Going to Japan? Bring cash!!!
October 4th, 2009
Hi there, and thanks for stopping by!
Every time I visit Japan, I inevitably learn or realize something new about the country and its culture. I recently got back from a trip to Japan and this time around was certainly no exception. In fact, I ran into a very unexpected and unfortunate surprise when I ran out of cash while on my trip. Through this experience, I realized just how important cash is in Japan and the troubles visitors to the country often encounter when trying to access their bank accounts back home!
If you have any future plans to visit the country, I highly recommend you watch this episode!
Kanpai and until next time!
Kevin
Happy Hour Japan, Japanese for Traveling
you guys are doing great favour for people who want to any japanese for easy communication.
I got the first lesson o ispeak japanesenet and the other lesson is yet to be gotten.
Looking forward for the lesson
thanks, Blessing
Just watched your show.
At least in Shizuoka, you can use foreign bank cards at the ATM in every post office. One catch though, You need to have a 4 digit pin not a 5 digit. I imagine it would work at every post office in Japan but I’m not 100% sure. Also this is not a new thing, 12yrs ago when I first lived in Shizuoka, I used my bank card at the post office ATM. I think you were making those long trips to City Bank for nothing.
Ryan @ shoganaijapan.com
Ryan brings up a really good point about post offices and I agree they are great places to go if you’re having trouble with ATMs. Unfortunately, on my last trip, I tried a couple post offices and still wasn’t able to access my accounts to withdraw money. It was baffling!
That being said, I should make the point that I’ve seen Japanese banking improve a lot since I started traveling there. On top of that, more and more retail locations and restaurants accept credit cards which is great.
I have a few friends who live in Japan now who told me they have no troubles using ATMs in Japan so to be honest, I was completely caught off guard when I couldn’t use my card at any of the ATMs I tried in Japan–especially since I’d contacted my bank before leaving, made sure I had access internationally, and was still able to use my card at stores and restaurants. And I wasn’t the only one, judging by the frustrated groups of foreigners huddled around the ATMs at Narita airport!
But aside from the isolated troubles I encountered this time around, I still feel its good to carry cash since there are a lot of places in Japan (especially outside of the big cities) that are cash-only.
I agree that you should bring cash absolutely.Even though I had no problem about using my cards at ATMs and convenience stores there.I used to live around Shibuya and Ikebukuro and it seemed like most of banks around my place accept foreign cards.By the way I had troubles in some restaurants and stores even in Tokyo and Osaka.So I think bring enough cash for your trip is the best solution.
Omedetou gozaimasu, Kevin! This sounds selfish, but is there any news yet on how this will affect Happy Hour Japan? Will the format change from a video clip of the two of you to a podcast, for example? Also, on a personal level, Kevin, when you travel to Japan, speaking Japanese, do you find that you’re treated like a gaikokujin rodosha, or a nikkei gaikokujin (whether that’s closer to the truth or not, I don’t know)?
Also, Aaron, did you find that your in-laws had issues with the idea of their daughter marrying a gaikokujin? I’m curious as to whether or not Japanese social stratification is like the US, in which inaka are less tolerant of outsiders and more conservative in their social mores.
I’ve just finished watching all of the Happy Hour Japan clips, and I have to say that they leave me with so many more questions! Have you guys thought of setting up a messageboard, for conversation threads? Thanks for putting up with my interruption to the discussion on cash!
It works at the post office too!
@Matt
Hey Matt, thanks for the comment! I found that my in-laws were very welcoming. Of course her father didn’t (and doesn’t) know that we had been living together before we were married, but in general, they welcomed me with open arms. I think I was lucky though because my wife had already lived in the USA for two years, and had been studying English for a very long time. Because of these things, I don’t think it was a huge surprise when she brought me home.
The in-laws also travel quite a lot and are fairly worldly folks. Finally, the last thing working in my favor was that she was the youngest of 3 daughters and both of her sisters were already married (to Japanese guys) with children.
The Happy Hour Japan format will change a little, yes, but it should be even better because Kevin will be over there. Also, thanks for the suggestions for a message board. We’ve thought about it and are working on some things that should up the social interaction level a little over the next few months.
-Aaron
Hey guys!
Like what was mentioned before, I have had no issue with the ATMs in 7Elevens as far as using my Citizens Bank debit card to get cash-money. The fee was pretty absurd ($7-) but I would just get large sums out so I didn’t have to hit up the ATM often.
