円

Before I start, I just want to thank the world for its terrible economy resulting in a yen to dollar conversion rate of 99 to 1 halfway through my last semester, and I thinks its about that bad now too, just check! It was 118 to the dollar when I first arrived in the great Nihon. I hope it changes before I go back!

Being this close to graduation is making me think about money. Ideally I will find a sugar momma (nihonjin of course) before graduation, but I'm not holding my breath.

One problem I have with Japanese money, however, is that yen is too easy to spend. This is for 3 reasons. Reason 1: The coins go up to 500円(about $5). You are just spending coins so you don't think anything of it. Who knew a handful of change could actually be 30 bucks??

Reason 2, and perhaps the most obvious: everything is so darn expensive. I found myself shocked at how cheap a can of coke (pocari sweat is more like it) was when it was 'just' 100 yen.

Reason 3: You can spend ANY bill ANYWHERE. Yes, 10,000 yen at the McDonalds is okay. Of course, McDonalds is evil so I wouldn't recommend spending 10 yen there, but I digress....

The second reason is likely due to convenience. If you want a Calpis, カルピス ,at 4am and you don't feel like walking more than 10 feet to get it, its okay, there is a vending machine in arms reach. So I guess paying 100 yen for that kind of convenience really isn't so bad. If they just kept the beer/chu-hai vending machines open past midnight then we'd be in good shape.

Moral of the story, take pictures of your yen, you won't be seeing it for very long.

Work

Work sucks, everyone knows that, unless you are the great Cromartie Taro. But if its going to suck, you might as well work in an awesome location. I think, for me, that location is Japan.

No, I'm not talking about becoming a 'salaryman', cause thats insane. Waking up at 5am to get on a packed train (packed enough to require people with paddles and whistles to push and cram people in) then work for 14 hours, only 8 of which are paid, and then doing that over and over 6 days a week sound fun to you?? Didn't think so.

There are quite a few international companies with locations in Japan (and if you know of any good companies, let me know!) so there are many options for working in Japan. When I say Japan, I usually mean Tokyo. Unfortunately, if you do want to work for a Japanese company, you should know about 10 bazillion Kanji first.

As for the picture, this is a pretty common site, and a humorous one.