I need a japanese bookstore

[kageri]

Hi there,

since amazon.co.jp only sells per express for international buyers and it would cost by far more than the books itself I'm looking for another possibility to get the "Juuni Kokuki" light novels. Yesasia, thejapanshop and Cdjapan dont have it. In another post someone said "bk1.jp" but I dont even know if they'll ship to europe. My japanese is not good enough to find my way there. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

thanks
Kageri

[Javizy]

Have you tried searching in Japanese on Yes Asia? The romaji is automatically generated, it seems, and not something you can rely on. Otherwise, it seems you're going to take the delivery charges.

I was looking on the Japan shop, sasuga, and Amazon.jp for some textbooks I want, and the delivery seems to be between $30-50, but because it's based on weight, it's very unreliable, and I'm not even sure how much I'll end up paying. There's so much stuff I'd buy on Amazon if the delivery wasn't pretty much 50%+ of the cart total

[kageri]

amazon is ridiculous:

Items: JPY 6,220
Shipping & Handling: JPY 6,700

(and for only one thin book it would be also about 5,000 Yen shipping)

maybe someone can help me with www.bk1.jp ?

otherwise I'd rather end up waiting for any other possibility
BTW: is someone living in japan?

[Jessi]

I just recommended www.bk1.jp in another thread. I checked their site and they do ship to Europe When I used it before, I chose the basic air mail option (航空便) which takes 10~14 days but is decently priced. I also noticed that when you create a new account, there's an option for adding a foreign address and that part is in English. If you have katakana and some basic kanji down it shouldn't be too hard to get through the rest of the registration, but if you need any help with it let us know!

[kageri]

thanks Jessi, that helped alot. I could finally place an order (couldn't even find the account creation site before). Now the time will show if anything went alright^^

I didn't find anything about the shipping costs, but I also chose basic air mail. So I guess I'll just see what happens. Everything should be better than Amazons Express Shipping fee.

[Belton]

I didn't find anything about the shipping costs

According to their FAQ they don't give shipping costs in advance for foreign orders as packing materials have an effect on weight.
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/Faq_bb02

This leads me to believe that they charge you shipping at near cost price, rather than a flat fee.
Let us know how it goes. This looks like it could be a useful way of ordering books from Japan.

airmail costs are here
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-03

if you're not in a hurry surface mail costs are here (1 to 3 months!)
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-05

[Javizy]

I was thinking about ordering yesterday, but this is the part I don't like:

航空便は荷物の追跡手段および補償規約がありません。
未着・紛失・遅延等の補償は致しかねますのであらかじめご了承ください。
For economy airmail, we have no means of tracking packages or refund policy.
In such cases as non-arrivals, missing items, and delays, it is extremely difficult for us to compensate you, so please understand this in advance.

Customers getting worked up about losing their orders and not seeing a penny back is the reason Amazon now only offers priority mail, since it can be tracked. Seems like a bit of a gamble to me.

[Belton]

Well I don't know how much a gamble it is, both the Japanese and UK postal services seem capable of delivering parcels.

However there is an EMS service on offer that allows for compensation if you want, and faster delivery.
(at about an extra 1000 per kilo)
As the charges are by weight and not per consignment it still works out cheaper than Amazon in most cases.
Amazon does hit a point (around 1500 grams? if comparing to EMS shipping) where for larger consignments their flatter rate might make more sense. Myself and 6 classmates split the shipping costs between us once and it was then a more reasonable 800 yen each (although DHL's method of customs declaration left a bit to be desired).

It's contentious ground but the Credit Consumer Act in the UK is meant to apply so if your shipment goes missing you can get your credit card company involved too.

You pays your money and takes your choice as they say.

You can check various postage rates from Japan here
http://www.post.japanpost.jp/cgi-charge ... p?lang=_en
It helpfully explains that a Japanese paperback is about 150 grams and 150 sheets of B4 is 1kg
It also shows that BK1 is only charging at cost and applying the postal services rules as per compensation.
-edit-
it's a pity they don't offer automatic insurance it only costs about 400 yen. Maybe it's too time consuming to be effective. -edit-

There's not an awful lot of choice really.
UK booksellers have an outrageous markup on Japanese imported books and limited selections. So you can either pay high shipping costs (still cheaper than a UK bookstore) or get a friend to repost books from Amazon.jp delivered free in Japan (Can't see that much difference to BK1's costs) or leave your clothes behind and use your luggage allowance to bring home books when visiting Japan or convince someone else to bring them back for you.

[Javizy]

I think I'll try it anyway. There's some stuff on there I want that isn't on Yes Asia, and it should work out a bit cheaper, although I have no way of judging the weight. I'm ordering 2 A4 sized workbooks, 2 grammar dictionaries, and 4 manga. I'm guessing the dictionaries are going to be quite bulky. So much stuff on there for such a good price, I'd probably order enough books to start my own library if it wasn't for the delivery nightmares.

[Jessi]

On the page that talks about shipping methods, they have a list of weight estimates (how much one manga weighs, how much a paperback weighs, etc) so you can kind of get a basic idea. I'm not sure what the dictionaries would fall under though. But anyway, yeah they have a great selection there, and at great prices like you said.

[Javizy]

Thanks to some old school scales and some cans of baked beans, I worked out that the stuff I mentioned should weigh just under 3kg, assuming the dictionaries are no bigger than biggest Japan Times one. It'll cost a whopping £26+, but is still within the price difference between Yes Asia, so I think I'll give it a go, since it's the only way I can get the 2級 完全マスター book. I'm relying on Jessi's recommendations here

[kageri]

I got a confirmation mail. The shipping costs for 11 Light novels (maybe about manga size) is 3435円. Thats almost half the price of amazon.jp. So it's fine for me. If the order will arrive I think I'll go with this shop in the future.

Ah, a last question about the mail I got:

"この度はご利用いただき誠にありがとうございます。
Marlis J. 様
からご注文いただきました下記
商品の出荷が完了いたしましたのでご連絡させて頂きます "

Does that mean, the items are shipped or do they want any response from me (maybe in order to affirm the bill with the shipping)?

[Javizy]

"この度はご利用いただき誠にありがとうございます。
Marlis J. 様
からご注文いただきました下記
商品の出荷が完了いたしましたのでご連絡させて頂きます "

Does that mean, the items are shipped or do they want any response from me (maybe in order to affirm the bill with the shipping)?

Thank you very much for shopping with bk1. We are contacting you to inform you that the products you ordered, listed below, have been dispatched.

I'm going to place my order later tonight. I just had to go to the bank to remove a suspicious status from my card

[kageri]

Thank you very much for shopping with bk1. We are contacting you to inform you that the products you ordered, listed below, have been dispatched.

I'm going to place my order later tonight. I just had to go to the bank to remove a suspicious status from my card

that sounds good. Thanks for translating and good luck with your order

[Javizy]

I placed my order. It was a whopping three figure sum, which seems pretty outrageous for some books, but these things should keep me going for months.

One of the textbooks I ordered was 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック. It's a grammar guide aimed at natives teaching basic level Japanese. I saw a recommendation by an advanced student on one of my random Google sessions, and I thought it could be useful to get a truly Japanese perspective on the fundamentals. I like to review from time to time, and I might learn a lot of new stuff from this perspective.

The manga I ordered was デトロイト･メタル・シティ. Don't suppose anybody has read this? All the reviews I have read say it's really good, but the language is foul. Might be able to learn some hard-to-find, yet frequently used vocabulary