In my country, this online e-book store called Kobo is gently becoming a thing. Bookshops are starting to sell Kobo-compatible readers, Kobo gift cards get sold in a few shops, etc.
I’ve been a Kindle user for years and am overall pretty satisfied, but there’s one thing I can’t do with Amazon: read foreign e-books. Well, I can, but the choice is limited to those I can find on my country’s store, and you can’t read books from more than one store at a time.
Which brings me to the following question: has anyone tried Kobo to read japanese books? How is the experience? How many books are available? Is it a more viable choice than Amazon for that?
Bonus question, even though I don’t expect many answers, but I put it just in case someone knows: what about Chinese books?
Kobo is like Amazon in that if you want to buy Japanese books, you need to create a login for the Japanese site (which for Kobo includes putting in a Japanese-looking address[1]). And you can only use one login on a device at a time. Also, your debit or credit card needs to allow foreign transactions.
Aside from that, Kobo’s selection is likely very similar to Amazon’s. I’ve never not been able to find what I’m looking for in their Japanese store (assuming it’s available at all digitally), but I mostly go for manga.
[1] There are web sites that can generate a Japanese-looking address for you.
Personally I just opened up Google Maps and got an address for a random 7eleven in Tokyo . I used Kobo to buy a lot of ebooks, I like it because you can download a copy of the epub files on your computer which you can’t do for other stores such as bookwalker or cmoa.
I know on audible, if you use an amazon jp account the account auto sync if you use the same e-mail address for the amazon account in both countries. If you make an amazon jp account, I wonder if it’s the same for kindle? Like maybe kindle books would automatically sync with your native country’s library? You just have to create the amazon jp account to buy books maybe? I can’t confirm, because I like to read physical books I just thought maybe kindle and audible might be the same since they are both spawn of amazon.
I hope it’s okay to ask here:
I have a Kobo Reader but haven’t used it much.
I’m based in Japan and I am at N4-N3 reading level.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a specific 日本語 Manga purchasable on Kobo, to try and see how it is to read 漫画 on that eReader?
=> so: an okay Manga (I like Aggretsuko anime but not an otaku for Manga/Anime) but I’m mainly interested in how it is on Kobo.
. I used Kobo to buy a lot of ebooks, I like it because you can download a copy of the epub files on your computer which you can’t do for other stores such as bookwalker or cmoa.
I just thought maybe kindle and audible might be the same since they are both spawn of amazon.