Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with yen

Exchanging £s Sterling to Yen / Getting cash out in Japan

mairuzu — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:12:17 -0800

I'm going to Japan (from the UK) and want to arrange my cash for out there - I don't want to go down the traditional credit card route as they seem to sting you for allsorts of fees nowadays. 2 parts to this question: 1. Where would I get the better deal / exchange rate for changing my Sterling to Yen? In the UK before I go, or in Japan once I'm there? 2. (This one is very specific to a UK Bank) Does anyone know if a Nationwide Flex / current account Visa card will work in many cash machines in Japan? Any help gratefully received.

Accuracy (or lack thereof) in the yen-to-dollar rate.

Gordion Knott — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:45:43 -0800

Is the Land of the Rising Sun still expensive? Expats (recent and current) and erstwhile tourists, chime in. In American dollars, can Japan still be regarded as an "expensive country?"

You're probably thinking, "At 103.88 yen to the greenback?? You've gotta be kidding." Ten years ago, this argument may have been viable. But this article paints an entirely different picture. The gist of the author's claim is that, while American consumer prices have undergone moderate inflation for the past 13 years, Japan's prices have been flat. Adjusted for inflation, the "correct" yen to dollar rate should be 73 to the dollar (based on a former valuation of 100 yen to the dollar in 1995.)

But the only way to get a handle on this question is rote, product-by-product comparisons. Okay, I know that certain items--like luxury import cars, or cups of coffee in Tokyo--are still expensive due to inefficient import markets and high rental costs. But I'm more interested in the big picture--the price of living, working, and getting around Japan every day. Based on this metric, and a lot of gut feeling, does Japan strike you as pricier than the United States? What's more expensive; what's less expensive?

If you were working at the Bank of Japan, and were granted awesome superpowers allowing you to rectify the yen-to-dollar rate so that it reflected the cost of living in Japan and the US, what would you peg it at?

Six-figure prices

pravit — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:13:07 -0800

If everything costs some multiple of 1000 won in South Korea, why don't they just redenominate the currency? Most things in Korea seem to be priced in multiples of 1000 won - if I remember right, a subway ticket costs 1000, an average lunch 5000, etc.

Given that almost all of their prices are in multiples of 1000, why don't they just introduce a new won that equals one thousand old won, and be done with having to say "thousand" after every price, or having household appliances that are worth millions of won?

I have the same question about the Japanese yen, but in hundreds instead of thousands.

Is this a matter of tradition, a cultural thing, or something that would be a pain in the ass to implement but provide little real benefit (like renaming streets, for instance)? Or some combination of the above?

How do you open a Japanese yen account?

remi — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:26:11 -0800

Hi everyone, I'm planning to stay in Japan for a year start the end of next year. To do that, I need to save money. I'm in Canada and since the Japanese yen is low at the moment, I'd like to save money in Japanese yen right away. However, I'm not sure where I can go to open an account in Japanese yen which would be both accessible in Canada and Japan. Any suggestions? Can I open an account at the bank you're recommending me? Can I use my account online or by any other self-serve means, or do I need to go at the counter? Does the bank have sufficient branches in both Canada and Japan? What are the fees to keep the account open and to do transactions?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

How to send yen from dollars?

jeffmshaw — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 12:42:23 -0800

I'm looking for a way to send, from the U.S. to Japan, money in denominations of yen. The merchant wants a money order in yen, which rules out Paypal. Do you know of a web-based or brick and mortar business that will take my payment in dollars, convert it into yen, and ship out a money order or give me a money order to ship?

Yen to Pounds : Best Exchange Rates?

0bvious — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:35:06 -0800

Currency Exchange: I have a handful of Japanese Yen and a desire the British pound wasn't so strong. What are my best options for getting my Yen converted into Sterling? Any advice as to what I could do with my Yen to increase its Pounds Sterling value?

What's the cheapest way to send a large amount of money (now in the form of Japanese yen)from Thailand to America?

ialwayscryatendings — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 22:48:06 -0800

What's the cheapest way to send a large amount of money (now in the form of Japanese yen) from Thailand to America? My boyfriend and I have just started a backpacking trip after teaching in Japan for two years--unfortunately, in all the stress of moving out we didn't have time to send our money home before we left. We are now carrying about a year's worth of pay--still in Japanese yen--through the streets of Bangkok. I knew of cheap ways to send money home from Japan, but I know very little about doing it from Thailand. The US embassy recommended Western Union, but the rates are a little steep for us. We don't care if it's slow, we just need to get it off our person and securely on its way home. We also would love it if we didn't have to convert from yen to baht before sending, as that would also take a large chunk of our money. Any advice? We are lost without you!

Gill Sans + XPress = Crazy Printing

Wild_Eep — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:55:25 -0800

Quark/Font filter: Using Gill Sans in an existing XPress layout. •, ', ™, and - fail to print. Rather, they are replaced with yen, nothing, opening double curly quote, and en dash, respectively. G4, OS X 10.3.9, Quark 6.1, Suitcase, printing to Xerox Docucolor 12 via a Splash G640 RIP.

Our successful workaround at this time is the following:

Add a new textbox to each page in the layout, type the •, ', ™, and - into it, and then set the text color to white.

Position the textbox in an unpopulated area of the layout.

Print out the document one page at a time. That is, for a 6 page layout, print job 1 is page 1 only, print job 2 is page 2 only, etc.

So far, we've tried:

Scanning Gill Sans (the offending font) with Font Doctor from the Suitcase CD.

Replacing the printer driver with a freshly downloaded driver from Xerox.com

Deleting and re-adding the printer in Printer Setup Utility.

Copying and pasting the offending textboxes to a new, blank layout. (characters still fail to print properly)

Creating a fresh layout, with one textbox, typing in the offending characters. (Prints successfully)

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Is there something obvious about this I have overlooked?

Question number 9810

shoos — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:17:39 -0800

Seeking advice/information on exchanging currency. I am planning on converting a chunk of money in yen to dollars and moving it from a bank in Japan to one in the US. Has anyone had experience doing this and could give me a heads up about what issues I need to concern myself with, aside from the exchange rate?