I tried buying Hamtaro merch from Surugaya Online. Here's my experience.
Ham-ha! This review is a bit long so I've put everything below the readme so I don't clog up anyone's blog!
I'm gonna say, I love Surugaya. Whenever I'm in Japan I rush to the physical stores immediately, and 9 times outta 10 I walk away with something I've been looking for. So imagine my surprise when I realized that Surugaya ships overseas! I went a bit crazy and bought a ton of Hamtaro stuff that I have been searching for, with most of this stuff on my wishlist for about 5 years now!
There are actually 2 online stores, one for international buyers and the other for residents in Japan. The prices on the international site are way higher (usually double or more than the japanese site), and the stock does not get updated as quickly. I purchased my items through the international website, but I've heard it's cheaper to use a proxy service and just buy through the japanese site.
Link to Surugaya Online (ships internationally)
Link to Surugaya.jp (Japan only)
Shipping Timeframe and Experience
My items arrived very quickly, it looks less than 2 weeks from ordering to receiving the package, which I feel was faster than my experience buying from other japanese stores online. Everything was packed nicely and my ceramic plates miraculously survived transit! I honestly thought they were plastic plates so that was a nice surprise! I had a non-Hamtaro related poster get bent in the corners but that was the only damage I've noticed due to shipping.
Product Review
Most of my products arrived without issue. Some items still had their original tags/boxes, while others did not. This doesn't bother me since I'm not concerned about it being in perfect condition, but be aware if you want to purchase something! I am overall happy with most items I bought, I was really excited for the Ichiban Kuji prizes and the cafe merch since I have looking for those forever. I also bought two books from the early 2000s, I had no idea what was in these but they actually have news about the show and advertise the merchandise at the time with prices! If you wanna see some of these pages let me know!!!
I didn't see a place on the website noting the condition of the products, but most of my items came in pretty good condition....except for Jingle. The one I received has marker on his face!! The listing never specified he was damaged. I'm kinda sad about this because I paid retail price for this, does anyone know how to safely remove marker from a plushie???
One other negative, I recieved a plush that I did not order. I had purchased this crane game hamtaro with his paws pointing upwards, but I recieved one where his paws are down. Thankfully I didn't have either of these plushies, but it's a bit disappointing that I recieved something other than the product image listed.
The image on the left is what I ordered, the hamtaro one the top left of the right image is what I recieved.
Pros and Cons of purchasing through Surugaya Online
Pros
Lost of older merch
Shipped fast
Well packaged (lost of bubble wrap on fragiles)
English website has constant sales and free shipping internationally
Customer support was helping in explaining sale terms
Cons
Product images are not reflective of actual condition
Condition of goods not listed
May get wrong item shipped
English website is very expensive
Website search function kinda sucks (the "latest uploaded" filter does not always show the most recent items added to the site)
Would I recommend buying from Surugaya Online?
Ehhhhhhhh if you're unable to visit a physical store in person I would say go for it, but maybe buy through the japanese site since it's significantly cheaper. I personally liked that I could buy items I've been searching for forever, but I'm kinda bummed that I received goods that aren't up to the quality standards I am used to in Japan. I think i would only buy again if it's something I am desperately looking for with no hope of ever finding again. But for now I'd rather wait until the next time I visited a physical Surugaya, I enjoy hunting for goods in person way more than online shopping!!
As Japan catches up with the times, more and more businesses become aware of the potential in overseas business. Because of that, storefronts like Suruga-Ya end up appearing as options for fans of Japanese only merchandise or items.
I am one such fan of Japanese merch and items, so of course I put in an order (with free shipping on a promo!) in. I've since gotten that order and thought I'd provide a bit of a buyer's guide for people interesting. The buyer's guide will include:
How To Purchase From Them
What You Can Purchase
Sales and Coupons
Warnings and Forewords
Shipping and Packaging
My Shopping Experience
So, without further ado, I'll get to explaining!
How Do You Buy From Suruga-Ya?
Link To The Website Here
There's two ways, the "traditional", and the "new" (how I purchased this order). The traditional is purchasing through their JP/domestic website via a proxy, while the new is shopping via their global website.
Now, it might sound like a no brainer for international people to shop via the global site, but as I'll explain later on there's a few cases/reasons where using a proxy is the more reasonable, and even times cheaper option.
