Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Today’s lesson is all about changing money. No, we’re not talking about magic shows - today we give you the phrases you’ll need to break that big bill into smaller denominations. After tuning in, stop by JapanesePod101.com for the accompanying materials, and be sure to leave us a post!
This entry was posted on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Survival Phrases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
17 Responses to “Survival Phrases #47 - Change”
JapanesePod101.com says:
November 13th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Mina-san,
Let us know about changing money in your country, too! Have you ever been turned down??
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
siobhan says:
November 14th, 2006 at 12:24 am
I remember when the euro showed up in 2002, I had a lot of problems with the notes and coins. Now I am used to it, but I still think in the former currency when I want to buy something. 
Nate says:
November 14th, 2006 at 5:55 am
Peter-san,
Nothing new for you since I am in Texas. The only thing I wish they would get rid of is the penny. I hate carrying those things around.
ネイト
Belton says:
November 14th, 2006 at 7:14 am
I remember trying to get change for a phone in the post office (when they still ran the phones) and was told no change, so I bought a 1p stamp. The Post Office could hardly refuse to sell me that. The teller looked fairly annoyed though.
In Dublin the annoying thing is you need exact money for bus fares and it’s never a sensible round figure. it’s 1.45euro or 85¢. and they won’t take banknotes. (and don’t have a sensible pay on exit with change machine by the driver system like Japan, mind you it’d only get robbed, or people would skip paying if they had a system like that!) I think it’s the only time I find myself needing change anymore, even then I usually overpay.
>Siobhan-san, Airurandojin desu ka? Airurando ni sunde imasu ka?
I can remember the change from £sd to decimal. Oh I feel old now…
Belton says:
November 14th, 2006 at 7:24 am
How about those 1yen coins? I tended to add them to the stacks at shrines and by statues and I still find I brought loads back with me.
I got slightly dissaproving looks when I tried to pay for things with all my small change. Although I made a shop assistant laugh by counting out my small change in Japanese to her, breaking the monotony of the rather intense service you get at convini I suppose.
Peter says:
November 14th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Bakaneko-san, yep, they are the cheapest thing I can find. 
I’ll see if I can find some more info on them. 
Siobhan-san, I can only image! If it helps, I still use the 100Yen=1USD exchange rate when I calculate. I suppose it’s more wishful thinking than anything else.
Nate-san, you just may get you wish one of these days. I think the U.S. currency needs an overhaul, but I doubt Americans would put up with more coins. You know how we hate walking around with coins.
Belton-san, as always, thanks for the great story. Yes, a lot of the systems here are based on principles that would be a tough sell in the West. As for the 1 yen coin…still trying to figure out what it is made of.
As for disapproving looks, the Japanese banks will actually count your loose change for you. That is, you can bring a big bag of change to the bank, and they’ll dump it into a sorting machine and then give you the amount for it. I remember days of rolling pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. I wonder if the system changed?? But, the bank got pretty angry, as I had foreign coins mixed in with the Japanese ones, and well, they were not happy to say the least.
João Paulo says:
November 14th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Hey guys.
I’m always a bit behind schedule because of the time zone. I haven’t been able to listen to this episode yet. I’ll probably do it tomorrow morning.
Anyway, here in Brazil money used to be changed a lot until our present currency. So we were always getting used to checking out rates, making convertions, memorizing new names for the money. Quite challanging!
Anyway, money in Japan is very scary at first, because they grow really fast. The good point is when it’s time to convert your money into yens… it seems you get such a big amount of money… )))
Sorry if it doen’t have much to do with today’s subject, but as I said, I haven’t had the opportunity of listening to the episode yet and it’s time to sleep here now. 
Mata
siobhan says:
November 14th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Belton-san
Iie, watashi wa supeinjin desu.
But I guess you asked me that because of my nickname siobhan. The truth is that I chose it because it’s a character who appears in Ian Rankin’s novels, a Scottish writer, and I liked the name. Moreover, I am very interested in Celtic Culture as well. 
The problem is that I know is a woman name and I am male
Mata ne
Jeremy says:
November 14th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
- My girlfriend tells me the reason many shops won’t change money these days is because of a scam that started happening over 5
years ago.
- She knew a couple of local businesses that were scammed - and someone tried this on her - but she knew about it - and refused to
open the till. From what I recall it went something like this.
- A shady foreigner would go into a small shop - preferably with a lone young japanese staff member.
- They would speak quickly in English and demand change for a large note.
- This would make the assistant a little nervous but wanting to be helpful would generally open the till and get some change
- The offender would then try and say he can only have - say - even serial numbered notes.
- This would usually confuse the shop assistant (who would have little or no English) - but still wanted to help
- The foreigner then offers to help out by finding the desired notes himself in the till.
- Of course once he has access to the till he takes what money he can - and leaves.
- This is very unusual behaviour to see in Japan - and so the shop assistant is just left there shaking wondering what just happened.
Anyone else heard about this?
Jason says:
November 15th, 2006 at 4:59 am
I remember days of rolling pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
My parents still do that.
John C. Briggs says:
November 15th, 2006 at 5:12 am
Jasonさん、
I still roll coins, does that mean that I am old? What is the alternative?
ジョン
Peter says:
November 15th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Joao-san, yes, denominations of Japanese money grows so fast!! They like to keep decimal points out of the picture. The larger numbers still give me trouble! We’ll be looking at those in the short future. Thanks again for posting.
Siobhan-san, thanks for sharing! And, I like the name! It seems perfectly normal to me.
Jeremy-san, I haven’t heard about this, but maybe we can dispatch someone to give it a try. However, I have heard of people breaking big counterfeit bills, which was a problem here. Perhaps it still is??
Also, a few years back there was a huge problem related to the Japanese 500-yen coin (4.80USD). They are similiar in size to the Korean 500-won coin (0.45USD), so opportunistic individuals were capitalizing on this and there was an influx of these Korean coins which Japanese vending machines, etc., recognized as 500-yen coins. As a result, a new 500-yen coin was introduced.
I’ll ask around about the self-service registers.
Jason-san, is there an alternative?
Briggs-san, I would like to know too!
Looks like there is, but it also looks like it will cost you.
Coinstar
http://www.coinstar.com/us/html/a-home
http://www.wkrc.com/heyhoward/story.aspx?content_id=75FE4E41-EFCE-408D-A6A7-F51D167F93E1
Jason says:
November 15th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Jason-san, is there an alternative?
Not that I know of unless you buy one of those automatic sorter things.
John C. Briggs says:
November 16th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I have used the Coinstar thing, but they get a percentage.
My bank will accept rolled coins, so that is how I handle it.
I have a friend who’s bank will not accept rolled coins. He had rolled all his coins and then had to unroll them for the bank to accept them.
ジョン
Josh says:
November 25th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Hi, I know I’m asking this fairly late, but…. as someone who’s living in Japan, I (think) I have a fairly working grasp of daily conversations as long as it remains casual. As soon as it enters the realm of keigo though, I’m lost. And many of the set phrases that shop clerks use leave me totally mystified and befuddled.
Is there way to have a lesson where you explain some of the more common set expressions used in daily transactions? I know it’s probably a huge list but it’d be really helpful. I have a few that that come to mind if you need any input.
BTW, I rarely comment but I LOVE the podcast and the learning center. Keep it up!
jenny says:
October 9th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
a customer buys a 1 baht candy and pays with a 5000 baht bill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG69m1S2ioY
kinda like what peter was saying about his buying the 30-yen cookies
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