Coins are good...you should notice them!

Ok, I don't know if it's because I'm American or I'm just me, but I'm having a serious problem realizing that the coins used here are actually useful. I always only consider bills as valued currency, so I end up dumping loads of coins in a container on my desk and never really using them. They sit there forever until I start thinking I'm running out of money. Then, I'll count them, and find I 2000, 3000, or even 4000 yen sitting on my desk.

In Japan, they don't start using bills until they get up to 1000 yen (10 dollars), so everything under that (1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 yen (1, 5, 10, 50 cent and 1 and 5 dollars)) is in coins. I'm not use to making several dollar purchases in coins. In fact, in the states, if you tried making a purchase over a dollar in coins, I'd probably look at you funny and maybe even kill you if you tried to use anything other than quarters. Heck, even if it was under a dollar, and you dumped a pile of dimes and nickles in my hand, I'd be annoyed. (I'm thinking of the summer I spent as a cashier) In other words, I see using coins as annoying. Bills are quick, simple and require pretty much no counting time, so I always use bills even here in Japan. But that only means...I get more coins! I always use coins for trains tickets and paying for lunch at school, but school is out for the moment. I'm also not riding the train as often as when I first got here. Good thing I can use the 100 coins for laundry, or I'd never get rid of them.

What's worse is now I might not even use coins for the train anymore. Last year, when I was buying a train ticket, I got a really strange surprise. 500 yen coins are usually gold, but when I got my change, the machine spat out a silver colored 500 yen coin. The annoying thing is...I spent the coin. I hadn't intended to, but my destination required several transfers which meant I had to buy more tickets. The machine wouldn't take my 1000 yen bill. There were people behind me, so I didn't feel like searching my bag for coins. I dropped the silver yen in there. >_< Baka!

Now, I don't know how rare those silver coins are. Heck, I didn't even know they exsisted until I got one, but I'm determined to get another one. Only way I can do that is to use bills, so I'll get 500 yen coins as change...and probably the not as useful smaller coins. *sigh* Well, I made 2 purchases in coins yesterday, so maybe I'm getting the hang of it.

I hunger...

I've only had 2 eggs with some ramen this morning. I'm hungry. T_T Well, I'm very nearly becoming completely alone in the dorms now. Everyone is has either gone home for spring break, left because they were exchange students, or are becoming 3rd years next year and had to move out. meh, Yumi moved out yesterday, but I got some good stuff from it. She gave me the large fridge in her room, so now I can store extra food...when I get food that is. I'm having to squeeze my yen pretty hard because I'm running low on funds till we get our scholarship monies next week (I'm hoping). I bought a hundred dollar/10, 000 yen book card from my friend last month because she was leaving Japan for good and didn't want to waste it. I'm wishing I could cash it in because I'm going to a concert this week and am probably going to want to buy some merch. I'm lucky I can buy manga with this thing, or it wouldn't be of much use to me. I was planning to use it to buy a Sherlock Holmes book if I could find any because that's the only thing that's interested me recently besides the Harry Potter books. I don't need to now, though. I was helping Yumi move some boxes to the first floor, and she went over to the reading corner to leave some books she didn't need. She asked if I wanted any of the english books she had. It wasn't looking very interesting, but then she pulled out a large, ratty old hard cover book. She opened it, and I saw "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" on the front page. "CHOODAI!!" Now I can stop forgetting the english language.

I'm currently typing up my "eikaiwa" flyer to post in the dorm lobby(about time). Me wants money. I've been eyeing a lot of concert dates online, so I'm figuring another source of income wouldn't be a bad idea. I'm making it kind of cheap. 1000 yen an hour for one person. Groups from 2 people to 5 go for 600 yen each person. I'm just trying to get people at this point which I'm wondering if it's even possible. The girl's side of the dorm is pretty empty; I'm not sure how the boy's side is. I think it's pretty much finished now. I just need to put some little stick figure characters at the top having a bubble conversation in english. I'm on one of the library computers right now, so I'm going to have to do that at home. I already don't really know how to use Word. It's even harder when everything is in Japanese. 0_o