A little plastic holder for the yen coins in my pocket

A lot of Japan still runs on cash, and this holder keeps five each of the 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 yen coins, plus four 500s.

Japanese coin holder — A Japanese coin holder, loaded with 1, 10, 50, 100 and 500 yen coins. Photo by Mark Frauenfelder

I'm headed back to Japan soon. This will be my 10th visit there. I've been going to Japan since 1986. It's changed in a lot of ways. Most noticeably, it is less expensive than it was in 1986, and there are far more foreigners in Tokyo n…