CL wrote:
> declan_murphy@hotmail.com wrote:
> 
>>jwb@csse.monash.edu.au wrote:
>>
>>>Michael Cash <mikecash@buggerallspammers.com> dixit:
>>
>>Last time I visited Cambridge (the other one) I went to 4 or 5 banks
>>trying to change yen (cash) into USD. Same "do you have an account with
>>us" BS. I'd only been in Sepponia 6 hours or so. Everytime I gets the
>>shits with the staff at UFJ I find the easiest way to relax is to
>>remember that at least it isn't a sepponian bank.
> 
> 
> Many years ago, when I worked for a major motorcycle manufacturer, I
> needed dollars and stopped off at the branch of Union Bank closest to
> the US headquarters of my employer.  This was about a year after the
> ichi-man bills changed from Shotoku-taishi to Fukuzawa.  I handed over
> 10 man and they went and got this big picture book of the world's
> currency and flipped to the page on Japan ... which not only had only
> the old 1, 5, and 10 thousand yen notes (before the ones that had gotten
> replaced the year before), but also showed a 100 and 500 yen note.

[religious profiling elided]

I was once politely informed by a Japanese bank clerk that there was no
such currency as a "rupee", and that they were unable to exchange them
for me. My handful of rupee denominated bills did nothing to dissuade
her. If there wasn't a picture in her book, it didn't exist.

KWW