Cash Only

I live in the land for technological greatness - pocket calculators, camcorders and DSLR cameras were invented here, not to mention robots, the Shinkansen (bullet train) and futuristic cars with all kinds of crazy technologies.  One would think that living here would mean that everything is up to date and completely tech driven.  Imagine my surprise when I went to the grocery store, only to discover it was a cash only business.  Thinking that this was an exception to the rule, I continued on, thinking..."gee, they need to catch up to the times!"  Wrong...almost everything here in my little pocket of Japan is cash only.  Crazy!

"Jason, can you stop by the Post Office and the Circle K please?  I need to pay bills."

The postal service, Japan Post, is also the bank, Japan Post Bank.  There are two counters in the building, one for postal services and one for banking.  They are open typical business hours - M-F about 9 to 5.  The cash machines that are outside are open a little later, until about 7 PM and also have limited hours on the weekend.  After that, we cannot access our money until the following business day.  If we forget to get money out for the weekend or if it is a holiday, we are out of luck.  Cash machines get holidays off.

In the US I paid all my bills online.  Not only can I not pay my bills online here, I cannot even access my account online.  Bills are given to us twice.  First we get a meter reading printout - a little receipt that is slipped into our door by the gas man, electric man, and the water man.  A week or so later the actual bill comes in the mail.  Bills here all have barcodes on them.  You take your bills to any convenience store to pay them.  The bill is scanned into the register and you an pay your gas bill, internet bill, and buy a soda all at the same time.  With cash of course.  You can also order products online - from Amazon or where ever, and pay for that at the convenience store before delivery.

When we do happen to find a store that accepts credit, we always have to tell the clerk how many times we want our card charged.  Stores here offer the option of charging your card in installments as opposed to the whole total at once.  Of course there is an interest added to your uncharged balance.

I guess this is a good thing - for two people that have enjoyed the last 14 or so years living with ease because of our friend Visa...we now have to learn to live without it.  It's good - but quite a learning curve!

Comments

  1. David ShoupMay 27, 2012 at 12:04 AM

    Yes, I bet that took a little adjusting to. I think we in the states could use a bit of the same approach to our finances as it would cause us to be a bit more conscious of our spending. Great post!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surgery

I started my period when I was 11 years old.  I remember going to the nurses office at school that day because my lower back hurt so badly.  It felt like nothing I had ever felt before, but was a feeling I would become quite familiar with.  Imagine there being a bowling ball inside your body, resting on your tail bone.  It causes pressure just sitting there.  That was a good day.  The bad days were when that bowling ball was being ground into my back - from the inside trying to find a way out.  Later, when laboring with Lily, that same feeling was there.  Lily was upside down and her head was resting on my tailbone.  The contractions that drove it deeper into the bone were killers.  So all those years of imagining my inner bowling ball were not that far off! In those first few years of cycling I would often seek out the hardest surface I could find and just lay on it, trying to flatten my back into it.  Our living room floor usual...
Read more

$$Tokyo$$

If you google the most expensive cities to live in worldwide you'll find Tokyo somewhere in the top 10.  I looked at a few last night and Tokyo was actually in the top 3 on 5 of the lists.  Now, one list claimed that you'd have to shell out $5,000 to get a 2 bedroom apartment in Tokyo.  I'm sure there are plenty of such apartments, but there are also less expensive ones so you can't believe everything you read. But, it is true.  Living here is very expensive.  We rent an 860 ft2 apartment for approximately $1100 a month.  If we want to rent a parking space that is another $115 a month.  Our utilities, including internet but with no cable, are over $400 a month.  All that for utilities and our apartment does not even have central air or heat!  Groceries, gas, train tickets, they all add up too of course.  Groceries vary in price from store to store and season to season, but it is not uncommon to see 4 apples for $6 or a quart of milk fo...
Read more

Parenting is not for the Timid - This is my Biggest and Worst

Parenting brings obstacles and challenges like none that we've ever dealt with before.  My first was when my son was born.  He was the most difficult baby I'd ever come across, and I got to be with him all the time .  I remember how defeated and discouraged I was, and how I thought to myself, "I can't do this.  I can't parent this child, make him happy, stay sane.  I don't even want to".  I didn't know how I was going to get through his infancy and this obstacle felt like the greatest obstacle of my life. We got through it, I got through it.  Time passed and allowed me to forget the depth of the struggle so that when the next challenge arose, that one felt like a new biggest and worst.  The new challenge was now the thing that was going to end all civilized thought in my head.  Again, we got through.  Time and again, challenges, the biggest and worst, have arisen.  Each time I have thought, "How? What am I supposed to do with this...
Read more