Which take paypal and debit cards.

I just had an awful, awful time ordering from yesasia and am looking for somewhere else. Any suggestions?

What's wrong with YesAsia? I use PayPal, and I've never had any problems with them.

thejapanshop.com...depends on what you need...maybe they do special orders...contact the owner...nice guy

I've used thejapanshop for most things that I couldn't get from Amazon.co.uk. I usually receive the stuff I buy within 1 week from America so it's not bad. The guy who runs it is also a very nice guy, as was said above.

Depending on what you're looking for, CDJapan is good. They mostly only have CDs and DVDs, but I think their prices are comparable to YesAsia, and their shipping costs usually aren't too bad.

Another one I've used before is HMV Japan. They have CDs and DVDs plus books and magazines, and they have special deals a lot, especially if you buy more than one DVD at a time. Their shipping can get kind of high, but it's usually better than Amazon Japan, at least.

Plus, both CDJapan and HMV have a points reward system, which is kinda cool. CD Japan accepts PayPal, but HMV doesn't. Neither takes debit cards, it looks like, but some debit cards can be used like credit cards, which is what I do.

You might consider some Japanese sights as well, like bk1.jp . I order Manga from there all the time.

I really don't understand why Amazon Japan doesn't offer economic shipping, I really don't. It would be such an awesome place if they had reasonable shipping rates

Good thing my girlfriend lives in Japan and can order them from Amazon Japan without any shipping costs and then ship them to Sweden, cutting the shipping costs by tons.

wccrawford Wrote:You might consider some Japanese sights as well, like bk1.jp . I order Manga from there all the time.

bk1.jp seems like a good site, unfortunately I can't find any information on shipping prices except what it costs to ship it inside Japan, and that the price when shipping over seas is based on weight. Actual prices are not present

EDIT: Spent more time looking and found shipping tables, bk1.jp is very cheap! There are tons of shipping methods, I especially like SAL which costs 1000yen for 1000gram worth of books etc, and it just takes 1-2 weeks to recieve it!

Tobberoth Wrote:EDIT: Spent more time looking and found shipping tables, bk1.jp is very cheap! There are tons of shipping methods, I especially like SAL which costs 1000yen for 1000gram worth of books etc, and it just takes 1-2 weeks to recieve it!

Ah, you're one up on me! I never found those tables and just took my chances based on the fact that my friend said she got good shipping rates when she tried it. I actually upgrade the shipping a bit and usually end up paying the same for shipping as I pay for the manga... Amazon only got to that point when I had 10 or more mangas in my cart. (Below that and I paid much more than the cost of each book in shipping charges on Amazon.)

wccrawford Wrote:

Tobberoth Wrote:EDIT: Spent more time looking and found shipping tables, bk1.jp is very cheap! There are tons of shipping methods, I especially like SAL which costs 1000yen for 1000gram worth of books etc, and it just takes 1-2 weeks to recieve it!

Ah, you're one up on me! I never found those tables and just took my chances based on the fact that my friend said she got good shipping rates when she tried it. I actually upgrade the shipping a bit and usually end up paying the same for shipping as I pay for the manga... Amazon only got to that point when I had 10 or more mangas in my cart. (Below that and I paid much more than the cost of each book in shipping charges on Amazon.)

Here is a link where you can find tables for the various shipping options:
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He_e04

EMS and OCS are fast (takes 2-3 days) but they are expensive.
SAL was between 1 week and 2 months, so much slower than I thought, but still very cheap.
航空 (by plane) is about twice as expensive as SAL, but much faster, 10 days - 2 weeks.
船便 (by boat) is slightly cheaper than SAL, but takes between 1 and 3 months, so it's a lot slower.

Seems to me that SAL is the best choice, but I guess it would take more than a month before it arrives in Sweden.

If youre interested in magazines, single or susbscription, manga, and other japanese books, then Sasusga bookstore is a good option.

