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All this talk about taking the train from Narita into Tokyo makes me realize... I don't remember which line I took to get to Ueno. I don't think it was a JR line. It was ￥1000 for a ticket on the "donko" - regular - train. And I must of been awake enough to make it into the JR Ueno station, get a ticket for the station in the neighbourhood where the ryokan I had booked a room was and get there. Only problem was I forgot which station was at the end of the Negishi line and found myself standing on the wrong side of the platform waiting for my train.

Oh yeah. Tsukiji. You can get there on the Hibiya subway line too (that line goes through Ginza, Omotesando and terminates in Shibuya). There's an area just north-east of the fish market with lots of little shops. Check them out too. I had scallop cooked in the shell and a good cheap meal at a stand-up and eat shop on the main drag.

imaramman wrote:

Just FYI, if you want to save even more money, you can take a JR line from Narita Airport to your hotel for about 1/3 the price of the Limobus. In fact, I'm pretty sure we spent less than 1000 yen to get to the Crowne Plaza Tokyo Metopolitan Hotel in Ikebukuro when my friend and I went in May, but it definitely wasn't more than 1200. It took roughly the same amount of time as the limobus, give or take about 10 minutes. Plus, it was a freaking awesome experience for someone who had never been out of the US before. Anime smile

scortia wrote:

Woo the JRLine to and from Narita to Asakusa (well JR and another stop or two) was killer for our group... especially when we lugged our much-heavier luggage up and down the stairs to get to the terminal. But yes, way cheaper. Think it was $10 or so for us to make that 40+ minute journey.

Are you sure? The fastest line, the JR Narita Express, takes about 45 minutes or so to go from Narita to Tokyo. Then you have the Keisei Skyliner, and that takes about 50m-1hr to get to Ueno, with one stop at Nippori. After that you have the Keisei rapid line, and that stops and pretty much every station along the route, and that takes 90 minutes. It's only about 1000 yen though.

I'd say forget it, take the express trains, don't look at the trip from the airport to cut costs. You have luggage services now that can take your luggage at the airport and transport it directly to your hotel. It saves having to carry the luggage- especially if you are staying at a ryokan that's not near a JR or Metro station.

Anyone wondering about Narita should head for Mike Newman's Narita Layover Page, which has all the useful information you need to get through Narita.

Cash vs. Credit wrote:

Another option is to get an IC card, like Suica or ICOCA. These rechargeable cash cards can be purchased at various train stations and are used to make train travel faster and more convenient by letting the user just swipe their card on entry and exit, without needing to calculate their fare beforehand. The great part about the newer ones is that you can also use them in many vending machines, as well as in convenience stores like AMPM and FamilyMart.

JR East is now offering a special Suica + Narita Express fare. For 3500 Yen you get a one way ticket from Narita to Tokyo plus a 2000 Yen Suica card which you can use for transportation and some purchases within metropolitan Tokyo. Basically for just 500 Yen more of the price of a standard N'EX ticket you get the same ticket for 1500 Yen and a Suica card with 1500 Yen credit (and 500 Yen deposit fee). This can only be purchased from the JR Offices (where one goes to have JR Pass vouchers redeemed) at Airport Terminal 1 and 2.

Note thwt Suica cards can only be used within the greater Tokyo JR network, so if you venture further afield, cash is the key.

Widya Santoso

Sydney2K wrote:

Note thwt Suica cards can only be used within the greater Tokyo JR network, so if you venture further afield, cash is the key.

If you're trying to get to the place in the opening (OP) of the Please Twins anime and you get on the train that goes in the wrong direction and stay there until the end of the line on a friday.... then a bunch of primary school kids get on the train.... looking really, really confused is the key. Especially if it is snowing outside.

Just sayin'

the new kh games look sweet.

and this might just be me but it was weird to see sega...and didn't know they still made games. Also glad to see Nights.

and I wonder if they'll ever had need for a darker non-asain floor model. i'd love to do that for a show -.-;

Rosyna wrote:

It is entirely, completely possible to visit japan without using much cash.

I've used cards in Japan myself and yeah, it can be done. If you're a repeat visitor I'm sure you could probably figure out how to get around with less cash than before as well. However, if you're new to Japan you would probably be better off following the guidance of virtually any mainstream guidebook and carry plenty of yen. Getting that cash from an international ATM is fine if you know where they are. Asking a Japanese person where an international ATM is probably won't result in much help but if you ask for Citibank or 7-11 then you should be alright.

Rosyna wrote:

Note that Visa is everywhere you want to be.

Not true, verified this two months ago. I know, it's rather shocking that a mere commercial tagline would be FoS, but there you go.