On another note- I am currently in Sano, in Tochigi Prefecture, but travel to Uts. often! yahooooo. Congratulations on picking out a great little city! Love it there.
brie
Cash is, as you mention, extremely important. One thing to avoid is the International Postal Money Order. I tried this with the thought of saving a couple of dollars. Using it requires going to a pretty large Post Office. In my case, this was Ueno. Postal worker there had to get out a book, review every detail of the documents, recheck addresses, be supplied with the name of someone in Japan who could vouch for you (we used the Japanese branch of our travel agency) before money could be released. Hours of hassle were involved. We looked at it as a wasted day. Not anything you want to include over a couple of bucks. As it turns out, the currency exchange in Narita would have given us the same exchange rate. IPMO sounds good on paper, but is a way where cheap is really expensive,
Hello Thank you.
I want to go to Japan next year. Thanks for providing such a good information to learn Japanese in your blog. Arigato!
I’m going to Japan next year for 10 days. What do you think would be the right amount of money to bring? (not counting the plane ticket) I’m going with my dad
Thank you
@cloverluigi
Well, that really depends… on your taste, where you’ll be going, how much you will be traveling around the country on trains, what types of hotels you want to stay in, whether you want to eat expensive food or donburi, etc. Any thoughts on those fronts?
train
lots of basic food
a lot of souvenirs
I don’t think I’m staying at a hotel
I’m staying at a friends house
Thank you
cloverluigi
Well kevin and aaron, sorry if by this moment in time i can`t avail of the materials you want us on sale at a 25% discount, instead i just make use of the videos and the lessons you suppllied for us at net. Thank you so much and maybe someday if i could land another job to increase my income that`s pretty good. God bless and more power! thanks letlet
My wife & I were in Japan in January of 2008. If I remember right the exchange rate for US Traveler’s Checks to Japanese Yen was better for us than the US Dollar to Japanese Yen. I never did figure out why. Maybe it had something to do with the exchange rate at the time I purchased the trveler’s checks vs. exchanging cash in real time. I hope to return to Japan soon for we now have family there. We were in Japan in 2008 to attend my son’s wedding to a native Japanese woman. It was a traditional Shinto Wedding and was fantastic. Everyone over there was so nice to us and very helpful in getting around. Complete strangers would go out of their way to help us find our way. It was a wonderful experience. And our inlaws are wonderful people. I have purchased your Sentence Formula modules and are in the process of working with them & having a blast. Thank you. For now it is exactly what I need.
You guys are doing good!
When I was living in Japan, the ATM at my home train station of Oppama had an ATM that I could use - with a hefty international usage fee. Handy but unreasonable all the time, so money was handy.
Last time I was there I used post offices, and I loaded up my Suica card. That worked for most things around train stations. A little harry up in some smaller towns, though.
@cloverluigi
Aaron is right its depends on your taste, but if you were staying with your friends house it is a big savings on your trip, for 10 days i will give you some idea for your train fare i suggest you give a 10,000yen budget. train and bus fare is a little bit expensive , for your food family restaurant here is not so expensive for a meal you will spend 1,000yen if you want much cheaper you can try yoshinoya and matsuya it will only cost you 400 yen for a meal. for souvenirs here in japan if its hands made it is expensive you will spend 3,000 to 10,000 yen per item but if you try 100yen shops you will find some items that are very useful and have a japan touch. for example figurine (wearing KIMONO or japanese dress) chopstick, chopstick holder, magnet for refrigerator (memo holder) etc. for sweets or mini cakes you will spend 550 yen to 1,050yen per box.
6 pcs to 12pcs it depends on you. i hope it will help you and get some idea to make your travel here in japan more easy.
Nice to see you guys smiling again in your video clip for us. I am sure your adventure to help those who do not know Japanese and want to learn or those who
want to know more about Japan just by viewing your videos will be a complete success.
If you ever need any help as I live here in Japan, just give me a buzz.
Cheers,
John
When I hit Japan for the first time some 27 years ago,I travelled around with a bunch of traveller cheques because that was how it was done in those days. When I returned in 2000, having watched the digital development of Japan from a distance, I still did not expect that it would be straigh forward to use my credit card or even cash card. Reason for this was that I had similar experiences as a European traveller in the US. There too my credit cards did not work, but I discovered that my Cirus linked cash card did. The experience in Japan was the same, except that I too was limited to using Post Office ATMs or had to try to hit the banks during office hours, which in Japan usually finish at 3:30PM.
