Does that look like $2.46 to you?
Someone asked about money. And soon after, a cautious Japanese friend of mine (who works in a bank) told me that I shouldn't post any pictures because it could be forgery. Well.. if I go to jail over this, I'd be surprised.
The photo above is my old change purse. Yes, a Texan man owns a purse. But you would too, because change is actually valuable here. There are no bills equivalent to $1 here, just a coin that looks like a slightly small quarter, the 100Y coin. (There's two in the photo.) Some coins have holes in the center: 50Y and 5Y. (There's one golden 5Y in the photo.) The other coins are 10Y and 1Y. The 1Y coin is some kind of really light alloy, which reminds me of play money.
Standard practice when you're paying for something is to get your change out and visible before the total is actually presented. Then you pick through the change and put it on a tray. A polite person will double check, spreading out all the change for a final count. The 50Y and the 100Y are the same color and almost the same size--if you miss the hole in the middle it's easy to make a mistake.
BILLS BILLS BILLS
One of the biggest money differences is that cash is much more common than credit cards. Safety isn't really an issue, so there's been no impetus to change. The common bills are 10k, 5k, and 1k Yen. The exchange rate is roughly 100 Y / $1 US, so I have about $60 in my hands. That's not much for Tokyo. (But still enough to induce manic cross-eyed-ness for a self-portrait.) 10kY bills are ~$100, and would have produced genuine mania. 5000Y bills are not dispensed at cash machines, only by hand or at shops. I should mention, there is a 2000Y note, but it's very uncommon and only stocked at banks to dispense by hand.
The print and faces on Japanese currency was recently overhauled. And nice stores like to give out fresh money, as a courtesy to their customers, so there's lots of crispy bills out there. I'll have to get a photo of the pay tray and how a person counts them out when giving you change. (Sort of a folded, snap, count-each-one thing) The bills here are wider than dollars, and the length of them are slightly different for each denomination.
2 comments:
My own comment! Woops. Well, for those keenly interested, http://www.boj.or.jp/en/money/money_f.htm
Okay, I had to get at least one comment in from Romania. First of all I just have to say that your changepurse is incredibly studly. I think you should bring home a bunch as souvenirs for all your manly man-friends. The craze may catch on back home.
Your 1Y coin sounds like the old (but still used) Romanian coins - so lightweight you'd swear they're play money. The picking through the change bit sounds very familiar to me as well. Although in my case (still struggling with the difference between the new and old currencies), it's the cashier picking through the handful of change I pitifully hold out to them. Not to mention the fact they always ask for a few extra thousand lei to try and make nicer change - like if something costs 8,000 lei and you hand them a 10,000 note, they'll inevitably ask if you also have 3 1,000 lei coins so they can give you a 5,000 back. Such fun. But we have nothing so cool as holes in our coins. I'm mucho jealous. It's also interesting about the "pay trays". They do that here, too - rarely does anyone directly hand you your change, they put it in a tray or on the counter. Is it to avoid the chance of hands touching? Doesn't seem logical in a country (and Japan's probably the same) where every time you cram in a bus you're squished in so tight there isn't a part of you that isn't touching a complete stranger. On my bus ride this morning I think I literally had eight people crushed against me. Including one unfortunate short old woman whose head was lodged squarely in my armpit as I gripped the railing up above for dear life. Hopefully her babushka protected her from any nastiness she may have encountered. Anyway, as captivating as I know this comment is, it's going to have to draw to a close now. But la revedere from Romania, and I'll catch up with the rest of your 'ole blog when I get home next week!
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