Get manga (legally!) via Ebook Japan

Yep, I do use the Honto mobile app which does require a Japanese iTunes account.

*patpats* You have my sympathy. And my axe.

Most outside sellers did their own shipping… but some use Amazon’s shipping. You just have to look harder or tick a box. …I think there was a box to tick…

This is true, and even if you tick the use Amazon’s shipping option, it doesn’t work since they started the new Amazon Global thing.

Good thing is that many of the proxy shopping services like buyee support Amazon marketplace, so you can just use one of those, consolidate, and then ship it all over.

For example, I ordered these a few days ago from Amazon Marketplace through buyee.

They end up being dirt cheap like 300円-400円 a book, but expect to pay around 250円-350円 a book again to get it shipped over. Still, it’s not a bad deal considering, and you get access to out of print stuff as well!

Yeah, I’ve had good luck buying from Amazon.co.jp and having it shipped here to Arizona.

But yesterday I failed to resist the urge, signed up for Ebook Japan, and bought myself the first volume of 君の名は (which I saw in the theater with my wife the other day, and we both really liked it). I got the reader app on my iPad and it works great. So easy, and way better quality than the ghetto scans I had converted to PDF to read with iBooks in the past!

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Gosh is this the problem? I didn’t realise Amazon Global was a new thing. We were talking about marketplace problems in this thread but no one knew why it wouldn’t work anymore.

Yeah, it’s newish, I think, in that before that Amazon.jp wouldn’t ship overseas AT ALL. Anyway what I think must have happened was that a while back Amazon decided it wasn’t worth offering Amazon Global on marketplace items, so you can only get stuff that is and fulfilled by, AND SOLD by Amazon shipped internationally. At least, that’s been my experience. For example, my last Amazon Global order looked like this:


Note you seem to need 「販売: Amazon Japan G.K.」for every item in addition to:

配送方法
AmazonGlobal海外配送(プレミアム)

Which is fine if you’re after new stuff, or popular items, but you’re out of luck if you want obscure stuff or older stuff. My understanding is that you pretty much have to use a freight forwarder or shopping proxy to use Amazon marketplace nowadays.

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Are you in the Toronto Public Library system?

[quote=“AnimeCanuck, post:14, topic:17313, full:true”]
I’m totally still using Overdrive all the time… I get about 2/3rds of my library books that way. Most of my reading comes from the library… some borrows from friends, and least of all purchases…
… I wouldn’t eat if I bought all the books I wanted. I wouldn’t pay rent if I bought all the books I wanted. I wouldn’t have time to work to pay for any of those things if I read all the things I wanted…

*sigh*

It reminds me of this great quote I found on a forum somewhere, once…

I laughed at that then I cried. It’s so true it hurts. I don’t do this anymore but there was a period of my life where I was a spending maniac with books…dark days…never again. There’s so much free things out there to read I’ve been satisfied.

I haven’t thought about going to the library in a while. I might have to look at Overdrive again. If I ever feel like saying goodbye to my free time again xD

(In my dreams Japanese libraries would have Overdrive and I could miraculously use it but lol)

Yes! :slight_smile:
I haven’t borrowed anything in a while, though… been reading some books I got for Christmas instead.

Oh, what a wonderful dream!

And if only I was allowed to have a book on me to read during the downtimes at work… Sometimes I’ll sneak ebooks on my cellphone, but usually I can’t… there are too many eyes…
(There’s much downtime during longer operas…)

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I am jealous. The KW system is not quite as awesome.

I grew up in Windsor, it wasn’t as awesome either. Although, they at least have digital borrowing with Overdrive now too…

Yeah, we have overdrive. I don’t use it much; at least in the past they
didn’t have nearly enough licenses to go around.

I didn’t know about this site, thanks for sharing!

Generally I prefer having a physical copy for Japanese language books because of novelty, but it looks like the cost would be much lower if I ordered digitally.

I used to order from Amazon Japan which has offered fast shipping, but it is expensive. Lately I have been ordering from Kinokuniya. You get free shipping if you spend over $50 and while they charge more per book, it still seems like a better deal.

Now you just need to figure out how to get a library card…

[Edit: Their press release from 2014 says the intent is to distribute Japanese media worldwide. Not sure how that works.]

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Ooohhh…
@anon75098302 when you figure it out, be sure to share with us! ^^

Actually, the University I used to go to has or had an extensive manga library.

http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/jsc/manga-library/

I really should investigate at some point and see what they have!

Well I know what I’m researching in my free time (I’m also seeing that same press release)

I mean if I can just ask my friends for their library card number that’d be greatttt.

Oooohhh… The possibilities!

^________________^

well, this is great! The quality is good and even if only for a limited time, they even offer some manga. It seems to be a campaign, but I’m not sure if it is a one-time thing… (some help on that would be great!!)
I’m quite excited since I wasn’t managing to find a good legal website to read manga. I only tried some free (legal) ones, but the quality of the images wasn’t that good and I couldn’t make out the furigana (sometimes even the kanji) which I quite need.
Plus, it comes with a reader app for pc and android. And as if that wasn’t good enough, I actually think that the reader is good. which I find quite shocking.

Btw, if someone could leave some suggestions of free legal websites to read manga, I would appreciate it. I tried a couple, like ニコニコ漫画 - 雑誌やWebの人気マンガが読める! for example, but the quality is kinda meh, at least from the series that I tried reading.

…and yeah, kinda sorry for unburying this thread :confused:

edit: btw, this one seems kinda interesting and cute :3 無料まんが・試し読みが豊富!電子書籍をお得に買うならebookjapan