The four commandments handed down by God m3rry will be followed.

-Harem size is up to six eight bishoujos. and one household meido.
-Only one bishoujo in an eroge unless she is a twin.
-Eroges with their own anime adaptions are not allowed.
-Each bishoujo must have it’s own individual seiyuu.

Now it’s time for the list in no particular order.

1.) Natsume Rin (CV: 民安ともえ) from Little Busters!

I don’t think anybody’s surprised at her inclusion in the list. Rin is the osananajimi of the group and is probably the best representative of osananajimi to me in general. Unlike most other ones, Rin is not clingy and not ridiculously tsun (really, how can you be tsun to someone for 10+ years then turn all dere in a matter of months or less?). I would invent a time machine to force a child version of me to make Rin my friend.

Download audio file (rin.mp3)

I’ll be your friend, Rin.

2) Higuchi Ririko (CV: 籐野らん) from Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo

Ririko would be the onee-chan of the group. Though physically weak, she’s pretty much impossible to break mentally. I would rest easy knowing she would always back me up and no form of torture could turn her. In her world, she would be the (sorta spoiler) spy of the group. When she’s not doing her covert ops, Ririko loves to tease and her reactions to some events are hilarious.

Like this.

3) Unohananosakuyahime a.k.a. Hime a.k.a. Sakuya (CV: 高志麻矢 alias for 伊藤静) from Tenshin Ranman

Sakuya is a god who can make lasers come out of your eyes and her method of removing your bad luck is by kissing. Need I say more?

Okay, okay, Sakuya is mischievous and likes to tease the protag, yet she’s always serious enough to get her job done. When she’s jealous, her powers go out of control and things fly everywhere, which is really cute since she doesn’t even realize it.

Her fake embarrassment teasing is so freaking awesome.

4) Hinaori Kagome (CV: 一色ヒカル) from コミュ―黒い竜と優しい王国―

Download audio file (kagome.mp3)

One of the first scene’s Kagome is alone with the protag made me completely fall for her. She sneaks into his apartment and comes out of the shower completely naked while insulting and teasing the protag, who thinks she’s like a witch and completely tsun. Then she says something like the above line. Holy. shit. I WANT.

Since warum already covered pretty much everything else, I won’t bother repeating it.

5) Kawakami Kazuko a.k.a Wanko (CV: 青山ゆかり) from Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

For a change of pace, the imouto of the harem will be Wanko (though she isn’t the protag’s imouto in Majikoi). Unlike the rest of the harem, Wanko is super genki and optimistic. Though she can be a bit dumb, which leads to everyone teasing her, she’s as loyal as a dog and would not kill me for having a harem unlike some of the other girls above.

Maid) Okita Megumi (CV: 夏野こおり) from W.L.O. 世界恋愛機構

Though she’s almost always in a maid uniform, Megumi is not very maid-like since the uniform is part of her waitress job. However, she still watches over and takes care of the protag when needed, so she probably has the skills to be a maid. Hopefully. Else I’d starve and the place would be a mess.

Carefree and lax on the surface,  she’s actually an operator for the W.L.O, making her quite a leader when needed. With her superior social skills, she may prevent a bloodshed within the harem.

So to sum it up, I have:

• Osananajimi to hang out with
• Reliable onee-chan
• Goddess when miracles are needed. Hiding under tables is advised when she’s jealous
• Violent woman who might kill me in my sleep once she sees the harem
• Genki imouto-like girl to hide me when the above characters are hunting me
• Sociable maid to hopefully figure out a way this harem would actually work

Akatsuki no Goei ~Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron~

Website: 暁の護衛 ～罪深き終末論～ (foreign access blocked)
Company: しゃんぐりら
Release date: April 22, 2010

This is a continuation of their Akatsuki no Goei series, and now the subheroines have leveled up to  heroines.

The story is about some forbidden zone in a city where the people inside aren’t recognized as humans. One day, police surround the place to execute a plan to capture and deport all of them. The protagonist and his friends live in that forbidden zone, and they’re trying to fight for their lives or something.

The story description is kinda vague, so I don’t really know what to expect, but it doesn’t look too bad. The story sounds different enough and could be interesting. The art is decent and the characters seem sorta interesting.

