The visibility from Medford to San Francisco was excellent on this morning. I got some nice aerial shots of my town of Ashland that I’ll post at sometime in the future on my other blog.

The first picture today is of Mt. Shasta. Whether going to California from Ashland by car or by plane, seeing one of the many faces of Mt. Shasta is always a highlight.

I believe the above photograph is of Clair Eagle Lake. I couldn’t get over the views we were being treated with. No one else on the plane seemed to even care or to bother to look out their window. I’m like a small kid when I fly and the visibility is good. These scenes aren’t to be wasted with a nap, book, or other distractions.

I have some other decent aerial shots of Angel Island, Alcatraz, Candlestick Park, and some of the San Francisco Bay’s bridges, but I think this is one of the better ones of the city itself. I used to give city tours (in Japanese in the early 90s), including night tours that featured a stop on Treasure Island, the land mass to the immediate left of the island in the middle of the Bay Bridge in this picture.

South of San Francisco (we practically flew to San Jose before turning around to land at SFO) are these land masses filled with fun designs. I’m not sure what exactly the ground is here. Landfill? Marshes? Something else? In any event, the colors and patterns were even more amazing with the naked eye.

Posted on August 16th, 2009 under Other. Tags: aerial photography, clouds, Travel. Comments Off on MFR to SFO

On our prior trip to Japan I discovered that you can save several percent on currency exchanges by purchasing International Postal Money Orders with US dollars and then changing them into yen in Japan. Before this trip/move to Japan I called my bank and credit card company to see what their new rules are for international transactions. The banks and credit companies have increased fees on nearly everything in the past year and international transactions are no exception. My credit card company told me they will charge $3 plus 3% for every transaction I make in Japan. My bank will charge me $5 per withdrawal, but they wouldn’t say how much they will take on the spread between the market exchange rate and their rate. I’ll find that out when I use my ATM here soon. In any event, options 7, 8, and 9 on the above link no longer look very attractive.

I was going to purchase thousands of dollars in International Postal Money Orders and convert them into yen at the Narita Airport. Then I found out that the post offices in the airport close at 4 p.m., and our plane doesn’t land until 4:30. On to Plan B. I need to convert money at a bank in the airport. After researching the current Narita airport rates I decided it would be much better (almost 2% better) to use traveler’s checks (also spelled traveller’s cheque, travellers cheque, and traveller’s check) instead of cash. I recently opened a “Complete Advantage” checking account to go along with my “Wells Fargo Money Market Savings” account. I’m not sure which account has it, or if it is a combination of the two, but having them allowed me to obtain traveler’s checks for free. So that is what I did.

You may be thinking, “boy, this is a lot of effort to save a few dollars,” but this is more than a few dollars. I asked the teller how much these traveler’s checks would cost me if I didn’t have my accounts. She said they would have cost $325. I purchased $15,000 worth since we are going to be in Japan for a year. With travel’s checks getting almost a 2% better exchange rate, that adds up to almost another $300. So doing a little research will save me at least $625. Had I just used a credit card everywhere in Japan the damage could have been far worse.

I’ll soon let you know some exact rate differences for your planning purposes.

The characters in the graphic to the above left are 両替 (りょうがえ or ryogae) which means “money exchange” or “changing of currencies”.

Posted on August 14th, 2009 under Japan. Tags: budget, cheap, compare reserve trip, getting the best rate to change convert USD into yen, Japan, Travel. Comments: 2

Any John Denver fans out there? I’m not really one either, but this line from “Leaving On A Jet Plane” popped into my head when I was trying to think of a title for today’s post. You see, I’ll be heading to the airport for my move to Japan one week from today! Everything is lining up nicely. We are about 80-90% packed, the visas arrived quicker than anticipated, and yesterday we finally found a renter for our home while we are gone.

