Looking for help acquiring Japanese keyboard

[CaptOblivious]

So, I've grown accustomed to the Japanese (JIS) keyboard layout for my work, but I am finding myself increasingly needing an ergonomic keyboard. I've gotten my hands on a US-layout Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard, and really like it. But the Japanese model isn't available for sale in the US :(

 

It is, however, readily available at Amazon.co.jp (won't ship to the US, already tried), Bic Camera, and several other places. Is there anyone in Japan that can help me acquire a pair of these (one for work, one for home)?

 

Specifically, I am looking for Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard For Business model no: 5KV-00006 (the model number is important! The '6' indicates the JIS model) :

 

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/ja-jp/b/sculpt-ergonomic-keyboard-for-business

 

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E3%82%BD%E3%83%95%E3%83%88-Ergonomic-Keyboard-Business-5KV-00006/dp/B00EN3DSS6/ref=sr_1_2

 

Although I will need receipts to get reimbursed from my employer, I would be willing to pay a little extra for your time and help on the side too, of course.

 

With thanks,

Don

[cteno4]

Don,

 

Try Nariichi san at Modeltrainplus.net, he does personal shopping like this for a very reasonable fee and provides a receipt. I've gotten an Amazon.jp item thru him this way.

 

Jeff

[tossedman]

Found this. Don't know if it ships to the U.S. of A though.

http://www.amazon.ca/Microsoft-Ergonomic-Keyboard-Business-5KV-00006/dp/B00EN3DSS6

 

This too.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Microsoft-Sculpt-Ergonomic-Keyboard-Business-USB-Port-5KV-00006-From-Japan-/301200867008

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[CaptOblivious]

Todd,

 

Thanks for the links! I had seen the one on eBay, but not the one on Amazon Canada. Sadly, those are both nearly 2.4–3.4x the list price! Surely even with shipping and additional cost, getting one sourced from someone in Japan wouldn't cost that much? I'll probably try ordering the Amazon Canada one if I can't get one directly from Japan, though, as that is the cheapest I've seen so far—thanks for that!

 

Jeff,

Modeltrainplus.net seems to be down? :(

Edited March 22, 2015 by CaptOblivious

[Densha]

It looks like there's a domain problem... www.modeltrainplus.net works.

[kvp]

It works fine as long as you type 'www.modeltrainplus.net'. Only the www-less version gives an error.

[Densha]

I have seen that happening with several other websites as well, I wonder why that is possible? Without www or with shouldn't matter as it's the same domain.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Densha

[cteno4]

It's a config in the hosting server and its name server. Most hosting services let you bind both the www and non www to the same site on the server, but you have to set it to do it that way...

 

Jeff

[kvp]

This comes from the classic naming convention system. The www prefix is for the web server, the ftp prefix for the file server and the mail prefix is usually set to the mail server. Except today, most domains use the default name for the mail server, so instad of mail.yahoo.com, you send email to just yahoo.com and it gets delivered. The email server and the webserver can be on different physical servers, but for bigger companies, the firewalls handle this and usually route both www.host.com:80 and host.com:80 to the webserver, while mail.host.com:25 and host.com:25 goes to the mail server. The naming and routing conventions however have to be set up by the owner of each domain, so it's up to them to route any usual combinations correctly. The hosting provider can help with this if the host name and the server is handled by the same company. Some browsers even try to auto guess the missing www prefix if the www-less server doesn't exist or refuses to connect (either by setup of being a mail server without web services).

 

ps: One of the funny setup errors in the early days were when the www-less server had a web service running for the company-s internal webmail or intranet services, while the server with the www was the real one intended for the general public and mistyping a name landed you on the wrong server. Proper firewalls and common sense server setup conventions got rid of this error though.