The Tokyo Chapter: Money, money, money!

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Money, money, money!

I wonder at what point I will stop converting yen into dollars. I am comfortable in using yen. I memorized the different currencies the last time I lived here. But I still stop and think "Wow, this is $100" instead of "This is ¥10,000." (For really easy conversion, I simply put a decimal in the yen to make the dollar equivalent.) After being here for 4 months (today!!!), I expected to stop the conversion by now.

Photo curtesy of: cnbc.com

The thing is, things just cost different in Japan. Items that are super common or popular in the US (and therefore not very expensive), but are a rarity in Japan, are more expensive here than in the US. For example, we could order a pizza from Domino's for $5.00 in the US. Sure it was a special, but I saw the commercials all the time. Pizzas from Domino's here are around ¥3,000 (or $26.50). That's for one medium pie!

This isn't a revolution, just something I've noticed again and again. I'm constantly thinking to myself "Is this really worth $30?"

The other I've noticed recently is that I'm having a hard time converting to a coin-based culture. In Japan, there are ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, ¥50, ¥100, and ¥500 coins. The largest coin being worth approximately $4.50. There are only 3 bills: ¥1,000, ¥5,000, and ¥10,000. In the US, I try to always use up my change. I'm always doing math to get fewer coins back when making cash purchases.

For example, I purchase items for ¥619. I pay ¥1120 instead of ¥1000. ¥1120 - ¥619 = ¥501 which is 2 coins back (¥500x1 and ¥1x1). If I were to pay the lesser amount, I'd end up with a lot more coins. ¥1000 - ¥619 = ¥381 is 8 coins (¥100x3, ¥50x1, ¥10x3, and ¥1x1).

But when doing that here, I'm constantly left with bills to pay for a ¥100 purchase because I've used all my change! If I am at a store, it is no big deal. However, when I am paying a person for something and they have to make change, I feel bad.