We start this month off with some hope! Someone who played the previous game(s) can tell me what to expect.

DEARDROPS

Website: DEARDROPS
Company: OVERDRIVE
Release date: April 23, 2010

It’s OVERDRIVE’s newest game. Their previous game, Kira Kira was pretty good, so I’m looking forward to this.

The protagonist, Suganuma Shouichi was a promising violinist in a foreign orchestra until he had to quit one day for a certain reason. His parents got angry with him for leaving the orchestra and disown him. Shouichi ends up working at a live house, meets some people, and learns about the awesomeness of rock and roll.

Since OVERDRIVE has a decent track record, I have some hopes. The story isn’t anything special. It reminds me of Kira Kira a lot, but that was a game where the journey was more important than the originality of the story. Also, I want Riho.

This makes two promising games in a row. How long will the streak continue?

And was I the only one who kept reading the title as DeadDrops?

Kotori Love Ex P

Website: ことり　Love Ex P
Company: CIRCUS
Release date: April 23, 2010

Do I really need to comment on this? This is yet another game from CIRCUS based in the DC world. You know by now whether you want this or not.

Even though I like Kotori, enough is enough. Make something new already, CIRCUS.

The streak was broken for me on the third game. Too bad.

Aichi Muite Koi

Website: アッチむいて恋
Company: ASa Project
Release date: April 23, 2010

The protagonist moves from the city to the countryside and transfers to the school there. However, they screwed up his housing and now he can’t find anywhere to live. So guess what the only place with a vacant room is?

WAIT FOR IT.

The girls’ dorm. Yes. This is another crossdressing game. However, since the protag has already registered in the school as a boy, he must be dressed as a boy there but as a girl while in the dorm. Omg so exciting~~~~

I don’t even have the words to describe how generic and boring this game seems to be. I could be playing this and someone could switch the game on me in the middle and I probably wouldn’t notice.

At least there’s an imouto for Micchi.

Kokoro no Sumika

Website: ココロの住処
Company: Yatagarasu
Release date: April 23, 2010

The protag lives with his older sister and imouto. There’s some complicated love triangle sort of thing between them. Their parents are never home, but one day, a package arrives at their house. It’s full of weird stuff and the protag ignores it. But then one day his father goes to his house and brings a freaking sex doll android to their house. The sex doll android is also apparently made by his parents.

Since the protag lacks the skills to sex his sisters, his parents apparently thought he needed a different form of relief.

What can I say? Another game with a robot you can fuck. Nothing new here. Move on.

Noblesse Oblige

Website: ノーブレスオブリージュ
Company: CLOCKUP
Release date: April 23, 2010

One day, a woman shows up in front of the protag and says she’s becoming his maid. Apparently his fetish-filled grandmother sent her. Other maids show up shortly after. Now the protag wants to find out why these sex slaves maids were sent to him.

Ugh. Maids. Boring. Pass.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Website: 星空へ架かる橋
Company: feng
Release date: April 23, 2010

Since Micchi already summarized the mind-numbingly boring plot in February, I won’t bother doing it again.

This game will probably blend in with all the other generic games coming out. You’ll probably forget about it once you scroll down to the next game. The only positive thing I can say is the art isn’t horrible.

Ikusa Megami VERITA

Website: 戦女神VERITA
Company: エウシュリー
Release date: April 23, 2010

Another game in the Ikusa Megami series. Again, you probably know if you want to play this or not already. I’m too lazy to romanize the names in this thing to give a summary. Hemi already talked about the trial.

I haven’t given any of the other games in the series a try, but maybe I’ll finally start with this one.

Makai Tenshi Djibril 4

Website: 魔界天使ジブリール4
Company: Frontwing
Release date: April 23, 2010

So a group of osananajimi are in school one day when two girls arrive with a tentacle monster that used to be their classmate. The protag, Kento, gets stabbed in the chest by a tentacle cause tentacles don’t like guys, obviously. Some loli called Love shows up and gives them the ability to transform into super magic fighting girls and saves them.

BUT THERE’S A CATCH!

