Originally Posted by ginnyfsf
I was quite amused that they knew immediately what the problem was and where to send you. One place even had maps premarked with the "foreigner ATM."
I had forgotten that post-office-only rule and my poor brother tried one ATM after another. Finally we asked a bank employee who gave us a map with a nice highlighted route on it.
Which led to ... another bank where he could cash trav checks, and that's it.
My personal feeling when travelling is, always have a fallback and then a fallback to that. So I take a few trav checks AND some credit cards AND an ATM card and have some cash already in pocket when I land. If you go online, you can find several ways to get yen by express mail, or failing that if there's a branch of a major bank in town (like BofA or Wells Fargo) they can get the dough for you. It might be worth the peace of mind to have $100 in yen in your pocket when you land.
After that, just look for the nearest post office and use their ATM.