I am stationed at Yokota AB on west edge of Tokyo and live off-base. Started hunting (off base only) with White's Prizm IV in the past couple weeks. Have searched my backyard, 2 local parks, and a gravel parking lot. So far, I have dug about 35 targets to include 140 yen (100 yen coin + 10 yen coins (4x)) which is about $1.44. Other items include plug tabs, bottle caps, screws, nails, toy car, and various unidentifiable scrap metal.
My Japanese is very poor, so when people start asking me questions, I use the headphones as an excuse that I cannot hear. Instead I just point to my pile of treasure, and they seem happy because that was probably their question. While hunting the gravel parking lot, a man parked and started speaking to me. Not sure, but I think he was the owner of the lot because he started pulling weeds. I showed him what I was finding and eventually, he communicated that he wanted to try the detector. I set it so that it would beep on everything and let him pass over the items I already found. We thanked each other, he got back into his car and drove away.
In my very limited experience, I am finding the ground to be full of rocks which makes digging targets very difficult. The coins were found just below the surface under cherry blossom trees which Japanese picnic under when the trees blossom (just last week). I plan to hunt areas that I have seen festivals with food booths. Since I am a beginner, I need instant gratification to make sure that I am using the detector correctly and practice my digging techniques.
I have lived in Japan for a total of 5 years and have never seen anybody using a metal detector. Never seen one being sold in the heart of their electronics districts which tells me there is no competition.
) I MD at the beach areas. Its really nice that the most common coin that I find is the 100 yen coin ($1) Also, in the summer time, 500 yen coins ($5) are EVERYWHERE! I've only found one 1 yen (1 cent) coin so far, which is good.
