No more Greenbacks

The Yen is the form of currency out here in the land of the rising sun. It is defiantly different than the dollar and the exchange rates change on it everyday and sometimes a few times a day. Typically though we get about 80yen per US dollar. One yen is the equivalent (more in use than in value) of our penny.

The 5 and 1 yen are rarely used and we usually just throw them in the money bucket on the counter and forget out them. The 10 is used pretty often.

 The 500 (equal to a little over $5.00) is pretty common. The 100 ($1.00) is the most common form of money that you probably will have on you. The fifty is the weird one with the hole in it.

 All money less than a 1000 yen is in coin form and the 1000 yen is the first bill in the series. The money is defiantly larger in size to dollars. When you put them in your American wallet the edges pop out.

 The 5000 yen ($50.00 or so) feels so nice when its in your hand. Definitely my favorite bill and not just because of how much it can buy :)

Another fun fact about money in Japan is that in a lot of stores they don't do sales tax. Usually whatever price you see is what you pay. Like America, Japan isn't a place that does bargaining. So if you come and visit don't expect to haggle that kimono down.

Tipping is a custom that is not used here unless you are on base. As it was explained to me, the Japanese people see tipping as an insult. Basically they take it as, "here take this extra money so that maybe you can do better next time." Also it is seen as showing off how much money you have. Hey, it works for me! Saves me money for sure. It does feel really weird the first few times you don't leave a tip but after a while you don't even have to think about it.