Apparently that super transforming power requires constant HAWT SEXING to replenish their power. And now it’s their duty to defend shit. So they must have sex. Kento is somehow alive and gets to be the center of this forced sexing harem. Lucky him.

This game is so ridiculous I might give it a try.

PARA-SOL

Website: PARA-SOL
Company: ROOT
Release date: April 24, 2010

So I read the story outline of this game and don’t understand what the hell it’s about. Apparently it takes place in some sci-fi world where fantasy shit like dragons and werewolves suddenly started appearing. Some random girl texts some unknown person to save her ship (why not just tweet?).

DID YOU REMEMBER ALL OF THAT?

Good. Well, forget it even existed.

Because we suddenly shift to a story about two sisters who lost their parents. Some random guy appears at their door one day and they supposedly let him in. He’s some weirdo that always holds an umbrella. So the natural thing to do it BECOME A FAMILY WITH HIM. This seems like a setup for a rapefest or something.

Anyway, since I don’t understand anything about the story, I’ll have to judge the game by other merits. First of all, all the guys look bishounen. The girls look absolutely boring. Too many girls with short hair. Rejected.

Choujikuu Bakuren Monogatari ~door☆pi☆chu~

Website: 超時空爆恋物語 ～door☆pi☆chu～
Company: プリムローズ
Release date: April 28, 2010

So the protag Yoshitsune lives with his osananajimi  cause his parents are crazy adventurers and left him alone. His osananajimi happen to be two sisters, one who’s a CRAZY black magic user who creates some magic time bending drug. Of course being the super nice guy eroge protag that he is, Yoshitsune becomes the test subject for this black magic.

He ends up summoning a bunch of people from Japanese history into his world. Of course I have no idea who these people are or whether they’re famous cause I don’t give a shit about Japanese history.

BUT.

All these people he summoned happened to be, you guessed it, HAWT BISHOUJO. And apparently he can’t send them back, though I don’t know why he would. So now he’s stuck living with a bunch of sexable bishoujo historical figures.

History class would have been so much more interesting if they taught it like this.

Iro ni Ide ni Keri Waga Koi wa: my deep love shows in the blush on my face.

Website: 色に出でにけり わが恋は
Company: ういんどみる
Release date: April 29, 2010

Another title from Windmill.

The school that the protag of this game, Yuuto,  goes to merges with a noble all girls school to create a trite plot for an eroge for some  reason. I’m sure you all know where this is going.

For some reason Yuuto gets involved in a duel to determine the successor within a noble house, and he ends up living with one of the girls. Blah blah blah, you can guess the rest. There’s nothing original about this game. The characters are as generic as you can get. There’s a rich, proud bishoujo, a quiet bishoujo, a cheerful osananajimi, a maid, and a genki loli (who looks pretty much exactly the same as Ina from W.L.O.).

The art isn’t bad, but I think I’d rather stare at my screensaver than play this game. It’d probably have more unexpected events. By the way, my screensaver is a clock.

Neko Koi! ~Neko Kami-sama to Nekomimi no Tatari~

Website: ねこ☆こい！ ～猫神さまとネコミミのたたり～
Company: Whirlpool
Release date: April 30, 2010

Furries. Rejected.

Petapeta: linking little fingers to confirm a promise

Website: ぺたぺた
Company: Lime
Release date: April 30,2010

Tooru, the protag, is part of a family that’s well known in the financial world. However, his grandfather chooses his sister Miki as the heir to the company cause Tooru is a worthless child that can’t do anything. His sister has too much work to do so she makes Tooru sometimes act as her body double cause they apparently look so much alike. Maybe the people in their world are freaking blind or something cause they look nothing alike.

Miki

Tooru

Yeah, they’re almost fucking twins.

So anyway, Miki looks awesome. I want to play this game just because of her. She better be sexable. The story seems completely forgettable.

Custard Cream Taiyaki

Website: カスタードクリームたい焼き
Company: アクシス
Release date: April 30, 2010

On his way back from school, the protag, Raikou, encounters someone fighting. Who does it happen to be? His osananajimi Aira who he hasn’t seen in forever. The reason Aira came back is cause she doesn’t want to get into a political marriage, so she’s here to fulfill their promise from long ago. At least she’s straightforward about their childhood promises unlike other osananajimi who hide them until the end.

