The Rolling Stone

Having collapsed in our hotel beds at about 2am, we slept in and decided to have a fairly quiet and relaxed day. We took the subway (very easy to navigate) to the Shibuya area to do a bit of shopping. It was fun just wandering around and experiencing a different streetscape. It was a public holiday so there were plenty of locals as well as other tourists doing the same.

We wanted to do the Shibuya Sky experience (360 view of Tokyo from a very tall building) but sadly it was closed. However, there was a lot to do on the ground. Hayley bought some earrings, Xavi risked a complete sugar overload with a chocolate bubble tea drink with chocolate flavoured tapioca balls, and we all had fun looking at the weird and wonderful snacks in the 7-11s. (I’ll put a few pictures at the end of this post.)

However, during the course of all this I discovered that my card wasn’t working. When I checked the online banking I discovered that the account had been drained. The taxi we had caught last night had been supposed to cost 11,650 yen – a little over A$100. However the charge on the account was for 1,165,000 yen – a little over A$10,000. Somehow a couple of zeros had been added. This made it a bit difficult to relax.

I had the receipt listing the correct amount and it also gave a phone number for the taxi company. So, when we got back, I went to the reception at our hotel to see if they could ring the company for me. Explaining the situation proved complicated, so I simply showed them the receipt and my online banking. The look of shock on their face on seeing the charge reassured me that this had made the situation clear.

The reception staff rang the taxi company and got no response. However, they also noticed another error on my bank records. We had prepaid our accommodation, but on check-in we had to pay a small amount extra, just 1,200 yen (it was something about a tax). However, on my banking records this was there as 120,000 yen – the same additional two zeros problem. And they were able to confirm that they had definitely charged me the right amount.

So that meant the problem was likely with the bank. That was when I discovered that our bank can only be contacted by phone. They don’t give an email and the online chat service is just a bot which directed me to call the help number. After a lot of mucking around (my mobile provider won’t let you buy credit for overseas calls while you are overseas) I managed to call the bank. As I was getting through, I logged on again to my online banking so that I had the details, only to see that the amounts had changed sometime in the hour since I’d last looked, and were now correct, and the money was back in my account. Having already paid for the credit to make the call I spent ten minutes on the phone making a formal complaint.

A little frustrated, but very relieved, we were then able to head out to dinner in a more relaxed frame of mind. I tried horse meat (chewy and mild tasting) and we all had a good time, stopping at yet another 7-11 on the way home for more weird snacks. Here’s a few examples:

It may just be my strange sense of humour that finds these funny, but I hope you also found them amusing. Tomorrow we get to hang out with miniature pigs!