Psuedo Guru Blog by a wannabe guru with spelling issues.

Getting money in Japan

Well, I officially moved to Japan last week. My first big trama was finding out how to get cash out of my US bank account without having a Japanese ATM or credit card. Most ATMs and cash dispensers here only work with Japanese cards, even the machines with Visa and American Express symbols on them.

I found the solution at...the Post Office! Turns out that Japanese Post Offices have ATMs that take foreign cards. I was only able to withdraw 10,000 yen (about $100), but its better than nothing. You can find Japanese Post Offices by looking for a symbol that looks like a red capital T with a line over it. Example below:

I've also heard that the ATMs in Seven-Eleven stores take overseas cards, but I haven't tested this yet. I'll update this entry once I try it.

UPDATE: I tried the ATM at 7-11...it spit out my card like bad sushi. However, I did find a "Postal Savings" ATM at a train station (i.e. outside a post office) and was able to get cash from it.  

ANOTHER UPDATE: I was wrong about only being able to extract 10,000 yen from the post office ATM. I read the instructions wrong. I think the max is actually 100,000 yen, which is about $1000.