One of the things I don’t like here is using coins. As a result, I have a whole bunch of them… probably hundreds of them in my room here with me. Most of these coins are one yen or five yen coins because I attempt to use the larger ones. I’ll put the 500 yen coins (worth about $4.16) and the 100 yen coins (about 83 cents) in my pocket and try to use them throughout the day instead of the lowest denomination bill, the 1000 yen bill (about $8.33).
The ten yen coins, on the other hand, I save up until I know I’m going on the subway/train somewhere. Then I take maybe 30 of them and use them all for my tickets.
The one yen coins and the five yen coins don’t get much of a chance to be used. They are usually not accepted in any kind of machine… like the machine at the train station, for example. As a result, I have many of them and I’m not sure what I will do with them.
I have one plan, though, and I think it’s going to end up happening. At the very end of my stay here in Japan, I’m going to take all those one yen and five yen coins and go to the nearby jinjya (Japanese Shinto shrine). Then I’m going to take the hundreds of coins and throw them into the coin box they have there. Throwing in money is part of the ritual when you go to a jinjya. However, people normally throw in larger coins, like at least 100 yen coins… sometimes they even throw in bills if they’re praying for something really big, lol.
I wonder what the shinto priest will think upon opening his coin box at the end of the week and findind hundreds upon hundreds of one yen and five yen coins? lol, I’m sure he’ll be able to put them to good use somehow.
I have the same predicament regarding one yen coins (that’s the reason why I read your post). Five yen coins are better since they don’t infest as much as those silver coins. The last time I went to Japan, I left my one yen coins in the hotel.