finally!

I had seen The Accidental Foodie by Neale Whitaker on Keiko's blog, Nordljus. I emailed Keiko to ask what she thought of the book. She emailed me about a post that she had written about the book (here). After reading her post and what she had written in her email, I was really interested in getting the book. I checked Amazon.com U.S., but this book could only be found on Amazon.com U.K. and in bookstores in Australia. :(

A little bummed, I checked all the bookstores in our area that sold books written in English. No luck.

So, I decided to check Japan's Amazon.com, to my surprise they had the book! Satoshi and I calculated the difference of Pounds to Yen and Australian dollars to Yen. The price on Amazon Japan was cheaper than the original price! (yeah!) Not very cheap in American dollars though, but I really wanted this book!

I ordered the book from Amazon Japan. I am still amazed at how trusting most companies handle their payment for orders via the phone or internet. Amazon Japan has a couple of unique ways of taking care of payment for orders via the internet. The most obvious is that you can charge it to your credit/charge card. The next way, is that you can go to the convenience store and pay for items with a charge slip. And the last way, is C.O.D. (cash on delivery). I don't use my credit card here in Japan, so I was looking at either the convenience store way or C.O.D.
At Amazon Japan, with a purchase over a certain amount, you can get free delivery service of your items. The catch is that you need to use the convenience store payment method. If you choose the C.O.D. method, they'll tack on $2.60 handling charge....

So, of course, I chose the convenience store method...the email message states that they will email you a payment number, take the number to a convenience store and pay. Then within 24 hours of payment, your purchases should be in your hands!

I placed my order on 7/22...and waited for the payment number to come, I checked my email account daily, getting a bit antsy....then finally, on 7/30, the payment number came!

I printed out the bar code, and took it to the nearest convenience store, they scanned in the number, and then I paid.

It is more than 24 hours since I have paid, hopefully it will come today....ooh, there's the doorbell.

It's here, it's here...I tore open the box and plastic wrapping.

Wow, this book is rather large! with very interesting commentary and beautiful photos...23 of Neale's "food heroes", sharing some of their favorite recipes along with personal interviews.

Can't wait to start reading this one! (Thanks again, Keiko!)