Help out a Texas Fan!

[loveforgambit.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I've seen a couple of posts like this, but please delete it if it's not allowed.

Okay so here is the question:
Does anyone know of a store in the Austin, Texas area that would have JE magazines, such as Wink Up. Potato and Duet?   Or a store in the US that would ship them to me?

Also:
Out of all the idol magazines (ie Wink Up, Potato, Myojo, Duet, etc.), which ones tend to have the most/best pictures of Arashi?  If I get a subscription, I would like to get my moneys worth.  Also if they have Ikuta Toma, that would be cool too. ^_^

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help!

-Adrian

Update:  Thank you guys for all of your help!!!!  You guys are the best!

Comments

[dw9lives.livejournal.com]

oh hey, another Austinite, hello there. :D as for magazines sold here, you are out of luck, so sorry! but i know you can have them shipped to you... i just don't have the info, sorry. no wait... i may have heard of some Japanese store up north that sells them? i know they rent dvds with tv programs like complete eps of Music Station...

okay, i'm no help, sorry. i'm pretty sure there are other Texans here, hope they can help you!

[stellabymo0r.livejournal.com]

hi im located in ca and if u need help getting je mags I can help u cuz there is a bookstore here that's sells them.

[hikarinoniji.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I'm afraid I can't help you in the matter of finding the books (as I live on the other side of the world), other than pointing out that both CDJapan and YesAsia sell both separate magazines and have a subscription service.

But as for magazines. I have a Myojo subscription, and they have usually very long interviews/pretty Arashi pictures. And Toma has his own page too monthly. (And Myojo has quite some Arashi posters in its issue's)

[pi-hiatus.livejournal.com]

kinokuniya is also an option. i guess the closest one would be somewhere in CA. i lived in Boston and every so often i called down the kinokuniya in NY for certain magazine. they will do shipping to a different state if you pay the shipping cost. however, if you are planning to get those magazines on a monthly basis, i would recommended you to have someone get them and ship them to you to be more cost efficient.

[amgbaby17.livejournal.com]

so glad to see another Texas fan lol but sadly i have no answer for you except that just like the rest of us you'll probably have to order them online. I wish i knew where there was a store but i do not. If i do find one then i'll be sure to let you know :)

[nanikore-lj.livejournal.com]

I'm also from the Houston area (Sugar Land) (though currently going to college in California). Just wondering, what store in Houston can you order these magazines from? o.o

[flange5.livejournal.com]

Daido is fabulous&hearts

[(Anonymous)]

Hello, fellow Houstonian here! May I ask what store you order through?

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! I've been there before but I've never ordered magazines through them. :) Can you tell me what kind of fees they charge?

[(Anonymous)]

Ouch, that's a bit steep for me... I'm not really looking for subscriptions, more like a per-issue basis. Am I allowed to do that or does it have to be in "bulk," so to speak?

[chubby71.livejournal.com]

singles issues are approx. $12-15 each... and they are gone fast... so if you want a particular issue, you might want to call ahead...

btw, hello, fellow arashi fans in texas! =)

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep that in mind! :)

[(Anonymous)]

Great, I'll definitely ask, thanks! You've been very helpful! :)

[loveforgambit.livejournal.com]

Is that the price with shipping from Japan or shipping to your house?

[shardaunei.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I found this since I'm going to Houston tomorrow. Do they sell magazines at least, maybe back issues?

[lady--ishtar.livejournal.com]

I live in London, so I can't help you with the first question!

But I can give my opinion on the second. Personally, the magazines I buy most are Wink Up and Popolo. I sometimes buy the others if I see online that they have good Arashi content, or a nice Arashi cover feature.

I get Wink up because there's always a good poster, and posters are something I want a hard copy of. I'm happy to read interviews and see photoshoots as scans online, but I want a proper copy of the posters so that I can put them up on my wall! (Myojo is also good for posters).