She transfers to his school and crazy people show up. The end.

The art in this game is ugly. The characters appear to be stereotypical. With a cover like that, I don’t expect much of a story. Why would I ever give this a chance?

Shu ni Majiwareba Akaku Naru

Website: 主に交われば朱くなる
Company: ぐみそふと
Release date: April 30, 2010

Hajime, the protag, is transferred to a school for rich families. *sigh* Where have we seen this before?

For some reason that can only be attributed to the fact that this is an eroge, Hajime must become a servant to one of the female students in the school.

Again, we have a cast of generic characters that you can find in pretty much any game. There’s the cold and strong girl, the super kind girl, the selfish girl, and the quiet, expressionless girl.

I have to admit the art is decent, but nothing else pulls me in. I’ll probably be too busy playing the more interesting stuff to remember this exists.

My top 3 for the month:

1. DEARDROPS
2. Akatsuki no Goei~Tsumibukaki Shuumatsuron~
3. Petapeta

Holy shit. There are games I would play this month. Nothing too great, but still a welcome development.

And Micchi, I admire your dedication to doing these every month. This takes so much freaking time.

Let’s just ignore the fact that the -ge stands for game since a lot of people in the English translated community call them visual novels. I’m going to focus on their properties, not their names.

Defense for “reading”: Eroge have a lot of emphasis on the text, and  basically the only thing the audience does is read. So they’re basically like books or manga — they’re read.

Defense for “playing”: Eroge have text, pictures, sound and usually at least some interactivity, therefore they’re akin to games and are played.

I’m part of the latter group. In case you haven’t read my previous “Thoughts” article, I wrote about the defining characteristics of eroge and why we play them. Voices, in particular, are a significant contribution to my enjoyment of the genre. So if we exclude interactivity for now, including voices, pictures, and text makes eroge close to foreign subtitled movies. Do people say they read them? No. They watch them.

So now let’s add interactivity — choices. If our baseline of text, voices, and pictures equals watching, we already eliminated reading as a potential verb. Adding interactivity would logically bring it closer to  traditional video games, which includes text, voices, pictures, and interactivity. We say that we play traditional video games, therefore it seems to me that we should also say we play eroge.

Some people may argue that the interactiveness is weak, but it’s still there. It’s still an important aspect of the genre. Most people probably want to decide which path they’re going to end up on and the order they play them in.

Yes, there are exceptions to every example I provided. There are movies and eroge without sound. There are eroge without choices. But in general, most modern eroge and movies fit my description. Instead of focusing on the outliers, focusing on the most common example makes sense. And from what I’ve argued, “playing” eroge makes more sense.

I decided to look into what I think are potential reasons for why people play eroge, and then I’ll see where I fit.

Romance. One of the more obvious factors. People could play eroge because they like romantic stories or want a change of pace from typical games that usually feature war and stuff. Or maybe the girls in eroge represent an ideal that players want in real life but can’t obtain. This leads to the second point.

Alternate reality. People want to live a different life. Eroge provide a method to experience different worlds or new relationships. If romance is the key property, this could come from a lack of romance in real life, dissatisfaction with real life relationships, or simply a desire to try something new. Maybe Micchi the player wants a loud, jealous, energetic, and annoying brat imouto that they don’t have in real life. Or maybe the player wants a radically different world with magic and stuff, something that the real world can’t provide.

Story. Maybe romance isn’t your thing. Maybe the reason one plays eroge is for the story. Many eroge have epic stories that can be achieved due to the length of the game. The only other form of media that provide as much of a focus on story are books, which lack many properties of eroge, which I’ll discuss later. Another strength of eroge is providing a slice of life story.

Characters. This can be another part of an alternative reality. Players may find characters they like so much that they want to spend a lot of time with them. People who care mostly about characters enjoy the experience of daily life with a character they like. It’s not necessarily the story that they like, but the process of going through it with a character they really like.

