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NEWS: Sasuga Japanese Bookstore Closes Its Doors 'for Good'


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Anime Remix



Joined: 16 Dec 2009
Posts: 354
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:32 am Reply with quote
NOOO!!! THIS CAN'T BE TRUE!!!! I just bought Bleach Vol. 21 (in Japanese), Naruto Shippuden The Movie 2 Book form (in Japanese), and 2 Weekly Shonen Jumps from them last year!!! I wanted to buy more!!!! Very depressing news.... Now.... Where the hell do I get my Weekly Shonen Jump magazine's from?!?!?!?! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad
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LKK



Joined: 31 Oct 2007
Posts: 426
Location: Virginia, USA
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:33 pm Reply with quote
I'm very saddened by this news. We've spent hundreds of dollars at Sasuga over the years, mainly at conventions but some through the website.

I have a magazine subscription through them that still has 4 or 5 issues left before it expires. I emailed them asking what will happen to the remaing subscription months but haven't heard back from them yet. Has anyone in a similar situation heard anything from Sasuga regarding their subscription?
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Cait



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:33 pm Reply with quote
I've been crying about this for weeks. Where were all you people when I needed someone to talk to about this?!

I saw them at Connecticon this weekend, but it was just so sad to see Yahara there, packing up almost two decades worth of devotion to a business. They had awesome shipping and immediate service on special orders. I can't even begin to think where I am going to find an equivalent manga importer anywhere online or offline.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:09 pm Reply with quote
gorbal wrote:
Where else can one get manga in the Boston Area?
Well first you have to have a computer with internet access to places like Amazon.
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The_Q



Joined: 09 Mar 2010
Posts: 57
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Anime Remix wrote:
NOOO!!! THIS CAN'T BE TRUE!!!! I just bought Bleach Vol. 21 (in Japanese), Naruto Shippuden The Movie 2 Book form (in Japanese), and 2 Weekly Shonen Jumps from them last year!!! I wanted to buy more!!!! Very depressing news.... Now.... Where the hell do I get my Weekly Shonen Jump magazine's from?!?!?!?! Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad Crying or Very sad


Uhh...if you took the time to read through the post, three websites where you can get Japanese manga/mags have already been listed...
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FeistyDreams



Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 2:01 pm Reply with quote
I had been talking with Sasuga about potentially pre-ordering a book, and when they were sure they were closing, Yahara recommended for me to go to Asahiya with my order (https://www.asahiyausa.com/).

I did not actually place my order there, as I'd already ordered from Kinokuniya before as well, but since Asahiya was shown to me by Sasuga, there may be people here who are interested in this. ^^
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Cait



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
gorbal wrote:
Where else can one get manga in the Boston Area?
Well first you have to have a computer with internet access to places like Amazon.


I think you're sort of missing the point. Sasuga attended dozens of conventions every year (where many of their buyers bought their books from them), their website was very easy for an English speaker to use (not true of many of these sites), they were one of the very few regional importers for the Northeast that had some of the most reasonable shipping and handling (for special orders) charges of any importer of Japanese books. Amazon Japan might have the selection, but you'll pay more to ship each item than you'll pay for the items themselves.
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Cait



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 2:22 pm Reply with quote
FeistyDreams wrote:
I had been talking with Sasuga about potentially pre-ordering a book, and when they were sure they were closing, Yahara recommended for me to go to Asahiya with my order (https://www.asahiyausa.com/).

I did not actually place my order there, as I'd already ordered from Kinokuniya before as well, but since Asahiya was shown to me by Sasuga, there may be people here who are interested in this. ^^


Unfortunately, both Kinokuniya and Asahiya's websites (not to mention Amazon Japan) lean towards people who are already fluent in Japanese. Many of the importers of manga from Japan can't actually read it. Sasuga had an all-English site that was incredibly easy to navigate. YesAsia is the closest equivalent I've seen as of yet, but searching for things on that site is a pain and I haven't found any option for special ordering through them at all.
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FeistyDreams



Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 41
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:33 pm Reply with quote
You have to search in Japanese at Kinokuniya, but check-out is available in English. Also, you can special order through them if you send an e-mail to one of their locations. E-mail for their San Francisco location is on the bottom of the main page. The e-mail does not need to be in Japanese, I've pre-ordered the new Full Metal Panic! novels through them and all of our correspondence was in English.

