Banking in Japan

For the past 6 months, Rachael and I have been saving diligently for our upcoming trip to San Francisco using an old fashioned method. A piggy bank. Actually, it's more of a piggy bag...minus the piggy.


This week, we counted well over $400 worth of change and hauled the 15 pound sack of change all the way downtown to our CitiBank branch during its posted "open hours."

Our friendly neighborhood Minnesota Wells Fargo bank is open from 9:00 AM- 6:00 PM on weekdays and even 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM on Saturday. Although our bank here may be "open" as well, for some bizarrely Japanese reason, they will not accept coin deposits after 3:00pm on weekdays or on Saturdays.

That discovery was frustrating enough, but wait, there's more! I asked if Rachael could come back during the week and deposit the change since I can't just ditch my 24 students and go to the bank with a satchel full of yen. They said I would have to sign a Power of Attorney and that they would then have to hand count the change in front of Rachael before depositing it in my account. What?


Since there are only 8 school days left before we come home to the States for 10 weeks, there's no way I'll make it to the bank before we leave. I'm going to see if one of the nice Japanese people in the accounting or front offices has any suggestions, but I'd kill for one of those supermarket change converting machines right now.