That sucks. It is annoying that they make you feel like a criminal even though you are giving them your money in the process.

As visualsense mentioned, some "books" come as scanned images rather than text, which means that you can't use the built-in dictionary. I've only had this happen with manga personally, so it wasn't unexpected. What was unexpected for me is that the scans are actually quite low quality - If you zoom in to read the smaller text more easily, it becomes all blurred and pixely on the screen. I've given up trying to read manga on the Kindle, it is not worth the effort, and the lack of KanjiTomo or similar is too much of a disadvantage. Maybe in the future the quality will improve.

By the way, I'm talking about the Kindle Fire HD here. While it is possible to read manga on this I would not recommend it for the reasons outlined above. I managed to make my way through several manga before I got sick of it, at least - Trying to read manga on the Paperwhite is a complete waste of time from the beginning, I wouldn't even attempt it.

If in doubt, it should be fairly easy to tell if something if encoded as text or images, just look at the file size which is listed on the Amazon page - books are normally a few hundred KB, maybe up to 1 or 2 MB if it is a light novel with a few pictures. Anything encoded as images such as manga will much bigger, maybe 50 or 100MB.

Thanks for the warning. I was hoping to shrink down the number of physical books on my shelves, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

I think either way I'm going to start using a Japanese VPN periodically, if only to check out the Google Play store in Japan. Maybe it sucks less than the US version of Google Play books. >_>a

Not really sure what to do about the Kindle, though.

In case you haven't found one yet, Tiger VPN seems to be one of the only worth while VPN services to have a Japanese server.
I haven't had a chance to test it out yet, but I've heard good things.

And yeah, it's definitely annoying that international trade is still such a pain. It's difficult to buy books here because of the taxes and it's difficult to get them shipped because of regulations.

Thanks for the recommendation.

I downloaded 走れメロス and a few other 青空文庫 books from Google Play to my tablet. Google Play Books now has Google Translate embedded... so while it attempted to translate almost anything I fed it, I constantly had to change it from Chinese(Traditional) to Japanese, which is extremely annoying. (Selecting from a huge drop-down list of languages. Over and over again.)

Also, no readings for the Japanese words are given if there are kanji present, so you have no idea how to pronounce the word. Finally, it's Google Translate, so there's no way to know for sure if it's even in the same solar system as the right answer. (But it's very confident about it!)

I'll have to check for other solutions when I get on the JP Play Store.

It is the publishers that restrict everything, most books are not even in digital format, and most that are in ebook format are only in those stores that use uber-restrictive DRM that only works in that store's apps in tablets and PCs.

That's why pirated books are all 90% in scanned form, pirates probably have to take pics of the screen...
(edit:they probably just scan paper books)

I recommend to just get a paperwhite from your country (or any place that it is not Japan), since you were already willing to pay for one. The 2GB is enough for most uses, no point getting envy for their 4GB (only manga and crappy scanned text occupy much space, those suck in a Kindle anyways), you are just slowing down your studies.

BTW the 2nd gen paperwhite removed a function that I find useful, the ability to check multiple dictionaries in the popup.
In the 1st gen a popup shows arrows that allow you to see the definitions in other dicts for the same language (if you have more than one).
In the 2nd gen it only shows the definition for the default dict, you have to change the default dict in the settings if you want to check another dict.

So getting a used 1st gen paperwhite is not a bad deal IMO, even if 2nd gen's hardware is a little better.

The 1st gen Paperwhite I have got an update so it now has all of the features the 2nd gen has (I think), including the new vocabulary flashcards feature. Also, Paperwhites can now download the Progressive J-E dictionary! Previously they only had the E-J version, so this makes it a better Japanese learning tool.

I found a decent deal on a 1st generation paperwhite on Amazon, so it should get here in a few days. Here's hoping for a better reading experience. @_@

Also, this may sound dumb, but do you have to set the Kindle's language to Japanese to get the most out of it?

It's been a while since I set mine up, but I think the first thing it asked was what language you wanted (or was it country?) then it asked to link with an Amazon account from a certain country depending on the language you chose. After you link the account you can switch it to any language you want though.
I've been using mine in Japanese, but you could always set the interface to English & still read stuff in Japanese. I think you might need to go into input settings & select the checkbox next to Japanese, otherwise it'll be English IME only. Also, you'll need to go to the dictionary settings, and check Daijisen and Progressive J-E, otherwise it won't download them.

