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+--- Thread: Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? (/thread-12300.html)
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - weatherman - 2014-11-04
I'm looking to buy a Kindle Paperwhite in the near future and basically have two options. I can either buy one from the U.S. store and ship it here (currently Korea but soon Japan) or buy one from the Amazon Japan store while I'm there. My question, though, is which is going to be better for someone who wants to read both books in Japanese (with a J-E dictionary) and ones in English, including ones from the local library back home? I'm totally unfamiliar with the Amazon Japan site and how to buy books through it, by the way. Thanks!
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - Splatted - 2014-11-05
Is it actually possible to use it for both English and Japanese? I thought you had to register it to one store or the other.
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - rich_f - 2014-11-05
This thread:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=12290
This thread:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=12276
And this thread:
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=11883
are all useful.
The main diff between JP and non-JP paperwhites is storage: 4GB(JP) vs 2GB(Rest of world) on the most recent Paperwhite. Don't try to ship a paperwhite outside of Japan. They hate that. Don't use a service. They hate that, too. Since you're going to be there at a real JP address, then you're okay. But don't try to ship it through Tenso. They'll automatically send you a nasty email. Is the 4GB worth it? Maybe if you read a lot of manga on it? Manga eats up a lot of storage compared to text.
As for having two accounts on one device: sure, as long as you wipe it every time you re-log. It's much less annoying to just buy two devices. They're pretty cheap now.
If you're getting books from Amazon.co.jp and Amazon US, you'll need two devices if you don't want to go crazy. (Merging your accounts makes everything a total mess.) See the threads about peoples' experiences. (Generally, use different email addresses to keep the accounts from getting all mixed up.)
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - Splatted - 2014-11-05
rich_f Wrote:As for having two accounts on one device: sure, as long as you wipe it every time you re-log. It's much less annoying to just buy two devices. They're pretty cheap now.Thanks for the clarification.
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - gdaxeman - 2014-11-05
rich_f Wrote:The main diff between JP and non-JP paperwhites is storage: 4GB(JP) vs 2GB(Rest of world) on the most recent Paperwhite.There were reports saying that the 4 GB are not only for the Japanese version anymore:
Quote:Kindle Paperwhite 2 Now Comes with 4GB Storage Instead of 2GB
According to numerous user reports online at MobileRead and various Kindle forums, the second generation Kindle Paperwhite now comes with 4GB of internal storage space instead of 2GB. The strange thing is Amazon does not advertise this fact anywhere.
Initially only the Japanese version of the Kindle Paperwhite came with 4GB of storage space, with about 3.1GB available to users.
Then a few months ago reports started coming in about some European Kindle Paperwhites having 4GB instead of 2GB. Now the 4GB model has seemingly spread into North America as well. (Source)
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - NickT - 2014-11-05
Splatted Wrote:Is it actually possible to use it for both English and Japanese? I thought you had to register it to one store or the other.You can read in both English and Japanese, as long as you are willing to buy your English books from the Amazon.co.jp store. They have a pretty good selection.
There are other ways, too, but that seems the simplest.
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - weatherman - 2014-11-05
Thanks, I may just use the Paperwhite for Amazon Japan books and my current Kindle for Amazon.com books then. There's really only one English book I want to read on the Paperwhite and it's available on Amazon Japan.
Kindle Paperwhite: Better to Buy from Amazon U.S. or Amazon Japan? - rich_f - 2014-11-06
@gdaxeman Thanks for the info. I didn't know that they had upped all the Paperwhites to 4GB-- that's pretty cool.
Also, you can get JP books from Amazon US, but they kinda suck, in that the selection of books is pretty terrible. (And they charge you for books that are out of copyright, and are free on Amazon JP).