1. A NOTE ON ORDERING ISOBAR BOOKS FROM KINOKUNIYA

If you’re in Tokyo, you’ll find many Isobar books, including the latest ones, in stock at Books Kinokuniya Tokyo, near Takashimaya and the New South Exit of Shinjuku station; please support you local bookshop! If you’re in Japan but not in Tokyo, and you therefore can’t visit the shop, you can order any Isobar book from Kinokuniya in one of two ways. (In both cases you will need to know the ISBN of the book you want to order; you can find this on the page dedicated to that title on this website.)

METHOD 1: Order directly from Books Kinokuniya Tokyo. Quote the ISBN  and ask for delivery; books will be shipped via Japan Post Yuu Pack in 1-3 days; shipping is 990 yen, and handling fee is 330 yen, to be paid together with the book price at the door. (The shipping fee is waived for purchases over 8,000 yen.)

METHOD 2: Order from other Kinokuniyas anywhere in Japan. State the ISBN and ask to place a special order; if possible, please mention that it’s  洋書 (a foreign language book);  the book will be transferred to the local branch and customers don’t have to pay for shipping, but it takes longer (maybe about 1 week). (I’m afraid international orders are not possible; these two services are only available in Japan.) Click here for a list of domestic Kinokuniya stores in Japanese or here for a list in Romaji.

2. A NOTE FOR IRISH CUSTOMERS ORDERING BOOKS FROM THE UK

Since Brexit it has, alas, sometimes been hard to order books from the UK – from Amazon UK, for example – with an Irish delivery address. The workaround for this is to use AddressPal at An Post. You need to register and get an ID number, which you then use as the first line of a PO address in Hatfield, UK. Unfortunately, you pay an extra postal charge – and on occasion customs charges too. (Full details can be found on the An Post website.)

3. A NOTE ON AMAZON’S SHIPPING POLICY

Usually Amazon in the US says Isobar Press  books are available to ship in 1 or 2 days, which is the correct time frame for this kind of book. At Amazon in Japan and the UK, on the other hand, Isobar Press books, especially when they have just been published, are occasionally marked as being ‘Temporarily out of stock’. However, if someone orders a copy, that results in them getting it into stock; it should usually ship within four or five days although Amazon in Japan can sometimes be a bit slower than that.