Expert: Robert - 4/9/2004

Question
Are ATM's available for USA tourist in the larger Japanese cities?

Answer
Hi Ronald,

Yes. In Tokyo and at several airports there are machines for Citibank, but by far the easier way is to go to any Japanese Post Office.

You can now withdraw cash at machines in almost any post office in Japan using the following cards:

--Credit cards issued by Visa International, MasterCard International, American Express
and Diners Club

--Debit cards issued by financial institutions participating in Visa Electron or Maestro networks

--ATM cards issued by financial institutions participating in the Plus or Cirrus networks (look on the back of the card).

If you'll be travelling to several cities across the country, if you can, get a JR Rail Pass, which allows you to ride any JR train in the country. You need to get it *before* going to Japan. It looks high when you first buy it, but you'll save a ton in the long run and not be so limited on  where you  can go. You can get more info on it at
http://www.jtbusa.com/enhome/jrpass.asp
http://www.japanrailpass.net

If you choose not to do this, you can find rail fares
at
http://ekimae.itp.ne.jp/tra-bin/jrtrageng.cgi
You can also find a Tokyo subway map at
http://soli.inav.net/~ceicher/images/TokyoSubways.jpg
and other major city subway maps at
http://www.reed.edu/~reyn/transport.html
Tokyo has a one day subway day pass for  
all lines for 1000 yen too; other cities most likely offer
a similar day pass.
The exchange rate is around 105 yen to the US
dollar at the moment, which makes things  
cheaper for you compared to a few years ago.
You will find many if not nearly all things there
to be very expensive, but you do not need to sell
your soul to find a good buy here and there. A good
website to look at is
Price Check Tokyo at
http://www.pricechecktokyo.com
You can also see what Japanese money looks like at
http://www.geocities.com/ropponmatsu/japanfaq1b.html
Note that you can not use
1 or 5 yen coins in vending machines and phones.

Renting a hotel room can be cheap to wildly
expensive--it depends on where it is, how big, the
facilities, etc. But for a few cheaper hotels look
at
http://www.e-hoteljapan.com
http://www.japanhotel.net
http://www.eryokan.co.jp
http://www.ryokan.or.jp/english.htm
http://members.aol.com/jinngroup/
http://www02.tiglion.net/tod05/shop/hotel/citylist.asp?country=JP&act=
http://www.newkoyo.com
http://www.shrek-watta-house.com
http://www.idiom.com/~turner/tamaryokan.html
http://www.jyh.or.jp/olhb/JYH-English/jyh.html
http://www2.dango.ne.jp/kimi/ryokan.html
http://www.libertyhouse.gr.jp
http://www.juyoh.co.jp/english.htm
http://www.palacesidehotel.co.jp
http://www.o-e-h.com
http://www.Kyotojp.com

Try and go to at least one hot spring (called onsen)
while you're there. They are all over the country.
See:
http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Japan/Travel_and_Tourism/Hot_Springs
for more info and guides. They range from free
to very high at hot spring resort hotels.

For food, you didn't give any preferences, but you will
find most anything. See http://www.bento.com/ for a good
listing of restaurants, as well as maybe looking in some
ex-pat magazines like Tokyo Journal there.
Jet lag may be a problem, depending on you, the flight time
and arrival, whether you can sleep on the plane, etc. For
me, I leave L.A. in the afternoon, arrive the next day in
the evening, crawl into bed and wake the next day feeling
fine. Everyone is a bit different though. But Tokyo is a
24 hour city that never sleeps.

You can also learn a few helpful Japanese phrases before you go at:
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/language/lab1-1-2.html

Also see The Japan FAQ at http://www.thejapanfaq.com/
for lots of useful info and good links, as well as
The Japan National Tourist Org. Page at
http://www.jnto.go.jp plus Frommers Guide at
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/japan/
and a Japan Photo Gallery at
http://japaninfo.esmartweb.com/pics.html
Yahoo also has a good database of country and
regional guides to look through.

Hope all that helps!

Regards,


Robert