#65 What you can buy with 500 Yen coin
#65 What you can buy with 500 Yen coin
Knowing the value of 500 yen may make your stay in Japan more interesting.
With the ban on group Chinese tourists traveling to Japan lifted recently, the Japanese inbound market is likely to return rapidly to its pre-Corona state of 2019. With Corona, the economic environment has changed dramatically, and the Japanese yen is now significantly weaker in the foreign exchange market, making it easier for foreign travelers to visit Japan. In Japan, as in the US and Europe, everything is surging, and what you can buy for 500 yen (one coin) is decreasing.
However, understanding what is currently available for 500 yen, it may be easier to visualise the cost of a trip to Japan. This week I want to review what you can expect to buy with 500 Yen(what we call one coin).
Transportation
Public transport fares are rising gradually, but it is still much cheaper than in other cities in the Western world. It is always better to buy one-day tickets, rather than using IC ticket cards such as Suica or Pasmo. And the recent problem here is that you only can get the specific IC card ticket at the designated places at major airports such as Narita and Haneda airports. Otherwise, you may have to buy a single ticket every time you use a train or bus.
Dining and food
Food
The most frequently purchased items during sightseeing are perhaps drinks such as water, coffee and tea. When you buy bottled water at the convenience store, it costs around 100 Yen. As long as you are aware of where you should buy certain goods in certain places, you don't have to worry about the price. But please keep in your mind that most of the goods at the convenience store are at a fixed price except for their private brands. If you are price-conscious and want to save money on these items, go to supermarkets or drug stores. In recent years, more and more drug stores sell drinks and some food. Drug stores are becoming a rival to supermarkets.
Coffee
Coffee is the most popular drink throughout the year in Japan, which is more like in every city abroad. In the case of Japan, there are global brands such as Starbucks, as well as coffee chains that have evolved in their unique way in Japan, such as Doutor, and those who want to drink coffee easily and inexpensively, have even the option of purchasing it at convenience stores. Prices vary widely, in any case, coffee can be purchased for as little as one coin. Convenience stores offer coffee for less than one dollar.
Dining
If you have a limit eating out to one coin, 500 yen, you are restricted in what you can eat. Even fish and meat set menus become difficult, but with Japanese fast food, there are many choices. The following is a list of some of the most popular choices. Yoshinoya or Matsuya for beef bowls, and as it is said that the price of a McDonald's Big Mac symbolizes the price of a country, Japanese Big Macs are still cheap despite repeated price hikes. Sushi that would cost several thousand yen at a sushi restaurant may only cost one coin at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant if it is just a snack. Despite the surge in prices, I believe that readers of this article will find eating out in Japan to be extremely cheap if they do not choose from the menu, thanks in part to the weak yen.
Public Bath=Sento
Visitors from overseas rarely use the public bath, but this is a good indication of the price. Now that the number of public baths keeps decreasing in Japan since most Japanese households have private baths. In fact, in Tokyo, it costs 520 Yen for an adult. The price was increased by 20 Yen on the 1st of July this year. Before that, you could go with 500 Yen. How do you evaluate the cost of just going to the public bath once with 520 Yen? It may still be cheap if you consider the costs of fuel, water and maintenance. I think that it should be more expensive.
I will not go into details in this article about the fees, but I encourage you to visit a sento, which has numerous elements that symbolize Japanese culture.
Finally
With the weak yen and the strength of major foreign currencies, it may not be worth replacing the price of your own country or each major currency during your stay in Japan. However, just knowing the value of one coin, 500 yen, is a good guideline to control your spending while traveling in Japan.