Pocket Change
One of the adjustments that I had to make was in my attitude towards coins.
In the United States, the highest valued coin in common circulation is the quarter, worth 25 cents and representing insufficent value to purchase a candy bar. The other coins just go down in value from there. Because the value of coins was slow, and because I never generated large quanties of them(I didn't make a many purchases and a lot of those that I did were paid by check or card) once money was converted to coins it ceased to be useful in my mind they're just annoying clutter in my pockets. When I received change back from a purchase I brought it home and emptied it from my pockets into a box in my sock drawer. A couple times a month I'd grab a handful of change and use it to buy a candybar or two on the way to the library.
Here in Japan things are different. The highest coin is worth 500 yen, that's about $4.50 US. Since I'm lazy and like even amounts I usually just think of it as five bucks. You can actually buy stuff with that kind of money. Down from the 500 there's also a 100 yen coin, which is the Japanese equivalent of a one dollar bill. The lowest paper denomination is 1000 yen, worth almost ten bucks. This makes it absolutely necessary to keep track of my change here. Unlike back home, a handful of change is often serious money. Maybe not serious as in someone's life savings, but it's not uncommon for the coins in my pocket to represent my next couple meals. To a perpetually hungry fellow like myself that's a weighty matter.
The frequency of transactions I make forces me to pay attention to even the petty change, the 10 yen (dime) and 1 yen (penny) coins. I get up in the morning, pay for the bus, after a few hours at school I buy lunch, a bit later and I'm paying for the bus again, then it's down into town to buy groceries and maybe some bagels for the next days breakfast. On a normal day I'll buy things 6-8 times, if I were to write off my the small change I'd be out a buck or two per day and over time that really adds up.
I took the above picture with my roomate's camera on the dorm floor. They are not as distinct as I hoped they would be due to my poor photography skills but hopefully you can still get an idea of the local coinage. If not try google-imaging "500 yen coin", "100 yen coin" ....etc.
In the United States, the highest valued coin in common circulation is the quarter, worth 25 cents and representing insufficent value to purchase a candy bar. The other coins just go down in value from there. Because the value of coins was slow, and because I never generated large quanties of them(I didn't make a many purchases and a lot of those that I did were paid by check or card) once money was converted to coins it ceased to be useful in my mind they're just annoying clutter in my pockets. When I received change back from a purchase I brought it home and emptied it from my pockets into a box in my sock drawer. A couple times a month I'd grab a handful of change and use it to buy a candybar or two on the way to the library.
Here in Japan things are different. The highest coin is worth 500 yen, that's about $4.50 US. Since I'm lazy and like even amounts I usually just think of it as five bucks. You can actually buy stuff with that kind of money. Down from the 500 there's also a 100 yen coin, which is the Japanese equivalent of a one dollar bill. The lowest paper denomination is 1000 yen, worth almost ten bucks. This makes it absolutely necessary to keep track of my change here. Unlike back home, a handful of change is often serious money. Maybe not serious as in someone's life savings, but it's not uncommon for the coins in my pocket to represent my next couple meals. To a perpetually hungry fellow like myself that's a weighty matter.
The frequency of transactions I make forces me to pay attention to even the petty change, the 10 yen (dime) and 1 yen (penny) coins. I get up in the morning, pay for the bus, after a few hours at school I buy lunch, a bit later and I'm paying for the bus again, then it's down into town to buy groceries and maybe some bagels for the next days breakfast. On a normal day I'll buy things 6-8 times, if I were to write off my the small change I'd be out a buck or two per day and over time that really adds up.
I took the above picture with my roomate's camera on the dorm floor. They are not as distinct as I hoped they would be due to my poor photography skills but hopefully you can still get an idea of the local coinage. If not try google-imaging "500 yen coin", "100 yen coin" ....etc.
5 Comments:
wow... they use the 'english' numbers... not the japanese ones. Cool
Neato! I love coins. I have a collection. Goes to show how weird I am....
Just the other day I converted all my spare change to regular dinero, and it equaled about 12 bucks!
The US is very unique in that they have small denomination bills. In Canada they don't have any bills smaller than $5 anymore, same with the £5 bill in England, and there was never anything in the EU smaller than a 5 Euro bill.
I regularly use $1 coins and $2 bills when I buy stuff. My smaller coins generally get tossed into the bottom of my backpack where it remains until the accumulated weight becomes noticeable. By that time I've usually got $20+ in mostly dimes and cents. Then I go buy something frivolous using one of the self-checkout lines at Fred Meyer so I can insert all of my change into the machine.
Same way in mexico, they like their coins.
Probalby because they last longer then paper money.
I was just thinking about this today! I thought I would have to get out money soon because I only had 2000 yen in bills, then I looked at my coins, and realized I had 3000 yen in COINS. It felt like I had no money, yet i have about 50 bucks, 30 of that being in coins.
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