In the last 2 years, we’ve seen the British Pound / Japanese Yen exchange rate take a massive nosedive, dropping to the lowest it’s been in over a decade…
I’m focusing on particular date ranges – October 2008 & 2009 – the dates of my 2 holidays to Japan when I can directly relate to the exchange rate.
October 2007 was pretty much the norm, £1 getting you around ¥235. For comparison your standard soft drink from a vending machine costs between ¥130 – ¥160 (54p – 67p) depending on size. At this rate everything from eating out to buying Gunpla felt very reasonable.
October 2009 up until present day were a very different story. I remember the exchange rate started crashing about a couple of months before I flew out – just as I was starting to really look forward to it and it really put a dampner on the excitement, culimating in me feverishly watching the stock indexes and realtime rates online. By the time we actually flew out it was sitting at around ¥162(down 32%), those drinks last year now cost 80p and 99p, round that up for things like meals, train tickets and entry to places and it comes to one hell of a difference. In the end we just had to say ‘sod it’ and not let it ruin our holiday and just worry about the money situation on our return.
Now with the Wedding coming up in less than 4 months my eyes are jumping back to the exchange rate again, which currently stands at a horrible ¥152.44..
Has the global recession affected anyones travel plans to Japan or anywhere else in the world? and if you’ve been recently how far did your money go?
Marisa September 12, 2009, 10:17 pm
While I was in Japan in Nov/Dec 08 for over a month, while I was over there the ex rate dropped, but I didn’t know and merrily went to an international cash machine and withdrew a few 10,000Ynotes..a couple of times…didn’t realise about the exchange rate until I got back to England, looked at my online statement and went WHAT?!!?
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