Splatted Wrote:P.p.s. Can whoever put "other" in the strawpoll please explain. I put t in just in case but I can't think of what it could actually mean. XD

Sorry, that was me. I picked that because I am mostly interested in ebooks and not paper books so much, and also I am interested in easy + intermediate books but less so in "advanced".

I've read some advanced books, but I'd rather err on the side of too easy than too hard. If the book is too easy its not a problem, I'll just finish it in a week or two and move on to something else. If it is too hard, it could be a long and painful slog.

For example, 乙一 is possibly too easy but I know I can pick up any of his books and have fun reading it, whereas I tried to read 蛇を踏む recently and that was not a particularly enjoyable experience for me.

Hrm - actually, it occurs to me. Why would you need a Kindle to read Kindle books? It seems like one of those things that would quickly spread beyond its device.
A short google later reveals an official way of doing this. Has anyone made use of this to try and buy Japanese kindle books? I can understand someone being unwilling to buy a Kindle, but buying Kindle e-books to read on your computer shouldn't be a problem for anyone except the most diehard pirates.

Aikynaro, I wondered the same thing. So far, however, Amazon seems to want you to register a Kindle device - even one of the apps - before it will even let you purchase a book. And the Cloud Reader doesn't count.

It looks like I can't sign in to my japanese account with the Kindle app from the U.S. English store, so I'll need to recreate an iTunes Japan account and see if I can get the JP Kindle app to work on my iPad. Argh. I don't why for the love of Nobunaga they make this so flipping hard.

I'll try and figure it out this weekend. If I do, I'll post instructions.

gaiaslastlaugh Wrote:I don't [know] why for the love of Nobunaga they make this so flipping hard.

I'll try and figure it out this weekend. If I do, I'll post instructions.

Amen!?
If you do, you are the most patient man in the world.

SUCCESS!!

You'll need a device that can use the Kindle app (iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet). The trick: Log out of the Kindle app, and use VPN software to log in via Japan. (I use VPN Express.) The Kindle app already on your device will detect you are "in" Japan, and will automatically route your Kindle login request through Amazon.co.jp. Once you've done that once, you have a device registered through Amazon.co.jp, and can buy Japanese Kindle e-books from Amazon.

I don't know if there will be any long-term hassles with this. To be safe, I only plan to sync new purchases when the VPN connection is on. Going to keep as viligant as possible to prevent my account from being suspended.

I'm so stoked. This opens up a whole new world!

So you can use it on a Kindle App, but not on a Kindle? That makes sense. Learning Japanese outside of Japan makes one an excellent jumper through electronic hoops.

tashippy Wrote:So you can use it on a Kindle App, but not on a Kindle? That makes sense. Learning Japanese outside of Japan makes one an excellent jumper through electronic hoops.

Haven't tried the Kindle. I've heard that the key problem is buying books from outside of Japan. But I have Japanese friends in the US who say their Kindles work fine for them, so long as they buy books from their Japanese accounts. I'm wondering if Amazon hasn't improved upon this process to lesson the impact on expats.

I can buy Kindle books from outside Japan without any problems - But different people seem to have different experiences.

Its worth noting that although you can read Japanese books on a Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Fire, and Kindle App for Androids devices, for some reason it is not possible to read Japanese books on the Kindle software for PC. That was the case last time I checked, anyway, I assume one day they will upgrade the PC kindle app to enable Japanese language support as I can't think of any good reason why it shouldn't be possible. Older Kindles, e.g. the non-touchscreen ones, do not support Japanese AFAIK. Not sure about iPhones with a kindle app, I've never tried.

So, after seeing the lengthy discussion on "innocence" in the previous page, I don't want to start that again...but someone in the discussion forum for 君にしか聞こえない mentioned reading the book in evernote and on their phone, so I'm curious, can you copy-paste from a Kindle book on your phone? I'd like to have a digital version to make porting into anki and doing lookups easier. I don't mind paying, but if I'm going to download the Kindle app on my phone, and another app to fake being in Japan, and make an account and pay money, I'd like it to do what I want it to do. Or is there another form of ebook for 君にしか聞こえない floating around?

I wonder if in the next round of Book Club we might do some kind of Google Hangouts Book Club "meeting"? ...