Originally Posted by
loganleelamson
In planning for a trip to Tokyo, it can be assumed that Hotels will still take a credit card even if they aren't branded (IE Hyatt, Hilton). Basically I'm planning on staying at some resorts around some amusement parks and I'd assume I wouldn't need the bulk amount of cash for that?
Places like that will be able to swipe your card. It's the small inns, shops, and restaurants that don't really cater to American tourists that will be less likely to accept your swipe card. I'm pretty sure Japan went to chip&pin a long while back.
One way to be sure your lodging is taken care of would be to prepay on the hotels American website or on their US based reservation hotline. Most major hotels can do this and charge you in dollars, eliminating an exchange rate issue.
Japan is also a country with a vending machine for just about anything, and some vending machines no longer accept swipe transaction.
As for AMEX Platinum, no transaction fees is an advertised benefit, and they revalue the currency exchanges daily, but I can't recall what index they use.