Rosyna wrote:

Special note about Visa: For all foreign transactions, you are charged a 3% fee (regardless of what bank you use). For all ATM transactions there is a %1 fee (again, regardless of the bank). These are fees VISA adds. And depending on the bank that issued your check card, you may have a $5 fee for each use of a foreign ATM. But either way, it's far, far cheaper than using one of those airport currency exchange windows. They charge you an arm and a leg in fees and give you bad conversion rates.

Some cards will stick you with a foreign transaction fee, an out-of-network fee, and a currency conversion fee, and route your money through one conversion path while charging you based on another path. There are a handful of rare cards that will withhold such fees and in extremely rare cases even reimburse you for the base network fees. However, unless you're a savvy international traveler you may have a card that will try to burn you with as many fees as possible and portray the transaction as going through the worst possible conversion path in a 24-hour float window every time you make a purchase outside of your own country. For that reason and others I think people should consult their bank and other financial institutions before making any decision on where to get their money from.

Rosyna wrote:

I think every place that accepts the JCB cards accepts Visa too.

That is unfortunately incorrect. Card combinations are almost entirely dependent on the merchant account and not the network or clearinghouse. I've seen JCB, Visa, MC, AMEX, DC, and others allowed but the specific combination varies from account to account. Again, this is accurate as of two months ago.

Rosyna wrote:

I find the Citibank ATM in the Narita Terminal and grab 40,000 yen (I find this is the amount where the fees for ATM vs Credit are in favor of ATM).

Then you're still carrying cash, are you not? *sigh* I don't know of too many people who show up with ¥100,000 in their suitcase.

Rosyna wrote:

Japanese money is filthy, so I suggest people try to use coins as fast as they can. I've had my entire white pocket turn pitch black from the dirt and oil on those coins.

All coins are filthy IMO. It seems like the problem with Japan is that most change back comes in the form of coins instead of paper money. Part of that is thanks to the 500 yen coin and part of it is just their culture I think.

daxomni wrote:

I've used cards in Japan myself and yeah, it can be done. If you're a repeat visitor I'm sure you could probably figure out how to get around with less cash than before as well. However, if you're new to Japan you would probably be better off following the guidance of virtually any mainstream guidebook and carry plenty of yen.

There's a problem with this method as recommended that I found out very quickly. Japan is expensive as hell, especially for first time tourists. While you may come with lots of cash, you need to have some way to get new cash when you run out. By always planning on using an ATM or a Credit Card, I never have to worry if I just have ¥510 in my pocket. Although I tend to keep more as I have a severe drinking problem and Japan has so many wonderful vending machines.[/quote]

Quote:

Getting that cash from an international ATM is fine if you know where they are. Asking a Japanese person where an international ATM is probably won't result in much help but if you ask for Citibank or 7-11 then you should be alright.

There's Citibanks all over the place (in the bigger commercial districts like Ginza, Shibuya, Shinjuku) and luckily, they have a very distinctive logo which makes them easy to spot from a distance. What's really amusing is that these ATMs are open 24 hours a day for foreign card holders but have business hours for domestic card holders. If they're closed, you have to enter your CC into a card reader to gain entrance.

Try to avoid getting a cash advance on a CC or debit card, those fees are huge (but it allows you to get a lot more cash at once). Be very, very aware of your daily ATM withdrawal limit.

Quote:

Rosyna wrote:

Note that Visa is everywhere you want to be.

Not true, verified this two months ago. I know, it's rather shocking that a mere commercial tagline would be FoS, but there you go.

If they don't accept Visa, then I obviously don't want to be there.

Quote:

Rosyna wrote:

Special note about Visa: For all foreign transactions, you are charged a 3% fee (regardless of what bank you use). For all ATM transactions there is a %1 fee (again, regardless of the bank). These are fees VISA adds. And depending on the bank that issued your check card, you may have a $5 fee for each use of a foreign ATM. But either way, it's far, far cheaper than using one of those airport currency exchange windows. They charge you an arm and a leg in fees and give you bad conversion rates.

Some cards will stick you with a foreign transaction fee, an out-of-network fee, and a currency conversion fee, and route your money through one conversion path while charging you based on another path.

Yes, however these fees are usually much less than you'd get by converting currency at some counter. Usually because the currency conversion rates listed in the newspaper is based on buying currency in bulk (like 1 million yen), bulk that these currency conversion places cannot get unless they're attached to a bank. When you use an ATM or CC, it's based on the bulk rate (some banks actually show you the conversion rate at purchase on your bank statement or online for the specific transaction).

But be aware of the foreign fees (BofA charges $5 per transaction at ATMs, $2 for domestic, and for some reason, $2 at NRT). Some banks do not charge you for using other bank's ATMs and some (many?) of the Japanese ATMs do not charge you a usage fee, in my experience, for some bizarre reason.

But again, I found it's best to make a dummy transaction for the first time in a new country, immediately go online and see how much I was actually charged for it. Then I can calculate everything else based on this.

