Hello everyone.
I’ll be moving to Japan soon under a student visa to study in Kobe University for 2 years.
Whether from Tokyo or Osaka, I’ll have to bear with the transportation expenses (and any other expenses) to the university. I’m going with US dollars in cash (I can’t get a card from my country) for the quarantine period and for the travelling expenses.
I heard that the airport currency rates are high and I’ll lose too much money there (I already checked the rate) however, I don’t know any other way to get jyp if I don’t have a card or the necessary Japanese level to it. I also don’t know where I’m going to spend the quarantine period, I read that some hotels would do this service…
So, do I have another option besides the airport for that specific time after arrival and untill I get to the university?
Thanks in advance.
8 comments
Convert it at your US bank before you go.
I will be using [order.ceifx.com](https://order.ceifx.com) as it has a better rate than Bank of America
Any major bank should be able to order the currency for you before you leave the states.
I’ve been a huge proponent of Schwab checking account. You need to open it with a brokerage account which runs a credit check. But if you don’t mind the credit check and ignore the brokerage account, a Schwab account is going to save you a lot of headaches in the long run.
With a Schwab account, you can pull cash out of ANY ATM in ANY country for no fee. You only pay a conversion fee which is peanuts compared to anything else. But really, it is the peace of mind of not having to deal with something like you’re dealing with. When I travel, I land and just walk to any ATM to take out local currency. In japan specifically, this is awesome because you can get cash anywhere since there is an ATM in every conbini. I never have to withdraw large sums. I literally draw daily since I don’t have to pay an ATM fee. It’s much safer.
Would Wise work? https://wise.com/us/borderless/jpy-account
You can exchange money at normal banks in Japan. You will open a bank account anyway, why not just deposit the foreign money when you do?
Do you have a bank card with a visa or mastercard stamp or credit card that lets you do cash advances? 7-11 and Yuucho (post office) ATMs will let you withdraw cash when you get there, and I believe that there are such ATMs at the airport (I know for a fact there’s a 7-11 ATM at Itami and a Yuucho in Nagoya but I haven’t been to Tokyo or KIX recently enough to know for either of them – I bet you could check online though). You might want to look into the rates for that and see if it would be worth it, though.
ETA: I think 7-11 only lets you withdraw in multiples of 10,000 for international accounts, whereas Yuucho will let you do multiples of 1,000, if that’s important. That might have changed, too, though.
You have other options. You could go to a shop that specializes in currency exchange, go to Mizuho Bank (not sure if they deal in CUP) where they have vending machines that you can literally exchange your money in, or use your debit card (if it has Visa/Mastercard/Maestro/etc) at 7-11. Someone here mentioned only being able to take out in increments of 10,000 but this has changed to 1,000. Japan Post Bank also works too if you use the ATM to withdraw from your bank.
I’m almost in the same boat as you. I just checked Kansai airport exchange rate and it says 1 dollar buys 117.22 yen. That is a pretty sweet rate, is it not?
http://www.kaakix.co.jp/exchange/sp/exchange_rate.html