Short In Cash

The currency of Japan is Yen (¥). There are paper bills in ¥1,000, ¥5,000 and ¥10,000 denominations, and coins in ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, ¥50, ¥100 and ¥500 denominations. Though, there is also a paper bill in ¥2,000 denominations, you are rarely seeing them in use.

Large department stores and hotels do accept credit cards. However, don't dare wish vending machines for Food/Drink/JR, small restaurants, ampm and corner stores to accept Visa Cash or other Touch'n Go services!



However, most ATM machines do not accept alien card withdrawal in Japan... Gosh! What can I do?



If you in need to withdraw cash from your home country, there are 3 options:

1/ Post Office ATMs
2/ Citibank ATMs
3/ 7-11 ATMs



To my understanding, Post Office ATMs will involve the lowest transaction cost. For instance, HSBC will free you up to 5 transactions per month if you withdraw money at the Post Office ATMs. ¥105 yen will be charged per transaction thereafter.

I withdrew some cash on March 3, 2009. The exchange rate was 0.07975 at the time, and HSBC was charging me for 0.08111 only (1 YEN vs HKD).

Good Deal!

exchange rate history: exchange-rates.org

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