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| Ramen, generous beef serving, onsen egg, tasty seaweed for 800 yen |
In my most recent solo trip to Japan last month, a few things have changed with regards to currency exchange.
1) Singapore dollar to Yen is now at a bargain compared to 2 years ago.
2 years ago, I changed at 1 to 65. Last month, I changed at 1 to 90. Now imagine the happiness of a tourist in Japan as everything is basically at 30% discount!Why? Abenomics, they call it, which is their Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's solution to their declining economy. He has introduced a round of quantitative easing since his political victory causing Japanese currency to drop and hence increase exports.
2) More outlets are accepting credit cards
2 years ago, cash is king as many outlets do not accept cards. Now, it seems that paying by cards is increasingly common as most eateries accept cards. This will greatly impact the amount you have to change, since you need not carry huge amounts of cash anymore.If you are planning to go to Japan and thinking on how much cash to change, here is the right place.
If you need ideas on where best to change SGD to JPY, refer to my previous recommendation here.
The two key questions are -
How much minimum cash would I need for 1 week?
Lets break down the expenses that can be paid via cash / credit
Accommodation - credit
Better Restaurants - credit
Shopping - credit
Roadside shopping - cash
Other food/convenience store - cash
Transport - top up by cash
Lets say you spend 1000 yen (~$11) on food per day, another 1000 yen on miscellaneous at the convenience store, 800 yen (2 x two-way trip from shibuya to akihabara), you will need 2800 yen a day. For 1 week, having about 21000 minimally with you would be OK.
The rest, I will recommend to pay by credit card (Remember to activate overseas usage!).
The next question I investigated was:
Does it make economic sense to pay by cards? How much would bringing all cash save me?
My credit expenses for this trip were as follows:
I spent, per my credit card bill, $583.19 in restaurants and shopping.
If I had paid by cash, with the currency exchange rate I got at Singapore, I would be spending $578.86. Which means that for $583 of spending, I paid about $4 for the convenience of not holding large amounts of cash.
Pretty worth it (<1% of spending), I would say. So bringing all cash might not save you alot after all!
In conclusion, Japan's ease of credit card use has improved these 2 years. If you are going to Japan,
1) have minimally about 3000 yen per day, carry more cash if you want to
2) pay everything in credit and enjoy the convenience of not holding cash at a small price
Hope this was useful for you
EUFASS
