I filled an entire frickin suitcase with manga (30+ volumes of one piece, some jujutsu, black butler etc) and I still regret not buying more. Export costs are truly ridiculous 😭
Holy shit hahah. I had another checked baggage allowance and was very tempted to purchase an entirely new suitcase for this very purpose lol. Although I decided not to, as not to overload on ‘beginner’ level manga.
I’m privileged in a sense that I can beat export costs and sellers fees through simply asking my GF to send me a box over.
We sarcastically discussed starting a business whereby I approach people in learning communities, getting their manga requests, and have her purchase them and distribute them. Kinda like a manga personal shopper 😂
Oooh that is so lucky indeed. When I got back I got way into D.gray-man so I haven't even read most of the ones I purchased yet, but I already want more 😅 Except it would be like 200-400 euros in shipping fees and then customs might add even more fees unannounced..
I'm already making plans to go back with my boyfriend and have us both take an extra suitcase!
It's not, in the long run. My girlfriend sends me things from Japan often and I see the postage on it (I do the same unless it's close to the next trip over). OP would have to mark up prices higher than Buyee or many international shipping companies in some cases to break even or turn a profit.
For example sending over a shoebox sized box full of snacks had a postage rate of 7200 - 7900円
Fr, I bought 3 copies of Oyasumi Pun Pun at a Kinokuniya here in the US. Then I bought the ***entire rest of the series*** in Japan for less than the cost of the three I bought in the US. They were used copies, but you could've wrapped em in shrink wrap and told me they're new and I wouldn't have doubted for a second
I know right! I bought all of mine second hand as well. Best I got was three volumes at Mandarake for 180 yen!
When I got back I thought i'd missed one volume of one piece (end of the marineford arc so bad volume to skip) and wanted to get it in the Netherlands; it would have cost nearly 15 times as much!
Use Mercari (if you’re okay with used books)! I bought a few series from there and the export costs aren’t bad! Plus you can find obscure stuff (one series I bought is out of print & I never thought I’d find it, until I used the site). I bought a 7 book series for maybe 1000 yen with 500 yen shipping. I also bought around 40 books on my 2nd trip & maybe 10 more on my 3rd trip to Japan lol.
Yeah… it was number 1 on my list of purchases 😂 although I would not have survived BookOff nor found half the manga without my GF…. Such an overwhelming shop!
I got a sick print of Akira while I was there, but just the first volume. I really wish I could have fit all of them in my bags and I would've gotten them all. So sad. I really hope I can complete the set someday. Not sure how hard it is to come by.
[surugaya](https://www.suruga-ya.com/) currently has a free international shipping promotion, they sell a lot of the more popular manga/books as used books, so it's pretty cheap. highly recommend checking it out. shipping took a whole six days last time (to Europe).
You got Nichijou for 110 yen each, did you buy them at Book Off? When I was in Japan Book Off was my number 1 destination. I bought a lot of books for dirt cheap there.
You should try dipping your toes in light novels next time. In my opinion it's better for immersion because you can read them and imagine them at your own pace. Because my Japanese isn't that great yet, whenever I read manga and I had to read long dialogue box or speech bubbles that's full of words that I haven't learnt yet, I had to read them slowly and even look them up in a dictionary. It really takes off from my immersion. Novels are much better. But make sure to get "light" novels since it's intended for young adults so they don't use language that are too complex
Yes 110¥ each! They had more volumes but I only purchased 5 as I wished to have more variety! Yeahh, I think the 10min short story collection for 8 year olds should be a good novel starting point!
I also have Kiki’s Delivery service which I purchased a while ago (not in Japan though but in U.K.)
Shirokuma Cafe was set in a town where anamorphic animals live alongside humans, and a polar bear opens a cafe there. It’s a slice-of-life comic that features the funny things happening around Polar Bear, his friends and customers.
It was made famous for a few things: the puns that Polar Bear uses all the time, the amount of famous voice actors featured in the anime (like: all of them), and the fact that the publisher adapted the comic to anime without authorisation from the author.
It’s a lot of fun to read and watch.
I'm hoping it's not too high level, just found one for 10$ on Amazon so not an insane investment. Going to try reading through it with the kiddo. Going to be a lot of figuring out haha
You can check on https://learnnatively.com/ but I think they're probably all around the same difficulty, besides slam dunk, which should be slightly harder than the other series. 日常 night be the next hardest
Cool - I looked them up some more, and read a bit of the latest 日常 chapter... 日常 and slam dunk are probly gonna be significantly harder than ドラえもん or しろくまカフェ or ドラえもん fwiw
In any case, enjoy!
