hey, have you guys seen this website: http://www.tenso.com/landing/en/ you can buy things from online stores in Japan and ship it to their address and then they ship it to you at a lower rate... it might be worth checking out to get some reading material etc. Tofugu did a review of it at: http://www.tofugu.com/2009/04/21/tenso-g...the-cheap/

It seems interesting especially since amazon.co.jp won't ship things like video games.

yeh, it mentioned amazon and ebay etc. in the review... it definitely be a good source of manga and what not too i imagine

Edit: i might have to find a online store that sells Calpis i miss it soo much!!

My choice is this one:
http://www.bk1.jp/
They sell their stuff for the same price they sell to the Japanese.

Btw, I think tofugu was paid to write that article.
Tenso is actually more expensive than most stores, at least when you are talking about books.

thanks for the tip mentat_kgs i've been thinking i need to create a website myself one day... maybe when my Japanese gets a bit better

Hashiriya Wrote:yeh, it mentioned amazon and ebay etc. in the review... it definitely be a good source of manga and what not too i imagine

Edit: i might have to find a online store that sells Calpis i miss it soo much!!

Hell, I don't even like Calpis but it's been over a year since I got back from Japan and now that you mentioned it, I'd love a glass :/

Yeah, I love bk1 as well. They're also pretty generous with the 1000 yen gift certificates when you spend 10,000 yen or more on books. (Reminds me, mine expires in 2 days. Ugh. Need to buy more books. @_@) That, and they just about throw point club points at you if you're paying attention.

If you have problems with the Japanese on the site, just use Rikaichan. You'll figure it out soon enough.

For games, I still buy through play-asia.com.

But as for Tenso, well, it really depends on what you want to get. I have to admit that I'm curious, and I want to look into it further. For some things it might actually be cheaper. (Not necessarily books, but there are other things in Japan you can't get from outside of the country. It happens quite a bit, actually. Frustrating, that.)

I tried Tenso recently. 'Cheap' is not the word. I bought a BluRay disc from Amazon with free shipping. Tenso charged me 490 yen 'usage fee' and 1200 yen 'delivery charges'. Yeah, $17 for shipping a thin BluRay disc. That's not what I call 'cheap'.

Tenso is useful for getting around export rules (Amazon wouldn't ship the disc directly) and useful for sites that just won't ship to the US, but that's all.

I'm glad this was posted. I just got an amazon.jp account this week, and when I checked out the shipping, my jaw dropped. @_@ Thank heavens I live near a Kinokuniya.

But I'm sure I'll want something shipped from Japan at some point. I'll tag this thread, and make use of it later.

mentat_kgs Wrote:My choice is this one:
http://www.bk1.jp/
They sell their stuff for the same price they sell to the Japanese.

How much do you usually end up paying in shipping here. I'm thinking about trying it out.

Their help page about sending stuff overseas is this:
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He_e04

The cheapest shipping option is:
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-04

I use SAL shipping from BK1 and the shipping for my last order was 1080 yen for 5 books (3 manga and 2 other books that were roughly the same size). Based on their pricing page, that means the books weighed between 900-1000g total.
SAL shipping prices: http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-04

You can find prices for other shipping methods here:
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He_e04

Edit: mentat_kgs beat me to it!

mentat_kgs Wrote:Their help page about sending stuff overseas is this:
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He_e04

The cheapest shipping option is:
http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-04

Damn, looks like about the same price as yes-asia for manga then. Too bad, I was hoping for something cheaper. Sometime I need to go down to the Book Off in California or something.

How's that?
In yesasia mangas are around $10,00. In bk1 they are around 400円.

mentat_kgs Wrote:How's that?
In yesasia mangas are around $10,00. In bk1 they are around 400円.

Here's the comparison I checked, it might be cheaper on some stuff, I don't know. Fullmetal Alchemist volume 1 is $6.99 at yesasia, and 420円 at bk1. You add in shipping of 200-280円 per book and it becomes $6.21-7.03. So a bit cheaper but not a whole lot.

Actually the cheapest shipping at BK1 is http://www.bk1.jp/docs/help/He-0201-05

They do say it will take 1 to 3 months though, but that doesn't bother me much.

Looks like the sweet spot is just under 2kg. A pity there isn't an auto weight calculator or something.

bk1 is pure awesomeness. It's better than Yesasia for 3 reasons:
1) The prices
2) The speed (Yesasia sometimes takes up to 7-10 days to ship; bk1 usually less than 2, and it warns you clearly when it might take longer)
3) The availability (Yesasia has ready availability only of very recent and famous manga/books)

I've used BK1 a lot and been very happy with them. I keep choosing the wrong shipping and paying too much, but that's my problem rather than theirs.

I've just placed an order for some books at bk1 with SAL shipping. Now I realize this isn't a good time to evaluate their speed as golden week is starting tomorrow. This could cause some delays.

I'm very impressed. Even though today is supposed to be a public holiday in Japan, I have received notification that my order was shipped. And it's really inexpensive too!