Currency exchange

I'll be taking my first trip to Japan in May, and I was wondering what my best bet is in regards to currency exchange: cash or traveler's cheques? (credit/ATM is not an option)

Any recommendations? Would it be prudent to get T/Cs in yen, rather than dollars, if that's possible? Also, what are the exchange/transaction fees when you change either cash or T/Cs in Japan? I'm looking to get the most bang (yen, if you will) for my buck here, though I do understand that exchange rates do fluctuate.

I've heard so many different opinions and ideas while searching the internet, and they all usually end up contradicting each other. I'd appreciate any help you could give.

Get yen checks if you can - then you won't need to think about the exchange rate. But only get checks if you plan to up and around during the daytime and can take advantage of the lower surcharges that banks will charge over hotels. If you're going to be spending a lot of time in rural areas cash plenty of checks beforehand. Of course you know to make a photocopy of your passport and keep in separate don't you?

Is there no way you can organize a credit card as an emergency back-up? It is advisable. You won't get mugged, but you might be run over by a election van - ONEGAISHIMASU!

I'm pretty sure my friend (who's going with me) has a credit card, but I'm not totally sure. Hopefully I can get in contact with him today.

I do plan on being out and about during the day, so that's no issue, and most of my trip centers around Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka and their surrounding cities. We're travelling cheap, so the hotels we're staying at probably wouldn't want to cash checks anyway, and I'd feel weird walking into some random big hotel and asking for such a thing

If I can't get checks in yen denomination, would it be better to cash at the airport rather than at banks? It's just something I heard while I was reading around, that the airport gives better rates than banks/hotels. Any merit to that?

I don't think that the airport gives you a better rate on currency exchange anywhere... let alone Japan.

When I was in Japan, I just carried my check/debit card with me. You can go to any post office and do transactions right at these international debit/credit machines. I think the extra fee was very minimal, if anything at all. That worked really well for me, If you don't mind carrying a lot of cash. And you also got a perfect exchange rate. Although I was in the suburbs of tokyo most of the time, so I don't know how often post offices show up in other areas.

Neurokun - you can get a debit card from just about any bank that has a Visa or Master Card logo on it. YOu can put any amount of money you wan ton it and it will funciton just like a credit card with the limit being what ever you put in that account.

I'd strongly advise it as a back up measure.