Just curious – has anyone (who doesn’t speak Japanese) succeeded in ordering something via Rakuten?
The website looks promising – there is a virtual Valhalla of pencils and stationery awaiting – yet after several attempts, I can’t navigate my way to the international shipping option.
hullo. i love pencils! happy to see your site is curent! erm. what was i going to say? oh. i have not personally used rakuten but in case you never do figure it out there are a couple other similar sites you might want to consider:
http://dankedanke.com/
http://i-tm4u.biz/shopping/
i have not used either of these two services tho.
now that i am no longer living near a place where i can purchase tombows or mitsubishis i may resort to using one or all of these services. good luck! i hope someone else can give you better info than i.
Just for the fun of it – I tried. I don’t know a word Japanese, but my browser has a tool bar at the bottom of the screen. It displays the link text, when the mouse hovers – the key word is in English. So a link with a lot of numbers etc. contained the word “shop” , others “basket” etc. In this manner I would be able to buy something- eventhough I wouldn’t know what, due to my lacking Japanese :). I didn’t find any “international”, “shipping” or “overseas” link though – so, like you, no luck. A pity, it looks interesting.
regards Henrik
Thanks, also to those who have contacted me directly. My understanding is that Rakuten is a major online business in Japan – right up there with names that may be more well known outside Japan. But, it seems like this initiative hasn’t quite hit the mark.