i know when i wanted to ship it out it was pretty pricey, and you have to pay customs duty. but there could be some cheaper method i'm not aware of - maybe a few months by boat like the guy on fixedgeargallery. i did it by sending all my emails to my japanese friend, she would translate and fwd them to shinji at framebank. i paid with an international money order, which was another hassle because not all japanese banks accept all forms of u.s. international money orders. i didn't find this out until later. the only one that would work was issued by the post office, but then they only issue them in US currency, so i had to pay extra for their japanese exchange fee. in order to save on shipping charges i had him ship to her place in japan, and she held onto it until her boyfriend came to visit, and he brought it over on the plane with him - which was another hassle cos the airline limits baggage to specific dimensions, so he had to remove the fork, take out a bunch of the padding and chop the box down otherwise it would have been another $160-180 charge. i guess it depends on how many hoops you're willing to jump through and how much you're willing to spend, because the bike's seem much cheaper in japan, but in the end it may end up costing you twice as much. oh, and it helps to know japanese.