Saturday, February 7, 2009

Money - okane (お金)

I think one of the hardest things to get used when living in another country is learning how to use money. I had the same problem in Egypt in trying to find out how much things are worth or really worth. Japanese currency is different from American currency but I think its interesting. In many ways I think it is more convenient. I can pay for a meal using a coin and such a thing would be unheard of in America.

From left to right ichien ($0.01,) juuen ($0.10,) gojuuen ($0.50,) hyakuen ($1.00,) and gohyakuen ($5.00.) There is also a goen ($0.05) but I didn't have one at the time that I took this picture. It is a same size and shape as the gojuuen but the same color with the juuen. The values in US dollars are approximate. Right now the exchange rate for me is one yen is equal to $0.86-$0.90. It is okay but before it was $1.10 for every 1 yen. Anyways, these are the coins you need to use in every day life. The hyakuen and gohyakuen coins are the most important ones. I pay for stuff at the konbini and bus fare with these coins. Recently, I've been starting to use the gojuuen coin more because it finally hit me that it is worth two quarters. Instead of scrambling to look for five juuen coins for the bus I can just use one gojuuen coin.


Next are the bills....and that's it. So far, I have been using only three bills. I like that. From top to bottom is the ichimanen ($100.00,) ichisenen ($10.00,) and gosenen ($50.00.) The bills are the thing that threw me off the most when I came to Japan. In American we use bills a lot in incraments of $1, $5, $10, and $20 mainly. In Japan there are just three. I remember once I first came to Japan I wanted to buy something from a konbini it was 579円 but I was thinking that the gosenen was a $5.oo bill and gave the guy that and ichisenen (I thought it was a $1.00 bill at the time). He looked very surprised. Once I realized what I had done...I was so embarassed. I over paid by a good $50. He was nice and handed back my money.

I also learned that is common to buy small things with big bills to get change back. I'm getting smarter about my money as my time here progresses.

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