Money woes in the Land of the Rising Sun

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Tokyo
Bagelmonkeys Trips often don't begin as smoothly as you anticipate during the planning stages. Our trip to Japan was no exception. We expected a snaffu here or there but did not expect them to occur the moments after stepping off of our nine-hour plane ride. Last year, when we traveled to Munich, our troubles stemmed from canceled flights and inclement weather. This time around, we had a direct flight to Narita so getting to Japan wasn't the problem. No, our issues were related to money woes.

If anyone reading this plans to visit Japan, you should know ahead of time that the country, unlike the US, is heavily cash-based. Credit cards are used, but mostly for large purchases at bigger stores. This seems like an odd concept to Americans, who are defined by their credit scores and are often (myself included) in deep debt. Cash-only makes a lot of sense in practice and keeps things very simple. No scary surprises when you get home and check your statements. Consequently, cash machines--specifically ones that accept foreign debit and credit cards--aren't always available and aren't easy to find.

At the airport, we didn't expect this to be an issue. We typically don't carry a lot of cash when we travel--college years spent crossing the border taught us to utilize cash machines to obtain the country's currency and to leave the business of exchange rates to the banks. There were plenty of cash machines to choose from. Unfortunately, none of them wanted to accept Jer's debit card. He tried over and over but with no success. We finally had to give up and locate the train that would carry us to Tokyo. I had taken out a bit more cash before we left the States so we weren't destitute. We had enough money to get us to our hostel. We even had enough Yen to pay for our three-night stay with cash left over for a decent dinner.

The outcome? Jeremiah made a collect call to his bank and discovered that, despite him calling a couple of weeks prior to the trip to let them know he was going to Japan, someone hadn't made proper note of it. So they updated the information. This took some time and we were inconvenienced. Weary from travel and starving, we wanted to explore and experience Japan, not to be reminded of the annoying reality caused by poor record keeping.

...now we just needed to find a cash machine...

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Photos

Jer on the streets of Asakusa
Our luggage deposited at our hostel, we hit the streets of Asakusa.

Jer on the phone to the States
Not a terribly exciting photograph of Japan, but it was part of our experience. Jer on the phone to his bank, setting them straight. The phone booths were actually quite nice in Japan. Thanks to the bank, we got to know a couple of them intimately.

Comments

[eruptiveculture]

whew
At least you didn't have to sleep in a box...similarly sized to that phone booth, except horizontal...did you?