I Bought My First Japanese Book & Manga Directly From Japan!

After learning Japanese for over 4 years without ever reading any books and only a very limited amount of manga, in this video I finally go ahead and buy some proper, physical Japanese reading material, as well as a game!
I also explore the Japanese online shopping experience on well known stores, as well as in second hand marketplaces via a Japanese shopping proxy known as buyee, who also sponsored this video by giving me a budget for shopping via their service!

MUSIC:
DKC2 Remix - Haunted Jazz Club (Forest Interlude)
OSRS OST - Volcanic Vikings
Orphee aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) : Overture
OSRS OST - Fishing

CHAPTERS:
00:00 I've barely done any reading immersion
00:30 Why I avoided reading
1:30 Where I'll be buying reading material
2:05 Japanese shopping (buyee)
2:35 Searching for the Japanese localization of American Mcgee's Alice
5:10 Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh cards
5:40 Japanese Keyboards
6:10 Japanese Albums
6:40 Go (囲碁) equipment and books
7:10 Other buyee features
7:40 Fountain pens
8:15 Japanese manga
9:20 Japanese books
9:50 IT ARRIVED!
10:20 Opening the package
11:20 Unboxing the first package (book, 仮面の告白、三島由紀夫)
13:05 Second package (game、アリスインナイトメア)
15:19 Third package (manga, 部長はオネエ、ながべ）
16:34 Fourth package (manga, モノトーン・ブルー、ナガベ)
17:45 Conclusion

________________________________

[Livakivi]

Hopefully a video in this style was enjoyable! It was essentially a combination of the elements I had been experimenting with recently lol.
From now I'll be slowly easing into reading the stuff I bought in this video, and I'll share my thoughts on how it went in the 5 year update!

[twanoligschlaeger]

i really like these kinds of "real life" videos. enjoy your new books!

[jKazej]

On Jisho's handwriting recognition. It is very sensitive to stroke-order because it's not like OCR - it is not looking for the actual shape of what you drew. It becomes actually quite usable when you reach that point where you know how all of the radicals are supposed to be drawn.
On the other note I've been studying Japanese for nearly two years now without anything like the diligence you show and I'm finding playing games in Japanese very rewarding. Most Japanese-made games you buy on Steam will have a language option and I find just playing games much more rewarding than grinding Anki or the like because being invested in the story makes you want to look things up and make sense of it.

[Jellyfish.pancake]

I've been waiting for you to upload a video about reading a book in Japanese!!

[JannesDragon]

Wooow I was thinking of getting something from buyee (also Japanese books/manga) the other day & now you suddenly have the discount code! Nice!

[oxleygreive]

Congrats on another sponsorship! Really cool to see some of the Japanese internet, makes me interested to learn about other parts of everyday Japanese life. Great vid :)

[Consum]

Awesome, love it! I myself have been learning for 17 months now, with about 1650 hours total. I took the JLPT N3 last week! I read a fair bit, but my favourite medium so far has been listening to the audiobook whilst following the text.

Japanese audiobooks tend to have absolutely awesome voice acting, and often have multiple voice actors at the same time (and sometimes even sound effects) so definitely try that if you feel like you're struggling with some of the fluffy kanji and vocab! (having it read to you can make stuff stick really easily). I'm currently reading through やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている and the 2 voice actors just completely make the series.

Either way, good shit.
P.s I started learning as a result of your 600 days video (the first one) so Thank you a million! really gave me the confidence to give it a go and it's ****ing worked!

[kihei]

everything seems so new and clean hope you can enjoy your purchases!

[Vincent]

Glad I'm not the only one who was surprised at how small most Japanese books are...

[Tobikaboom]

Pretty sure you can get some baargains on fountain pens over there, japanese pens need really fine tips for writing really complicated symbols, and usually those pens cost more in the USA / Europe.

[Arctagon]

1:02 Since this is a relatively old video, you may have already figured this out, but this happens because you're doing the stroke order wrong. 😅It uses the stroke order to figure out what you likely is trying to write. I always find the right character when using those drawing pads.

15:42 It has been opened! In Japan, you can buy transparent sleeves (in lack of a better word) like that, and pack things you sell into them for protection against moisture during shipping. I did this all the time when I sold stuff on Mercari.

It was very cute and funny seeing you discover Japanese books and their 文庫版 format, haha.

[zakuraiyadesu]

I’ve been recently burned out from learning Japanese, but this video has got me interested. Hopefully this cures my Japanese burnout.

[AniGrannyOG]

Just today, I was shopping around for manga and books and coming up empty. Thanks for this very helpful video! I can't wait to shop around that website 🤩

[magnumdong]

The Mishima book you got is a so called 文庫本, they are all around this size. Compared to most western books these are pretty awesome acutally. They always have a removable jacket and the paper is top tier. If there is ever some advertisment or movie adaptation thing on it, it will be printed on an extra little jacket-slip that you can remove; it's really cool when you don't want a "NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX ORIGINAL" or whatever on your books. Most publishers also put in collectible bookmarks in, others will have one of those string things attached to the book for use as a bookmark. Some cut the top of the pages of cleanly other publishers leave the top side of the book uneven for an "old" look.
I also like reading physical books a lot more than e-books, even though, in the case of Japanese especially, it does get a little bit expensive. I don't know if they ship to Estonia but I buy all my books at a store valled Verasia, they are based in Spain or Portugal and they do ship to Germany at least.
With the handwriting recognition you really have to watch out for the stroke order-and count of the kanji otherwise you will not find anything.
Anyway, Mishima Yukio is going to be quite the challenge so be prepared...
Thank you for making these videos I really like them. You are literally the reason why I (re-)started learning Japanese and got to the point where I can comfortably read literature without breaking immersion every 5 seconds. I think you will quickly find reading in Japanese really enjoyable. I recommend "このあたりのひとたち" by 川上弘美.

[cammacfan]

Everytime I see a new Livakivi upload I get so happy, awesome vid dude!

[KenanTCG]

I think the game came like this to prevent it getting scratches inside the case. Happenend to me 3 times with sealed games.

[tuiretuinen]

your uploads unironically make my day better, it seems we have very common interests and I love the way you make your videos. keep going dude

[dpblu]

Love the selection.

Two mangas, McGee’s Alice.

And Mishima…

[ltsMeNoodle]

0:54 It does work, but you have to use the correct stroke order.

[Awkward-]

It’s been really epic watching your journey learning Japanese and your editing is super enjoyable too! Happy reading :) !!