Ero. This may sound self-explanatory, but I think it goes deeper than that. In other forms of media like anime and manga, relationships feel a bit underwhelming because they often move too slowly or don’t develop as much as real relationships do. In real life, people have sex. We wouldn’t be here otherwise. (Did I just make people think of something they didn’t want to? How about now?)  In most anime, you’d probably be lucky if characters ever kissed, let alone have sex. And don’t get me started about shounen romance manga. In eroge, relationships actually move forward, though not all of them do so realistically. Sometimes the ero is forced in the story, but if it’s done right, it can be satisfying and rewarding. Or some people just want sex. And lots of it.

Now let’s move on to the more technical aspects of eroge.

Download audio file (03_intro_ITI.mp3)

Download audio file (sample_ITI_02.mp3)

Since I didn’t have any voices in the Te to Te Try On! review, here are some clips of Ichino from their site.

Voices. Unlike manga and books, eroge have voices, which can add to the immersion of the story. This will obviously help the people who want an alternative reality. Obviously there are great eroge that don’t have voices, but I believe it’s still a very important aspect of the genre. They can make or break a character for me.

Music. Similar argument to voices, except music provides more of an atmosphere than anything else. Can you imagine playing an eroge on mute? It’d be a drastically different experience.

Maybe you really like this. Hey, it’s Shana.

Or this.

Pictures. Another obvious aspect. This puts the visual in the visual novel that the Western market likes to call the genre. Along with sound, this is what allows eroge to distinguish itself from books. Being full color is an advantage eroge has over manga, though eroge doesn’t have the sheer amount of unique images. On a related note, the art style of the game may be very important to some people. Some people may find it had to get into a game with an art style they don’t like, or they may play a game just because they like the art.

Now for some comparisons to other types of media.

Ability to control pacing. One of eroge’s advantages over anime, which has many similar technical properties, is the ability to control the pacing of the story. If you want to slowly go through a part of the game because it’s really enjoyable, eroge makes it easy to do so. If there’s a part of the game that bores you to death, you can hold control or another key and skip through it.

Ability to influence the story. Having multiple girls/paths is probably the biggest fundamental difference most eroge have compared to other forms of media. If the story in an anime, manga, or book features a character you don’t like, you have to put up with it. In eroge, the player has more of a choice of who to interact with. For games that have more life or death situations, the player feels more in control of the characters’ fates.

Gameplay. At least in some games. Some people may enjoy the minigames within eroge, which other forms of media except video games can’t match. And let’s face it, it’s pretty rare for a regular video game to have a good story or good character development.

As for me, after looking through a bunch of games the last few days and thinking about what I enjoyed in the last few eroge I’ve played, the main reason I play seems to be the characters. It used to be for the story, but over the last few years, stories have impressed me less and less on their own. Without a strong cast that I like, my enjoyment of an eroge plummets. If I don’t like the characters, why should I care what happens to them?

The second major reason would be for an alternate reality. People in eroge almost always seem to have a more enjoyable life and a better group of friends. Except the ones where they’re all dying or whatever. Sucks to be them.

All the technical aspects of eroge are also important to me. I can’t imagine the genre being the same or my desire to play them to be the same if they weren’t usually present.

Being able to control the pacing of the game is also really important to me. One of the main reasons I quit watching anime (other than the fact they suck now) is that I don’t like following everything at their set pace. I like to slow down and enjoy parts I like. I like to replay scenes/voices that I like. I like being able to skip the voiced lines of characters that I don’t like (Chinami).

Have I missed anything? Agree or disagree with the reasons I listed? Why do you guys play eroge?

This guide will assume you know how to read Japanese or at least figure out how to navigate through a Japanese website. If there’s enough demand, I’ll make a guide with step by step pictures for stores in Japanese only.

If a store sells items at above MSRP, it will not be listed.

Last updated: December 31, 2010

Books and magazines

bk1
Ships worldwide. This is the best place to get Japanese books. All books are sold at MSRP anyway, but bk1 often has coupons or bonus point rewards. The best thing about bk1 is they ship via surface mail, which is pretty reasonably priced, though slow. For me, typical delivery time to the west coast of the US is 6-8 weeks. The only bad thing is that their magazine selection isn’t that great. They lack eroge magazines and other general hentai ones from what I’ve seen.