Finding Items
Well, it's no CDJapan, I'll say that. Suruga-Ya's global website is propped up by almost exclusively Machine Translation. That means that the translations for some items can be really weird, like Yuta Okkotsu becoming Yuta Otsubone. Similarly, Jujutsu Kaisen gets translated to Sorcery Fight, and the translation struggles with correctly translating names (specifically those that are hiragana/katakana)
Tips For Better Searches
Limit number of keywords (instead of Yuta Okkotuse, just Yuta)
Search for JP names and literal TLs (e.g Sorcery Fight instead of Jujutsu Kaisen) as well
Search using the JP website, find the desired item, copy the item ID and search on the global site using that (more info later)
What Can You Buy?
The answer to that question is, "pretty much everything under the sun". They carry everything so long as it's not illegal to import/export. Models, figures, tapestries, art books, manga, acrylics, keychains, the list just goes on and on. About the only thing that is very clearly absent is R18 Doujins (regular ones are still available).
One thing that's really nice is that they've created "storefronts" for popular brands/titles. Pokémon, Studio Ghibli, One Piece, and Sailor Moon are just a few of the examples present on the website. It can be really helpful when you're a fan of something specific like that considering how challenging searching for something can be.
Deals and Coupons
This is the big one, the make or break for pricing. Suruga-Ya will, more often than not, have a promotional campaign going on for the global site. In fact, in the last 2 months there's been 5 weekends of free shipping. It's a crazy deal, and about the only way that international people will order from them.
If you want to keep up with promotional material though, they only post it on the website as an announcement, or on their Facebook page.
Warnings and Forewords
Buying from anywhere online comes with a caveat, the price is high, the shipping is slow, so on and so forth. Suruga-Ya is no exception to that and features four aspects that potential buyers should be aware of before making a purchase.
1. Commission Fee
All purchases are subject to a commission fee of 500Yen. Not terrible by any means, but it's an extra couple of bucks on an order that you might not have been aware of initially. To put it in perspective, Buyee takes out a "service fee" every time you make a purchase through their proxy service. It's effectively standard practice for these international orders, and you could argue that it takes the place of "tax" when shopping with them.
2. No Protective Packaging/Package Filler
What you see is what you get. This was all that was in box 1 of my order. It does keep the items from moving around too much during shipping, but it still doesn't do anything to prevent damage or any harm coming to the items. It's especially an issue given that Suruga-Ya's boxes aren't super well fitted to the orders that fill them. I think when ordering cheap stuff like I did it's not a major concern, but for stuff like figures or other delicate items it's an issue. I'm hoping that they'll add a protective packaging option at checkout in the future for that reason.
3. Prices Differ Between Websites
Once more, this is a common practice, and this is why proxy services can be worth it. They're not massive differences, but it certainly begins to accrue as a "foreigner tax". Furthermore, item availability differs between the sites. That is, you can find some things on the JP site, but not the global one. I reached out to customer support regarding that, and they stated that they plan to bring all legally importable/exportable items over to the global site, it's just that it will take time.
4. Items Are Used
For people that have done proxy orders before, that's not any sort of surprise. But for some items it's worth taking note of, especially in terms of price. For example, say that instead of 2,250Yen this art book was more like 2,500Yen. Well, as it turns out, the retail price on Amazon Japan for the art book is a hair over 2,500Yen (2,530). In those cases, buyers may want to look at other options for the item in "new" condition elsewhere if they're wary of used items.
However, "used" in Japan is very different from "used" in somewhere like North America. Night and day, really. Later on I'll show what I got, and hopefully reaffirm buyers that "used" can basically mean "like new" with stuff like art books, and that they're absolutely worth purchasing.
Shipping
It's fast, damn fast at that. With free shipping that's great, but for people looking to save money when there's not an active campaign you might struggle as DHL and EMS are the only shipping options offered by Suruga-Ya. No surface or sea mail to save a good chunk of change, so definitely be aware of the cost of shipping when making an order without a promo to cover the cost somewhat.