Oh, second note: It can take forever for Japanese companies to charge your CC when using your CC. Some transactions didn't appear until I was back from japan for over a month.

Quote:

There are a handful of rare cards that will withhold such fees and in extremely rare cases even reimburse you for the base network fees. However, unless you're a savvy international traveler you may have a card that will try to burn you with as many fees as possible and portray the transaction as going through the worst possible conversion path in a 24-hour float window every time you make a purchase outside of your own country. For that reason and others I think people should consult their bank and other financial institutions before making any decision on where to get their money from.

Consulting your bank (such as BofA) may be completely useless. Many bank tellers and customer support personnel are completely unaware of the 3% charge from Visa or the 1% charge by the interbank network. Hell, I even asked BofA to send me information listing these mysterious fees, the literature they sent did not mention the fees. Some banks mention them (WaMu, Wells Fargo) on their websites, others do not. The 1%-3% fees are charged by the CC/Debit card network and not your bank, it seems. Bank One explicitly listed the fee separately online for each transaction.

Quote:

Rosyna wrote:

I think every place that accepts the JCB cards accepts Visa too.

That is unfortunately incorrect. Card combinations are almost entirely dependent on the merchant account and not the network or clearinghouse.

Sorry, my mistake. All places that accept JCB accept Discover card (or will soon, due to an agreement between JCB and Discover). All places that accept Visa should accept Maestro/MasterCard unless there's some crazy bias (this is usually true in the US too). Many people believe that Visa/MasterCard are the same company and many merchant payment processing companies treat them identically. Hell, even the stickers you put on your windows have Visa/Mastercard attached to the same sticker. Amex, Discover, and JCB are usually separate stickers (the latter two should be merging to one sticker soon).

But either way, I've not seen a place that accepted credit cards and didn't accept Visa unless they have an exclusive agreement with a CC company (Like Costco and Amex).

Quote:

Rosyna wrote:

I find the Citibank ATM in the Narita Terminal and grab 40,000 yen (I find this is the amount where the fees for ATM vs Credit are in favor of ATM).

Then you're still carrying cash, are you not? *sigh* I don't know of too many people who show up with ¥100,000 in their suitcase.

They usually appear with $1000 in their pocket and use a currency conversion place. I personally hate carrying that much cash around. And yes, I'm still carrying around cash since using a CC in a vending machine isn't A) possible or B) worth it. However, I might try one of those Suica cards next time I go to Japan.

Quote:

Rosyna wrote:

Japanese money is filthy, so I suggest people try to use coins as fast as they can. I've had my entire white pocket turn pitch black from the dirt and oil on those coins.

All coins are filthy IMO. It seems like the problem with Japan is that most change back comes in the form of coins instead of paper money. Part of that is thanks to the 500 yen coin and part of it is just their culture I think.

Well, my fingers don't go jet black from handling US coins (although they do stink afterwards). But part of the issue I think is that coin operated machines are used all over Japan, and the slots can be a magnet for dirt and oil. And of course, convenience store clerks usually have that wet rag they use to "Wash" their fingers whenever they handle coins.

But yeah, I agree it may just be a culture thing. Which I find amusing considering how they handle hygiene in other places.

The first four days are exactly like my trip back in april. Especially shinjuku. My hotel was across the street from the good part of the red light district. You wouldn't want to go in the other part. The only difference is that I took 7 days to do what he did in 4 plus a couple other things.

Rosyna wrote:

Try to avoid getting a cash advance on a CC or debit card, those fees are huge (but it allows you to get a lot more cash at once). Be very, very aware of your daily ATM withdrawal limit.

Believe it or not, there are credit cards that make no distinction between regular purchases and cash advances, charge no foreign transaction fees, charge no out-of-network fees and reimburse you for the fees other banks charge. At least one card will even reimburse you for the base network fees. Most such cards do not advertise these conditions so you really need to do your homework to find them.

Rosyna wrote:

If they don't accept Visa, then I obviously don't want to be there.

Let me ask you something. Is using a card worth giving away 1-5% of America's GDP? Does Visa deserve that kind of payoff just for giving you access to your own money? It seems like we could do so much more with that money if we just put it to better use. I mean, if we gave Visa's fees some nonsense term like "Death Tax" then Americans would be falling all over themselves to fight it, but because it has no sinister sounding name we assume it must be worth every penny.

Rosyna wrote:

When you use an ATM or CC, it's based on the bulk rate (some banks actually show you the conversion rate at purchase on your bank statement or online for the specific transaction).

Actually the conversion could be based on virtually ANY published rate anywhere AND could incorporate a 24-hour float window AND could include multiple conversions in a single transaction. In other words, it pays to read the small print.

Rosyna wrote:

But again, I found it's best to make a dummy transaction for the first time in a new country, immediately go online and see how much I was actually charged for it. Then I can calculate everything else based on this.