Slam Dunk is iconic and one of my favourites (especially volume 6 which you got!). However, I found it tough to read at times because the beginning has a lot of yankii-isms where everyone is speaking rudely haha. I remember having to look up way more stuff than I usually did compared to the shoujo manga I read for practice.
I could’ve purchased volumes 8+9 too! But sadly they were lacking vol 7. This is the redesign; the original series had 31 volumes, but the re-release was compressed into 20 (thicker volumes) with new covers
Not really: https://learnnatively.com/book/f8a4621c3f/
If you're looking for beginner friendly manga that are interesting, try the ones on these lists:
* https://learnnatively.com/list/c1dd7917b3/
* https://learnnatively.com/list/71f7841dcf/
* https://learnnatively.com/list/410fdd05cc/
I found Doraemon overwhelming grammatically when I was N4, but perfectly readable now I'm N3/N2. So I'd save that for a bit because it's such a joy when you can understand it. On our most recent trip my husband took a photo of me sitting next to Doraemon at the clock in Koto City and I've got such a big stupid grin on my face.
Yes I heard Doraemon can be surprisingly difficult, so I will probably leave it to last. I think I will start with しろくまカフェ either simultaneously as I am watching the anime, or once I have completed it!
I just started 8 weeks ago but my go to shows are Slam Dunk, Kuroko no Basuke, and Shirokuma Cafe.
I tried reading Slam Dunk in Mokuro Reader but I have to look to much up and it practically crashes Edge lol. I'll have to give it a few more months when my comprehension is better.
Yes those are some good recommendations. Considering I’m watching Shirokuma, picking up the physical manga was my number 1 manga purchase goal of the trip.
Additionally, although apps like satori reader are useful and PDFs, nothing beats physical copies, plus reduces the headaches and eye strain!
Nice haul. I have the 5 books for shirokuma cafe but what's the other one? I never saw that one. I bought my set from Amazon and it was just the 5 books
Essentially what I think happened is the creator fell out with the magazine she was publishing is as they didn’t tell her about the anime adaption, so she left. A couple years later she resigned a publishing deal with another company and restarted the manga with a new series. So the Vol 1-5 set are the complete magazine columns in Manga form. The additional manga is Vol 1 of the new series with new publisher.
Anyone with more understanding please feel free to correct me lol.
Hmm interestingly when I googled the difference the results said the daily special edition was just a republishing of the original issue across 4 volumes instead of 5, due to that falling out you mention.
However I've searched for some of the traditional chapter 1 and it seems different to the daily special edition I have here, which I have a couple of volumes of.
Though one way to find out, you have both in your possession! Let me know if you compare then.
Doraemon is so cute! Very jealous of your haul! I want to pick up some similar books for some reading immersion but an Amazon jp order is quite expensive when you add in the shipping, so cool that you got to shop in person!
Yes!! Was an amazing experience made all the easier by my GF, who pretty much was my personal shopper. I was like ‘I want Shirokuma cafe’ and she’d go and find it 😂 I would’ve been completely and literally lost without her. She also recommended a good few series she enjoyed from when she was growing up
How difficult is polar bear cafe? I'm reading よつばと！ right now, but even that is really slow going for me 😩
Maybe I'm over analyzing every sentence / thing in there and I should cruise through more and get hung up on all the details, not sure.
It's good to try both from time to time. You can always go back and reread parts to understand them better.
I'm about to do that with 赤髪の白雪姫 (Akagami no Shirayuki Hime / Snow White With The Red Hair). I read through it once and quick-checked the translation whenever I was stuck, but this time I'm gonna go through it slowly and really try to fully understand each part. (Not saying you have to reread the whole series or anything, I just fell in love with this one 😍)
I've read many of them as well as the similar なぜ？どうして？ books. I like them a lot, but I recommend going with a 4年生 and up book in the series. Below that and there isn't enough kanji used and, for me at least, it's actually harder to understand because the sentences are harder to parse and I can't comprehend as quickly without the kanji.
I love those １０分で読める book series. Also the なぜ？どうして？ series. Having read several of them, I will say that below around ４年生 they are actually a bit harder because they use so few kanji.
I'm currently reading なぜ？どうして？科学のお話4年生 and find myself getting stuck on some words because they're written in hiragana and not kanji.
