Community > General chatter
Buying stuff from Japan and having it work right
Sev:
Domestic Chapter
I believe Picup was the one who first told me about this place called Kinokuniya.
Its a bookstore that sells tons of Japanese books from manga to light novels and other Japanese literature in English and Japanese. There are two where I live in Bay Area one in San Francisco and the other in San Jose. For other locations check it out here.
They may have an online service but I haven't tried it yet.
Raestloz:
--- Quote from: Sev on January 31, 2011, 06:57:35 am ---Domestic Chapter
I believe Picup was the one who first told me about this place called Kinokuniya.
Its a bookstore that sells tons of Japanese books from manga to light novels and other Japanese literature in English and Japanese. There are two where I live in Bay Area one in San Francisco and the other in San Jose. For other locations check it out here.
They may have an online service but I haven't tried it yet.
--- End quote ---
Well, they also "improved" the price quite a bit, but I guess that's imported stuff for you
Cael K.:
Alright, I finally got the part I dreaded writing (the electricity part) up. I think this makes it the fourth time I've posted the information up, and hopefully we can just redirect further inquiries to that post. With Im@s 2 a week away, we might expect this to happen soon.
All information up to this post has been incorporated into the first four. Guide is now up to date. As always, any more opinions are appreciated, especially if you have ratings for consoles not listed.
Scotty:
*clap clap clap clap clap*
Amakase:
Mail Forwarding Services
Japan to Door: Have had poor experience. They quickly got back to me about some problems I had signing up, but once I tried to get in contact with them about something I had shipped to them to forward to me, they have not been available at all. So thus far, the one thing I have sent to them has not been shipped to me, nor have they replied to any of my messages asking about it's status.
UPDATE: They finally found my package, apparently I didn't follow their instructions quite right, so it took them a while to find my package. On the other hand, it turns out they do charge a handling fee, as well as Japan Domestic Tax, so to ship the exact same item, I'd have to pay them almost twice as much as Jshoppers. It'd be less expensive to just have Amazon ship directly than to use Japan to Door. So Japan to Door does work, but they're really expensive, and their pay system sucks. I recommend to use only as a last resort.
Jshoppers: Very good experience so far. I've only sent one thing to them so far, but they are as advertised, forwarding my stuff quickly, and actually providing the discount on EMS.
Electronics
Japanese PS3 (official information from Japanese manuals)
Voltage: 100V
Frequency: 50/60Hz
Power Draw: ~230 or ~250W for the slim and ~280W for all others but the very first model PS3, which uses ~380W.
What I have read online however is that if you open up the case for the PS3 (both the regular and the slim), you can see that the internal transformer can take voltages between 100-240V at 50/60Hz. I found photos for that at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scribbl/sets/72157594379931058/ and http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/PlayStation-3-Slim/1121/2. However, the only officially supported voltage for the Japanese PS3 is 100V, so use a different voltage without a step-down transformer AT YOUR OWN RISK. That said, I have not had any problems with using a Japanese slim PS3 without using a step-down transformer in the United States, which uses 120V at 60Hz power.
Xbox 360 (official information from Japanese manuals)
Voltage: 100V
Power Draw: 254W maximum for original 360
There's a lot less information in the manuals here about this, but basically, the rule here is to look at the power brick that comes with your Xbox 360. It seems pretty consistent to find the Japanese AC adapters with the range of 100-127V at 47-63Hz. It is also possible to use a your region's AC adapter for the Xbox 360, but you have to keep in mind the wattage your system needs. Based on a Microsoft Support article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907635/ja, the power adapters that come with the original 360 came in 3 varieties, 203W, 175W, and 150W, while the Xbox 360 S comes with a 135W adapter. The connectors are designed to prevent plugging in an adapter that will not provide enough power to the 360. This means that if your 360 was designed for the 175W adapter, you can use the 203W adapter without a problem, but the 150W adapter will not plug into your console.
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