Perhaps one other thing that is to be remembered when you travel to and in Japan is that ATMs (with the exception of Convenient stores like 7i (7/11), Lawson or Family Mart (to mention just a few)) also have closing hours. Depending on location “opening hours” for ATMs tend to be from 7AM to 7PM. Some more centrally located ATMs are open until late, and in Tokyo in some places even 24 hours. As I have travelled up and down the country I found that the above pretty much applies all the way from the most southern and remote parts of Okinawa all the way to Hokkaido.
If you stay longer in Japan (like Kevin did and does) then it is worth going through the trouble of getting a local bank account. You can then link that account to a PayPall account and make money transfers easier. Watch out, though. Moving money from PayPall to your Japanese account takes at least 5 days! If you have a bank account in the US or elesewhere you also need two PayPall accounts and two e-mail addresses (easy peasy). This does not work with the Japanese Post Office Bank yet.
Happy travelling
Yoshua
Japanese Toilets
If you have travelled the Central Asias and many other places in the world, and you actually dared to travel off the beaten tourist paths, you will have had to use the floor level type toilets as were also quite commom in public toilets all around France until some years ago. Japan also has these types of toilets in may public conveniences, including department stores. This is particularly the case the further you travel away from major cities.
As with all things natural they cannot always wait until you are back at the hotel and so the inconvenience of a Japanese public convenience may strike sooner rather than later. So how does one prepare. There are no guidebooks on how to use such a toilet (at last I have not seen one yet) and when things are urgent, fumbling around with your lower body part garments, frantically trying to avoid accidents and potential embarrasment are the last thing you want in your way to make “ends” meet. So perhasps you may want to practice at home before you leave.
One important tip is that you may want to keep the lowered parts of you clothes (trousers & pants) on above knee level. So you have to, like in skiing, keep your knees together, keeping your pants up and pushing everything elso down. Any other clothes that might be in danger of dangling into places you don’t want them to go should either be taken off or must be wrapped into your lap for control and protection.
Most westerners are not used to squatting when doing business, so you need to have something to hold on to. Oftern there are no handles that might assist you in the process. Having taken a position facing the foscet helps, as it doubles up as an emergency handle. Conveniently this is also the direction in which you should be doing your business. It also has the advantage that you can flush before you clean yourself. It helps keeping your clothes clean, should bits begin to wander when you need to use the toilet paper.
With all the precariousness of such an adventure, one thing has to be said: Japanese toilets in general are nicely clean. I have experienced only a few exceptions, and, they play elevator music to calm you down and cover up any embarrassing noises that might emenate from your cubicle, like inappropriate language in response to accidents ;o)
I spent 3 weeks in Kyushu last November. Never had any problems withdrawing cash from ATMs even in smaller locations (eg Beppu) - I was able to withdraw both from my Australian bank account as well as from my VISA card.
Fee wise the cheapest way was ATM withdrawal through VISA (when the card is well stocked with funds and you don’t have to pay the exorbitant credit rates) - worked out at around 5 dollars per withdrawal at excellent exchange rate, much better value than exchanging foreign cash. Since I could withdraw around 800 dollars in a single transaction, the 5 dollar fee wasn’t too bad.
My daughter is currently in Japan and made the same experience - she is using both German and Australian ATM/credit cards without any problems. Just don’t expect to be able to use credit cards in shops that offer value for money - the Japanese are too smart for that.
I looking for unten menkyo scoocer 50 cc.
test theorical with kanjis is very difficult.
my tongue is spanish.
whay Ican to do???
maybee software is good,but kanji start is impossible for me.
arigato gozai masu
post this and any other videos you havent yet posted on youtube onto your youtube account =D its just easy to have all of your videos in one spot for convenience =D kk thanks LOVE YOU GUYS! <3
Ano-ne. Mukashi Mukashi (Niju hachi nen mae) watashi mo Nihon ni sundeimashita. Romanji o tsukeru koto ga hitsyu node, kanji y katakana o manabimasendeshita. Gomen kudesai. And I’m sure my sentence structure wa totemo heta desu. So, I’ll go on Eigo de. I never knew if what I was saying was correct form, or if they were just being polite, as they so often are, not wishing to hurt one’s feelings.
