Wings of Yuri

shijima March 4th, 2010

For those that don’t know, Mangaoh (まんが王) is an online bookstore selling primarily manga.
Well…I guess the title gives it away since it means “Manga King”

They will ship internationally and a great guide on how to shop there is here.

One thing lacking from that guide is an explanation of the different shipping conditions and shipping methods,
so I thought I’d post that here, since someone asked about it recently and in case others would like to know.

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Example situation:
I ordered 3 manga but 2 are not in stock…

発送条件 (Shipping Conditions)

全部揃ったら (When all items have arrived (are in stock))
※定期購読雑誌・DVD等のシリーズ予約は一点でも入荷した時点でその商品は入荷と判定されます。
(For periodic subscriptions to magazines and DVDs, the conditions for shipping will be met if even one item arrives)
おまかせ (Leave it up to you (Mangaoh))
指定日になったら (On the specificed day)
n冊以上入荷したら (When more than N number of items arrive)
指定した商品が一つでも入荷したとき (When even one of the items selected arrives)
指定した商品が全て入荷したとき (When all of the selected items arrive)

発送方法 (Shipping Method)

すぐに発送 (Ship it immediately)
X曜日に到着 (When X day comes)
中旬に発送 (In the middle of the week)
月末に発送 (At the end of the week)
発送日指定 (Decide the day when items are shipped)
到着日指定 (Decide the day when items arrive at your place)

In the above situation, if you want to receive the items as fast as possible,
I select the option: “When all of the selected items arrive” and then on the next page, pick the items in stock,
And leave the shipping method as “Immediately”.

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shijima January 24th, 2010

Thank you to everyone who entered the recent contest.
I’ll probably hold either another contest, sale (if people are interested) or both later this year since I need to clear inventory.
I figure character goods are fine to give away, not sure about manga or doujin since most of mine are in Japanese and of the people that visit this site, who would actually want them…
Well, there’s always donations for a tax break I guess. :p

Anyways, here’s my list of C77 doujin.

The breakdown is:
15 Saki
9 Aoishiro
8 Umineko
16 Touhou
21 Other

I bought 3 K-ON doujins for others and 1 doujin twice so this list doesn’t include those.
If anyone’s interested in translating and editing one of these, let me know and I can provide raw scans (not cropped and leveled).

Afterwards, I realized I could have bought more, especially on Day 2, but I was limited by my luggage space and also the fact that I had to lug all these doujin around for the rest of the trip. Ah well.

I also have many older doujin that haven’t been translated. They’re mostly Touhou though.

Anything that says “copy book” means that it was mostly likely printed from a copier so the quality of the paper is less and it’s normally just stapled together.
Here’s a site with a great explanation.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the story/art is worse than a printed one though.

Adult doujin are labeled as such.

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• comiket , goods  
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shijima December 31st, 2009

As expected, there were even more people on Day 3.
I didn’t really pick up too much today since I didn’t really know what was really yuri or not in the East Halls.

• 6:00 - caught the first train to Shimbashi. Train was packed.
• 6:30 ~ 10 - waiting outside. The wind was quite cold. I was also surrounded by people who were coughing…
• 10:00 - 10:15 - headed for the Vista booth. I thought the line would snake out the door so I got lost looking for the end of the line. However, there were only about 20 people so that was fast!
  Peeked at the Atelier Miyabi booth and I couldn’t even find the end of the line. Same for Russian Blue so gave up on that.
• 10:15 - 10:30 - Tried to look at the other East Halls for yuri Saki doujin but got a little scared by the covers of the doujin and fled.
  Peeked at a original yuri doujin and also decided to give up on that route.
  The crowds for the ero stuff were intense (though not as bad as Touhou Day which also had ero stuff).
  This was only compounded by the fact that only one set of doors leading to each end of the East Halls was open…
• 10:30 - 11:00 - Headed to the West Halls for Aoishiro stuff. That was quick and easy.
  Edit: Forgot to add that the person at the Miyageya booth was very nice and make little Rex Coffee labels to put on top of Tirol Chocolates. So cute!
  I gave her some chocolates in return and see gave me another Rex Coffee. =)
• 12 - 12:30 - checked out some cosplay.
  Saw a really toned Yuffie, Beato and Virgilia, and Bayonetta.
  It was quite crowded with many guys with cameras out, probably b/c quite a few of the girls were making suggestive poses.
• 12:30 - 1:00 - wandered back to the East Halls and surprisingly, the Atelier Miyabi booth had a really short queue and they had plenty of stock. I didn’t pick up the calendar, only the new K-ON book.
• 1:30 - met up with Yuri from Yuribou.
  It was great to have a chance to meet a fellow translator and yuri afficionado. His wife was also a really nice person. =)
  He’s much better at Time Crisis than I am.
  If anyone has questions about what it’s like to live in Japan, I’m sure he can answer them.

