Dollars to Yen

 We got through customs and found out that our luggage did not get on the plane with us.  In fact, they were still in San Francisco.  Great. 
Next, we had to go to the Currency Exchange in the airport and change our American money into Japanese yen.  100 yen is worth around $1.00.  The exchange rate changes all the time, but it stays close to that.  When we changed our money, $0.77 in American currency equaled 100 yen. 

 The Japanese have coins and paper bills just like we do, but they look very different.  Here's a side by side of American money and Japanese yen that the kids and I figured out on the floor of the airport.  I didn't have an American $100 dollar bill at this point, so I put two $50 bills together at the top.  The yen paper bill to the right is worth about $100 or 10,000 yen.  The next column is a $50 bill and 5000 yen.  The third column is of an American $20 bill, but the Japanese do not have an equivalent.  Then we come to the $10 bill and the 1000 yen.  For the $5 dollar bill, the Japanese have a coin that is worth 500 yen.  Last, we have the $1 dollar bill and a coin that is worth 100 yen.  The trick is to drop the last two 00's and then it is easier to figure out the American equivalent of the yen currency.

 Here are the yen bills up close.  These are worth $100/10,000 yen, $50/5000 yen, and $10/1000 yen.

 Here are the coins.  We put two side by side so we could see the front and the back of the coins. The top one is worth $5/500 yen, then we have $1/100 yen, $0.50/50 yen, $0.10/10 yen, and $0.05/5 yen  in American currency.  We all liked the coins with the holes in the middle!  Kind of fun!

The equivalent of the American penny--1 yen--is made of aluminum and Ray told us that it would float.  When we got to the apartment, the kids wanted to try it out to see if it really would float.  It did!
The coins are very ornate and really beautiful.  We have spent some time looking at them and examining the details.