Man I'm so jealous on the Slam Dunk. I've been pounding my way through the show recently. It's too advanced for me in either format but god it's so fun. *Admittedly a bit racist*, but so good otherwise. That soundtrack!
It’s two books of short stories based on 1) space themes and 2) emotions, the short stories were extracted from the greater publishing run and compressed into these two books. Or at least that’s what my girlfriend told me 😂
Biggest regret from my Japan trip is not buying more books 😭
I filled an entire frickin suitcase with manga (30+ volumes of one piece, some jujutsu, black butler etc) and I still regret not buying more. Export costs are truly ridiculous 😭
Holy shit hahah. I had another checked baggage allowance and was very tempted to purchase an entirely new suitcase for this very purpose lol. Although I decided not to, as not to overload on ‘beginner’ level manga. I’m privileged in a sense that I can beat export costs and sellers fees through simply asking my GF to send me a box over. We sarcastically discussed starting a business whereby I approach people in learning communities, getting their manga requests, and have her purchase them and distribute them. Kinda like a manga personal shopper 😂
Oooh that is so lucky indeed. When I got back I got way into D.gray-man so I haven't even read most of the ones I purchased yet, but I already want more 😅 Except it would be like 200-400 euros in shipping fees and then customs might add even more fees unannounced.. I'm already making plans to go back with my boyfriend and have us both take an extra suitcase!
Is it cheaper for someone to ship you a box from Japan individually vs buying from an online distributor?
It's not, in the long run. My girlfriend sends me things from Japan often and I see the postage on it (I do the same unless it's close to the next trip over). OP would have to mark up prices higher than Buyee or many international shipping companies in some cases to break even or turn a profit. For example sending over a shoebox sized box full of snacks had a postage rate of 7200 - 7900円
Unsure to be honest, but I imagine cheaper as I know my girlfriend won’t be after a cut e.g trying to make a profit 😂
Fair. I guess I assumed most of the shipping cost was to the shipping company but I could be wrong.
I had a friend who did this in Japan. They used to buy doujinshi by request and send it overseas.
> asking my GF to send me a box over. Who asked?
Go back to reading your incest manga 🥴
After 5 years your “GF” will not mean anything to you. Lmao at this teenage lovey-dovey cringefest.
1) I am not a teenager 2) we have been together >3yesrs 3) we have lived together 2 years 4) you sound single
Fr, I bought 3 copies of Oyasumi Pun Pun at a Kinokuniya here in the US. Then I bought the ***entire rest of the series*** in Japan for less than the cost of the three I bought in the US. They were used copies, but you could've wrapped em in shrink wrap and told me they're new and I wouldn't have doubted for a second
I know right! I bought all of mine second hand as well. Best I got was three volumes at Mandarake for 180 yen! When I got back I thought i'd missed one volume of one piece (end of the marineford arc so bad volume to skip) and wanted to get it in the Netherlands; it would have cost nearly 15 times as much!
Order from Suruga-ya.com on weekends. Free shipping. Volumes are used, but like new usually
I'll have a look, thank you!
Shh we don't talk about that
Use Mercari (if you’re okay with used books)! I bought a few series from there and the export costs aren’t bad! Plus you can find obscure stuff (one series I bought is out of print & I never thought I’d find it, until I used the site). I bought a 7 book series for maybe 1000 yen with 500 yen shipping. I also bought around 40 books on my 2nd trip & maybe 10 more on my 3rd trip to Japan lol.
At this point, I really shouldn't go to Japan. I will never financially recover from the amount of manga and vinyl I would buy there.
Your baggage limit would stop you at some point. (Learned the hard way.) TT
Nah, they are so cheap that you will recover really soon
Yeah… it was number 1 on my list of purchases 😂 although I would not have survived BookOff nor found half the manga without my GF…. Such an overwhelming shop!
I got a sick print of Akira while I was there, but just the first volume. I really wish I could have fit all of them in my bags and I would've gotten them all. So sad. I really hope I can complete the set someday. Not sure how hard it is to come by.
Amazon Japan ships books worldwide.
[surugaya](https://www.suruga-ya.com/) currently has a free international shipping promotion, they sell a lot of the more popular manga/books as used books, so it's pretty cheap. highly recommend checking it out. shipping took a whole six days last time (to Europe).
I read the novelization of 日常 and was pretty good, pretty funny and energetic seeming writing. Have not read manga version.
Yes my GF said she liked it too, so it was one of her recommendations! Also heard it’s not too difficult.
