Hey everyone.

I'm a native English speaker living in Germany, and I've had an EXTREMELY difficult time getting a hold of RTK1 in English. I've already placed two orders, and both times they've been cancelled, since the books were mysteriously "out of stock."

Recently, I went snooping around the Nanzan Institute's website and noticed this:

"Remembering the Kanji, vol. 1 OUT OF STOCK?BEING REPRINTED" (c.f. http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/cont...pecial.htm )

Has anyone tried to order RTK1 lately? Has anyone also had difficulties in obtaining this book?

I thought my patience knew no bounds, but it's quite frustrating to see the German translation in stock at my local bookstore, but the original English version is 2-3 times as expensive and unavailable. Grr.

I got the 4th edition via amazon.com in June. Looks like it is still available just now. That said, it did take a few weeks to arrive (America to Japan). Hope you get your hands on it soon. This site is fantastic but I do reckon that you need a copy of the book itself. Good luck.

Cheers,

Yes, I bought it a few weeks ago. Like you I was having problems. But on 31st August I ordered a new copy from apolloretail2 on amazon.com Marketplace (because they implied it was in stock in the UK!). They emailed me to say it wasn't in stock, but was being sourced from Australia. However only two weeks later I received it, shipped from Germany. I paid US$50 + $US10 shipping. apolloretail2 are still listing it, but the price has increased to US$65 + shipping.

I'm still flushed with my recent success of finding my coursebook on amazon.co.jp for ￥3,408 brand new, instead of the GBP52.99 amazon.co.uk were selling it for. Even adding ￥ 3,700 for 3 day(!!!!) shipping, that still a 40% saving! Market segmentation and price descrimination, my roommate reckons...

I had emailed the author concerning the availability problems, and this is what he had to say:

Quote:Dear Jos?,

thanks for the note. I am well aware of the problems these past few
years with getting reprints sent abroad and properly distributed. For that
reason, I have moved the entire series of books to the University of Hawaii
Press. Vol. 1 is now being proofread and new covers designed. I expect them
to be out late fall or early winter. I also expect the price to drop
considerably, although this is something over which I have no control.
However, since we have published several volumes with the UHP, I am
confident that both the pricing and the distribution will improve
dramatically. The disadvantage is the few months of waiting for the change
to kick in.

Best wishes,

J. W. Heisig

Seems like wonderful things are afoot!

Hopefully in time for xmas!

Wow, you got me a RTKII and III. How did you know?

I have been looking around Tokyo for RTK3 but do not find a copy. In case you are interested here is what I have seen so far:

Book1st Shibuya - RKT2
Takashimaya Shinjuku - nothing
Maruzen - nothing
Yaesu - RKT1, RKT2
Bonjinsha - RKT2

So if anyone is looking for RKT1 you know where to go...

I got my copy of RTK1 from Bonjinsha. They are a specialist Japanese langauge-learning bookstore so they are likely to have at least RTK1 and probably 2 and 3. It's somewhere on the Hanzomon-sen.
http://www.bonjinsha.com/

I just checked their site right now, and they have RTK1 and 3 in stock, but not 2. If you search for "heisig" in the search box you should see all the books there. If the last row in the table (数量 quantity) says 品切れ中 (out of stock), then you're out of luck for now

I was at Bonjinsha last night and only found a copy of RKT2. They are currently out of RKT1 and RKT3. I have edited my previous post to reflect this.

rgravina Wrote:I got my copy of RTK1 from Bonjinsha. They are a specialist Japanese langauge-learning bookstore so they are likely to have at least RTK1 and probably 2 and 3. It's somewhere on the Hanzomon-sen.
http://www.bonjinsha.com/

I just checked their site right now, and they have RTK1 and 3 in stock, but not 2. If you search for "heisig" in the search box you should see all the books there. If the last row in the table (数量 quantity) says 品切れ中 (out of stock), then you're out of luck for now

Bonjinsha has a great little bookstore for Japanese learning materials. It was <5 minutes from 麹町 (kojimachi) station, one street behind the main street in that area.

As for RTK3, why not just get the CD of it from the Nanzan University website? It's only 700 yen including postage!
http://www.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/c...pecial.htm

(And my appologies for commenting almost a year late.)