Tangled Ties

Oh, how I love this.

My friend, Ken, is now in Japan. He is trying to wire money from his US account to his Japan account. This is his story:

"My US account won't allow me to wire money to my japanese account. I have to go into a Wells Fargo branch to do it ... but notice that I'm thousands of miles from the closest Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo says, "Have the Japanese bank (CitiBank) do cash advances against my check cards, transfering money immediately. But Japanese banks won't do that.

My Paypal account won't allow me to use Japanese banks, so i set up a new Japanese Paypal account, which needs to verify my Wells Fargo account, only it won't because i have a japanese address. I can write a US check to my japanese account, but it will take 1-2 months to clear."

Ta-Da! More than 6 decades of US-Japan economic ties, everybody.

[cue to APPLAUSE]