Finding a Karate school

For quite some time I have been planning to learn Karate. I started seriously searching for a Karate school since last week. My main criteria were quality of the school and the travelling time and my main reason for learning Karate was to keep myself fit and to increase my reflexes. I picked up a bunch of contacts from the internet and started contacting. Most were far away from my home but I found around 3 schools within 30 minutes travel from home. Yesterday, on contacting one of the schools, I was given a few details and was asked to come in person to get the fee details. I thought that I have found my school. Today morning I went to their school in spite of the heavy monsoon downpour. The details goes like this: 3 classes per week with 1 hour practice every class. The fees was Rs. 2000 per 4 months. I was also informed that there is a one year course costing Rs. 18,000 and that black belt will be awarded at the end of the course. I thought "Man how simple is it to get a black belt", but I had doubts in my mind. I consulted with one of my friends who, as a child, has trained for 2 years. He too had doubts and I decided to ask the more informed people and posted a query on the usenet. The response to which has made me rethink about this school. I am back to square one and have started my search again.