Kitty Trail: Japan (2008), Yen Matters

Bring cash if you plan to travel outside of the big cities.

While credit cards are widely accepted in Japan, there are some stores in out-of-the-way places and towns which only accept cold hard cash. Please do remember to pronounce "credit card" as "ku-re-jit-to-ka-do" so you can sound more authentic and understandable to them.

Yen is the Japanese local currency (sign ¥ ; currency code: JPY).

There are three types of notes and six different coins:

1K, 5K and 10K yen notes

1, 5,10,50,100 and 500 yen coins

image from the internet

The coins are very easy to accumulate but fairly easy to dispose of when one buys all those drinks from vending machines eerily located at every nook and cranny you may come across. Also, its good to have coins on hand when one makes all these city subway trips and phone calls through the public pay phones. For the latter, an option would be to buy a calling card.


Watch out - some phones are temperamental!- a surprise in this nation generally populated by ultra-polite folks!

My chosen phone in a Nara Park booth refused to give back my 100 yen after I was unsuccessful in making a call...and as I could hardly kick it in revenge as it was near a famous temple's pristine grounds, I resigned myself to a Buddha-like chant and reluctantly left.

I had not seen a lot of ATMs (automated teller machines) while I was in Japan, though of course they do
exist. I was also warned by a colleague working there to bring dough/moolah/cash in the local currency as I may have some difficulty in either getting to an ATM (also you will  incur additional fees for withdrawing outside of your home country) or a money changer.

By the way, a tip  for meals - for delicious meals, try to budget 1K to 1.5K yen per meal.

For ryokan stay, if you can get one at 10 to 15K yen per night, that's a good bargain already especially if it would include dinner or breakfast or maybe both if you can find it.

Here in the Philippines, you can buy yen from BPI (Bank of the Philippine Islands) Main branch at Ayala Ave, Makati City. I bought mine there and at BDO (Banco de Oro) Makati but had to make a reservation a day or two beforehand as it's not readily available in the latter.

There are also some foreign currency exchange companies (e.g. Czarina Foreign Exchange) which do offer yen, but again you have reserve beforehand.

Don't do your shopping for yen currency at the last minute! I thought it would be the same in Cebu City where I would just say I wanted to buy USD $2K and get it the same day ...but here in Manila, the last 20K Yen had to be picked up by Tuesday when I called BDO on Friday.

Supplement your financial resources with atm, credit card and traveler's checks - though I cannot vouch for the latter item as I am unsure if it is accepted in places outside of the main cities like Tokyo and Kyoto.
You can also bring USD and have them exchanged at the airport or the bank you may come across which does this service.


- May 17, '08 3:35 AM