While I’m in Japan, I’ve been ordering books from Amazon.co.jp. They do have an English language site, although it doesn’t cover all of the elements, which can be a bit annoying. I had to get one of the caretakers here at the Guest House to help me decipher the page to report a problem with an external seller order (Amazon were hassling me for feedback and it hadn’t arrived – they hadn’t shipped it yet nor updated the shipping estimate on Amazon’s site – they got modest feedback for that when it did arrive).

It did strike me that this is now a global marketplace for small businesses when I got a book today. I ordered it on Amazon.co.jp from an outfit called “UK Books and Music” (with web address Paperbackshop.co.uk) and it arrived posted from an address in Illinois in the US.