I think I just leveled up...

[wednesday_10_00]

Thanksgiving: Survived invasion of 11 family members, though my mom may have gotten a few new gray hairs getting ready for all our guests. For me, the worst part was a bit of embarrassment when my uncle accidentally pulled Meisai Tengoku off the shelf. I tried to stop him, but as soon as my back was turned, he pulled it back off to have another look. -_- Listen, I told you that you didn't want to see it for YOUR benefit. Because, you know, I was pretty sure you didn't want to see army guys having sex with each other.

Ten year class reunion: Managed to actually act like an adult for one night. Go me.

I didn't have a lot of opportunity to sit around reading any of my new gay porn shipment this weekend, so in lieu of a manga report, a brief comparison of online bookstores:

Order #1: Amazon Japan
book price: ￥4,274 (9 books)
shipping: ￥3,900
ordered: 9/27
shipped: 9/28
arrived: 10/7

Order #2: YesAsia
book price: ￥3,730* (7 books)
shipping: ￥2,091*
ordered: 11/3
shipped: 12/4**
arrived: ??/??

*estimate based on list price and current exchange rate
**estimate based on date in last e-mail from YA

Order #3: BK1
book price: ￥4,636 (8 books)
shipping: ￥2,760 (air mail)
ordered: 11/15
shipped: 11/15
arrived: 11/22

Observations: The big lesson I learned in this is never, EVER order manga from YesAsia. Two of the books they said might be canceled did actually make it into the order, but I'm still waiting on Yokujou Climax 7. I also find it interesting that although they advertise "free shipping," when you break it down, it's really not much different than their competitors. And the unreliability in their service is just too extreme to justify that small of a price difference. On the other hand, BK1 is everything I've heard about--cheaper AND faster shipping than Amazon. Though I kind of miss being about to pre-order books--am I just stupid, or is there no way to do that at BK1?

I should also note that I also placed an order with JPQueen and was very pleased with it, though I don't recommend getting anything but doujinshi or OOP books from them. The price on regular manga doesn't make it look like a good deal to me, especially considering that they're used. According to sara_tanaquil, requesting OOS items works pretty well, too, though I'm trying to avoid such extravagance until I have some income or something.