So it's interesting how stuff works here in Japan. First of all, they use what's called the Yen. Depending on the rate of exchange, the Yen hovers to about 100 Yen to 1 US dollar... so basicall if you see something that's 1000Y, just move the decimal over two spots and you have a rough idea that it would cost about $10.00. They have bills for 10, 50, and 100 that I have actually seen, although I'm sure others must exist. Their coins come in amounts of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 Yen, which would be our penny, nickle, dime, fifty cents, 1 dollar, and 5 dollar amounts. It's called "funny money" by some Americans because it looks big and colorful, and the coins are very cool.
Another interesting thing here is that most locals prefer to deal all in cash. When we went to sign our lease and all that jazz, we had to walk in with this HUGE pimp roll of basically $100 bills... the picture posted above is the money I fanned out that I immediatly had to hand over to our housing agency... you can't count how may bills are there, so I'll tell you... 45! Yeah, that's 450,000Y, or 4,500 US dollars... crazy, huh? Everytime you want to pay your rent or any utilities, you have to go to your housing agency and pay them in Yen. I thought this was kind of interesting, but I suppose if cuts back on bad checks and all that fun stuff.
Grrrr... for some reason I can't upload my pics to the site. I think it's because I am mooching wireless internet from the community center and it's so slow it keeps timing out. I promise once we get the super fast fiber optic internet at our house, I'll get some pics up here!
For now, I must be off... must grocery shop, run errands, and clean the casa before the boy gets home. Gotta earn my keep somehow since I'm unemployed... still...
Another interesting thing here is that most locals prefer to deal all in cash. When we went to sign our lease and all that jazz, we had to walk in with this HUGE pimp roll of basically $100 bills... the picture posted above is the money I fanned out that I immediatly had to hand over to our housing agency... you can't count how may bills are there, so I'll tell you... 45! Yeah, that's 450,000Y, or 4,500 US dollars... crazy, huh? Everytime you want to pay your rent or any utilities, you have to go to your housing agency and pay them in Yen. I thought this was kind of interesting, but I suppose if cuts back on bad checks and all that fun stuff.
Grrrr... for some reason I can't upload my pics to the site. I think it's because I am mooching wireless internet from the community center and it's so slow it keeps timing out. I promise once we get the super fast fiber optic internet at our house, I'll get some pics up here!
For now, I must be off... must grocery shop, run errands, and clean the casa before the boy gets home. Gotta earn my keep somehow since I'm unemployed... still...
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