.
That was the whole reason for the move to California, so Daniel's mother could get a better job and they could have a brighter future. But this trip to Japan came only 9 months from the time they made the move to Reseda. I doubt very much Mrs. Larusso would have been able to save up that much money for Daniel's college education in that short amount of time.
Daniel's mom even mentions during the Restaurant scene that money is tight.
"What's with the karate place?", asked Mrs. Larusso.
"Oh, it sucks.", lamented Daniel.
"Good, because we probably couldn't afford it anyway.", said Mrs. Larusso.
But let's assume that she did have a good amount of money saved up and Daniel wiped it out buying his airline ticket. Where did he then get the money for a lease on the property we see him give to Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid 3?!
To start up a business requires some serious money and I highly doubt there was any left in Mrs. Larusso's bank account when Daniel and Mr. Miyagi got back from Japan, if that really is where Daniel got the money to begin with.
On a side note Mr. Miyagi did give Daniel some of the money from the bar room bet he won in Karate Kid 2 however Mr. Miyagi bet $600.00 and the odds were 3-1. Mr. Miyagi therefore pulled in $1,800 giving roughly half of it to Daniel and keeping the other half.
So Daniel pocketed about $900 give or take. Some nice pocket money yes, but not enough to cover the start up costs of a business.
Hence the evidence is clearly there that Daniel had a large sum of money sitting in a bank somewhere that nobody knew about and he was eager to spend it. A guilty conscience perhaps?
