JA2340 16 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Matt, you don;t have to carry it ALL with you ALL of the time. You can either leave it with the desk at your accom (or just stick it in a money belt hidden amongst your things - if you are as neat as me, they'll never find it even if they dared to look!) and carry the day's needs with you. Of course, you'll need to look out for Aussies, the locals are VERY VERY trustworthy! Link to post Share on other sites
modern_messiah 0 Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 Ja, I agree with you there. When my parents were on holiday in the Kruger National Park some family friends of ours were getting along with some fellow travellers from 'Joberg. Greats mates etc etc. Needless to say my folks are cautious now after they went out for the day and came back to find our friends had been cleaned out...by you know who. Anyway. Cash is looking like the option now. At least for the first week and a half. Not much I can do about getting my second pay advanced sadly. So for me it's cash and my ATM card. Link to post Share on other sites
mina2 6 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Problem is, lots of things have gone up in price - fuel (though it's gone down again), food etc. So places costs are up. Makes it difficult to cut prices. Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 mattaus, glad to hear you are a well travelled chap! Sounds like some pretty interesting places. I wish I could comment on the travelex card but I haven't got a clue what that is. As for walking around with 130,000Y... don't worry about it, that's only 13 bills! Link to post Share on other sites
keba 0 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Originally Posted By: Mattaus We are staying at the base of Happo-One, and I've noticed there is a post office near Hakuba Station. The map is not scaled very well so I need to know - how far is the post office? Is it reasonable, or will it be a trek and a half to get there? It's a trek, take the free shuttle bus. But take enough cash so you don't need to. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 don't rely on travelex cards or travellers cheques, I'd be very surprised to hear that you could use either with ease. Cash is king here and its no problem. Leave yer dough in your room when you go out and it should be fine (unless you are using a shared room in a hostel). 550 yen beers are regular priced in a bar, the touristy places will be more though. The re-evaluation of the yen was mooted a few months ago but the BoJ told the west to get on their bikes. Dunno if they've changed their minds, but screw that, I love sending money home every month!! Link to post Share on other sites
NIK22 0 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I had a friend come over with travellers cheques. It took ages for the bank to cash them in, I don't think they had ever seen one before. Definitely best avoided here unless perhaps you're in big cities that are used to them. Link to post Share on other sites
stemik 14 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Originally Posted By: keba Originally Posted By: Mattaus We are staying at the base of Happo-One, and I've noticed there is a post office near Hakuba Station. The map is not scaled very well so I need to know - how far is the post office? Is it reasonable, or will it be a trek and a half to get there? It's a trek, take the free shuttle bus. But take enough cash so you don't need to. What free shuttle bus? Do you know something I dont? About a 20min walk to the PO from Happo - From Wadano add another 10 to 20 mins Link to post Share on other sites
modern_messiah 0 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 I was under the impression there was a free shuttle bus as well. We are defintely planning on using it often so if it does'nt exist we're rooted lol. As it stands I'm going with lots of cash (going to have to change some of my Y1000 notes over to 10's though) and will use my bank card and Visa Credit card where possible to obtain more cash. My brother is doing the same though he is using a Debit card instead of a credit card. So thankfully I now know what I'm doing for cash. Got all my lift pass and board hire vouchers last night so I'm keen as mustard to get going. 2 weeks to the Day!!!!! Link to post Share on other sites
stemik 14 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 free shuttle buses to the ski areas. Night time shuttle bus 300yen Never heard of daytime free shuttle bus...or maybe your accommodation is providing one.. Link to post Share on other sites
modern_messiah 0 Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 No idea to be honest lol. Might be, might not be. Either way 3 or 4 bus trips wont hurt the pocket too much. Link to post Share on other sites
Rag-Doll 0 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 [quote=Ryoma The tap beer is called "nama" and is more expensive due to the hops/barley content. A lot of the canned beer has corn, potato etc (the ingredients are written on the side). Ryoma is referring to happoshu which is a low malt (low quality) beer intended to get uni students drunk and to get around certain taxes. It used to make the beer a lot cheaper than normal beer but I think the tax laws have change so its not that much cheaper now. Your standard apre binge beer in a can like kirin, asahi, sapporo etc are normal beers and will cost normal prices and, being canned beer from a conbi or vending machine, don't usually come served by a friendly Japanese girl working in Niseko during the winter to improve her English, like nama beer often is. Sometimes is pays to pay more Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Pay the extra for good beer! It's almost impossible for me to even get out of bed after drinking happoshu (or that other vile third category beer like beverage!!) nevermind getting to the top of the mountain. Link to post Share on other sites
skibum 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Best option is to take some duty free with you and drink at your hotel. There are a couple of restaurants in Happo one where you can get a good noodle/rice dish for between 650-800 Yen (under A$10.00) or you can go to the supermarket and buy the instant noodle meals for about 250 yen. We found that the Lawson (convenience) store near the bus stop in Happo was really good, you could buy 1.5L Coke for 130 Yen and beers were quite cheap. On the money front, we took cash with us and used our credit card wherever we could. The best place to get cash from an ATM is the 7 Eleven store in Happo. Good luck and don't worry! Link to post Share on other sites
TokyoEagle 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Spirits are dirt cheap in Japan, about half the price of Oz , even from the convenience stores. You can also get cheap Japanese drinks called chu-hi (does nothing for the head the next day though), mixed Japanese drinks in a can. These drinks are made from sho-chu, which you can buy straight, very cheaply, at any decent supermarket. For food, try the Japanese rice balls from the convenience store or supermarket for lunch (they are called onigiri), good value for money (Chuck a couple in your pockets and take them up the mountain). Cash all the way, Japanese carry huge amounts of cash on them most of the time, when on holiday i would say that ¥130,000 yen is less than average. Link to post Share on other sites
s3phis 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 The real way to go is Nihon-shu or Sho-chu! With prices... I think the average for tap beer is 450yen, cocktails are at 500-650yen. Canned beer is at like 220? We have a vending machine in the dorm so... that's pretty dangerous. We also seem to have an infinite supply of Nihonshu and Shochu. Is it just me or do people that live in cold areas/ski resorts able to drink more than city folk? Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 think it might just be you. I know plenty city folk who drink like a fish and still get to work the next morning. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Off topic but... I normally carry about 100,000yen. When I went to South Korea recently I changed up just 40,000yen and they handed me this huge wad of notes, must have been about 400 notes. I went shopping with colleagues one night and when I pulled out the wad to pay at the cashier, they practically threw me on the floor telling me to hide the wad of cash. It was like I was carrying $1M in cash or something. They couldn't believe when I said I carry more than double that normally in Japan. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 100,000 is only 10 notes though. That is handy. I hate getting 1 yen coins in change. I just dunno what to do with them. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 If you collect 10,000 of them, you can exchange for a nice simple brown note. And with that, you can buy beer. Link to post Share on other sites
s3phis 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Thursday: Yeah I know city folk do drink a lot... but I'm finding the villagers tend to be even more keen on their drink >_< I also honestly don't know why the 1yen coins still exist. They're such an inconvenience... even donating like a bunch of 1 yen coins leaves me feeling bad >_< Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I reckon I'll collect 100 of them in one go and go get a 100yen coin from the bank. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 1yen gets you a fair few notes in korea probably. Link to post Share on other sites
s3phis 0 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 100x 1yen coins isn't as fun when you take it to a bank as they just measure its weight . How about a 100 yen shop? Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 You need 105 1yen coins for the 100Y shop! Link to post Share on other sites
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