Change We Can Believe In

Posted by bluestorm on April 08, 2009

My first months in Tokyo were tough.  I left the States without much resembling a ‘plan’ for my life in Tokyo.  I made friends quickly, but making any kind of consistent money took considerably longer.  Yen was precious and I handled it carefully.  But the difference in the way money is denominated here caused me more than a little psychological stress…

In Japan, the smallest bill (1000 yen) is roughly equivalent to 10 US dollars.  That took awhile to get used to.  A ‘coin’ worth five dollars?  Something smaller than a quarter with a value four times larger?

I was already broke (in any currency), so you can imagine the anguish I felt  whenever I stuck a bill into a ticket machine at the train station and watched it spit out a ticket and a handful of coins.  My change was literally *change*.  Sure, I wasn’t being robbed; all those coins equaled about 8 US dollars, or so.  But in my head, coins were still second-tier money, couch cushion money, shallow-dish-by-the-front-door money.  A buddy of mine worded it perfectly:  “A second ago, I had 10 dollars.  Now I have change for a dollar”.

But when I finally did make the adjustment, I began to see the difference as a major opportunity. As I started to respect the coins for their actual worth, I mixed this new perception with my old American habits and discovered a great way to save.  Being so accustomed to dumping the contents of my pockets into a jar upon returning home, I simply continued that habit here.  Only now, instead of that handful equaling maybe a pack of gum or a weekday newspaper, that collection of 50 and 100 yen coins equaled a round-trip ride on the Tokyo Metro or a steamy bowl of gyudon.  And if a golden five double-oh was in there, well then, I’ve got enough for a magazine or maybe even that new 12-inch single I wanted to buy (yeah, I still buy vinyl).

Suddenly, I found myself regularly dropping the equivalent of 5 or 6 dollars into the tray when I came home.  Eventually, I started to separate them; the silver ones I primarily use as the laundry stash (200 yen to wash and 200 to dry- expensive!!), sometimes swiping a few for the occasional trip to the arcade. The 500s, meanwhile, are my proverbial shoebox under the mattress.  Some dedicated saving of these and you can have a few hundred bucks in a relatively short amount of time…  I’ve heard of people taking vacations on the 500 yen coins they’ve saved.

As for me, I’m not saving for anything in particular.  For now, my stash gives me a small degree of comfort whenever I find myself being less-than-mature with my paper money…

Tags: change, Coins, Money, Notes, savings, Tokyo

Filed in Living Guide