Hobby Search (English)
Ships worldwide. EMS and small packet SAL. They stock most magazines, so that’s really the only point in using them. EMS is too expensive for getting books in bulk. They have small packet SAL now, but that’s still expensive for books compared to the book rate (see bottom of this post for details). Update: now pretty much useless since they don’t sell ero magazines anymore.

Eroge/Galge/Visual novels

There are a bunch of retail stores that sell eroge too, but they’re almost always more expensive than Amazon. There’s no reason to use them other than to get preorder bonuses, which Amazon usually doesn’t have. Remember that stores often have different preorder bonuses, so check multiple stores.

Amazon Japan (disclaimer: affiliate link. Use it if you want to support me )
Does not ship worldwide. They offer pretty competitive prices for new eroge, but obviously the biggest problem is that they don’t ship worldwide. A solution is at the bottom of the article. One downside to Amazon is they never seem to get special preorder goods.

Amiami (English)
Does not ship worldwide for adult items. Since Paypal doesn’t allow adult items, payments must be done by bank transfers or other Japan-only methods, so you must use a shopping service or a friend to buy eroge. The main reason to shop here instead of Amazon is because they get preorder bonuses.

Getchu
Does not ship worldwide. One of the most famous sites for eroge. Their prices are generally competitive with Amazon, but they don’t have free shipping. They have preorder bonuses though.

Media Land
Does not ship worldwide. Does not accept credit cards. They generally have the cheapest price by a few hundred yen, but there’s no free shipping and they don’t accept cards, so Amazon usually ends up being cheaper. They get preorder bonuses.

Toranoana
Does not ship worldwide. Prices are pretty much the same as Getchu. Maybe a little bit more expensive, but there’s free domestic shipping for orders over 10,000 yen. They also get preorder bonuses.

Games

Amazon Japan
Does not ship worldwide. Really, there’s no site that competes with them on price on a regular basis. If you don’t live in Japan, just go to Amazon.

Amiami (English)
Ships worldwide. Paypal only. Now that they started selling selling internationally, they’re a good source for games. Their prices are pretty good and they often include preorder bonuses. Remember to click here to change the site to English or else they don’t ship internationally.

HMV Japan (English)
Ships worldwide. If you really insist on having games shipped directly to you, you can try HMV Japan. Their prices will almost always be higher than Amazon or Amiami. They ship using only EMS, and I’ve heard their shipping rate calculator isn’t that accurate. There’s really no reason to be using them unless you’re buying DVDs/Blu-rays in the same order.

Doujinshi/other doujin stuff

Toranoana
Does not ship worldwide. They’re one of the biggest stores for doujinshi and related stuff.

Mandarake
Ships worldwide. EMS only unless you ask otherwise. Their site doesn’t seem to be organized at all, so it might be hard to find what you’re looking for.

Melon Books
Does not ship worldwide. Another major doujinshi shop. I don’t like their website, so I’ve never used them. They seem to have a good variety of items though.

White Canvas
Ships worldwide (sorta). They don’t ship adult items worldwide. Their site is sorta crappy. Their selection seems okay.

Figures and other character goods

Amazon Japan
Does not ship worldwide. They have lots of stuff, though it’s much harder to browse for items. Use them only for items you know the name of. Use other sites to find those items.

Amiami (English)
Paypal only. This is probably one of the biggest figure stores online. They often have significant discounts, but they don’t have free shipping within Japan. They ship via SAL and EMS outside Japan. But those aren’t normally free. They claim they don’t ship some items outside Japan, but they don’t say what specifically. Seems like adult stuff and some other random items.

CDJapan (English)
Ships worldwide. Their selection isn’t that great, but with coupons and points, the prices might be better than HLJ or Hobby Search.

HobbyLink Japan (English)
Ships worldwide. Prices are generally MSRP, but HLJ’s site is easy to use since it’s in English.

HobbySearch (English)
Ships worldwide. EMS and small packet SAL. Prices are slightly less than MSRP. Maybe worth looking into now as an HLJ alternative since they offer small packet SAL.