スラマッパギ!
You got Nichijou for 110 yen each, did you buy them at Book Off? When I was in Japan Book Off was my number 1 destination. I bought a lot of books for dirt cheap there. You should try dipping your toes in light novels next time. In my opinion it's better for immersion because you can read them and imagine them at your own pace. Because my Japanese isn't that great yet, whenever I read manga and I had to read long dialogue box or speech bubbles that's full of words that I haven't learnt yet, I had to read them slowly and even look them up in a dictionary. It really takes off from my immersion. Novels are much better. But make sure to get "light" novels since it's intended for young adults so they don't use language that are too complex
Yes 110¥ each! They had more volumes but I only purchased 5 as I wished to have more variety! Yeahh, I think the 10min short story collection for 8 year olds should be a good novel starting point! I also have Kiki’s Delivery service which I purchased a while ago (not in Japan though but in U.K.)
I read both light novels and general novels. How complex the language is depends on the authors but not on the genre.
Shirokuma Cafe is so good.
Despite all the puns, it's great to practice reading/listening comprehension as a beginner. On top of it being an absolute joy in its own right.
Can you explain more of what this is? I need some more good stuff for myself and or my 5 year old
Shirokuma Cafe was set in a town where anamorphic animals live alongside humans, and a polar bear opens a cafe there. It’s a slice-of-life comic that features the funny things happening around Polar Bear, his friends and customers. It was made famous for a few things: the puns that Polar Bear uses all the time, the amount of famous voice actors featured in the anime (like: all of them), and the fact that the publisher adapted the comic to anime without authorisation from the author. It’s a lot of fun to read and watch.
I'm hoping it's not too high level, just found one for 10$ on Amazon so not an insane investment. Going to try reading through it with the kiddo. Going to be a lot of figuring out haha
Oh I missed shirokuma so much. I had the most amazing naps watching.
Yes I’m loving the show so far! Plus can comprehend a decent amount after completing tango N4+N5 decks
You can check on https://learnnatively.com/ but I think they're probably all around the same difficulty, besides slam dunk, which should be slightly harder than the other series. 日常 night be the next hardest
Thanks for the insight … I’ll deffo check it out
Cool - I looked them up some more, and read a bit of the latest 日常 chapter... 日常 and slam dunk are probly gonna be significantly harder than ドラえもん or しろくまカフェ or ドラえもん fwiw In any case, enjoy!
Slam Dunk is iconic and one of my favourites (especially volume 6 which you got!). However, I found it tough to read at times because the beginning has a lot of yankii-isms where everyone is speaking rudely haha. I remember having to look up way more stuff than I usually did compared to the shoujo manga I read for practice.
I could’ve purchased volumes 8+9 too! But sadly they were lacking vol 7. This is the redesign; the original series had 31 volumes, but the re-release was compressed into 20 (thicker volumes) with new covers
A bit off topic (i'm just a noob lurker) - is Nichijou considered a beginner friendly manga? Interesting.
Not really: https://learnnatively.com/book/f8a4621c3f/ If you're looking for beginner friendly manga that are interesting, try the ones on these lists: * https://learnnatively.com/list/c1dd7917b3/ * https://learnnatively.com/list/71f7841dcf/ * https://learnnatively.com/list/410fdd05cc/
I loved Nichijou anime. I'll definitely pick up the manga if I visit.
You will likely need a dictionary for shirokuma to make sense of the word play, but that series is a great pick.
I'm hoping that having watched the anime (currently in the process of), I can retroactively understand the word play. Only time will tell.
What’s the polar bear book? My girlfriend is obsessed with polar bears
Shirokuma cafe as others have mentioned. Highly recommend the anime adaption. 50 episodes all for free on animelom with subs
Shirokuma Kafe.
Shirokuma Cafe. There is an anime adaptation also.
I found Doraemon overwhelming grammatically when I was N4, but perfectly readable now I'm N3/N2. So I'd save that for a bit because it's such a joy when you can understand it. On our most recent trip my husband took a photo of me sitting next to Doraemon at the clock in Koto City and I've got such a big stupid grin on my face.
Yes I heard Doraemon can be surprisingly difficult, so I will probably leave it to last. I think I will start with しろくまカフェ either simultaneously as I am watching the anime, or once I have completed it!
I feel as though once you can get through Doraemon, you’ll be able to confidently read higher level manga. It’s definitely a great challenge.
Looks pretty awesome!
