Money concern: going to Japan

Fabrice

mayling03 wrote: »

Japan is only expensive if you don't know where to look. london is more expensive that Tokyo

True, i was more mentioning about hotels and excursions, monuments/museums.

agree that Japan is very safe though, you got the salary men carrying wads of 10000 yen notes!

That is really suprising to me, specially in Tokyo and big cities.
Any other Japan visitors that can confirm what has been said here?

Thank you.

mancitychick

Take a back up card. When in malaysia my nationwide credit card just kept not working, if I had't had a back upcard I would of been pretty stuffed. I would use it chip n pin, then the next time I used it it would be locked, would have to find a cash machine to unlock it, this happened again and.again so I stopped using it. Did phone nationwide several times but they just said I must of entered pin wrong 3 times, I didn't.

150thb is pretty much standard fee for atm withdrawal in thailand.

ironlady2022

Fabrice, they carry lots of cash as they tend to go out after work and usually the boss pays and if they visit the hostess clubs they can pay from 10000 yen an hour. It is not unusual. When I lived in Japan and went into Starbucks, Kobe not Tokyo, I usually left my handbag on the table whilst going up to order my coffee-it is that safe! you could also say crimes are usually kept low key but that's a different subject altogether.

Also, some places don't even use chip or pin.

Fabrice

mancitychick, i was definitely planning on doing it anyway (back-up cards); feel sorry for your experience.

mayling, thanks to hear your stories from your point of view.

cheers guys.

chattychappy

mayling03 wrote: »

Japan is only expensive if you don't know where to look. london is more expensive that Tokyo, there are eateries out there where you can eat for less than 1000 yen, just go down the small alleyways.

I know what you mean, but right now because of the awful exchange rate, Y1000 is still £7.60 - I know a few alleyways in London where you can eat for less than that also.

I've mostly been with Japanese friends when in Japan and have travelled from Hokkaido to Kagoshima. I've found Japan just catches you out (without intending to). Eg if you fancy a burger and go into Mosburger, the prices might seem not too bad. But the quantity is tiny and you end up buying two..

Certainly for the tourist in both, London can be awful compared with Tokyo. Eg for travelling around unless you understand the intricacies of Oyster cards then London also catches you out, but in a really nasty gotcha way.

I think the main problem about Japan is simply it's still a place not well travelled by foreign tourists. Many of those alleyways will have nothing in English and people won't speak a word of English. Japanese characters make using phrasebooks etc particularly difficult. I have some basic Japanese and can read a couple of hundred characters, but still find Japan friendly though inaccessible unless accompanied. Of course you can always point and smile, but you still don't know what you're missing out on.

On the other hand, for a country that doesn't really need tourism, Japan does make the effort and seems to want visitors. The Japan Rail Pass makes travelling around a real bargain. One Japanese friend in the UK only got British citizenship so she could qualify for this pass when she returns. OP should investigate - unless things have changed, you can only get the voucher for this before leaving the UK. Also when I did the tourist thing there, a few crowded places had a separate entrance for foreign tourists (and accompanying locals) so they wouldn't have to queue. Amazing!

Fabrice

Interesting reading chappychappy

s4aRainyDay

We mainly took cash to Japan and also found it to be very safe. Some of the Japanese hotels we stayed at only accepted cash as payment, other western style hotels took our cards and we had no problems. To get cash out look for Citi-bank (we had a laptop with up so we could look up locations) as atms can be hard to find and we heard that Japanese banks would take UK cards at the ATM. It was very expensive 2 of us went through £1000 in 2 weeks on food/ drink but it was our honeymoon so we didn't scrim too much and drinks were very pricey.
I'd also like to second trying small alleyway restaurants we had a great time randomly pointing at menus (some with pictures but not always) and never knowing what we we're going to get! And another voice for the rail pass-its great!
Hope you have a great time-I'd love to go again

Fabrice

Wow, thanks s4aRainyDay and everyone. I'll have to start writing all these things down.

Yes, it's a 1-time in a life-time trip with the missus.
The JR RailPass is must, no way we'd go without it. If i'm not mistaken, it's an expense that is paid here in UK so that's great, something less to spend there.

LaurenC

mayling03 wrote: »

Fabrice, they carry lots of cash as they tend to go out after work and usually the boss pays and if they visit the hostess clubs they can pay from 10000 yen an hour. It is not unusual. When I lived in Japan and went into Starbucks, Kobe not Tokyo, I usually left my handbag on the table whilst going up to order my coffee-it is that safe! you could also say crimes are usually kept low key but that's a different subject altogether.

Also, some places don't even use chip or pin.

I was on a year abroad in Japan last year and very much agree with this. My Japanese friends used to leave their iphone at a table to 'reserve' it while they went and ordered. It's crazy!

I used my Barclays Visa debit card the whole time and never had a problem using it in supermarkets, convenience stores or department stores. It is definitely still a cash based society though and I would often carry more than 10,000 yen on me at any one time, which was useful for buying train tickets, food from stalls/machines and little shops. After a while it just became natural for me to start using cash for everything.

Look out for ATMs at Post Offices and 7-Eleven stores as they will definitely accept your cards.

Hope you have a fantastic time. I'm very jealous

chattychappy

Nice story and matches my experience too.

Often feel sorry for Japanese tourists in the UK - what must they think - but they are always well briefed by excellent guide books are travel with excellent tour guides.