CDs/DVDs

Amazon Japan
Ships worldwide. They usually have the biggest discounts on DVDs. Need I say more?

bk1
Ships worldwide (sorta). They apparently ship CDs worldwide but not DVDs. The prices are around MSRP. Adding a CD or something to a book order could be a good idea since Amazon isn’t really cheap for CDs either.

CDJapan (English)
Ships worldwide. Prices are roughly MSRP. They have coupons, which can lower prices a good amount. Their points are better than Amazon’s. They have more shipping methods, so they may be cheaper than Amazon.

HMV Japan (English)
Ships worldwide. See previous entry for more details. They’re in-between Amazon and CDJapan for prices, but they ship using EMS only. They might be cheaper than Amazon if you’re only ordering a few items since Amazon’s shipping is ridiculous. Amazon’s lower prices usually makes up for it in larger orders though.

Foreign exchange fees

This first part about credit cards is focused on the US, but the general concepts should apply to Europe too. Most credit cards charge a foreign exchange fee if you buy something using foreign currency or from a store located outside the US. It tends to be 2-3% for most cards. Excluding credit unions, there basically only two common companies that don’t have foreign transaction fees. Capital One and Schwab (they’ve discontinued their card).

If you pay by Paypal, you won’t get hit with a foreign exchange fee by your bank, but if you’re paying in another currency, Paypal has their own fee. I hear it’s 2.5%, but I haven’t confirmed it. I confirmed it’s 2.5% in an email I got from them. It’s included in the exchange rate you get. You can change it so they just charge you in the original currency, which is good if you have a card that doesn’t card you fees.

For a list of foreign exchange fees for each bank in the US (maybe worldwide since lots of banks are international), go here.

Buying from stores that don’t ship outside Japan

If you noticed above, I listed a bunch of stores that don’t ship outside Japan. If you don’t have a friend in Japan who’ll buy/ship things for you, you can use a company that’ll do it for you. Even with their service fees, it usually ends up cheaper than going through a reseller. These companies act as a proxy. Some of them allow you to ship items to them you buy yourself while others will buy the items for you. The former is usually much cheaper.

I’ve combed through a lot of companies, and honestly, there are only a few with reasonable prices. All the sites are of course in English.

The reason why I listed above whether a company accepts credit cards or not is that you wouldn’t be able to buy something yourself and ship it to one of these companies if the store only accepted bank transfers. Keep that in mind.

Dankedanke
The main reason to use them is to ship your packages to them for them to reship to you. Prices start at 1300 yen for packages <2 kg. They really only have two reasonable shipping services: EMS and sea.

When you sign up for their service, they give you an address with your customer ID in it. You ship packages to that address and list that package on your member page. They’ll ship it to you after that.

Payment is by Paypal.

Goody Japan
This company only buys items for you. You can’t ship to them for them to reship it to you. If you’re ordering low value things, they may end up cheaper than Dankedanke. Their fee is around 15% (750 yen minimum) of the order value + 300 yen bank transfer fee. They have pretty much every Japan Post shipping method there is, so shipping can end up quite a bit cheaper than other places. You must note your shipping method in your comments when ordering or else they default to EMS.

Payment is by Paypal.

Tenso
I’ve never used them before, but they work like Dankedanke. They ship using EMS only. One caveat is that they open your packages to inspect it before shipping it to you. If you’re not comfortable with that, use Dankedanke. Right now, they have a promotion that makes them cheaper than Dankedanke.

If anyone has any stores to add, feel free to list them. If I forgot any categories, feel free to ask me to add them.

Shipping methods

This is probably a confusing topic for some people. There are 4 different international shipping methods using Japan Post (in descending speed): EMS, air mail, SAL, surface. Furthermore, air mail, SAL, and surface are divided into three main subcategories (in descending price): parcel post, small packet, and printed matter. There should be no difference in speed among the subcategories.

Parcel post is used for big packages, dimensionally or by weight. Small packet is used for packages less than 2 kg and that have a (width + height + length) < 90 cm. Printed matter is obviously for printed matter. Small packet and surface mail cannot be insured. They can, however, be registered for 410 yen, which requires a signature upon delivery and provides tracking if shipped to the US (not sure about other countries). Parcel post can be insured and includes tracking.

