On two issues that came up here:
1. Electronic dictionaries - I have some experience with those, having gone through two different models (a simple one and an expensive one), as well as the DS dictionary. If you have the money -- definitely go for an expensive, top of the line model. Searching by writing kanji with a stylus is indispensable. I also currently have a Casio Ex-Word (mine is the XD-GP9700), and I use it every day. It has fantastic dictionaries, is expandable, has excellent character recognition and many, many other features and books that are absolutely great. I believe you can find it, or a similar model, for around $450.
My previous dictionary was the popular Canon Wordtank G55 (around $200, I think). It's fine for its price, but its dictionaries are not as good (it doesn't have Kenkyusha's Japanese-English dictionary, which is the best of its kind), and it requires searching Kanji by stroke order or radical or reading, so looking up words take time.
I wouldn't recommend the DS unless you already own one or are on a very strict budget. It has a very uncomfortable interface, poor character recognition (and no way to search for kanji any other way) and only one dictionary of each kind (EJ, JE, JJ), all of which aren't very good. Still, better than nothing, I guess.
2. I was told by a Japanese friend that regarding money for the first month, it's better to not buy yen here in my home country, but rather to use an ATM machine to withdraw the cash as soon as I get to Japan. Apparently there's a fairly high limit of around $1000 per day in ATMs, so if I withdraw money on two days I should be set for the entire month. The exchange rate and commission are supposedly much better that way, when getting large amounts of money. Any thoughts on that?