Packaging
I got two packages (because I ended up making two orders, also please ignore the weird stretch Tumblr applied to the image), and these are my short form thoughts on it:
Boxes are not sturdy/solid and have caved and dented in a few spots
Items are secure, but not necessarily safe
Box sizes can be too large for some orders, allowing them to move around too much
No reinforcement to corners isn't great
Overall, you get what you pay for, and for free shipping it's not the worst. Certainly not what I'd want to be paying for when paying shipping though.
My Purchases
As per usual, I largely got art books and some JP manga I've been collecting. Though more important than that is the elephant in the room. All of these items are used, but for the vast majority you'd never know. A lot of them came in plastic bags that were sealed, rathe typical of JP items which is really nice. Great condition, no signs of wear, and proper storage, it's hard to really call these things "used" all that often. However, there are exceptions.
Used Items
I received two items that could be considered "used" in the typical sense. The first is some volumes of manga that had yellowed due to age or exposure to direct sunlight, and the other is a crease/bend in the corner of an art book. Neither are severe damages or deal breakers (for me) at their price, but they're things to take note of as not everything will be perfect. Another thing to note though is I have no way of knowing if the damage to the art book was there from the beginning or happened during transit due to lack of protection.
My Experience
Keeping it short, I'll summarize my thoughts on the order from start to finish.
Searching and filtering isn't as easy as it should be
Prices are really good, but lack of description (both in regards to content and condition) can deter potential buyers
Checkout process needs some work (can't get a shipping estimate until you provide a payment method)
Shipping is incredibly quick
Packaging is questionable and cause for concern with more delicate items
Customer service is nice, but accessing them is odd (only through apps like WhatsApp or Line)
Stickers placed directly on books is a massive no-no
Overall, I'd buy from them again with conditions.
Why/When To Buy
There's a few requirements to really make Suruga-Ya worth it. Deals, more specifically free shipping (usually), is a must to make the purchase worthwhile. You could probably get away with paying shipping and getting a good deal if they JP prices weren't cheaper than the global site, but they are. Because of that, the "extra cost" can add up quite quick if there's not a sale or something to offset it. Continuing on the topic of "extra cost", their ability between sites (currently) differs. Because of that, the quantity of items you can order differs as well, which can lead to "smaller" order sizes which can increase the relative cost due to shipping. And lastly, there's no order storage. If the product lists were consistent that wouldn't be an issue, but we're dealing with used items, these things come and go quite frequently. Really want an item but can't fill out a full order? Better hope that the item doesn't sell.
So, all in all, the conditions for buying from the Suruga-Ya global site are:
Deals/free shipping
Enough items to meet reasonable order size to save money (if no free shipping)
Pretty simple, but still important to remember
In The End
If you can field a sizeable order from the global website and there's a deal running, it's probably the best deal you'll find (but still check). If not though, look at buying through the JP site via proxy. There's less stress in maximizing the order, you can sit on the items in warehouse, and you can even combine with other sites. You just won't get free shipping. And I really do have to stress that that's the biggest selling point for buying from the global site. So keep your eyes out for those specials!
Welcome to my updated guide to ordering through Suruga-ya using the forwarding service Tenso. I hope people don’t mind me taking the images out, but I thought that a text-based approach would be more helpful to people reading it over a range of devices.
If this sounds like a pain, you’ll probably be happier just using a proxy service, although this tutorial should still be of use for searching the site. However, once you get the hang of it, it’s not hard. Ordering yourself also eliminates the possibility that a sale will end before the proxy service is able to process your order, and at least reduces the possibility that an item will be sold out before you get it (Suruga-ya's items are available online and in-store, so there are no guarantees).
A couple of things before we start:
•Buy at your own risk. I’ve ordered from Suruga-ya numerous times without any problems, so it’s not exactly brain surgery. That said, I can’t stand over your shoulder and check your work, which means that any mistakes you make are your own and you’ll have to fix them yourself. So basically...
•...use common sense. Read all of Tenso’s rules, double-check your information when signing up for your account, think twice about buying something if you’re confused by the product description (you can’t return it after you receive it), and, overall, use a proxy service instead if you don’t feel confident buying things from a website in a language that you’re not proficient in.
•There may be mistakes because I am *not* fluent in Japanese (not even close).
