Entries this day: ATMs_take_coins_in_Japan Work

ATMs take coins in Japan

4:04pm JST Friday 25 June 2004

Some things in Japan are technologically cooler than things in the US. One: phones. Two: ATMs. The ATMs are more expensive than in the US (we get charged fees more often here) but the ATMs kick ass.

First thing: ATMs in Japan will update your bank book. No more "where did all my money go?" All the transactions to/from your account are printed in your bank book. Just open the book to the latest page and it will print all the transactions since the last time you put in the book.

Not only that, but the ATMs turn the page when they run out of lines on the current page.

Awesome.

Second thing: ATMs in Japan accept cash deposits and they count the cash that's deposited. Throw in the cash, it counts it and says, "14000 yen counted. Is this correct?" and if you push yes then bang it smurfs the money and it's done. If you push no, then I assume a bank person comes and ya count the money again and put it in. I dunno.

Third thing: ATMs in Japan accept and dispense coins. Just today I deposited 4050 yen worth of coins mostly in 50, 10, 5 and 1 yen coins.

Awesome.

There was one detail; I put the coins into the wrong slot. Poured them down into the cash acceptance slot and not the coin acceptance slot. Fuck. Felt pretty embarassed, but the bank employee was like, "いいえ" (don't worry) and took the money out from the back and brought it back to the front and did the deposit for me.

What happened was when I pushed the button that said [coin], the coin slot didn't open, so I assumed maybe it only dispensed coins. Wrong. She pushed the coin button for like 1/2 second (instead of just tapping it like I had) and the coin deposit slot opened. Silly me.

Work

8:39pm JST Friday 25 June 2004

My last two students at work worked on page 3 of book 1. Only problem is one of the students is "officially" on page 15 of text 3. he doesn't study, and I told him as best I could, that he needed to go back to book 1.

I found a grammar that he could do, and asked him if it was difficult. He said it was, (although he could produce it). I showed him the grammar in book 1 on page 3 and we worked on that page some. I was like, "you've got 50 points remaining," pointing to the 50 on the computer screen (as opposed to the 210 used).

I suggested that if he continue with book 3, he won't learn anything. But if he goes back to book 1 and studies, he can use those points more effectively. We'll see what happens.

Simon is like, "he should ask for his money back," and I was like, "what? no way; he never studied. That's not Gaba's fault."