Here’s some of today’s haul.
Seems like I didn’t need to queue up that early for Day 3.
Comiket as a whole was a great experience, though quite tiring.
I hope the commentary was useful and I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

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shijima December 30th, 2009

First, apologies for the incorrect terminology.
Booths located towards the outside are properly called “wall booths” (kabe boosu 壁ブース)
Thanks goes to Aoki-san (?), who corrected me this morning.

If anyone’s in Japan during March 28, that’s when the next “Girls Love Festival” will take place.
I got really confused because I thought they were selling something when they were just passing out flyers at the booth… :p

And I thought it was crowded yesterday…

• 6:07 - missed the first train, catch the second train from Shimbashi to Big Sight.
• 6:30 - 9:30 - waiting as usual.
  The person next to me Aoki-san (?) was very nice and we chatted until the event started. Seems my Japanese still needs improvement…
  Seems like tomorrow will be even more crowded due to the Dansei-muke (For Guys) genre. In other words, pr0n. :p
• 10:00 - event starts, this time, I didn’t even make it into the building…
• 10:13 - 10:45 - Finished shopping at yuri booths in West Halls. It’s not crowded at all. Things are looking good…
• 10:45 - 11:00 - Took 15 min. to get to East Halls. Place does smell a bit so it seems like the rumor that summer is horrible is true.
• 11:00 - 11:30 - Picked up Umineko stuff in East 1-3. Very nice!
• 11:30 - 11:45 - Encountered Touhou Halls of Hell in East 4-6. Much shoving and moving nowhere. Had to finally escape and didn’t buy anything…
  I knew Touhou Project was popular, but I didn’t know it was THIS popular…
• 11:45 - 12:30 - Went to the Industry booths to pick up some stuff.
  For the booths with long lines outside, you get in line and someone hands you an order form. There’s also someone going up and down the rows handing/collecting pens.
  When the line moves forward, everyone in that section raises their hands and gets moved inside to stand in another line where you can actually buy the goods.
  It’s too bad that the special Berkastera (Bern Castera) from Frontier Works was sold out. Wonder what it looked like…And did Lambda bake it…?
  Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works Movie is out at the end of January. (You can get a T-Shirt with Archer’s chant).
  Also picked up another Touhou calendar and the Nitroplus VS Type-Moon calendar. I don’t know much about Nitroplus but Saber in a suit is always good.
  I’ll probably offer one of these calendars up as an omiyage when I get back. =)
• 2:30 - tried the Touhou booths again. Still crowded but could move around a bit easier. A lot of stuff like the UFO doujin I wanted to pick up was sold out. Will order whatever’s available from Toranoana instead…

As for Cosplay, seems Touhou, Umineko, and Vocaloid were popular.
There was a mother who dressed her little kid (5 years old?) as Maria. She was so adorable!
I was really impressed by some of the fancy Beato dresses.
It seems no one dressed up in her more casual skirt.

Here’s the haul for today.
As for tomorrow, I’m gonna try a wall booth again.
Have to decide between Atelier Miyabi and Vista. Both have great stuff but I doubt I’ll survive both…
After today, even surviving one seems suspect…

• comiket , info  
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shijima December 29th, 2009

I know there are a lot of sites out there that talk about Comiket, but I guess I might as well add one that focuses on what sorts of yuri doujin one might be able to pick up as a first time attendee.

