Originally Posted by
Lenton58
But when you add on today's international shipping, or even shipping inside Japan when the seller refuses to adjust for domestic rates, the cost goes over reason.
I'm unaccustomed to Japanese retail websites that don't have domestic rates. (Typically, domestic rates are all that they have.)
Originally Posted by
Lenton58
I've had trouble ordering on the Japanese sites. My fault; my Japanese is not very good. Recently I joined a site and bought an item — all in Japanese. It was kind of a nightmare and the process took me all morning. Even my Japanese wife gave up and left me to finger it out. I succeeded.
The enormous successes of Yahoo Auction and Mercari mean that their purchase and payment processes aren't limited to the intelligent or attentive buyer. The process is usually straightforward. It tends to get complicated where an effort to "internationalize" falls short; notably, you can be asked to supply your real name (OK so far) but to do so in full-width characters (thanks to the assumption that all names are written in
kanji, plus the website's desire to avoid the risk of half-width
katakana). So: Don't attempt to use a credit card (unless you can do so via Paypal), and opt to pay at a convenience store instead.
Wives don't tend to be bike-purchase enablers. By contrast, your riding chums may be happy to help you get your fix of "gear" or "junk".