Where to order Japanese books (books in Japanese)

[CajunCoder]

Greetings all! Long time no see! (It's that time of year again - the one where I rise from the dead and pop my head back in here )

Recently I've been looking for books in Japanese. In particular, I'm looking for 道ありき by 三浦 綾子 and いま、会いにゆきます by 市川 拓司 . I checked the obvious places, such as Amazon Japan, but shipping is outrageous! It would cost me $30 to ship a $5 book! So, I'm looking for alternatives. Are there any US distributors of Japanese books with cheaper shipping? Or perhaps somewhere with discounted shipping?

[furrykef]

I checked the obvious places, such as Amazon Japan, but shipping is outrageous! It would cost me $30 to ship a $5 book!

What I do if I have to order from amazon.co.jp is wait until I have to buy maybe $100 worth of stuff and just buy it all at once. That way the shipping relative to the cost of each item becomes much smaller.

Anyway, you can try YesAsia. I haven't looked there very much, so I have no idea what its selection is like, but maybe they'll have something useful.

- Kef

[keatonatron]

The best might be to find a local Japanese bookstore.

I know in Seattle there is a Kinokuniya that has a good selection of books in Japanese.

I don't know about any other cities; maybe look in your local phone book? (modern translation: search on google maps )

[jimbreen]

I checked the obvious places, such as Amazon Japan, but shipping is outrageous! It would cost me $30 to ship a $5 book! So, I'm looking for alternatives.

I have used オンライン書店ビーケーワン (http://www.bk1.jp/) to buy books from Japan. Their postage charges are reasonable compared with Amazon's.

You have to set up an account, which means navigating a heap of WWW pages entirely in Japanese, but the result is worth it.

Jim

[monkeykoder]

Steps:
1: Find major city (San Francisco works well)
2: Drive there
3: Find "Japan Town" (note the fact that street signs are now written in two languages that you kind of understand)
4: Go to book store and buy books
5: Repeat as necessary...

(I don't know what to do if you don't live within 100 miles of a city at least the size of San Francisco...)
(Note to self get someone else to drive me to San Francisco (Amtrak=EXPENSIVE). (never drive a car with a manual transmission in San Francisco))
(Note to self this post might not be useful for the OP apologise)

[richvh]

How about Sasuga Books? Prices are marked up from Japan (to cover their shipping costs), but shipping is reasonable and fairly rapid, and their books are well packed.

[yukamina]

If you're searching for a Japanese title on YesAsia, make sure you're on the Japanese version. The English version won't recognize the text.
It has at least one of the books you're looking for:
http://www.yesasia.com/us/%E9%81%93%E3% ... /info.html

[HarakoMeshi]

I order from Kinokuniya's online bookstore sometimes.
See how they compare on prices.

http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/indexohb.cgi?AREA=03

[CajunCoder]

Thanks everyone. I finally went with bk1 and used SAL economy air mail - it was only $10/pound! However, I don't get a tracking number, and it will take anywhere between 1 week and 2 months to get my package in

[jimbreen]

Thanks everyone. I finally went with bk1 and used SAL economy air mail - it was only $10/pound! However, I don't get a tracking number, and it will take anywhere between 1 week and 2 months to get my package in

They take about a week to get things to Aus.

Jim