•Suruga-ya takes PayPal from international customers, but I’ve read that they no longer accept international credit cards. I’ve also read that “adult” products cannot be purchased without a credit card, but you’ll need to do your own research on that topic (Tenso, for its part, prohibits buying “obscene articles” through its service).
•You should be able to use most of this guide if you’re using a different forwarding service, but you may have to do a little extra work
•This is accurate as of July, 2018. If you’re reading this several years from now, things may have changed (they’ve made several updates to their website just recently and will likely continue to).
Still here? Then continue under the cut to get started.
First, sign up for an account with Tenso, a Japanese mail-forwarding company. Make sure you read all the information about their fees, shipping options, prohibited items, etc., before you sign-up (I’ve seen people who were turned off by the identity verification part, in particular).
After you’ve done that, go to the ‘My Page’ section. There will be a box at the top that says ‘[Your Name]’s Tenso address,’ with a link at the bottom that says ‘How to enter your Tenso address.’ Click on that; there are several helpful examples, but all you need is the top one labeled ‘General Guide.’
Next, go to Suruga-ya. At the top of the page, to the right of the search bar, you’ll see a blue icon next to the word ‘サインイン (sign in).’ Click on it. [If you’re trying to do this on Suruga-ya’s mobile site, click on ‘マイページへ/to My Page’ under the logo.]
✸Creating an account/signing in:
On the right, you’ll see two boxes for signing in. The top says “e-mail address (メールアドレス)” and the bottom says “password (パスワード ).” Once you’ve entered those, you can click on the orange button and you’re in. If you’ve forgotten your password, click on the link below the password box (パスワードをお忘れの方はこちら) to reset it.
On the left, you’ll see two buttons allowing you to sign-in/create an account with either your facebook or Google account. If you’d like to do that, go ahead, but I can’t guide you. To create a wholly new account, click on the white button below those two (新規アカウントの作成) and follow the steps below. [mobile users: the white ‘new account’ button is right below the orange ‘sign-in (サインイン)’ button]
✸ Account creation: fill in these steps one-by-one. If an error occurs when you try to submit, copy the warning text and paste it into Google translate to troubleshoot.
Note: several of the text boxes specify that you must use half-width characters (半角英数). If you don’t know what that means, you probably don’t need to worry about it. If you do know what it means, you should use half-width characters when entering your e-mail and password (copy and pasting your Tenso address takes care of the rest).
✸メールアドレス (確認)=“E-mail address (confirmation)”=re-enter your e-mail
✸パスワード=“Password”=must be between 6-12 characters (No mention of whether symbols or spaces may be used in addition to letters and numbers, so keep that in mind when creating your password)
✸パスワードの確認=“Confirm Password”
This next part is where things get a little more difficult.
✸お名前=“Name”=this line has two input boxes. Japanese users would enter their name in kanji, but international users can use the Latin alphabet here (or whatever alphabet you use, although I can’t guarantee the site supports all of them).
—姓=“Surname/last name”
—名=“First name”
✸フリガナ=“Furigana (i.e, not kanji)”=here, you’ll need to write your name in katakana. You can use this page to get the katakana spellings.
—セイ=“Surname/last name”
—メイ=“First name”
For the next several lines, you’ll want to refer back to your Tenso address. Tenso’s general guide and Suruga-ya use the same order and kanji labels, which is really handy in filling this out. I’ll also include the label translations, just in case.
✸郵便番号=“Postal code/zipcode”
✸都道府県=“Prefecture”=this one should auto-update after you input the zipcode
✸市区町村=“Municipality”
✸番地=“Address/unit number“
✸ビル・マンション名=“Building/Apartment name”
✸電話番号=“Phone number”
Hard part’s done! The next section is optional: it lets you sign-up for e-mails about product categories, which I never do, so I’m going to skip it.
Scroll down, and you’ll see a box containing the site’s terms of service. Copy and paste them into Google translate and give them a read; they’re pretty straightforward and it only takes a minute to go over them. Below that, it will ask you if you agree to the site’s terms and want to continue your registration (規約に同意してアカウント登録を行いますか？), followed by two buttons.
✸はい=“Yes”=click this button to finish your registration
✸いいえ=“No”=click this button to cancel your registration
That should do it, although you’ll still need to confirm your account by clicking on a link in an e-mail they’ll send you. After that, it’s time to shop.
