Japanese company Studio Tac has published a huge range of leathercraft books.  Often the books have been published in both Japanese and Chinese.  Luckily for those of us that don’t speak Chinese or Japanese, the books all come with tons of pictures.  From the tools and materials to the step-by-step project instruction, the pictures alone are often worth the price of the books.

I was fortunate to travel in Asia a few years ago and managed to pick up a small library of Studio Tac leathercraft books.  But once home, getting more titles seemed elusive.  But I’ve figured out a way to order from Amazon Japan and want to share with you exactly how to place your own orders.  The good news is that shipping is not terribly expensive and it doesn’t take very long to receive the books.  So follow along below and enjoy ordering!

First go to Amazon.co.jp. Although the entire site is in Japanese, you will recognize familiar graphics and website design. Perhaps this gives you some amount of comfort!

Next scroll all the way to the bottom. Select EN for English as shown.

Now go find the Studio Tac Books and other Leathercraft books. I find it is easiest to do an ISBN search for the first book and then you will find many other titles under the recommendation areas. A good starting ISBN is 978-4-88393-5871. If you know the ISBN numbers for other books you want, then by all means, enter that instead. Otherwise, scan around the Inspired by your Browsing History or click on the publisher link, in this case ‘Tankobon Hardcover’, to view other titles.

Once you find a title you want, simply click on the famous yellow button to add it to your cart.

If you are finished shopping, then click on your cart to begin checkout. First you must know that your Amazon account information from your country’s Amazon site does not work on the Japanese site. So you need to click Create Account.

Then you move into entering your billing and shipping information. The first thing to do is to click on the blue text to add an address outside of Japan. From there it is the same standard shipping address, billing address and credit card. The only extra step is to confirm the currency of your credit card.

Once this information is entered, you’ll get a final charge calculation including shipping charges and an estimated arrival date.

For my book, the arrival date is estimated to be 5-7 days after order entry. Not bad coming all the way from Japan!