US Dollar losing value

I will be going to Japan in a couple weeks to study for about 4 months. Back when I made all my plans/arrangements for studying, the exchange rate was about 117 yen to the dollar. I'm sure everyone knows how terribly it is doing now, about 98 yen to the dollar.

What are the future prospects on this? I had previously allotted about $1000 USD per month for food and other expenses (pretty much everything minus my rent). Will this decrease in the value of the dollar be a huge burden on me, and also, how much should I convert when I get there? I know no one can know for sure what is going to happen, but being aware of the forecasts certainly would help.

hmmm... dats seriously a tough questin to answer sonce no one knows watll happpen in economy!! but yea from my experience i had and some comments of economists on tv news i guess the rate won't be worse dan this cos the japanese govt also has got some economic issues as well right now (like national bank's leader problem or wateva) so anyways if i were you id convert only the amount i need for the first few wks or something n u can simply wait for the dollar value to go up.
i duno if this ill help but i hope u use ur money wisely:-)

thanks

I've heard the opposite. The dollar is only going to get worse. Fortunately it's only a few cents difference for now. So when you convert your money you only lose a small percentage. I don't think your savings will be affected too much for the time being.

Well the recent fed cut on interest rates saw the dollar shoot up gains against the yen, its hovering at almost 99.95 us to 100 JPY. I saw people predicting the US dollar at 90 yen by now, which I don't see it being that drastic. I think you are fine right now. I see things either improving, or staying close to the current rate. I don't see it fallingt all the way down to 90 yen as some have predicted.

But i'm no economist, if I were I guess I'd be rich. I'm just historically speaking.

I have a similar problem as well. I started getting everything planned and then I see the dollar start to plummet.
Anyone else have any opinion on where the dollar is going?
I was also suprised to see it hold up well to another rate cut though.

Until recently the Japanese national bank would sell or buy dollars to keep the exchange rate sort of stable to protect their export position. Maybe Japan judges that their economic recovery is strong enough and haven't intervened yet this time as far as I know.
This online tool is very helpful to spot trends but, as they say: past performance doesn't say anything about the future: http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory