Exporters for Japanese books...?

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Barticle
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Exporters for Japanese books...?

Post by Barticle » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:13 pm

Hi all,

I was very interested to read Jamie´s first review of a Japanese mahjong book last week. (If you missed it, you can find it under the Reviews section above.)

I´m starting to learn a little Japanese so I would love to get one or two books about the game. I think I would enjoy the combination of being able to read the basic text (katakana and mahjong terms), practising my dictionary skills on translation and just looking at the pictures. :laugh:

I tried asking in the second-hand Japanese bookstore in Soho (London) a while back. My pronounciation of \"maajan\" wasn´t recognised (and neither was the accompanying mime!!) so I wrote the kanji and the lady in the shop knew what I meant and went to look but came back with nothing.

I´ve also looked on amazon.co.jp which has a ton of MJ books (including the one Jamie reviewed, plus many others with the same title) but I checked their shipping rates and it looks like they want 3400Y per order. That´s about 24 pounds or 38 USD! This seems a bit excessive. (the basic rate from Amazon USA to Europe is only 4 dollars per order)

So, long story short, are there any good (cheap or cheaper) sources for getting Japanese books shipped worldwide, specifically to the UK?

Bart

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Re:Exporters for Japanese books...?

Post by gemma » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:39 pm

bk1.jp is my favourite place to get Japanese books. You can choose several levels of shipping and obviously the slow one is cheap, you just have to wait a little longer!

The only draw back is that the site is entirely in Japanese. But I don\'t think it\'s too complicated to get your way through. You can always ask me or anyone else here for some help if you get stuck!

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Re:Exporters for Japanese books...?

Post by Tom Sloper » Thu Oct 01, 2009 8:31 pm

Did you try Daja Mahjong? They\'re in the Netherlands, shipping from there shouldn\'t be nearly so horrendous.

Edit: I just looked, and they don\'t have any books in Japanese. So, never mind! Unless you want Kajimoto-san\'s Discard Quiz. In English
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Re:Exporters for Japanese books...?

Post by hirohurl » Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:42 am

Hi Bart,

I used to feature a small range of Japanese mahjong rule books on my site, just ones I picked up in used book shops. It was a bit too fiddly to keep it up on a tight schedule, but I still have several books so I might start posting them again.

The books would cost around $5-$10 (usually the lower end of that range) and shipping and handling (including Paypal fees, etc) would cost around $15 for Express Mail Service delivery, or around half that for air freight.

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Re:Exporters for Japanese books...?

Post by Barticle » Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:12 pm

Gemma - many thanks for your speedy reply. That site looks great and, after a quick inspection, they seem to have a comparable range to Amazon.

I have a Japanese friend at work who could help me with ordering. I think I´ll wait (impatiently) for a few more reviews/recommendations from JJ before I order.

(after all, impatient waits is what MJ is all about!)

Tom - I remember seeing that site (and book) a little while ago, thanks. I guess realistically there´s not much of a market in Europe for Mahjong books in Japanese...!

David - that sounds great; used/cheap books would be right up my street! I like picking up vintage (musty!) English ones from the 20´s, but would obviously want modern rules in this case.

I´d be interested in details of your current stock if you´d like to PM me through this site or email my username at hotmail.com

Arigato very much for your replies, folks. :)

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Re:Exporters for Japanese books...?

Post by Tom Sloper » Fri Oct 02, 2009 2:59 pm

Barticle wrote:I guess realistically there´s not much of a market in Europe for Mahjong books in Japanese...!
Actually, I was surprised at how few books that shop sells (they don\'t sell my book either, and English isn\'t as bad as Japanese in terms of how many Europeans know it).
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