Money: it is a source of stress if you do not have enough, it lends a certain amount of freedom if you have enough.  I've always wanted enough money to not have to think (worry) about it.  A peculiar aspect of traveling to a foreign place is the exchanging of currency.  The look and feel of money quickly becomes a habitual event unworthy of evoking much thought, that is, until you are looking at new bills.  This was the case on our recent trip to Japan as I went to the bank and had my Korean won exchanged for the Japanese Yen.  With the exchange rate and having never dealt with this currency, they could have given me worthless Japanese monopoly money and I would have gone whistling out of the bank unaware of my loss.  In fact, the bank teller missed 5 2000 yen bank notes (I also didnt catch the error), the equivalent of about $130 and I walked out non the wiser.  Luckily for me, he immediately caught the mistake and called me back in, phew!  I guess there is an obvious lesson here when dealing with confusing money exchanges: make sure you take your time!  Anyway...as for the money, if you are not familiar with the yen as I was not, perhaps you will like some of the photos that follow.  With a new bill, one is reinvigorated with a child like wonder at the colors, patterns, and intricacies that make up a countries money.  Japanese coins are well worth an observation and are commonly used, as the most common coins are worth $1.30 and $6.50 a piece.  Keep your eye out for lost coins!  Here are some close ups of the paper money, they were pretty while they lasted!

ps: If you'd like me to do a profile on YOUR countries money, please contact me by email and I'll direct you where to send the sample bills:)