Eric Takabayashi <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:

> I don't know where to go for good rates, but I just had a lovely experience
> receiving money from my account at home in First Hawaiian, wired through
> Central Pacific (only bank in my hometown that can handle it directly) to
> Hiroshima Bank where it sat through Golden Week in the foreign exchange
> section and I could get personal service, not have to wait with a number
> for a teller, like about a hundred people seated in the lobby downstairs.

What account did you transfer it to?  Was it your yen account or???
 
> I originally thought it would be better to convert the money to yen on the
> US end, because the US would favor the dollar, but it was easier for the
> bank to send the money in dollars. In the end, I found that there was a
> four yen per dollar difference in the banks' exchange rates, in favor of
> the dollar on the JAPANESE end, over 109 yen to the dollar, when the Tokyo
> rate was about 110, and the exchange rate at the US end would have been
> about 104.

So, you exchanged dollars at TTS rates at your bank, right?
 
> So I ended up making at least 20,000 yen. That was money for my next
> motorcycle. I wonder what will happen when I send over the down payment for
> the house, ten times as much as last week.

I thought you purchased a house already.

-- 
Matt
matt@gol.com