I get Popolo because out of all the idol magazines, I like the layout best and I find it prettiest and most colourful. It usually has a good equal amount of focus on all my favourite idols, and a fair amount of Arashi content.

But to be fair, Arashi's so popular at the moment, they're really heavily featured in all the idol magazines. The amount of Arashi-related stuff varies from month to month in every magazine, but whichever one you get is going to have quite a lot, so I wouldn't worry too much about which one you choose!

[nanikore-lj.livejournal.com]

Another online option other than CDJapan and YesAsia is ordering from people on Livejournal communities, such as je_sales or marketplace_je

[eggchan.livejournal.com]

Not in Texas, but I will let you know that I totally prefer the posters that come in Duets and Potatos. I had a Myojo subscription at one point and got really fed up with seeing Hey Say JUMP all the time XD;; I think that Popolo also has some really good stuff on them and their posters can be quite good too :D

hope it helps~ and good luck~

[cool1412.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much what everyone said above. I'm just commenting because I'm surprised there are actually fans in Austin! I'm in Austin too (for school, UT) but I've only been here for a year; but my friend who's lived here for a long while says that yeah, the China town doesn't have many Japanese things if any.

In Houston where I live, there is Nippan Daido as they said above, which is pretty much the only actually Japanese place, otherwise you'll only find bits and pieces of Japanese things in Asian stores (food, toys, bootleg DVDs from other countries, in that order), and probably not ever the magazines.

If you ever find a place in Austin, you should tell me :) I'll explore Austin too and ask around in the Japanese club I'm in who've been here for a lot longer than me, but right now, I don't know.

[loveforgambit.livejournal.com]

I just graduated from UT!!!!! It's nice to meet another Longhorn. ^_^

[the-dizzy.livejournal.com]

Me too!!! I graduated May 09. Wow...I didn't know there were so many Arashi fans at UT..I only knew of one or two.

[the-dizzy.livejournal.com]

I graduated from UT this past May!

Have you heard of Asahi? (6105 Burnet Rd Austin, TX 78757). They mostly carry food but they also carry a few magazines. The magazines they carry are pretty much either Josei Seven types or fashion. Sometimes there will be ones that have Arashi stuff in them. They also have tons of drama and variety dvds for rent. (I saw Bambino and Uta no Oniisan this way)

Austin Karaoke also has a sizable catalog of Japanese songs including lots of Arashi ones. (6808 N Lamar Blvd B120, Austin TX 78752)

[acidae.livejournal.com]

I was going to comment on this earlier but it completely slipped my mind, sorry! I'm from Canada so I don't have a clue about where you can find stores selling those magazines, but I can try to answer the second question?

Personally, I enjoy Duet, Potato and Wink Up most. Myojo has a definite HSJ bias (they come with a lot of HSJ posters, stickers, CD boxes, etc.) and their shoots aren't particularly spectacular either. While Popolo has been really pimping Arashi heavily the past year or so (they get about three times the number of pages they used to back in 2005 or 2006 nowadays) and you can technically get more bang for your buck, I'm not a fan of their awkward size and paper quality-- especially the paper quality, actually, because it's very flimsy and prone to tearing or creasing. Their shoots are also kind of hit or miss: either I really like them, or I really don't, but I guess that's just a personal preference.

In comparison, I find that the other three magazines are of higher quality, both the paper and the photoshoots. They don't offer Arashi freebies as often as Popolo does, but they're nicer when they do, and Arashi's been so popular lately the pin-up/shiny board things are included pretty frequently anyway. All three of them have about the same amount of Arashi pages in their regular monthly shoots, around 7-8 pages or so; Duet has a 3-page Arashizm serial column going on every month in addition to that, and Wink Up also has a 2-page Aramashi Arashi serial (it's almost ending though, and I'm not sure what they're going to replace it with if any).

Oh, and pretty much all the magazines include Toma now, so it's not really a problem if you're looking for pictures of him too. Hope that helps!

[momentarily.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to completely second this comment.