Earlier this evening I was stressing out looking for an atm. None of them work with US cards except citi bank and i think one other.
It started when I attempted to get home from a long day of walking around. i was stuck somewhere quite a bit away from my hotel and i didn't have any money left on my metro card. I was at one of the largest stations and it was taking all of what was left of the little energy i had. By this time i don't think i had anything to eat except some chocolate which you'll see later. (I know, i know, mom, ebony, marcia, blazey, jillian and everyone one else who gets on me about not eating when i should, you don't have to tell me.)
once i found the information counter I asked about putting the 180 yen i have left in cash on my card or using my credit card. Neither would work. It took a minimum of 1000 yen (kinda like 10 bucks). 3 flights and 150 meter walk later i'm at an atm that won't take my card. great. i'm stuck in a post rush hour downtown and no convenience stores or other banks in sight. After walking a few blocks I hail a cab that takes visa.
35 dollars later and more walking i'm at a wired cafe drinking a little expresso and using the free internet to look up where a citi bank is. boom, got it. I give them my card and she says, nope. the wired internet cafe is cash only, word? i had to offer up my ipod for them to let me go. they didn't take the ipod just asked that i promise i come back tomorrow. this was all done with me speaking english and sign-language and her speaking japanese and sign-language.
cool, i have the location of the citi bank, now i just need to walk the equivalent of 3 or 4 NYC avenue blocks to get there. oh yeah, if you didn't know, only main roads have street names. the address are like this: Dogenzaka-ku 2-25-12. 2
2 is the zone (Dogenzaka-ku) 25 is the 25th block 2 is 2nd building on the block.
needless to say i was lost and ended up walking an extra avenue too far, on the wrong street. I did get to see a blow fish restaurant though, which made the entire walk worth it!). I searched and searched and eventually found it with the help of an information desk. I was so excited I took out 50,000 yen (cause i wanted smaller bills) then i took out another 50,000 yen. The second time i noticed that the balance was a lot lower than what it should have been.
FREAK!
i took out nearly $1,000 by mistake! i thought i was taking $50 each time. i hope the conversion back to USD will be close. I only need a few bucks to make sure i can get back home.
not only was the walk long, i also had to push through a gagillion people the entire time.
yay!