They do also have some English products, if you search for what you want using the English title, you should find it.

And as for looking for any of the Japanese products, just googling whatever you're looking for, you should be able to find the Japanese title for it, then pasting it into the search entry and you can browse for it. It's not perfect, but it's something, and most of the products have an image when you click on 'em.

(I do understand, though, that this is a pain. Just saying that it's an option ^^)
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bayoab



Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 831
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:10 pm Reply with quote
Cait wrote:
they were one of the very few regional importers for the Northeast that had some of the most reasonable shipping and handling (for special orders) charges of any importer of Japanese books.
Assuming their con prices were nearly the same as their online prices, they had actually been the most expensive markup wise for several years. Their conversion rate was at least 10-15 cents per 100 yen higher than others.

Quote:
Amazon Japan might have the selection, but you'll pay more to ship each item than you'll pay for the items themselves.

Amazon.jp only makes sense for orders of special editions and larger orders of the more expensive manga. For most manga (under 700 yen or so), it is cheaper to get it from one of the US stores, even with the markup.

Cait wrote:
YesAsia is the closest equivalent I've seen as of yet, but searching for things on that site is a pain and I haven't found any option for special ordering through them at all.
I've heard that if you email Yesasia, they will look into getting it. Also, the trick used to be to search by ISBN but I haven't used them in a while. (ISBN is the best way to go with almost every book store. You can look them up on Amazon.jp or Wikipedia.)
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mirichan



Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:09 pm Reply with quote
I ordered my first Japanese manga from them like 8-9 years ago but I seldom used them afterwards. My experience with them as a Canadian customer was rather lousy (books too costly... handling fees & shipping fees often doubling the cost of the material I had ordered and frequently my packages were stopped at customs and slapped with taxes and handling fees(!) on top of it all)... As an example, I bought volume one of Yotsuba! a few years ago and the damn thing cost me nearly 25$... for a regular manga!

It was often easier/cheaper to buy from eBay (I don't mind second-hand books when it's for breaking the spine to study the language, anyway) or just go & order from Japan.
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Ramune



Joined: 09 Dec 2007
Posts: 34
Location: CT. of Neo England
PostPosted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 9:04 pm Reply with quote
That would explain their "shadow of their former self" look at Connecticon this past weekend. While I wouldn't go out of my way to get things from them, as their markup was quite high, they did come through a few times with some hard to find artbooks. Always sad to see a company serving the J-pop culture aficionados outside Japan, shut down regardless.
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Genet



Joined: 05 Jun 2009
Posts: 261
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:22 am Reply with quote
Even though I personally never used them because their markup was much too high, I know people that did, and they had great experiences. I feel sad to see a good importer of manga go.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 2634
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:28 am Reply with quote
I was very sad to hear this. They were always one of my favorite booths to go to at Otakon. Their booth was always a bit cramped but I enjoyed looking at what books they had.

As for buying Japanese manga Online I do this all through Yes Asia. They definitely have the best prices.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:44 am Reply with quote
Cait wrote:
Mohawk52 wrote:
gorbal wrote:
Where else can one get manga in the Boston Area?
Well first you have to have a computer with internet access to places like Amazon.


I think you're sort of missing the point. Sasuga attended dozens of conventions every year (where many of their buyers bought their books from them), their website was very easy for an English speaker to use (not true of many of these sites), they were one of the very few regional importers for the Northeast that had some of the most reasonable shipping and handling (for special orders) charges of any importer of Japanese books. Amazon Japan might have the selection, but you'll pay more to ship each item than you'll pay for the items themselves.
That's all well and good, but the point is that's all changed now, and Amazon will still ship to Boston albeit at maybe higher fees, but a quick google search should find others also willing to ship overseas. or even in the Boston region? Cait seemed to be unaware of this.
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