Paying bills

Our roof has been painted and my workman was paid this morning.  He called the other day to say he would be over to pick up his fee as estimated.  Tetsu handed me money yesterday to give to the workman today.

I don't think this is the way we pay for things in the States.  As I recall, whenever anyone has to be paid in America; from the piano teacher to the gardener to the person asking for donations; my family writes a check.  But did you know that there is not a checking system in Japan?  The custom of writing checks has never been adopted in Japan and more often than not cash is the only way to go.  In recent years paying by credit card has become the norm but still paying with cash is most common.

For example, when I first came to Japan and worked in a Christian Center, I was surprised to be handed an envelope containing my month's salary in it.  That seemed like a lot of money to hold in my hands and I looked over my shoulder as I hurried to deposit the cash in my bank account.

When Tetsu and I got married, he would just come home with an envelope of money at the end of the month and I was supposed to handle how it was used during the four weeks.  I'd divy Tetsu's salary up into different envelopes and label "Tithing" or "Vet Budget" and "Weekly Food Allowance" envelopes for the month.  Even now, though Tetsu's salary is paid directly to the bank, whenever we need money for a major purchase he will use the ATM to take out an amount of cash.

My American family finds this analog way of banking very primitive and wonder how modern Japan can still be paying with cash all the time, but on the other hand, digital money is also widespread in Japan.  I can go into a convenience store and shop with only my cell phone in hand, and bus and trains can be boarded with a flash of a card still in the depths of a card case.  These days all of our utility bills are paid directly through the bank so in some ways, I find my American sister-in-law still writing checks at the end of the month a very analog way of doing things.

For many years Tetsu worked at a loan company and he handled large quantities of money.  His way of counting money was fascinating to me though any Japanese bank clerk still counts cash in this way.  Tetsu somehow flips a bundle of cash over in his hand and with a slight twist will fan the bills out under his thumb.  Rapidly, with two fingers from his other hand, he can slip through all the bills in the bundle and count the bills.  And finally (though I don't know why) there is a "snap" when all the bills are counted

Tetsu has tried to show my American family how he counts money but he couldn't do it with US bills!  The reason being that Japanese money is ALWAYS fresh from the mint where as US bills are very tired and dog eared and don't have any crispness to them.  When paying for anything in Japan, the polite way to pay is paying with crisp new bills.  My English students usually pay me cash with fresh bills; when I go to a wedding or a funeral and give a gift of money then fresh bills are the only polite way to go. 

When Tetsu was counting the money to pay the roofer I asked him to slow down a bit and let me camera/video him.  He said he is very out of practice these days (he no longer works much with money).  Let's see if the video uploads properly...  (It did, though there doesn't seem to be any sound.) 

Two-hundred and forty thousand yen to have our roof repaired, painted and sealed.  (About $2400.)  Is that a lot for roofing?  I don't know but it is a lot of money to be having in the house.  It has been paid, so my wallet is thin and light again!