Finally got my hands on a used 1st gen Paperwhite and got it set up with my JP Kindle account.

Thanks for the advice about setting it up in Japanese-- it's useful to have the IME available so I can shop for Japanese books right from the device.

I downloaded the Progressive J->E dictionary, as well as an EDICT dictionary I bought a few weeks ago (it was only 200 yen or so). Switching between dictionaries is a dream. Just click on the top of the window that pops up.

I skipped Daijisen, because I had such a bad experience with it on the Android app.

The screen isn't as good as the new Paperwhite. It's pretty obvious. BUT, it's probably one of the best Japanese reading experiences I've had in a while. It's just a pain to set up.

The experience totally blows the Android app out of the water, except the first gen Paperwhite is terribad at handling images. Can't help that much.

I assume amazon still gives people warnings for not being in Japan? I read somewhere last night that after you download/buy 5 books, amazon will tell you to knock it off.

I hope this still isn't the case though. I got the kindle app on my note 3 and am interested in buying some of the つばさ文庫 books. ( 4-8$ a book + furigana ) .

The struggle with not living in Japan is the shipping fees / waiting times.. Sigh

[RawToast]

MelonBerry Wrote:The struggle with not living in Japan is the shipping fees / waiting times.. Sigh

Amazon isn't that bad. I believe they charge a high base rate with small increases per item, so as long as you're not buying a couple of items it's not that bad. I received 10 books in just 48 hours, which is better than Amazon's free delivery in the UK

The reading experience with the first-gen paperwhite is great. I've been able to plow through more books than ever now that I can use a decent dictionary with speed.

The word list (which stored the words you've looked up, in chronological order) even has a flash card feature (both are a paperwhite-only thing). I've also been copying my word list into one of those Kokuyo Campus Word Books.

You can still find the used first-gen paperwhite (the EY21) on Amazon.com for $70-$100.

Not sure if they still do the "You must buy books in Japan" thing every now and then. I do use a VPN exiting out of Tokyo every now and then to buy books on my old tablet, just in case, and I also turn off location permissions, too. (No, I'm not paranoid.)

So would using a vpn/proxy on my pc and getting the kindle books from there bypass any of the warning messages?

I'm not 100% sure on that. I haven't heard of anyone getting any warning messages from overseas recently, so long as they set up their account with a different email address from their other amazon accounts, and they use a Japanese address (which you can get from 100 different companies).

I've been using the VPN out of paranoia, but I think it's not necessary anymore. I only got a warning for trying to buy a Kindle Paperwhite and have it shipped to me through Tenso. They didn't like that one bit. (So I bought one used from the US store.)

Otherwise, I haven't noticed any problems.

This link discusses traveling outside of Japan.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/custome...=201270030

Here's the Kindle store use agreement:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/custome...=201014950

And the Kindle device use agreement:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/custome...=200506200

None of them talk about it being a violation to access from overseas. You just need to have a JP address. Some publishers won't let you access books from overseas, but that's a publisher thing, not an Amazon thing. (In which case a VPN would be really handy!)

MelonBerry, that would certainly work. I did that for a while when I first got my Kindle and it was fine. But then I stopped, and it was also fine, so now I don't bother. It was costing me quite a lot of money per month to maintain the VPN and it also introduced a lot more hassle into the buying/transferring process rather than using the 1 click 'whispernet' process.

Another annoyance is if you download the book file via VPN and then transfer it via cable to the Kindle, sometimes you don't get the book cover for some reason. You can still read the book fine but it is just annoying when you are browsing through your book library and you get a couple of books with a blank cover.

FWIW, I use the same email address Amazon UK and Amazon JP and it hasn't caused me any problems. I do have a separate residential address in Japan, though, for deliveries, although in practice everything is delivered electronically.

Back to the original topic: the first three books of the 星界の紋章 series are on the Kindle store. The author is 森岡浩之. I've read these in English a few times over. They're fun books. Good SF-- space opera on a galactic scale, but with characters that are likable. Can't wait to tackle these in Japanese. (I don't think there's a Baronh dictionary for the Kindle, tho...)

Also, anybody have any recommendations for good essay collections in the Kindle store? I'm looking for the kinds of essay collections that have a nasty habit of showing up on the N1. Might as well read some of those, too. Even just the publisher name is a good start.

