I remembered that I went with a few uni friends to the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, and knowing that they were (and still are) countries that much prefer cash, I was prepared.
As an Asian person, I had pre-exchanged a bunch of Yen and Won for the trip, in addition to carrying USD with me just in case. But one white dude in the group thought he could just whip out his credit card and he would be god. No way man, how could you expect an 80-year old street vendor would have one of those card imprint thing handy at 2am when you buy a bowl of noodles for 2000 won?
Another dude had a bunch of traveler's cheques with him and he had a disastrous time trying to talk to some old Japanese man who speaks almost zero English behind the bank counter trying to convert them to cash.
So at the end, they ended up borrowing money from the rest of the more "prepared" group.
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