Getting a visa for Japan went smoother than predicted. Originally they said it would take eight weeks to get a “Certificate of Eligibility” (COE) from the powers that be in Tokyo. That was eight weeks before we were originally supposed to leave (today). So we moved our departure date back a week to August 13. The COE was actually completed in about four weeks according to the date on it. Unfortunately it sat on someone’s desk (either in the administration or at Waseda University where it was sent to) for more than two weeks before I was told it could be sent to me. In any event, I received it on July 27, two weeks and three days before departure. I then had to send the COEs with visa applications, more passport photos, our passports, and a self-addressed, stamped, priority-mail envelope to the Consulate General of Japan in Portland, Oregon (since I live 5+ hours away from Portland–most people probably drive it there). They said it would take a week to process plus postal time so I figured Priority Mail would be fine. They lied. It didn’t take a week. They processed the visas in a single day and mailed them back to me. The passports with visas in them arrived the same week I sent them on August 1. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to pay for overnight delivery. Overnight delivery of the COEs took four days, priority mail on the visas–both ways–only took a day or two.

Finding a tenant for our home wasn’t as smooth a process, but I think we found a really good one in the end. Better late than never.

Posted on August 6th, 2009 under Other. Tags: Travel. Comments: 2

Back in the day you could send things through the USPS via boat from the USA to Japan inexpensively. I’d like to send between 50 and 100 lbs. worth of stuff to Japan as cheaply as possible. Do you know of any service that does so for less than $2 a pound? It doesn’t matter if it takes 3 weeks (or even 3 months!) to get there. The price is over $4 a pound through the USPS as they don’t seem to offer the slow boat option anymore. Rates through DHL and UPS are even worse. Any ideas?

Posted on July 14th, 2009 under Other. Tags: Travel. Comments: 3

I had the unfortunate experience of wiring a large sum of money to Japan yesterday to pay for part of my children’s education for the next school year. The amount was large (about 3 million yen) so even minor fluctuations in the rate meant I would be paying, or saving, hundreds or thousands of dollars.

First of all, setting up a wire transfer through Wells Fargo (and I’m guessing the other major banks as well) is anything but quick and easy. The fees are large if it is a one-time wire so they encourage you to set up a repetitive wire transfer to make it a bit cheaper. To do so requires filling out pages of documents. I spent more than an hour with the banker. Then my wife had to go into the bank to sign papers too. I then had to send two faxes and fill out more paper work when things weren’t set up correctly. I also spent more than a half hour on the phone.

At long last things were ready to go. I called to make the transfer. The Wells Fargo agent processed everything and then said she was going to conference in a currency exchange agent. He got on the phone and quoted a rate of .0108. She finalized things and asked for my approval. I asked for a minute to run some numbers because things didn’t seem right.

The internet was quoting me a current rate of .01048. I ran some numbers and figured that the rate of .0108 was going to cost me about $1,000 more than .01048 so I told the agent that. She asked if we should try again. WTF? Try again? What does that mean in this context? I was trying to make a wire transfer of funds not roll dice in a casino.

I answered that if trying again could result in a better number then yes we should try again. She got the agent back on the line, told him I was unhappy with his quoted rate, and asked for a better exchange rate. He said, “How about .0106?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Was I dealing with a major bank or a loan shark? My hands were pretty tied as I had to get the money to Tokyo. I asked for .01048. He said no. I asked for .0105. He said he could only give me that rate if I was wiring more than 5M yen. So I was stuck with .0106.

Some important points to note:
1) If Wells Fargo, or likely any bank, tells you that wiring money to another country will cost you $15 or $30 or whatever their service fee is do not believe them. They will ream you on the rate so that they will make hundreds or thousands of dollars on the transaction.
2) Do not accept their initial rate! Had I accepted their initial rate I would have paid more than $600 than I ended up spending. I got taken by Wells Fargo, but it could have been worse.
3) Avoid wire transfers, or any conversions of dollars to yen, in the USA. The banks in the US will legally rip you off.

Foreign currency exchange can be a scam. The middle man is doing next to nothing for huge profits. The amount of the profits are determined by the desperation and degree of ignorance the person needing the other currency holds.

The stage coach is heading off with my money as fast as it can in the opposite direction from me.

Posted on June 27th, 2009 under Other. Tags: getting the best rate to change convert USD into yen, Travel. Comments: 15