Where you can buy real Japanese high school bags
I’ve had a ton of messages overnight about my new Japanese school bag pictured in my last post. So this post should answer all your questions and I’ll do my best to let each of you know today that it’s up instead of messaging everyone in detail.
Is it a real Japanese school bag?
I’ve searched far and wide online and without naming and shaming non-responders about shipping, poor reviews, not looking original enough and so on, the best solution, in my opinion, was to buy from Amazon.co.jp. You can read real reviews, many from parents buying it for their daughter/son who is in high school, even mentioning how long they last for on average (e.g. mine a couple of years), there’s tracking, it’s fast and you can return it. So based on the reviews, I believe it’s real! 😳
N.B. Lawrarashop.com receives great reviews, I just didn’t want a splash of pink on my bag. http://lawrarashop.com/school-bags.html
Does Amazon.co.jp have an English page?
I haven’t done shopping in English on there myself, but I tried it out this morning and it seems to be fine. Everything shows and almost everything you need to know is there in English.
When you land on the homepage, near the top-right/middle of the menu you’ll see “JP” and underneath a globe (also refer to my screenshot above, second pic). There you can select English.
Does Amazon.co.jp ship to [X]?
Once you sign up, in and add your address, many product pages tell you somewhere near the product name or short description if it ships to you. Sometimes it doesn’t, so it’s best to add to cart and go to checkout. My “Beverly Hills Polo Club” school bag shipped to Australia and many of the ones I was looking at did too.
Which bag did you get? What’s the link?
I already have a kind of anime-like high school bag, like this, but because it’s mainly for work and a few hours of uni and it should be outfit-flexible, I went for the plainest/closest thing I could get to the live action high school dramas, like this. To be honest, I also wanted to avoid the super cute Randoseru school bag, as I’ve seen quite a few photos of non-primary school age foreigners on Instagram by Japanese remarking how silly it looks! 😕
The one I chose, which is unisex, is the “Beverly Hills Polo Club” school bag (http://amzn.asia/3k6hDjY). It’s black and looks like leather, but isn’t even vinyl; it’s thin, probably waterproof and is smooth and semi-plastic-y. It looks good though, especially for the price! It was around AUD50 plus *shipping.
Other popular ones (not just per Amazon) include those by Olive des Olive (e.g. http://amzn.asia/bQh7sz4), the anime-style ones (e.g. http://amzn.asia/bCkkyx8 or this Hello Kitty one), CandySugar gets a lot of good reviews online (e.g. http://amzn.asia/i3BsnDh but can also be purchased from lawrarashop.com) and this one is similar to mine.
Could I really use it for school/university?
Definitely! I probably wouldn’t put in more than a laptop (my MacBook Pro Touch Bar 15″ fits easily), notebook, one large textbook and usual daily carry, but it’s not like the cosplay ones that will probably fall apart in a week.
I haven’t been asked yet, but before it happens…I covered the polo logo on the bottom-right corner of my bag with an Anya Hindmarsh leather sticker (which doesn’t come off, so place carefully!). The keyring/bag charm is by Prada. They also do teddy bears, robots, etc. While they’re not cheap, they last forever. Really, forever.
I hope I’ve answered everything! Please also check out the descriptions I’ve given each photo, as they will provide more info on the structure and compartments of the bag. Please let me know if you get one and how you decorate it! 😊
*For shipping, I suggest adding it to cart and seeing what comes up. I bought a whole bunch of heavy stuff that came in a huge box, which came to AUD60/USD47/EU40/GBP36. I use Oanda for conversions: https://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/
https://www.amazon.co.jp (see second pic for how to use in English)
School bags on Amazon Japan (this should show most)
If above doesn’t work, paste the following into search: スクールバッグ
http://lawrarashop.com/school-bags.html (many buy theirs from here)
http://amzn.asia/aHz5HsQ (my bag)
Anya Hindmarsh leather stickers
https://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/
