Hi everyone!
Welcome back to my Japlanning series
Of tips & advice
To help you plan your trip to Japan
Today we're talking about money
This is something I've already covered a bit
In my Trip Planning Checklist video
You can find that one on my channel
That's got all the little things you need to sort out
To plan your trip
Money's something people still ask me about from time to time
So this is going to go into a bit more detail
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The first thing is: Should I take cash or credit cards?
The answer is both
Credit cards aren't as widespread in Japan
As they are in other countries
From what I'd read
It sounds like they don't take them in many places at all
So I was actually quite surprised
That lots of shops do take them
But you're still going to need cash for smaller shops & restaurants
Kiosks, places where you get snacks on the street
You're going to need cash for buying your train tickets
Usually the machines at stations don't take cards
And you'll also need cash for vending machines
And arcades
And buying lots of gachapon
So as a general rule
I do always take my credit card as a back-up
But take more cash with you than you usually would going on a trip
Credit cards
You can use your card just like you normally would
To buy things in shops & restaurants
The important thing to check
Is that your card is commission free abroad
Just to make sure your bank isn't going to charge you for foreign currency transactions
You can do that by going on your bank's website
Looking up the card you've got
And it should tell you what charges there are
It's also important to tell your bank that you'll be travelling abroad
Just in case, when they see all these transactions in Japan
It might automatically trigger the fraud control
And they might cancel your card
And that's the last thing you want
Usually you can do it if you log in to your internet banking
And you can tell them what dates you'll be away for.
I've never had any problems
I just use my card as normal
And it's always been fine
You actually get the best exchange rate when you're using your card
You get a rate that's a lot closer to the actual rate
Rather than when you buy currency
You get a lower rate
Because the company you buy from
Takes a cut
So it's actually pretty good to use your credit card
Another thing that seems a bit strange at first
Is in the UK we have chip & pin
For card security
That doesn't seem to be as common in Japan
I've seen it a couple of times
But for smaller transactions
Often you don't even need to sign for it
They just swipe your card and you're done
Which does seem a bit strange at first
Where to get Yen
So you will definitely need cash
There's lots of different places you can get it
Often big shops have a Bureau de Change
You can get it from supermarkets
Banks, and there's places that do just travel currency & nothing else
The rates do vary quite a bit
There's a calculator on Martin's Moneysaving Tips
Where you can put in how much you want to buy
And how soon you're going to need it
And it shows you which places have the best rate
It tells you whether they're FCA Certified
So you know which are going to be a bit safer
And more reliable to use
Some of them deliver it to your house
And some of them, you have to go to the shop to pick it up
Someone asked me how to make sure you're getting genuine cash
And not fakes
I tend to pick somewhere that sounds reliable
Like a chain that I've heard of
Or a bank that you know is going to be reputable
And not some random website you've never heard of before
Xe.com is a really good website
For looking at the exchange rate
Now the rate you get from the bureau de change
Is going to be a little bit lower than the rate on xe.com
That's because the company you get the money from
Takes a cut of it
And that's how they make their living
But xe.com's really useful
To see the rate's changed over time
So you can see if it's a good time to buy your money
Or not
Now I don't know anything about global economics
But you can see how it's going
And decide whether it's going to go up or down
Like at the moment, the Pound to Yen rate
Is 1.47
Which is not bad
That's about average
And you can see it looks like it might go up
Or is it going to go down
Who knows?
xe.com is also really useful
When you're planning your trip
If you want to see how much something is
You can just type in the amount of yen
And it converts it to your currency
Really easily
Now it's unavoidable
You will end up with hundreds of 1 yen coins
They're so tiny and light
They almost feel like they're made of nothing
And you get so many of them
So try & spend them when you can
I don't really have any good tips for how to get rid of them
Last time I was in a shop
And there was a really helpful assistant at the till
And I did that foreigner thing
Where you hold out all your change in your hands
And she went through it and picked out as many coins as possible
She was really good
And the 1000 Yen notes
Have Mount Fuji on them, which is pretty cool
There's also a couple of coins with holes in
Which is kind of exciting
The smaller, kind of gold coloured one
Does have English numbers on
All the other coins do
It's just that one that's got a kanji instead
And that one's a 5 Yen coin
If you like my t-shirt: Kawaiija
This is my new design
My kawaii ouija board
Possessed by Cuteness!
This one was really popular at comic con
And you can get it online
On cakeswithfaces.co.uk
Or Cakes with Faces on Etsy
And I can deliver to any country in the world
How much cash should I take?
How much to take is up to you
You might be on a budget trip
Where you're trying to save money
Or you might want to splash out
On all the things you've been thinking about getting from Japan
If you want an idea of how much things cost
Have a look at my How Expensive is Tokyo video
It's on my channel
I recorded everything I spent
For 3 days
Including train tickets
Food and all the other little bits and pieces
And that should give you an idea of how much you might need
Cash machines
Foreign cards work in cash machines
In 7-Eleven, the convenience store
Which is everywhere
It's not hard to find one
They also work in cash machines in the Post Office
And Prestia
Which is a bank that used to be called Citibank
You can find them on Google Maps
Just type in the name
And it'll show you your closest one
Again, make sure your bank isn't going to charge you
For withdrawing cash abroad
Now the cards you can use in the shops
Aren't necessarily free in cash machines
I've got one credit card for buying things
And a separate debit card in case I need to take money out
So do check that before you go
Although I think it's easiest to get your cash before you go
Just so you don't waste time when you're there
Trying to find a cash machine
Just in case it doesn't work
I think it's easiest to get it before you go
But having a debit card
And knowing where you can take cash out
Is a really good back-up
Just in case
Currency conversion
I think the easiest way to work out how much things cost
Is to find out how much 1000 yen is in your currency
So for pounds in the UK
It's usually about £7.50 or £8
So if you know 1000 yen is £7.50
Then you know that 2000 yen is going to be £15
And you know that 100 yen
Is going to be 75p
And you can work things out from there
If you're converting to dollars
A lot of people just take a zero off
And say that 1000 yen
Is $10
Now that's not quite accurate
It's actually more like $9
So it just depends how picky you want to be
So that's it!
So: take cash with you
Take your card as well
Take a card you can use in cash machines
Then you've got everything covered
And you'll definitely be able to spend lots of money
Buying lots of amazing things from Japan
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For more Japlanning videos
There's also more vlogs coming up
I'm in Fukuoka at the moment in the vlogs
I wanted to show you more places that aren't in most Japan videos
You see loads of things from Tokyo
But these are things that are a little bit different
That you might not have seen before
Then I'll be on to Osaka
And Tokyo after that
So subscribe if you want to catch them
And I'll see you soon!
Bye bye!