Here are some good links for how to prepare and what’s it like:
Guide to Comiket - Ticktank
Guide to Comiket - Heisei Democracy (NSFW)
C76 impressions - A Foreigner’s Tale in Japan/a>
Comiket Impressions - Okazu
List of yuri circles

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I’ve been having a series of unfortunate circumstances such as cracking my laptop screen and losing my wallet at Comiket…
But fortunately, I still have enough cash to complete my trip. =)

I’ll name Day 1 - Saki day since that’s about all the doujin I picked up, besides the Touhou Calendar they were selling at the Toranoana booth. Not surprisingly, Yuyuko and Youmu are March, complete with cherry blossoms.
It’s too bad the GirlsLove game by Clover Girls wasn’t for sale yet, though they had a postcard.

Thanks to jetlag, I was up at 3 in the morning so I thought I might as well take the first train from Shimbashi to Big Site.
Like others have said, though you’re not supposed to stay overnight, there were hundreds of people there already. :p

• 6:00 am - took Yurikamome to Big Site
• 6:30 am - ended up in line near the new Sunroute Ariake - 5 min. walk away from the actual area.
  Note: If you want reservations there, I did secure some by reserving 6 months in advance but I cancelled them once common sense sunk in that they were charging double during Comiket. (13500 yen a night) :p
• 6:30 ~ 9:30 - line is not moving, so sat on backpack and read a book. Other people bought tiny stools (a good idea), and ate food, chatted with each other, or played DS/PSP.
  Comiket Staff give warnings to be back in your place by a certain time.
• 9:30 - line starts to move
• 9:45 - Ended up inside near the East Halls. There were signs indicating where you wanted to go: East Hall, West Hall (doujin), West Hall (commercial booths).
• 10:00 - announcement that Comiket is starting. Everyone claps. Doors eventually open
• 10:15(?) - headed for first stop - (三振) Sanshin/(薄荷屋) Hakkaya.
  I was inspired by this post at Ichigo Yuri.
  No wonder it’s an booth on the wall (edge). The line is already snaking outside the door.
  I didn’t get that exact doujin, but did get some new releases.
• 11:30 (?) - I think I finally got the doujin around this time.
  The special poster was already unavailable when I was halfway through the line…
  Asked for one of everything and there went 6000 yen… (I didn’t think it’s be that much!)
• 11:30 ~ 1:00 - wander around the halls. By the time I finished the first booth, some of the other smaller Saki booths had already sold out of their new doujin.
  Note: It would probably have been better to have picked those up first and then wait in that monster line.
  Well, some lines were even worse. I’d never heard of the circle next to the one I lined up at which was named Magical Private Eye (NSFW) - but that one was so long it had the awful “This is not the end of the line” sign.
• 1:00 ~ 1:30 - see some cosplay.
  There is a LOT of trap-Touhou. I saw a male Ran, MariAli, Yuyuko…
  I did see a nice Lambda and Bern and Persona 3. (Where’s the female protagonist? :D)

Other thoughts:

• Trains coming and going at least on the Yurikamome are not as crowded as I thought they would be.
  It doesn’t even compare to buses in Hakone or trains in Kyoto during koyo season.
• It would be nice to have a chair while waiting.
• Lines for corner booths are worse than I thought they’d be.
• Lines at booths inside are normally not bad at all. I only waited in line at an inside booth once.
• You really do need friends to pick up everything you want, especially from popular booths. However, even if you don’t get all your first choices, there’s so many interesting things, it can really be a money pit if you don’t watch out.
• Doujin are not expensive. 300-500 yen.
  Sets with special bags/gifts are expensive.
• Industry Booths like Sega, Frontier Works, Pixiv are scary long. The lines go down the stairs…
• Comiket seems pretty tough to navigate for those that don’t speak Japanese. Seems I also need more studying since I didn’t understand all the stuff they were yelling out either…
• I still feel like it’s something everything should experience at least once though.
  Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold after the sun started coming up.
  Not sure if I could survive summer Comiket though.