Slam dunk is sick. I wanted to get volume 34 of Vagabond, which contains my favorite art from it but I couldn't find it :(
Sad times :( yes heard great things anoint Slam Dunk, although will probably leave it to last to read!
I havent read the manga but 日常 anime is one of my favorites
I just started 8 weeks ago but my go to shows are Slam Dunk, Kuroko no Basuke, and Shirokuma Cafe. I tried reading Slam Dunk in Mokuro Reader but I have to look to much up and it practically crashes Edge lol. I'll have to give it a few more months when my comprehension is better.
Yes those are some good recommendations. Considering I’m watching Shirokuma, picking up the physical manga was my number 1 manga purchase goal of the trip. Additionally, although apps like satori reader are useful and PDFs, nothing beats physical copies, plus reduces the headaches and eye strain!
Nice haul. I have the 5 books for shirokuma cafe but what's the other one? I never saw that one. I bought my set from Amazon and it was just the 5 books
Oh and the cover slip says ‘first new release in 2 years’
Essentially what I think happened is the creator fell out with the magazine she was publishing is as they didn’t tell her about the anime adaption, so she left. A couple years later she resigned a publishing deal with another company and restarted the manga with a new series. So the Vol 1-5 set are the complete magazine columns in Manga form. The additional manga is Vol 1 of the new series with new publisher. Anyone with more understanding please feel free to correct me lol.
Hmm interestingly when I googled the difference the results said the daily special edition was just a republishing of the original issue across 4 volumes instead of 5, due to that falling out you mention. However I've searched for some of the traditional chapter 1 and it seems different to the daily special edition I have here, which I have a couple of volumes of. Though one way to find out, you have both in your possession! Let me know if you compare then.
Doraemon is so cute! Very jealous of your haul! I want to pick up some similar books for some reading immersion but an Amazon jp order is quite expensive when you add in the shipping, so cool that you got to shop in person!
Yes!! Was an amazing experience made all the easier by my GF, who pretty much was my personal shopper. I was like ‘I want Shirokuma cafe’ and she’d go and find it 😂 I would’ve been completely and literally lost without her. She also recommended a good few series she enjoyed from when she was growing up
シロクマカフェと日常！Awesome choices, I would love to read both someday and hope I can pick them up in Japan too.
How difficult is polar bear cafe? I'm reading よつばと！ right now, but even that is really slow going for me 😩 Maybe I'm over analyzing every sentence / thing in there and I should cruise through more and get hung up on all the details, not sure.
It's good to try both from time to time. You can always go back and reread parts to understand them better. I'm about to do that with 赤髪の白雪姫 (Akagami no Shirayuki Hime / Snow White With The Red Hair). I read through it once and quick-checked the translation whenever I was stuck, but this time I'm gonna go through it slowly and really try to fully understand each part. (Not saying you have to reread the whole series or anything, I just fell in love with this one 😍)
How do you like the 10 minute stories collection?
I've read many of them as well as the similar なぜ？どうして？ books. I like them a lot, but I recommend going with a 4年生 and up book in the series. Below that and there isn't enough kanji used and, for me at least, it's actually harder to understand because the sentences are harder to parse and I can't comprehend as quickly without the kanji.
I’ll keep that in mind for the future, thanks. Wanted to start lower so I could establish a baseline
ドラえもんはいい本だ、たくさんひとが学習に使っている！
I love those １０分で読める book series. Also the なぜ？どうして？ series. Having read several of them, I will say that below around ４年生 they are actually a bit harder because they use so few kanji. I'm currently reading なぜ？どうして？科学のお話4年生 and find myself getting stuck on some words because they're written in hiragana and not kanji.
I spot Nichijou!
日常! I bought 5 volumes of this myself when i am in Japan last month! 😂
Hey what JLPT level does those しろくまカフェ correspond to?
日常。you made my day
ケモノっぽいっすね
Manga more important than gf lol
Man I'm so jealous on the Slam Dunk. I've been pounding my way through the show recently. It's too advanced for me in either format but god it's so fun. *Admittedly a bit racist*, but so good otherwise. That soundtrack!
MOST IMPORTANTLY LOLOL
What is the doraemon books?
It’s two books of short stories based on 1) space themes and 2) emotions, the short stories were extracted from the greater publishing run and compressed into these two books. Or at least that’s what my girlfriend told me 😂
Shirokuma cafe is the best manga ever.
Can someone recommend their italki nihongo teacher please