✸Searching/categories: In most cases, you’ll need to search using Japanese characters (i.e., kanji, hiragana, katakana) to find what you want. Try checking wikipedia/fan wikis/Anime News Network, etc. if you want to find the Japanese title for a manga/anime. Searching for stuff is pretty easy; just enter what you’re looking for in the purple search box at the top of the page. The default is to search all categories (全商品), but you can refine that with the category menu to the left. The categories are games (ゲーム), DVD/video (映像ソフト), music (音楽ソフト), toys/hobbies (おもちゃ・ホビー), PC software (PCソフト), books (本), electronics (電気製品), food/food premiums (食品・食玩), miscellaneous goods/accessories (雑貨・小物), and doujin (同人).
Update: I’ve found that you can use romaji to search for many titles. For example, if you type ‘Naruto’ into the search bar, then ‘ナルト’ will indeed be the first suggestion that comes up. Convenient, no?
✸Advanced search (詳細検索): this link is to the right of the search box. I honestly don’t use it, and it would be a hassle to go over all the options, so I’m skipping it for the most part. It does, however, allow you to search by ISBN, JAN, control number (管理番号), or standard code (規格コ-ド), which is useful.
The next three setting are found right above the product listings.
✸R-18 products: you have three options for displaying adult (アダルト) goods---show (表示), hide (非表示), and show only (のみ). Please be aware that some forwarding and proxy services have rules against buying or shipping adult goods for international customers.
✸Show sold-out goods (品切れ): ON or OFF
✸Sorting (並べ替え): default is “開連順,” which is basically sorting by relevance. The rest are cheapest first (値段が安い順), most expensive first (値段が高い順), newly added/updated first (更新の新しい順), newest release date first (発売日の新しい順), and oldest release date first (発売日の古い順).
✸Item status: these appear in green next to the item’s category/right below the product image.
—“Newly arrived goods (新入荷)”
—“Price-cut (値下げ)”=; after an item has been at the store for long enough, they may lower the price
—“Increasingly popular (人気上昇中)”=this accompanies a price increase
✸Release date (発売日): self-explanatory
✸Sold out (品切れ): If you have “show sold-out goods” set to “ON,” this will appear in red below the release date. Sold-out goods will also be shown if they can be purchased through one of the new “other shops” that Suruga-ya is listing on their site,
✸Condition: these markers now appear before the price—”new (新品)”, “used (中古)“, and “pre-order (予約)”. The kanji directly after the price means “including tax (税込).” Sometimes, both a new and used version of a product may be for sale at the same time, so you’ll see two prices; be careful to add the version you want to your cart. Suruga-ya also includes the “list price (定価)” below the store price. If you see “Rank B (ランクB)” in a product title, that means that it has more serious condition issues, so pay attention to the description.
✸NEW “Other shops (他のショップ)”: Suruga-ya seems to be trying an Amazon Marketplace-type scheme where they also give you prices for items that are available through affiliated shops. This is below the “list price,” and it’s a link that takes you to a page to compare prices/see vendor ratings/etc. Even if you have “show sold-out goods” turned to “OFF,” you will still see items listed if they are only available through a third-part seller. I haven’t used this option yet, so I can’t tell you exactly how things work out,
✸Adding items to your cart/wishlist: On product pages, there’s a big orange button with a cart that’s for...adding the item to your cart. The button below it with a star is for adding it to your favorite list. If the item is sold out, you’ll see a green button that allows you to add it to your backordered items watchlist.
After you add an item to your cart, you’ll get a pop-up with two boxes. The blue one basically says “keep shopping,” while the orange one says “continue to check-out.”
✸ Cart/checking out: when you’re ready to check-out, click the big orange button (注文画面に進む/proceed to order page) on the right side of the page. You can also delete (削除) items or move them to your favorites list (お気に入りリスト). The shipping prices are in a gray box on the right. You usually get free shipping for orders over 1500 yen, but the threshold may be lower during sales.
The next page is a list of more of their site policies. Open up Google translate again and look them over. Most of it isn’t really important, but some of it you may find useful, such as how they package items for shipping or when they process orders. At the bottom, click “はい(yes)” to continue if you accept these policies.
