I was thinking about this myself, but there’s always someone ahead of you huh.

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The answer is not Golloyds!

This service is widely promoted throughout Japan and while it is easy to use the exchange rates they offer will actually cost you a lot of money.

For example the exchange rate fro Golloyds today is GBP / JPY 143. However the spot rate on the forex markets is 139. That’s a difference of 4 yen per pound.

Now I’m crap at maths but even I can see that over a transfer of 300,000 yen you will lose money:

golloyds
300000 / 143 GBP2,097

forex market
300000 / 139 GBP2,158

That’s a GBP60 difference.

There are two methods.

The first is to open a Citibank account in Japan. They have a multicurrency account option that enables you to keep cash in Yen, then transfer it into a range of currencies at a more competitive rate than Golloyds. Once the cash is in the foreign currency you can either put it in a term deposit to gain interest (e.g. Australian $ has a good rate at the moment compared to the rest of the world!), or transfer it via an electronic fund transfer to your bank back home.

The other way is to open an account with any of the numerous forex trade website (e.g. Onanda or World First).

These sites offer great forex rates as they rely on volume of transactions to make a profit. After you open an account you can wire the money to their local bank account (e.g. their account in Tokyo) and the money is then routed into your online account. Once there you can choose your currency exchange and transfer the cash into your account back home.

There are a couple more charges to pay this way (for example the furikomi fee from your JPY account to the forex trader’s JPY account, and then maybe a charge for the wire transfer from the trading account to your home account), but in the end you will end up saving more cash due to the better exchange rates.

World First has a case study which shows the savings possible.

In short, Golloyds charges you a significant chuck of change for the convenience of sending your cash back home. Better deals are available and don’t take much extra effort.

Good luck with your forex transactions.

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When does Shin-Osaka shine?

When it’s Shine-Osaka, that’s when.

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That’s nothing.

There’ve been recent sightings of Michael Jackson, adding weight to the conspiracy theory that his death was in fact staged just so that he could fulfill his lifelong ambition of working in Umeda’s Loft department store.

See, photographic evidence. Would someone please call OK! Magazine?

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OK, then.

Delicacies are supposed to be, er, delicious, but does the price warrant a loan for a Mercedes?

Take this little beauty, for example.

A mushroom. Yes, a mushroom.

Tastfully boxed in a nice little cardboard box. It might not be made of gold or even goldleafed, but it does have a whole bunch of chopped up fern around it for maximum ‘just-been-plucked -from-the-woods’ effect.

We think you might like it. Enough to tickle your purchase fancy.

A mere snip at 3,500 yen. Oh, and it’s on special today, 30% off. Quick, make a beeline before they all sell out.

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As if being blinded with science wasn’t enough, the world’s biggest electrical goods department store can bedazzle you with  the latest range of innovations, inventions and contraptions. A tasty trap to fall into, mind.

Why? Because you can now gorge your technological appetite on sushi USBs. Oh, a word of warning, though. Watch your laptop’s waistline with the fried shrimps, and watch your fingers while you’re at it. Look carefully at the piccy below and you’ll see one all nicely chopped off and ready for some PC action. Finger-lickin’ good.

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However help is now at hand in the form of the renshyuu.org website which has a ton of great quizzes and samples to help you test your knowledge and pass that bloody test.

Good luck!

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“The first time I came to live in Japan I was setup by my company, Sega, in the company dorms. That wasn’t the best place but it was all taken care off. Some small fee like $150 was deducted from my paycheck and the personal department took care of getting my name registered with the electric company.

This time though I had to do it all on my own. I knew several issues that I guess usually distress most new arrivels here in Japan. For example there is the issue of key money. In Japan you almost always have to pay *key money* (reikin: pronounced ray-keen). There’s really no way to explain it except to say that it’s the money you pay for the privilege of staying in the landlord’s building. For 70% of apartments it’s 2 months rent. This is NOT the deposit. You don’t get this money back ever. Consider it the contract closing fee if you want. There is one positive side to this. There are no leases in Japan, at least not for apartments, so unlike America where you sign a lease and if you have to leave early you still have to keep paying rent well that doesn’t happen here. There are some apartments for which there is no key money but expect them to be pretty crappy. The kind of apartment that basically couldn’t be rented any other way except to lower the price.”….

Read the rest here

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I know the probability of this is pretty darn low, but of all unbelievable things poor ole Eckhart (or Eggsy, as he became affectionately known) was later found missing from his bowl. A tropical fish thief on the loose, perhaps? Or a maybe cat with a Vietnamese fighting fish fettish? No, of all shocking things he was later found (identified and confirmed to be the fish in question) on the floor. Turns out he’d lept out of his bowl to meet his fate. A dry one at that, poor thing.

Oh dear.

I sugarcoated the drama and pitched it to the owner upon arriving back from Thailand that there was no Eggsy waiting, but rather a nice anecdote to tell your grandchildren instead. And that fish heaven was a better place to have Eggsy in it.

Thankfully, the tears only lasted a couple of weeks.

Not that Eggsy was ever replaceable, but you know, sometimes a bowl looks kind of empty without a fish in it. So I suggested a new fishy-poohs might be in order.

You’d think that Vietnamese fighting fish would be two-a-penny. But nooo. What an ordeal trying to get a new one. Obviously Eggsy wasn’t that replaceable afterall.

After traipsing the length and breadth of Osaka we finally happened across a new age pet shop in Namba Parks called P2. Yes, not only Vietnamese fighting fish in every colour under the sun, but also prehistoric white shiny newts with frightening external gills and pointy manes. And…get this…cream cakes for dogs. At a special pet delicatessen counter, no less. Ruddy ridiculous.

So anyway, we plumped for a blue chiffon fish and called it Pai Lin. But we lodged a formal complaint when we discovered to our horror that the line in cream cakes was strictly limited to dogs. How utterly prejudiced!

So we went straight to the nearest supermarket bakery and stocked up on creamy delights. Needless to say, Pai Lin was delighted.

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