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Update on the order:

Hankyu Video sent the DVD to the vPOst Japan warehouse the day after I recieved the confirmation email! Talk about fast. :)
I've paid vPost for the shipping and now it seems like I'm gonna get my first Takarazuka DVD by next week!

Thank you so much Genevieve and everyone who's helped me out. :)

Jasmine

Thank you so much Genevieve for helping me out with the forms at Hankyu Video. :)

If this order goes through a-ok (well, Hankyu Video's side is ok, now its up to vPost, my Singapore courier) then I might consider getting a second DVD from either Hankyu or TCA pictures. Hope everything goes well. vPost, or Singapore Post is not exactly the most reliable courier considering that they once lost my local package when the entire country is like the size of ... a small lake (640+ km2). I'll keep my fingers crossed that vPost does not mess my order up. :)

BTW, just in case anyone was wondering - even though the Hankyu site let me order with a foreign address (when I was going through the forms to help Jasmine) and sent me a confirmation mail, this morning I got another e-mail from them saying that they don't ship overseas, so are cancelling my order.

Seems silly to me to let the form take foreign addresses (the drop down menu even has an "Overseas" option). *shrug*

-- Genevieve

Wow, thank you Linon for the translation!

Gee, I think everything is ok with the Hankyu video part for now. Its up to the postal service from Singapore to ship it back to Singapore from its warehouse now. I'll post an update when I finally get the DVD.

Anyone bought anything from TCA Pictures.Net before with a foreign credit card (ie. not Japan billing address but shipped to Japan)? I thought that their collection of DVDs on sale looks much bigger than Hankyu Video's and I might want to make a purchase from them once the next paycheck comes in (which I wish will be like, now!).

Thank you all once again!

Jasmine

Well, good news, your order is through. The first part is about taking the order (ther's your order's no. and so). The order was taken at 3rd of June, and sent at 5th of June. Thank you for useing Hankyu Books and stuff like that bla bla bla...
The second part is about that the order should be delivered in 3-4 days by Kuronrko Yamato (shipping company) in a some kind of special bag which I've never seen so I have no idea how does it look like -_-' (sic). If you ordered something big or "complicated" (to use the same word as in Japanese) it may be delivered in parts (not broken I mean, but let's say like graduately ;). If you shall not get the stuff by 3-4 days - contact them by e-mail. Bla bla bla. Lot of keigo (honorific language). But this way or another - it looks ok as for now ;).

I recieved an email from Hankyu Video today. But my Japanese is so terrible I cannot read it! I managed to get Dictionary.Com to translate it (I dunno why but Babelfish does not work for me) and it turned out to be gibberish involving "wooden pails" and a lot of other funny phrases.

This is a copy of the email:
Jasmine VP300615　様
この度は、HANKYU BOOKSをご利用いただき誠にありがとうございます。
2006/06/03 にご注文いただきましたご注文Ｎｏ 0701-119735の
商品は、2006/06/05 に発送いたしました。
なお、カード会社からのご利用明細には、
ご利用日　：2006/6/5
ご利用店舗：阪急ブックス
と表示されます。
＜ショップからのお知らせ＞
〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓
商品のお届けには発送後、３、４日かかる場合がございます。
商品はクロネコヤマトのメール便（ポスト投函）または郵便局の
ゆうパック便にてお届けいたします。
複数商品をお求めの場合は、いくつかに分けてメール便で
お届けする場合がございますので、同時にご注文いただいた商品
でも、お届け日が異なる場合がございます。あらかじめご了承
願います。
３、４日経っても、到着しない場合は、お手数ですが、電子メール
にてご連絡いただきますようお願いいたします。

If you cannot read it please try Japanese EUC encoding. Many, many thanks to anyone who can figure out if there is an order problem or is the order through.

Thanks in advance!

Jasmine

Thank you so much jenebi!

I managed to fill in the order form and it seems everything is going great. The postal service VPost I managed to get in Singapore provided me with their telephone number for their Tokyo office, so if anything goes wrong they will contact the Tokyo office, which will get back to me by mail. I ordered a DVD (I can't read the Kanji right) from the Flower Troupe. Hopefully (pray, fingers crossed) that everything will be all right at the warehouse and I can collect the item from my local post office by the end of next-next week.