And here’s the haul for the first day.

Looking ahead, it’s no surprise that Atelier Miyabi is a wall booth and is selling a very nice calendar.
Sapuri, GP-KIDS, and AngelType from Touhou are also wall booths… <sigh>

• comiket , info  
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shijima June 4th, 2009

Not sure if people are interested, but here’s a list of how/where I have purchased doujnshi overseas in the past.
I’ve posted some other links too but I can’t vouch for those.

All these options are pretty darn expensive so I recommend this only if you’ve got money to spare!
Basically just double your order total and that’s about right for the final total.

Otherwise try any of the Japanese P2P out there like Share and Perfect Dark. =)
Node list here.

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Mail forwarding service

Pros: Order from any website that accepts a credit card.
Cons: Requires knowledge of Japanese.

Jshoppers Forwarding Service - They are a little slow, maybe 2 weeks to get your stuff, but you can’t beat their EMS shipping prices and they have no handling charge!
S&H here is 2000 yen for what would be 4000 yen at other places.
They won’t do COD though.

I mainly buy stuff from Toranoana.
Melonbooks WILL NOT ship to a post office box anymore.

Japan to Door - Their International Forwarding Service is quite fast and can be tracked online.
I’ve deemed them too pricey for mail forwarding and now prefer Jshoppers.

Postty - (From Erin)

Goody-Japan - (From ydy)

Others:
Pakmail - A mailbox rental service. You have to be in Japan to sign up though.
 

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Private Party Purchasing

Pros: Can use English to communicate. Can get rare items.
Cons: Depends on availability of other party. Requires Japanese to search for goods.

Nydela - Ash is a really nice guy and responds quickly.

Miseya - deverilin is a really nice person. Have ordered some Comiket stuff from her before.

 

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Japanese Websites with International Shipping

Pros: Can order using a credit card.
Cons: Requires knowledge of Japanese. May not have what you want.

Mangaoh - Where I get my Sonobira (NSFW) stuff and manga in general.

I don’t really like Amazon.jp anymore since their packaging is a bit flimsy and the boxes are really dusty. They tend to get compressed a bit in shipping though the contents are still safe.
Mangaoh packs things really nicely and ship EMS.

DLSite - It doesn’t really ship since the doujin are digital but it has an English website. The Japanese website has more entries I believe and yes, you can order from that too.
I haven’t ordered from here in quite a while since it was hard to search.
 

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Websites in English Selling Doujin

Pros: No Japanese is required.
Cons: They may not have what you want.

PaletWeb - Touhou doujin (click the Doujin link on the side)
Doujinshi Store - Took a week and a half to respond to my order

Others:
Marblebooks
 

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Auction Proxy Services

Pros: Will let you order from Japanese auction sites. Can find rare items.
Cons: A bit pricey. Ex) Won an auction for 100 yen but at the end I paid 1300 yen

Shopping Mall Japan

Rinkya - According to Erin:
Rinkya has special pricing on doujinshi–their regular prices look awful, but on doujinshi 1000 yen and under, there’s no commission and only 400 yen handling. So a 100 yen doujinshi would be 500 yen plus shipping from Japan; less, if you win multiple auctions from the same seller on the same day (I have saved SO much money this way), because you only pay 400 yen total for handling on all the auctions combined.

 
Japan Toy - (From Erin)

Goody-Japan - (From ydy)

Others:
Celga
Japan to Door
 

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Shopping Proxy Services

Pros: Will let you order from Japanese sites
Cons: I suppose it will be pricey

I haven’t tried any of these proxy services but I have used them for other services.

Japan Toy - (From Erin)
Goody-Japan - (From ydy)
Japan to Door
Shopping Mall Japan
 

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Rely on friends/family residing in Japan

Pros: The best/cheapest option.
Cons: Requires knowledge of Japanese to order from websites. Are imposing on others. -__-

Simply borrow someone else’s address.
If you’re in college, try looking for someone who is part of an exchange program like JET.
Shipping from Japan can still be quite expensive.
 

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After all that hard work, take a break, wait for the doujin to arrive and enjoy!

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