Matthew Endo wrote:

> Can anyone recommend a Japanese bank which has good exchange rates when
> transferring money from the U.S. via telegraphic bank transfer?
>
> Anyone have any experiences with this?
>
> Otherwise, I guess I could transfer the money to my Citibank Multimoney
> account in US dollars, but the exchange rate from dollars to yen is not
> very good, looks like I could get better by doing a spot transfer at the
> time of the TTR.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Matt
> matt@gol.com

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.

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 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.

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