This suggestion fails for at least one major reason; it doesn't take into account lagging transaction fees, which you mention yourself below.

Rosyna wrote:

Oh, second note: It can take forever for Japanese companies to charge your CC when using your CC. Some transactions didn't appear until I was back from japan for over a month.

It's not that the transaction takes a month or more, it doesn't, it's far more likely that your foreign purchase hit a snag of some sort that placed them into transaction limbo. Either it set off one or more fraud detection flags or the originating merchant mismanaged the transaction in some way. Talking to your bank to let them know you plan on using the card in a given country can help prevent delayed transactions.

Rosyna wrote:

Consulting your bank (such as BofA) may be completely useless.

Then maybe it's time to consult a different bank. If your bank can't even be bothered to break down the fee structure for their own card when asked pointblank, then why would you want to continue doing business with them?

Rosyna wrote:

Sorry, my mistake. All places that accept JCB accept Discover card (or will soon, due to an agreement between JCB and Discover).

I distinctly remember seeing JCB, AMEX, & Diners with no option for Discover or Visa or Mastercard.

Rosyna wrote:

Many people believe that Visa/MasterCard are the same company and many merchant payment processing companies treat them identically.

Visa, MasterCard, and many of their top banks are allowed to share board members and advisors so, really, what exactly is the difference between them at this point?

Rosyna wrote:

But either way, I've not seen a place that accepted credit cards and didn't accept Visa unless they have an exclusive agreement with a CC company (Like Costco and Amex).

Are we talking about Japan? If so then I have. I didn't think this would ever come up so I must admit I didn't keep a running tab of which places didn't accept Visa but I can assure you not all stores which take credit cards will. Just because Visa has a stranglehold on the US doesn't mean this same control extends to every corner of the globe, at least not just yet.

Rosyna wrote:

They usually appear with $1000 in their pocket and use a currency conversion place.

I've yet to see such a strategy recommended by any guidebook, travel agency, or other service, so I'm clueless as to why anybody would bother carrying that amount of unrecoverable cash on them.

BTW, it appears the Japanese just de-regulated
their banks at the post office.

$317 total!!! Is that right? My god thats cheap. I never leave the country for a week and not spend thousands. What will power she has. Of course most things like hotel are included in the tour package but still way to be a budget shopper. I don't think I could do so well

sabriyahm wrote:

$317 total!!! Is that right? My god thats cheap.

I know what you mean - I do what Tempest does and change JPY100,000 cash before I go, and usually burn through that and a bit more...

Rosyna wrote:

Note that Visa is everywhere you want to be.

daxomni wrote:

Not true, verified this two months ago. I know, it's rather shocking that a mere commercial tagline would be FoS, but there you go.

Rosyna wrote:

If they don't accept Visa, then I obviously don't want to be there.

Wow, how... American of you.

Seriously, outside of North America, it isn't considered mandatory for a respectable merchant to accept credit cards. Yes, in most countries most respectable merchants do, but the percentage is more like 90% rather than the 99.99% in the USA (I made these figures up, the point was to illustrate the difference, not to actually quote figures).

My European relatives and friends always find it odd to see how much North Americans use credit cards.

The acceptance & use of credit cards has increased dramatically in Japan in the past couple of years, but next time you're there, watch the Japanese shoppers in line in front of you. You'll notice that the vast majority of them still prefer to pay in cash.

As such, any business that isn't geared towards tourists can easily not accept credit cards with very little impact on it's business.

Anyways, the biggest reason I chose to reply to this message was to point out that you're going to be missing out on a lot of great merchants if you feel that way. Many of my favorite Japanese restaurants (mostly great mom & pop joints) don't accept credit cards, the Ryokan I recently stayed at was cash only (most Ryokans and Minshuku are cash only), etc...

-t

What a cool article. Thanks ANN for putting this together.

I've been to Japan twice now, once for two weeks and the second time for a month. I'll be going to Tokyo this upcoming summer for 8 weeks to attend an intensive language training course.

I would definitely recommend visiting Hiroshima if you get the chance, harrowing and moving, the impact of seeing some of the buildings as they stood after the detonation of the bomb is impossible to recreate.

Cash is definitely a great option. I'd agree with the 100,000 yen estimate...as that's a solid amount for doing shopping and taking care of any food/miscellaneous needs you might have.

Also, it gets incredibly humid there, so be warned beforehand that some days it may feel like you're walking out into hot soup. Then again, a nice cold beer will help cool you down.

Japan is a great place to visit and I can't wait to go back. Anime smile

Be sure and note that you can return that suica when yer through with it and get your deposit back.

TokyoGetter wrote:

Be sure and note that you can return that suica when yer through with it and get your deposit back.

Aww! Why not hang onto it for the next time you go back?

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