EMS, of course, is the fastest and most reliable method. Insurance and tracking are included in the price. It gets the high priority and is delivered using the fastest method once it arrives in your country (Express Mail, i.e. overnight, in the US).

The list of rates can be found here. Letter-post is for small packet/printed matter. Here’s an Excel table with a summary of the rates to the US.

For the people who were too lazy to read the above, here’s my attempt at summarizing it (while cursing WordPress’s lack of a table function in its editor):

Delivery times are to the west coast of the US.

• EMS
  ~3 business days delivery time
  Insured
  Trackable
  EXPENSIVE

• Air mail
  ~3-5 business days
  Insurance/tracking depends on package type
  Moderately expensive

• SAL
  ~10-14 business days
  Insurance/tracking depends on package type
  Reasonably priced

• Surface
  ~30-40 business days
  Insurance/tracking depends on package type
  Cheap

Package types (for air mail, SAL, and surface mail):

• Parcel post
  Insurance optional
  Trackable
  For large packages >2 kg.
  Not worth using with SAL or air mail (prices are as high or higher than EMS). Surface is reasonable.

• Small packet
  No insurance
  Tracking optional
  For small packages <2kg.
  Best delivery method for non-printed stuff.

• Printed matter
  No insurance
  Tracking optional
  For printed stuff, obviously
  Best delivery method for printed stuff

So to summarize it, my recommendation is either small packet air mail or small packet SAL for small shipments of non-books. For large shipments, just use EMS.

But hey, you often don’t get a choice (except with the middle men/proxy/whatever companies listed above). Here’s a list of what stores in the above list use when they ship internationally:

• Amazon
  Fedex, DHL

• Amiami
  EMS
  Small packet SAL (tracking optional)

• bk1
  EMS, Fedex (US only)
  Printed matter air mail/SAL/surface (no tracking)

• CDJapan
  EMS, Fedex
  Small packet air mail/SAL (tracking optional)

• HLJ
  Fedex, EMS
  Small packet SAL (no tracking)

• HobbySearch
  EMS
  Small packet SAL (no tracking)

• HMV Japan
  EMS

• Mandarake
  EMS by default, others by request

• White Canvas
  EMS

Rin being a sleepyhead
Download audio file (rin.mp3)

The real reason I did this post was to test my audio player above (it’s just the audio of her saying the shown line, or the title of my blog). For people who don’t know Japanese, she’s saying, “Nn… morning already?” Also, I’ll probably add snippets of audio throughout my reviews. I’m also nearing the end of Primary and should start on a new game soon, which I will review! Promise.

]]> http://www.reikon.org/2009/09/03/whats-in-a-name-or-how-i-named-my-blog/feed/ 4 http://www.reikon.org/2009/08/25/shopping-log-4/ http://www.reikon.org/2009/08/25/shopping-log-4/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:30:46 +0000 Reikon http://www.reikon.org/?p=125 Continue reading →]]> Here’s the final shopping log, which actually comprises two trips to Akiba.

You can’t have too much Horo. These are two clear files and a pencil board. Useless, but pretty.

Another Horo clear file. They gave me all those Horo buttons for free. They also offered a bunch of small cards of random series I didn’t know, so I turned them down. The doujinshi is by Shiro. Need I say more? The Rin thing on the right is a collection of clear files/pencil boards. They seem like small pencil boards to me, but the package says clear file…

Rin towel and a Horo dakimakura cover. Expensive, but pretty.

Finally found myself a copy of Narcissu 3. I also got the latest Spicy Wolf light novel and manga. The Haruhi thing came free.

Itou Noizi’s latest art book. The cards by it came with it.

More eroge. Because everyone keeps saying to play Sharin no Kuni. Fortune Arterial also seems like a solid game. I actually have very few games with vampires, so why not?

Baldr Sky. Another highly recommended game. Also, I finally got Cross Channel, which I’ve been meaning to get for a while.

Now you might be thinking, “I know you got a lot of eroge, but exactly how much? I need perspective!” Well, for all the people out there thinking that, here you go.

That much. Narcissu 3 is in a standard DVD case for reference.

Total spent on goods brought back during the entire trip: ~100,000 yen