If you’ve been thinking of visiting Japan, this might be a good time. The dollar is over 119 yen, the highest it’s been since July 1999.

The dollar hit bottom at about 101 yen in December 1999 after a drastic overnight drop from 108 to 104 in September. We saw people at the bank selling huge handfuls of 10,000 yen notes and buying dollars for cheap.

After that major sell, the dollar was below 110 for fourteen months. But by the end of 2000, we saw the price come back up to 110. Yesterday it was 119.23 with fancial experts predicting 120 soon.

I’m a lazy currency converter, I think of 100 yen = 1 dollar. So when it’s really 120 yen = 1 dollar, it’s like a 20% discount on everything. So if you were thinking of coming to Japan, this is a good time—Japan’s on sale! Posted by kuri at March 05, 2001 06:38 AM