Buying Equipment / in Japan

Sub-page of BuyingEquipment

This page contains Information on ordering go-equipment directly from Japan.

Where to buy

A nice place to order is Kuroki Goishiten Co. Wide Selection of high quality boards, bowls and stones (slate & shell only). Seemingly good prices. [ext] http://www.kurokigoishi.co.jp

The English language part of their website seems to have a bug. You need to change the URL of theis Shop manually from www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/english/go/frame.html to www.kurokigoishi.co.jp/online_shop/english/go/frame.html --gG

Customs

Anybody know something?

Taylor: I bought a board, bowls and stones in Japan recently and paid no duty on them when I brought them back to the U.S. As far as I can tell there is no U.S. customs duty on board games, unless imported from Cuba, Laos or North Korea. See page 3 of [ext] chapter 95 of the U.S. tariff schedules.

gG: Japan Customs does not collect any duty and tax from outbound shipment.

Shipping rates etc.

A 13kg Package (Table Board, Stones, Bowls) from Japan to Germany takes approximately 1 Week at a charge of 21000 Yen (160 EUR) and 6 to 8 weeks at a charge of 7800 Yen (60 EUR)

Go stones ,Gosu,and Gosu box gross weight about 7kgs to Europe. You can choose one of the following transportations. EMS(Air) 12,300JPY takes about one week. SAL(Air) 9,400JPY takes about two weeks Ship 5,100JPY takes about 7 to 9 weeks Go board Katsura size 60 with Kiri coverand cloth cover Gross weight about 23kgs EMS (Air) 33,100JPY SAL (Air) 21,650JPY Ship 11,300JPY


Tamsin: If you don't mind buying second-hand equipment, you can often find free-standing gobans in second-hand shops at very reasonable prices. For example, when I was in Nikko last summer, I found a "Recycle Shop" (as the Japanese call it) that offered a goban and stones for 10,000 Yen. I would have bought it had it not been the beginning of my holiday (meaning I did not know yet how well my money would last) and it would have been a bit bulky to carry around with me. Admittedly, these items will be scratched and the stones chipped, but often they're still very usable and acceptably attractive to look at. And it would not be too hard to repair and restore used equipment by yourself. The Japanese do not like second-hand things, as a rule, and that is why second-hand goods in Japan are often very cheap.

Yahoo Japan

Go Boards and stones can be purchased from Yahoo Japan readily through the www.rinkya.com buying service. The process is convoluted and the shipping costs from Japan are steep. Inspecting go boards on Yahoo Japan is a delight. They are likely though to have the corners dinged when shipping. Used boards are 1/3 to 1/2 what they sale for on Ebay and in great numbers. A good deal of retail sellers sale through Yahoo Japan at higher prices for new go merchandise.

You should be discouraged from actually trying this. If there is interest I could post a how-to.

URL [ext] http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/search/auc?p=%B8%EB+&alocale=0jp&acc=jp

Click on the phrase 画像のみ in the header above the items, above "STORE" and two phrases to the right for pictures

gG: It seems like on ebay, nobody is willing to ship internationally.


The Nihon Kiin Shop

MarkD: The offical Nihon Kiin shop can be found [ext] here. Just click the headings to download the PDF version of their catalog.

If you have problems reading the PDF files in your Acrobat Reader you can try the [ext] html version of the catalog.

MarkD:

Some more links to japanese go shops:

[ext] http://www.igo-shogi.co.jp/

A good shop in the Shinjuku area is Ohkubo Gobanten, prices not too high: [ext] http://homepage2.nifty.com/ohkubogobanten/

[ext] http://www.toridekigu.com/


This is a copy of the living page "Buying Equipment / in Japan" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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