CL wrote:
> John W. wrote:
> > CL wrote:
> >
> >>Why didn't you just run over to the local branch of the Bank of Austria
> >>(Osterreicherbank?) and cash them in there?  There used to be one around
> >>... maybe in Hibiya or Nihonbashi.  If they couldn't do the exchange
> >>they had a local bank they could instruct.  They helped me get the
> >>schillings I needed to pay a very strange person in some remote mountain
> >>village for parts for a Puch 250 "Twingle" I helped one of the locals
> >>restore.
> >>
> >>Usually if the local currency exchange desk ladies start looking at you
> >>like you're naked, you're better off grabbing the cash and finding the
> >>local office of a bank from the country where the money came from.  They
> >>usually have a person there who knows how to fix those kinds of
> >>problems.
> >
> > But weren't you bitching about having to do this very thing in another
> > post in this thread?
>
> Three blocks vs. 60 miles.  Do the math.
>
Depends on where you start from. Go sixty miles outside of Tokyo proper
and visit banks at random and see how much success you get. And you
also have to keep the time in mind; Japanese banks today are much
better than ten years ago, when even in Kobe I had to go to a major
bank branch in order to exchange money; the local branch couldn't do
it.

> Besides, the number of times a Japanese bank has screwed up a currency
> exchange is almost zero in comparison to the complete incompetence of US
> banks.

I'd be fascinated to see figures on this. Not that I consider US banks
perfect, but I'd much rather Japanese banks open their ATMs later
(particularly the post office ones, which seem to be the only ATMs a
tourist can use to access their foreign-based accounts) than have them
be whizbang at exchanging currency.

John W.