You can do that (the fly rod thing, not necessarily the $10 in your back pocket for your whole vacation thing). I did that and decided I liked the "proof of concept" enough to continue - going from a 9' fly rod to a 13' crappie rod (and then a bunch of other crappie rods trying to find one with a suitable action). The only caution I would give is that if you don't like tenkara style fishing with make-do equipment, you won't really know if you would like it had you started with proper equipment (and by that I mean a rod actually designed for the type of fishing you are trying to do). How many fly fishermen would have continued with the sport had their first introduction to fly fishing been a fly reel and line attached to an old spinning rod? It just doesn't give you the same results. Also, the prime benefit of tenkara - from a fishing standpoint - is that the long rod and light line allows you to keep all or virtually all your line off the water, minimizing drag. With a rod as short as 9', you may be unable to do that with enough line to avoid being so close to the fish that you spook them. You will almost certainly catch more fish with a longer rod. You have a higher chance of getting skunked with a 9' fly rod and then deciding it's no fun than you would if you started with even an 11' rod and caught some fish.
If all tenkara rods were $400 I suspect a lot of people realistically might want to try the 9' fly rod approach first. Now, though, you can get a tenkara rod for less than the price of a tank of gas. If you are going to spend the gas money to drive to the stream to try a new style of fishing, it isn't unreasonable to get a rod that will allow you to give the method a valid try. If you don't like it, I have a Used Rods page on my site, and I'm pretty sure a used, inexpensive tenkara rod would sell quickly (and I take no fee from buyer or seller - it is provided as a free service to the tenkara community).
I don't want to discourage anyone who has a 9' fly rod from tying a 9' tapered leader and a bit of tippet to the rod tip, and I certainly don't want to discourage frugality (I think my family's motto is "Make it Last, Make it Do, Make it Yourself"). I just want to caution that if you don't like it, it might be because of the equipment rather than the method.
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