Theyre based in MA, USA, shipping is thus cheap, free over 40 dollars, and you get things quite fast assuming youre based in the US, probably quickly enough for Europeans as well.
Prices are comparable to yesasia on manga, if not sometimes cheaper.

http://www.sasugabooks.com/index.php

They will also special order items for you, just email them at their info address and they will try to get it.

Tobberoth Wrote:EMS and OCS are fast (takes 2-3 days) but they are expensive.
SAL was between 1 week and 2 months, so much slower than I thought, but still very cheap.
航空 (by plane) is about twice as expensive as SAL, but much faster, 10 days - 2 weeks.
船便 (by boat) is slightly cheaper than SAL, but takes between 1 and 3 months, so it's a lot slower.

Seems to me that SAL is the best choice, but I guess it would take more than a month before it arrives in Sweden.

I've been using BK1 for about a year now... SAL gets to Germany in about 2 weeks usually.

Don't forget to connect to BK1's website everyday to increase your discount points

Michael

Regarding the above mentioned sites like bk1, TheJapanShop and Sasuga Books, how long do they take to ship the items?
Yesasia is awesome for the free shipping, but it usually takes them 10-25 days to even find the products (usually manga and books) before they send them. That really bothers me.

nac_est Wrote:Yesasia is awesome for the free shipping, but it usually takes them 10-25 days to even find the products (usually manga and books) before they send them. That really bothers me.

I'm a cheap bastard, so I don't mind waiting if it saves me some shells. Besides, I usually pre-order things, so I hardly even notice. Of course, if one does care about delivery dates, it may not be the best choice.

兎に角...
One option is to use a proxy and buy things off Japanese auction sites. They add shipment fees and commission, of course, but depending on what you're buying, it's often a good deal, anyway. The one I've been using is http://www.goody-japan.com/ (Their webpage looks a bit fishy, but it has worked fine for me thus far).

nac_est Wrote:Regarding the above mentioned sites like bk1, TheJapanShop and Sasuga Books, how long do they take to ship the items?

The shipping time is usually indicated in the item description. Most books are shipped in 2-3 days tops, some obscure/rare books have a 3+ weeks delay.

Another option if you have a proxy/forwarder/friend in Japan is to order from Amazon Market or Yahoo Auctions. I've saved a few piles of shells on rare books that way.

Michael

meushi Wrote:The shipping time is usually indicated in the item description. Most books are shipped in 2-3 days tops, some obscure/rare books have a 3+ weeks delay.

Thank you meushi, but what site are you referring to specifically? All of them?
Yesasia does provide the expected time of delivery, but it's invariably ~21 days except for dvds and cd as far as I know. That's because they have to order the items from a third party before shipping them. I was wandering if those other online stores do the same.

One thing to keep in mind-- US-based booksellers often have HUGE markups on books. Kinokuniya in NY and the Japan Shop both have marked up some of the books I bought by a lot. My 800 yen Genki answer key was $16 at the Japan Shop, and a lot of 590 yen manga at Kinokuniya goes for around $8-$9. Not to mention the UNICOM JLPT books, which retail around the 2300 yen price go for $34-$35 at both stores.

So that "hot deal" with cheap shipping isn't always so hot, because you're still being charged for the shipping from Japan in the first place.

I do most of my book shopping through BK1 now as well, and yeah, hit the pawprint thing in your "My BK1" every day for a free point in the point club.

They also send out a lot of electronic coupons for 100-300 yen. I just got another 300 yen coupon, so I'll order some books soon that I've been waiting on ordering.

As for SAL, the way it works is that on the ground, it goes slowly, but from Japan to the destination country, it goes by air, then it goes at the slowest ground speed when it lands. For me in the US, that means it takes about 17-19 days for me to get something I order from them by SAL.

But I don't pay more than retail for the books, so I do save some money... I just don't get what I want right away, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

nac_est Wrote:Thank you meushi, but what site are you referring to specifically?

