J films on video w/ E subtitles

[M Arnold]

J films on video w/ E subtitlesFrom: Jonathan M. Hall
I'd be very happy to learn where online shoppers have been going. It would
be helpful if people adding to this thread can indicate whether they have
experienced any shipping territory limitations.

I know this isn't exactly what Jonathan is asking, but some advice for those
of you who live in Japan--go to Yodobashi Camera.  If you have a Japanese
address you can apply for a card at Yodobashi that gives you 10% or more
(depending on the location, seasonal sales, etc.) in "points" that you can
use as a discount towards your next purchase.  In addition, DVDs are always
10% or more off, so basically you get at least a 20% discount on all the
DVDs you buy there.  (I think other major electronics stores have similar
deals.)  Often this was even cheaper than buying used DVDs.  I'm looking at
the website now (www.yodobashi.com) and it seems that the same kind of
discount applies for mail orders, but I've never done an internet order with
them and I doubt they ship out of the country.  The only problem I had with
Yodobashi is that the stock was iffy, they ran out of titles quickly and
were very slow to restock.  I searched several brances for some of the
Uplink Nippon Erotics titles but only found one or two at the Chiba store
and that was it.  Which leads me to...

Amazon.co.jp.  I had no trouble ordering from them in Japan.  I haven't
ordered internationally yet, but Adachi Masao's Jogakusei Gerira recently
appeared on DVD (http://www.uplink.co.jp/nippon_erotics/60s/jogakusei.html)
so I'm planning to try it in the very near future.  They sometimes have 10%
discounts on their DVDs but most titles are full priced.  The only thing
that may potentially be a problem is that the site says they won't ship
videos from the "adaruto" section to foreign countries.  A few Sato Toshiki
DVDs are trapped in limbo like this, and I was worried it would be a problem
with the Adachi film too, but it looks like the Uplink pink films are
categorized as "general drama," not adult (ha!).  Tower Records and Aoyama
Book Center were both great places to find more unusual or independent
releases, but they had no discount and I don't think they do any mail order.

Markus mentioned that he had credit card troubles.  (Of course with
international mail order you don't really have a choice...)  I don't think I
was ever able to use my major credit card without problems in Japan.  Often
times stores that advertised, "we accept visa/M.C./etc.!" would have to call
their bank, very very slowly, to confirm whether or not they could take my
foreign-issued card.  Maybe I don't look trustworthy?  My best advice is to
find an ATM in the city that allows you to take cash withdrawls off your
credit card.  I used several in Shinjuku with no problem.  As far as
travellers checks go, speaking from my experience, don't even think about
it.  I made the mistake of trying to purchase a few things with TCs at
Yodobashi once and three friendly cashiers spent about 20 minutes calling
their managers and banks, asking how to convert and process TCs made out in
U.S. currency.  All of my TCs were in Japanese yen, which was as plain as
day, but they didn't notice so I pointed it out a few times... they said,
"yes, OK" and kept right on calling.  Amazing.  Eventually I was able to buy
the goods but it was not worth the hassle.  As a result I didn't use several
of my Japanese yen TCs, so I tried to deposit them into my account at my
bank in Chiba.  They had to ship them back up to Tokyo to get cashed and
deposited, and that took about 2 weeks.

Regarding region coding, all those "adaruto" DVDs are region-free, and cheap
to boot.  ;-)  But Amazon won't ship them out of the country.

Michael Arnold
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