using MasterCard in Japan
 

When I look up hotels in Japan that take credit cards, they often list followings:

VISA, JCB, UC, DC, AMEX, DN

I know VISA, JCB, DC, and AMEX.

That leaves two others: UC and DN. Is one of these same as the Mastercard?

From my experience, where CC is accepted, they almost always take MasterCard. A funny thing is, on the CC slips I receive, it is printed sometimes UC or even VISA (!) I don't know what sort of agreements they have between CC companies in Japan but at least I have had no problem.

No, Mastercard is MC. If the place takes Visa, then it almost certainly takes MC, especially places that also take a variety of other cards. The DC may be Discover Card or Diner's Club.

I stayed at the New Otani hotel next to the Kumamoto eki. Tried to use my Visa but, for no good reason, it didn't work. They did accept my MC. When I returned to the U.S., I checked with my Visa card issuer and they hypothesized that the problem was with the bank the does the Visa charge processing for the hotel.

Take both, if you can.

Actually, there are many places in Asia which do not accept Mastercard. Just because they accept Visa, don't assume they accept Mastercard. In the US, aceptance of Visa and Mastercard go hand in hand, not so in Asia.

Bonjour,

DC usually means Mastercard will be accepted, as well as UC (they have some sort of accord). DN is Diner Club. Most of the time, Mastercard will be listed as MS in Japan. I've never had any problem with Mastercard in Japan.

Then, I'm wondering if my hotel in Kumamoto accepted DC (Mastercard as I now know) but not Visa. I wouldn't believe it if it was the U.S., but that was Japan.

But, Saori actually ran my Visa through the machine. If they didn't accept the card, then I'd expect her to tell me when I gave it to her. Except that it was Japan and maybe she didn't want to say "We don't accept Visa" but rather "The machine does not accept Visa". Or maybe she just didn't look at the card.

Ok, so I go up to the front desk of a hotel and the clerk says "Hai". I hear "Hi", so I reply "Hi", absolutely automatically. The clerk almost surely heard me say "Hai". But "hai" (yes) is really two sylables (ha-ee) and is pronounced more quickly than "hi", isn't it? "Hai" is clipped in the back of the throat, I think, but with "hi" you let the air out.

I read about a study of language, where they got brain scans of people when they were speaking. One of the findings was that Japanese focus more on length of sounds rather than form. For example, they listen more intently for the long double-o than, say, the el in Hilton. They hear themselves saying "Hilton" when I hear "Hear tone". Makes me think that "hai" was not heard when I said "hi" and that some hearers didn't know what I meant. Should I respond "Hai" or just launch into the issue that have?

You'd think I'd have better things to do on a Sunday morning, but no.

mrwunrfl, completely off the topic though,

> Should I respond "Hai" or just launch into the issue that have?

The hotel clark's "Hai" in this case is actually "Yes ? (meaning how can I help you?)" so you should tell what you want right away without returning Hai.