Of all the online shops I’ve used for Japanese goods so far, Amazon.co.jp has got to be the best (with CD Japan coming in closely behind). They ship most of their stuff within 24 hours and they arrive at my doorstep in Singapore in 2 or 3 days flat. That’s insanely fast, and the shipping rates are not really through the roof either. Its so godamn fast that the stuff usually arrives before they can even deduct the cash from my debit card account XD And none of the stuff has been even the slightest bit damaged thus far.

However, I recommend Amazon.co.jp only for artbooks or Visual Fanbooks, as those cost enough to offset the 300 yen per item cost. If you want to purchase stuff like light novels or manga, its still better to go to Kinokuniya. Ultimately, the prices would be almost the same, but the difference is that you can browse through the stuff in the bookshop before making a final purchase. Plus if you are a Kinokuniya member, it is slightly cheaper to purchase from Kinokuniya compared to online.

Purchasing artbooks off Amazon.co.jp is MUCH CHEAPER than anywhere in Singapore (and probably most of Asia as well) EVEN with the shipping cost factored in. For example, the Little Busters! Visual Fanbook cost me a base price of 3150 yen (SGD$41) and probably about 4000 yen (SGD$52) if you factor the shipping in, which is still much cheaper than the inflated SGD$66.42 offered at Kinokuniya. If you don’t believe me, you can just take a trip down to the Orchard Branch one of these days to checkout the artbook section. The Little Busters! fanbooks have been sitting there for quite sometime now.

I would also recommend purchasing at least 5 items to cut down the average shipping cost (but be sure not to exceed SGD$400 as the government will charge GST!). I added in a light novel (Shakugan no Shana vol. 1) to lower the ASC, and the other items are the first two ARIA artbooks, the latest issue of Comp’s H and of course, the Little Busters! Visual Fanbook.

Arguebly, the Visual Fanbook was actually an impulse purchase initiated by this English review, the first English review I ever saw on Amazon.co.jp which did result in much lulz! Whoever this guy is, he has demonstrated enough knowledge of modern Japanese visual culture to write a competent anime blog and should:

I will probably be dedicating editorial blogposts to the artbooks after I go through them a few times in lazy Sunday afternoons with Key/ARIA soundtracks playing in the background and a nice cold beer :)

Bonus: This issue of Comp’s H came with a Tomoyo serving you bento in bed A4 size “clear” folder. I don’t forsee myself bringing this one to school for fear of damaging it XD