There's some interesting information in this thread -- thank you. A couple of people have mentioned that the Progressive J to E dictionary is available on the Kindle Paperwhite. Mine has the Progressive E to J, but instead of the Progressive J to E I've only been able to get a generic-seeming dictionary called simply 電子辞書 Japanese --> English Dictionary. Does anyone know if the Progressive Waei is still available, and how to get it? Thanks in advance for any help!

I should have added that the introduction to the dictionary I mentioned says that it is edited by Roger Hausermann and based on the JMdict project, and that it features kanji and hiragana/katakana search for over 170,000 words and phrases.

jishonary Wrote:There's some interesting information in this thread -- thank you. A couple of people have mentioned that the Progressive J to E dictionary is available on the Kindle Paperwhite. Mine has the Progressive E to J, but instead of the Progressive J to E I've only been able to get a generic-seeming dictionary called simply 電子辞書 Japanese --> English Dictionary. Does anyone know if the Progressive Waei is still available, and how to get it? Thanks in advance for any help!

My Paperwhite's in Japanese, so I can't say exactly what things will be called, but on top of the screen with your books, there should be buttons saying something like "Cloud" ("クラウド) and "Device"("端末"). Click on "Cloud", and look for a folder called something like "Dictionary" ("辞書"). There you should find all the available dictionaries, including Progressive J-E. Click on it to download.

For my 1st-gen Paperwhite I needed to install an update before I could see the Dictionary folder, but newer ones probably won't need to.

I'll back rich_f on the lack of Amazon JP restrictions. I use the same email for my JP account as my US account, and have bought at least 12 books without issue.

Gaiaslastlaugh, how do you manage that? Do you have a Kindle that you shift back and forth between U.S. and Japanese Amazon accounts? Do you need to use a Japanese address and a Japanese credit card?

Bokusenou, thank you for clearing that up for me. The folder showed up as Dictionaries, and sure enough the Progressive J to E was there.

I now remember that I purchased the Hausermann J to E dictionary because I thought that the Progressive wasn't available. I probably just didn't see it in the list because I was looking for Japanese characters in the title. On my Paperwhite (which is set to English at the moment), the two Progressive dictionaries show up with the following titles:

Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary
&
プログレッシブ英和中辞典

jishonary Wrote:Gaiaslastlaugh, how do you manage that? Do you have a Kindle that you shift back and forth between U.S. and Japanese Amazon accounts? Do you need to use a Japanese address and a Japanese credit card?

I'm the same in that I've never had any issues buying books from Japanese Amazon for my Kindle. The only thing I did was attach the Kindle to my Japanese account (set up with a friend's address) and it allows me to use my UK Visa card just fine. I don't buy any English books with it so I don't need to switch it between other Amazon accounts, I just leave it tied to my Japanese account. All 3 of my Amazon accounts use the same email address, though I only buy physical things from the UK account.

@gaiaslastlaugh Actually I started using a VPN to buy books a few months ago, mainly because people in another Kindle thread were having problems buying from their own locations.

I wonder if people who are simply using Tenso addresses and don't have anything shipped there ever would raise some kind of red flags with Amazon. Since I've bought stuff from Amazon and had it sent to my Japanese address (at Tenso), maybe that's why I didn't have problems.

But it's all speculation. Why they make it so confusing (and why they make it hard for some people randomly) is beyond me.

jishonary Wrote:Gaiaslastlaugh, how do you manage that? Do you have a Kindle that you shift back and forth between U.S. and Japanese Amazon accounts? Do you need to use a Japanese address and a Japanese credit card?

I don't have a Kindle - I use the Kindle app for iPad. Getting the app to use the JP Kindle store definitely *did* require a VPN, but that was a one-time setup. I don't switch the app back and forth - I use it exclusively for Japanese content.

My account uses a US credit card, but my girlfriend's address in Tokyo. I've also shipped stuff to that address inside the country, so maybe that's some kind of factor.

EDIT: I notice someone earlier in the thread noted that their account was unlocked after downloading content from a Japanese VPN just once. That makes a lot of sense, and accords with what I've seen (VPN required for initial sync/download, not required afterwards).

Is there an option on the kindle to switch the text from vertical to horizontal? If not. Is there a tool out there like Calibre for example, that can do it while preserving the furigana? Of course you would strip the drm first. I still have a preference for horizontal text.