Forgot to specify it was for BK1 We also use them for magazine/serials subscriptions so we usually end up with around 1000 jpy of discounts every month.

I hope I am not going offtopic by posting this, but can anyone recommend any "offline" bookstores in Japan as well ? I will be staying in Japan for 15 days this month and I am planning to buy some books there while I am at it. Thanks in advance. ^_^

atreya Wrote:I hope I am not going offtopic by posting this, but can anyone recommend any "offline" bookstores in Japan as well ? I will be staying in Japan for 15 days this month and I am planning to buy some books there while I am at it. Thanks in advance. ^_^

Depends on where you will be staying.

My main recommendation is BookOff. Really cheap, has a lot of things and can easily be found in most areas of Japan. You can buy books, manga, CDs and DVDs there.

In Shinjuku there are some very very big bookstores, but I don't remember the names of em They are easy enough to find, just ask any random person for a big 本屋 ^^.

I will be staying in Oumihachiman mostly. However, I am planning to visit, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka as well... Thanks for the reco

nac_est Wrote:Regarding the above mentioned sites like bk1, TheJapanShop and Sasuga Books, how long do they take to ship the items?
Yesasia is awesome for the free shipping, but it usually takes them 10-25 days to even find the products (usually manga and books) before they send them. That really bothers me.

Sasuga ships quite fast to me, but I live only 20 miles away. The owner of the shop is from Japan and he is extremely friendly and helpful. He is a manga-holic. Very nice quality and good prices.

Just to hop on the bk1 recommendation bandwagon, although it's hard to know exactly how much the shipping will be since they don't list weights on their site, I found that for a bunch of books I bought the total price from bk1 including SAL was 15% less than what it would have been from yesasia and I got my books much faster than I usually get them from yesasia as well.

One thing I'll recommend-- don't do your book shopping until you're done traveling around, because hauling 20 pounds of books around Japan ain't fun.

Another thing-- for Tokyo, drop $15 and get the Kodansha Tokyo City Atlas. It's a small book that will be a big help.

If you're going to major cities, there's usually a Kinokuniya to be found. In Tokyo, there's one in Shinjuku at Takeshimaya Times Square, across the bridge from JR Shinjuku (South Entrance, I believe). It's near the Krispy Kreme.

There's also Maruzen in Marunouchi as well. It's near-ish to Tokyo Station. It's also a big bookstore with a lot of books in it.

One thing I *highly* recommend is learning all the various words for various kinds of books, (Fiction, Non-Fiction, etc.) because it can be a little confusing if you can't read the little signs. It'll also save you a ton of time that way.

I'm not so familiar with Book-Off. I know there's one in Shinjuku... somewhere... but I have no idea where. I saw it on the way to a tiny hole-in-the-wall laundromat... somewhere.

There are also book shops in Kyoto and Osaka as well, but I didn't spend any time shopping for books there, because I didn't want to drag them all over Japan.

EDIT: For BK1 shipping, if I'm ordering light novels or manga, I just take a few books I already have and stick them on the scale to get an idea.

rich_f Wrote:One thing to keep in mind-- US-based booksellers often have HUGE markups on books. Kinokuniya in NY and the Japan Shop both have marked up some of the books I bought by a lot. ... So that "hot deal" with cheap shipping isn't always so hot, because you're still being charged for the shipping from Japan in the first place.

I agree. And I've found Kinokuniya to be more expensive than the Japan Shop so that the price of buying a book at their brick and mortar store pretty much equals the price of buying one from the Japan Shop and having it shipped to you. But Kinokuniya has the advantage of instant gratification because if you live near one you can just walk in and get what you want right away. Plus it's nice to be able to talk to someone who can recommend stuff and find what you want.

I've found that Powells has manga for $1-$5 but for some reason I can't find any on their website (except for English ones, of course, and German translations for some reason). You would probably have to order by phone.