It's all money. Whether it's a $100 bill or a $1,000 check, it's a unit of value traded for value. Of course, we all accept yen, indirectly, since yen are very easily convertible into dollars and spent. If you had yen where I live, you could walk into a bank and easily convert it into dollars immediately (we have a large temporary Asian population where I live; converting your yen would be more difficult in rural Nebraska). Actually, I don't even need a bank. You just jogged my memory--I've taken thousands of dollars in payments in foreign currencies using Paypal. So I've actually accepted Pounds, Euros, Canadian dollars, and Israeli new shekels as payment for goods/services.
If you're one of a handful of people using that particular definition of money, while the rest of the world is using the real definition that actually means something, I think you and your motley crew of contrarians are indeed the ones pretending. The meaning you yearn for is irrelevant if it is not the meaning.