The Time I Bought Manga from Japan

Everything changes

1997 was a different time.

I decided to buy Japanese manga, but it was only available in Japan or in specialty bookstores in the US. So, I bought directly from Japan. Manga, or Japanese comics are usually printed in weekly “phone books” on cheap paper.

I bought one of those one time, out of curiosity. The paper for this one was yellow with black-and-white drawings. But I was buying tankobon, collected works from specific authors, since I was trying to learn the language.

However, to order directly from the company in Japan, I had to type in the titles on the online form. It was most like the order form you might see in a catalog. You couldn’t “click to buy” then.

And I was typing in America on a QWERTY keyboard. [1] The Japanese language, kanji, is character-based and looks nothing like what you’d see on a keyboard. Since it was the 90s, you couldn’t order a special keyboard on Amazon, much less use an online one, such as Lexilogos. I had learned the katakana, but learning kanji takes longer. [2]

So, I looked up the characters online and cut and pasted them one at a time.

I also paid in the Japanese currency, yen. After spending 5,000 yen, I realized that I didn’t know how much I had paid. I panicked: What was my husband going to say?

So, I called the credit card company and asked. The woman on the other end paused for a moment and said, “I don’t know that. You know, no one’s ever asked me that before. Can I get your phone number, and I’ll call you back?”

And she did.

I’d spent about $50. Today, I would go to xe.com and find out. [3]Even then I wouldn’t have had to, if I’d known the rule: One Japanese yen was always about one penny.

But that has changed too.

Thank you for reading.

Nikki

[1] For those of you not typing on an English keyboard—QWERTY spells out the letters for the left side on the top line.

[2] This is what a katakana keyboard looks like: https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/katakana.htm

[3] Here’s the link: https://www.xe.com.