From Harare, Zimbabwe

Now I'm in Harare, Zimbabwe. The time here is 7 hours behind Japan. As I cannot input Japanese with this PC (IME tool bar is missing!), I'm writing in English.

In this country, it's difficult to understand economy. At official rate, USD1=ZWD250. If we use credit cards, this rate is automatically applicable. In the bank, however, USD1=ZWD15,000. The bank buys foreign currencies at unofficial rate! I cannot understand this fact...

Everything is slow here. When I dropped in at a bank to exchange, I was kept waiting for an hour. And then, at a railway station, I had to be in line for an hour, too. Anyway, I was able to buy a train ticket for tomorrow night successfully. By the way, the fare of Sleeper Class(1st class) is ZWD 180,000 (about USD12).

As I mentioned before, there's no CASH in Zimbabwe now. It's a "bearer cheque" (in Japanese, JISANNNINNBARAISHIKI KOGITTE) issued by the reserve bank that they use as a tool for payment.