This service I managed to get is provided by the Singapore postal service itself (probably due to the huge number of things that Singaporeans import from the US and Japan. But I know they are pretty strict at customs with all that cpyright and lisence things, so hope all is well. :)

Once again, thank you jenebi and everyone else for all the help!

Oh woops! It will let me go on!

Okay, on the next screen:

The top box shows your credit card # & Exp date.

Ignore the next box (if you have a Nicos card, you can choose the number of installments.)

The next box is to choose the mailing address - either the one already entered, or a new one (I think). Leave it alone to mail to the address you entered before.

Now click the button for the next screen, and it shows your whole order. Push the button to confirm your order.


Hmmmm... I seem to have just ordered a copy of the book"Takarazuka Revue 2005." I wonder what will happen now? :/

I think if you ask everyone for their suggestions, everyone will tell you something different! Maybe it would help if you could tell us the kind of shows you usually like? i.e. dramas, comedies, tragedies. Are there any particular performers that you've seen so far that you'd like to see again?

The first thing that usually pops into my head to recommend is "Elisabeth". Probably because pretty much everyone likes it. No one can agree on which version is the best, though. Personally, I prefer Flower Troupe, but other people will tell you other troupes are better, so it all depends on what you like.

... Okay, the site you're ordering from is this one, right?

http://www.takarazuka-video.com/

If so, once you're on the screen with the cart, obviously then you click on the button at the bottom to "check out."

Next page has two options. Choose the one that says "Step 2" on it.

You're paying with a credit card, so click there, then hit the button for "Step 3."

On the next page, you fill out all your address information and such.

Box 1 = Your Name
Box 2 = Also your name
Box 3 = Zip Code (top), Province (drop down menu), street address
Box 4 = Phone Number
Box 5 = Fax Number
Box 6 = Day Phone - I *think*
Box 7 = E-Mail Address
Box 8 = Credit Card Number
Box 9 = Credit Card Expiration Date (Month & Year)

The next two boxes are optional
Box 10 = Date of birth
Box 11 = Sex

Next, you can create a password, so that if you shop here again they can remember all your info.

Box 12 = Password. Must be at least 6 characters and include both letters and numbers

Box 13 = Confirm the password (enter it again)

... Then push the button at the bottom.

That's as far as I can go, since I don't have a Japanese address, but if you have more questions, maybe you can post the kanji, or use the Babelfish translator like caithion suggested.

Hope this helps!

Thank you everyone for your help. I really appreciate it!
I think I'll try to place an order with Hankyu Video, but the order form kinda baffles me. Can anyone help me translate what I need to fill in for the order form?

The postal service I mananged to apply for in Singapore already provides me with a Japanese address in Japanese characters, but I realized that there are quite a number of fields you need to fill in on the Hankyu Video order form, and I don't know what all of them mean? I can type Japanese characters with my Mac no problem. Just that I dunno what to fill in. Would greatly appreciate this if anyone could help!

Also, anyone can recommend any good performances that would be a nice "introduction DVD"? A numner of my friends and family are quite interested in the Takarazuka DVD now ever since there was a documentary about the Takarazuka Theatre some months back on cable TV.

Than you all for your help!

WOW! That opens my eyes........Currently I only bid for program books from Japan and I just bidded Moon's "Ernest in Love" via Celga........Just I do not have the connection in Japan :-/

Yes, I agree with Jenebi! Try the regular shops first. When I was living in Japan I used my American credit card to order things from Hankyu Video with no problems.

Let us know which order forms you need help with and we'll see what we can do. It might be worth it to write out a translated key of general terms for people. Another thing you can do is use something like babelfish or Jim Breen's to cut-and-paste words you don't know from the forms and get a translation.

If you buy through Celga, you'll pay a huge markup, so if you have a mailing address in Japan for the item to be shipped too, you might want to at least try one of the "regular" Takarazuka shops like Takarazuka-an first and see if they'll take your credit card. Check the links page on the TakaWiki for links to Takarazuka-an, Hankyu Video, etc.

I know Takarazuka-an used to be setup to take foreign credit cards, back when they still shipped overseas, so they may still be able to now, as long as the item is mailed to a Japanese address. It wouldn't hurt to try!

Thank you for the help! Is there a DVD of any performance that you can recommend? I would like this DVD to also be one that would hopefully introduce my local friends to Trakarazuka performances and apprecite it.

What you can do is bidding the DVDs at Yahoo Japan Auction via middleman service such as Celga. Their website is here