On the next page, you’ll see your personal and shipping information displayed, followed by several payment options. Make sure PayPal is selected. Click on the orange button at the bottom (ご注文内容なにの確認へ /confirm the contents of your order) to continue. You’ll see another page with all the details of your order; if everything looks right, click the orange button (決済情報の入力へ /enter payment information) again to proceed to PayPal to authorize Suruga-ya to charge your account (they don’t actually charge you until your order is shipped). That should be it.
After your order is placed, you’ll get a confirmation e-mail as well as a notification on your My Page staying that your order was received. If any of your items are sold-out (their items are for sale in their physical stores as well as online) they’ll apparently send an e-mail asking you to contact them and confirm that you still want them to mail the rest of your order. This hasn’t happened to me yet, so I can’t say how that works, although I’ve seen people write that they just used Google translate to create a reply and it worked fine (probably best to write something short and simple). The e-mails that I’ve received have all been basic ‘here’s what you ordered, don’t respond to this’ messages that you always get when shopping online.
Now you get to play the waiting game. Orders can take more than a week to ship, so be patient.
Below are some additional bits of information that you may find helpful while shopping.
✸Time Sales
Suruga-ya often has "time sales (タイムセール)” that usually last 1-2 days and only apply to certain categories/items; the amount of money that you have to spend to get free shipping may also be lowered. If there’s a time sale on, there should be a banner at the top of the site with the date(s) and time range (usually 12:00-23:59 JST) for the sale. Items that are part of the sale will have ‘タイムセール’ written in green above their price on search pages.
✸My Page/account page (マイページ)
—お知らせ一覧=notice list (the most recent ones appear on your my page by default). The 3 types of notices you usually get are that your order was received, that your order is being prepared, and that your order was shipped.
—ご購入履歴=purchase history
—売却履歴=sales history. This applies to people who have sold items to Suruga-ya. Not applicable to people outside Japan.
—見積履歴=estimate history. This applies to people who have sold items to Suruga-ya. Not applicable to people outside Japan.
—閲覧履歴=browsing history
—入荷リスト=(backordered) goods received list. If you’ve added items to your backorder list, they’ll appear here if they’re now in stock.
—入荷待ちリスト=backorder list. You can add sold-out goods to this list so you’ll be notified if they’re restocked.
—お気に入りリスト=favorites list, which includes the following options:
••新しいお気に入りリストを追加する=add a new favorites list (click 新規登録する button to confirm)
••商品を追加するお気に入りリスト=add items to favorite list (use the drop-down list to select which list you want items to be added to by default)
••カートに入れる=add item to cart
••入荷待ちリストに追加する=add item to backorder list
••リスト名を集編する=change list name (click ‘変更’ to confirm change)
—速報メール確認·変更=confirm/change mail notifications
—登録クレジットカード確認·削除=confirm/delete credit card information. Not applicable to people outside Japan. I think.
—身分証画像を更新=update ID card image. Not applicable to people outside Japan.
—本人確認番号の登録·削除=register/delete personal identification number. Not applicable to people outside Japan.
—登録情報確認·変更=confirm/change registration information (name, address, e-mail, etc.)
Recently I got obsessed with Hyakka Hyakurou (百花百狼) and just impulsively bought the goods from Surugaya.
I ordered them in 27th of September and I received them today 10th of October. Well I kinda expected to take this long cuz Surugaya is notorious for their slow work pace.
Anyways, regardless of that this was so awesome:D The CDs were fine and dope! The illustration book was just as clean as brand new and this really surprised me.. I heard that Japan has high standards for “used ones” but yeah.. they are different.
I’m kinda late for playing this game, though lol. I actually bought this game like in 2017 December but my stupid computer couldn’t do its work.. And for some reason it worked on my mom’s laptop, which she used it since 2011....Bizarre...
I don’t know if I’ll post the game reviews for each rout in Hyakka Hyakurou. I already posted them in my other blog and I don’t want to go through the same thing.. It’s basically gonna be translating the review into English cuz I wrote that in my native language haha. And I am kinda behind on fashion playing this now. This was released in 2016 in PSVita and PC(Steam) ‘s last update was 2017.
Well then whoever sees this poste I hope you would get a glimpse of who I am :D Just an otome-killer.
