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Strangely, only the American retail price for Katamari Damacy was $20. The Japanese original retailed for about 4000 yen (about $38), a discount from the normal 6980 yen price (about $66) (really) for new games. It's now available in a best sellers edition for about 2400 yen, bringing it closer to the American retail price.

In fact, Katamari Damacy now costs less in Japan than the Katamari Damacy Soundtrack CD, which amazon.co.jp will sell you for about 2900 yen or $28 American.

Strangely, only the American retail price for Katamari Damacy was $20. The Japanese original retailed for about 4000 yen (about $38), a discount from the normal 6980 yen price (about $66) (really) for new games. It's now available in a best sellers edition for about 2400 yen, bringing it closer to the American retail price.

In fact, Katamari Damacy now costs less in Japan than the Katamari Damacy Soundtrack CD, which amazon.co.jp will sell you for about 2900 yen or $28 American.

They're not particularly easy to find anywhere outside of Asia. The best places, i think, to get them are cdjapan.co.jp and amazon.co.jp, who both ship internationally. AnimeNation and GameMusic.com have video-game music as well, but i'm not sure if they ship internationally, and (at least in the case of GameMusic) they can be a little over-priced.

There are also places like Yahoo! Japan's auction thing and SoundtrackCentral's Marketplace, where you can buy them second-hand.

Be careful buying soundtracks from eBay, though -- there are a lot of bootlegs sold there. Some of the auctions do warn you (if you know what to look for), but some of them don't even do that. But if you ever see anything about EverAnime or SonMay, they're bootlegs.

Couldn't find any samples but:

Info
purchase @ Amazon
purchase @ Yesasia
Hope this helps

First of all, it's Happy Hacking, second of all, the Happy Hacking Lite is grossly inferior for the original more expensive Happy Hacking.

They do sell the original model with USB , but only in Japan. It's brand new, and not available in the US. The most notable difference is much higher quality construction and higher quality contact mechanism. The non-Lite Happy Hackings are much heavier than the Lite ones and much cheaper for very good reasons.

Another popular keyboard is the Linux 101 from Unicomp, the IBM/Lexmark mechanicial keyboard business unit that got spun off years ago. They promise to sell a USB version of their EnduraPro which is programmable some time this year.

I was looking to buy one of these keyboards to be all 1337 with L1nu>in software and saved myself $70-$250.

If this was a Happy Hacking they do sell a USB model but only in Japan .

It's quite expensive, almost $250, but you can order it from Amazon Japan .

Although it is Japanese the layout is US as you can see from the pictures. I understand it is quite a nice keyboard if just a little overpriced. They even sell some accesories like a "hand made" wooden wrist rest and a custom carrying case for a for about the price you'd pay for a really nice domestic keyboard :-0

Doesn't anyone remember this? The e-ink devices look like they will be much better for reading text than a traditional LCD on a PDA or e-book reader. Unfortunately it seems they're only available in Japan right now... amazon.co.jp lists the Sony one... I'm sure you could get it shipped to the US, but at ~$422 it's not exactly cheap, not to mention who knows if any of the interface/software is in English.. Plus, since it's Sony it's doubtful that it will work with anything but Sony PCs.

Basically, this doesn't help you at all (sorry), but I would personally wait for e-ink devices to show up here.

My collegue has this book "CPU no tsukurikata", or "How to create a CPU". The lovely Japanese gothic lolita manga character guides you through breadboarding a CPU with descrete components.
http://cdn-images.amazon.com/images/P/4839909865.0 9.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
(japanese amazon page for the book http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/bo oks/4839909865/249-8715141-2165156)

Here's one for the list, my favorite - Cocco: Raining

I have a couple of her albums but I like this one the best. And it ain't bubblegum sweet "Jpop". Think Tori Amos if she was Japanese.

Jesus, you just don't know when to give up, do you?

I do translation on the side: the Amazon Japan listing for one of the books I've translated (E->J; check the translator's name against my nick).

If you still don't believe me (and don't come up with some lame excuse like "You just searched for somebody whose name matches your nick"), come onto #slashdot on irc.slashdot.org; my nick there is the same as my /. nick.

Why don't you just accept that (a) you were wrong and (b) other people knowing more than you is not a personal insult.

As a US dweller....what's out there that would be good to watch

Well there is plenty of stuff, though you need to be open minded about the cultral content and language. Without knowing what you like its hard to make a case, though I'll see what I can do. For example, there are many anime fans that prefer the orginal Japanese version and don't have the patience to wait for the translated version, so this is one case. Another would be films that are featured at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, there are plenty of films available in other countries, that just aren't available here. You can browse Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan, FNAC and many others.

As I said, you need to be ready to go beyond what you are familiar with culturaly and linguistically and experiment.

Ah, OK. But if you're after accuracy, go for a decent historical novel ("Moeyo Ken" by Shiba Ryotaro is a good one).
Or if you don't mind manga, a list of pretty much all the Shinsengumi-related manga is available here. In particular, look out for Kurogane Hiroshi's manga - it offers quite a different perspective.

What are you talking about?

Only one of these are "shallow" copies. That's if, by shallow copies, you mean not identical except for the translation and enchanced Japanese content (I can't read Japanese, but I think I can assume that a Japanese Amazon will carry japanese books, a Japanese Yahoo Japanese sites, a Japanese Google Japanese translations).

I suppose if you mean shallow as in feeling, well, I don't get it. Websites don't exactly have feelings -- especially corporate websites...

This is sad, but true. Disney most likely has no intention of releasing the rest of the Ghibli library, including such amazing classic films as "Nausicaa", "Laputa", "Porco Rosso". Miyazaki's latest film, "Spirited Away", will also most likely never see release in the United States.

Thank god it's not illegal to modify your DVD player to play Region 2 DVD's. Oh, wait...

By the way, all of the releases of Studio Ghibli films on DVD in Japan (Region 2) have also included English subtitles and sometimes also English dubbing.

I'm sure Miyazaki wants his works to be enjoyed by as many people throughout the world as possible. If doing a commercial release in the United States doesn't make sense financially, that's fine. All the really hardcore fans will buy the Japanese DVD anyway.

By the way, you can order Japanese DVD's from sites like CDJapan or Amo-Tokyo or even Amazon Japan.

Cryptnotic