I want to buy music sheets from a Japanese website (digital download), but when I got to check out it only accepts local credit cards and they don't take PayPal. I'm aware there's some 3rd party websites that can buy and ship things to you, but don't want to pay enormous processing fees for a $2 PDF file.
Any creative ways around this?
This is what I want to buy: http://www.print-gakufu.com/score/detail/74681/ (use Google translate)
Cheers!
Not to mention most of their ATMs close at 6PM.
Yes, they accept AMEX/VISA/Master/Diners but apparently they check the issuers and bounce non-Japanese prefixes. Probably not the intention of the website but a restriction imposed by their payment gateway.
I am particularly after these sheets because they have 3 levels of the same song, which suits me well.
Beginner: http://www.print-gakufu.com/score/detail/74681/
Intermediate: http://www.print-gakufu.com/score/detail/26550/
Advanced: http://www.print-gakufu.com/score/detail/50633/
Being a Japanese song, I have yet to find the music sheets from other sources, even thought there's a version played by Richard Clayderman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWkCodRvZ7E
Surprisingly there are plenty of videos on YouTube, may be I will try to contact some of the players to see if they are willing to share the sheets. Even so, it wouldn't be the beginner's version.
Make friends with a person from Japan and get them to do it for you?
Or see if you know anyone who's friends with someone from Japan?
they might not have the licensing rights to sell to the non-japanese market
I just submitted a contact form, not sure if they will understand my question.
Interestingly the form was submitted to yamaha.co.jp, then I did a whois lookup on print-gakufu.com and it says registrant organization: Yamaha Corporation. Just realised that the site is run by Yamaha Music Media, I really hope they also publish the sheets outside Japan.
Got a response saying website is for Japan residents only.
Meanwhile I've found a printed book with the song I am looking for: http://www.ymm.co.jp/p/detail.php?code=GTP01086437
Will pay a visit to Kinokuniya to see if they can order in, possibly will be costly.
Kinokuniya don't charge you shipping though - they only charge you RRP if you order a book in.
Placed an order through Kinokuniya, $37.50. The book retails for ¥1680 ($20) with free shipping in Japan, typical!
Japanese overseas shipping is extortion though, sounds like you've got it about as cheap as one can get by ordinary means.
Well didn't anticipate a price blow out from a $2 PDF to a $37.50 book.
May be I should hang out at uni's to make some Japanese friends.
"Konichi-wa. Can I be your friend? Do you have a Japanese CC?" LOL!
Maybe they are just not prepared for international customers. Japan's a bit insular like that, most of the ATMs in the country accept only local credit cards, notwithstanding the MC and Visa logos on them. You have to know which ones will accept foreign CCs. Try to source your music sheet somewhere else is all I can suggest.