Currency
Lots of zeros!
The Japanese currency is the yen - in general, the character ¥ precedes the price, or the character 円 follws the price. Both are pronounced and mean yen - although the ‘y’ is often dropped, leaving just ‘en’.
The first thing you’ll notice is that there are big numbers and lots of zeros involved.
Yen (JPY) comes in bills of 1,000 yen, 2,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 10,000 yen, and coins of 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, 100 yen and 500 yen.
While more and more people are using credit cards, Japan is still very much a cash-based society, so keep cash on you. You’ll want to have cash if heading to remote spots.
The 10,000 yen note is generally accepted even if buying something small. There aren’t many 2,000 yen notes in ciculation.