100 Yen coin toss

So, I was with a friend when we started to have an argument over which one of us was going to pay for a meal. We both claimed that we had paid for the last meal, and decided to settle it with a coin toss. My friend had no coins, and I reached into my wallet and could only find a single 100 yen coin I kept for sentimental reasons.

I flipped it, and he called heads while it was in the air. However, this started a mite of confusion between us.

The coin landed sakura-up, which I perceived to be tails, and claimed the win. However, he disagreed with me, and felt cheated. He claimed the side with the amount (even if it is, in the case of the Japanese coins, both sides) is traditionally tails, and that the sakura side would therefore be heads. I argued that the commonly accepted obverse (in the US, this is the heads side) is the "100" side and the reverse was the tails side.

Anyways, we ended up going Dutch and decided to keep that as our policy. But for future reference, which side is accepted as equivalent to heads in Japan? I never witnessed a coin toss when I was there, so I wouldn't know.

The Japanese minting authority seems to define the top = head as "the side with plant/flowers," and bottom = tail as "the side with the year of minting/casting." So I guess the side with sakura is the head for 100-yen coins, though I (Japanese) admit I haven't really thought about it before your question...

I think it's good that you went Dutch, by the way... :)

Shinden,

Coin tossing is not at all common in Japan, and I suspect that few Japanese people would be able to tell you which side of a coin was the obverse or reverse. "Janken" (stone, paper, scissors) is the normal method used for making quick decisions like who pays for a meal.