I thoroughly appreciated your instruction on Nihon no o-tearai. When I went there, no one even warned us about the “squatty potties”. Having no one I knew well enough to ask, or who spoke English, I also used them backward for about the first two weeks until in one of the public restrooms someone had thoughtfully placed two black shoe prints on either side which told newcomers how to place our feet. Becoming bempi one time and having to use a squatty potty convinces one to never go a day without eating roughage and exercising a lot! Perhaps that’s how they remain so slim and energetic. Hmm. Maybe we should replace all our Western toilets with these.
Anyway, I didn’t talk about Japan much to my World War II-era parents, and had no one interested in my travel experiences, so, needless to say, I have never mentioned the elimination situation in Japan. Describing it just doesn’t do it justice, although your video really did a good job.
That’s why watching you two describe the experience brought such enjoyable laughter and hand-clapping delight because, at last! Someone else has shared the pain and really understands.
Please, keep up your work of making the Japanese language more accessible and doing it in such a fun, non-threatening way. Ichiban taisetsu desu yo!
Just think, one generation ago from where I stand, they were forced by circumstances that neither side’s soldiers could control to kill each other off by the millions. The next generation (mine) was allowed in the country we had bombed to smitherines (no, that’s not another Christian denomination) teaching about and giving people the opportunity to learn of Christ’s love for all people. Now, a generation and a half later, you have the freedom and the tools to help people of the world community who seem so different from each other at first glance, realize that we all have a lot in common and could most probably be close friends were we abke and willing to get past the outside differences. If we put the best of American heads and hearts together with the best of what each Japanese person has inside, think what could be accomplished!
Sorry for the length. If anyone read to the end, thank you.
Ganbatte, kudesai. Kokoro kara, kanshashite imasu.
Shimai means “Sister” and is what I feel my relationship is to all people everywhere.
This video was so interesting! Thanks A&K! I’m hoping I can get my aunto to come to Japan with me, as that’s the only way my mum will let me go, but I need a good reason. Could you make a video on the ‘Best of Japan’ or something? ^^ Thanks~
ALso, I’m having problems with my learning. So Kanji is used for verbs (most of them anyway) and proper nouns only? (eg year, sister etc)
Also (again ^^) I’m finding it more difficult than I thought to learn Japanese and Korean and speak them separately, and not mix them with my French. Any helpful ideas? Also, I find that when I’m speaking in one language, and an expression is better said in another, I just switch languages, and sometimes I end up speaking all 5 languages to someone, nd It’s so odd for them if they don’t know the languages. Help! ^^
PS- what’s aaron+kevin’s email again? I may hve lost it somewhere o_0
Hey guys,
I love watching your vlog (who doesn’t haha…) I just got back from Japan myself (unfortunately I found this dandy site after I came back… =/ ) and I noticed you talked about the Jet program… I know the basics about it and what’s on the site, but I want to know your feelings about it, and what your experience was in the program, etc. I am pretty confident I want to apply. So! If you have any free time, and you would like to make a viewer happy for fun, send me an email! Thanks!
Gabi
For a second there I thought you guys was getting drunk there…lol
It’s going to be hard for me when I go to japan and need japanese money -_-
what if you do not have japanese money only canadien? i love to shop!…lol
-_- and hey if you have facebook i would love to talk to you just add Samantha M Lalonde, ok that gose for any japanese person! Also i will be changing my name to Hitomi, Wataru or Jahero. you chose!!
ps love the japanese world!! (>,<)
__ -
love samantha lalonde
How much should i bring i am trying to stay a month aleast
MY QUICK TIP:
Get a Caxton FX travel card, they charge zero commission when using ATM’s abroad. When I went to Japan the only ATMs that would accept Mastercard were at 7/11’s and post offices, it took me 3 days of living on the poverty line before I realised this, then I suddenly felt like the richest man in the world.
That said, cash is vital to remember in every country. Sure I had a hard time in Japan when it took me 3 days to find ATMs that accepted mastercard, but this summer I was in Nepal trekking the Annapurna Circuit. ATM’s are about 5 days apart, if you get slowed down because a friend has altitude sickness, or an ATM is out of order (very probable) you can go a lot longer than planned without cash, not having cash to pay for food or accommodation becomes a real issue, and the locals won’t show the slightest bit of sympathy for western tourists.
@Jessica
Depends what you want to do. When I went I travelled the entire country so my form of holiday might have been more or less costly than what you have planned.
Yeah my sister told me about the toilets… One of the very few downsides about Japan. haha
Thank you for the videos!
They help a lot.
Seven&i holding isn’t taking american debit cards anymore? That’s good to know, because my school has a study abroad program, so I can tell the coordinator.