Sony Vaio Laptops in Japan.

I know there had been quite a few threads about laptops in this forum, although none of them seems to answer my question or about Sony Vaio laptops which I'm interested in. I'll be in Japan around Tykyo, Osaka, and Kyoto during my two weeks stay and will be purchasing a Sony Vaio Series S laptop. It's alot cheaper than in Europe and better specs for the money I will spend. I don't mind about the Japanese OS which I can learn to use (since I'm learning the language), or install an English version of winXP. But I would like to know the location of stores around the area to purchase a Vaio. I could however answer this question by hunting for hours on end to find the right price, but I would like some advice and recommendation before doing so. Thank you in advance.

Btw... What voltage does Japan uses? 220-240? Just wondering if I can charge my UK Sony camcorder in the power supply without blowing it up! :D

Japan uses 100volt. Different from Europe.

As george wrote, Japan uses 100V AC current. Depending where you are in Japan, it can be 50 Hz or 60 Hz (the west and east of the country are different).

As for plugging in your camcorder to recharge: The adapter may be able to handle Japanese AC voltage; check the specs on the adapter.

The other issue is physically will the plug go in the outlet. And here the answer is, No! Japanese outlets take plugs with two, equal-sized,
flat prongs, unlike the round ones used in UK and Europe.

So if your adapter can take Japanese AC, then you'll still need a prongs adapter; if your adapter cannot take Japanese AC, then you'll either need a
transformer or a different adapter.

the vaio is way cheaper, i saw them in akihabara in tokyo. they have higher spec's than the intnl market I think, like 100 gig and dvd burner for the same spec gear(1.6) in say the US. the OS will absolutely do yur head in tho, and ther are major compatibility issues with the syntax etc, yu cant just download any prgrm off the net and run it. wat i did was format the drive and load eng OS on one partition and jap OS on another,its way too hard and slow trying to understand jap straght off the bat!!! also dont listen to the japanese when they say it cant be done, and yu cant do that, we did everything we needed to in the end.!

I got myself one in March 2006 from a large departmentat store at Akiba US XP setup on it.

My Laptop runs Japanese XP windows and it seems to run any language programs on it without a problem - afterall most if not all of my programs are English based versions.

The J-XP is handy for typing in Japanese however and also better in supporting Japanese documents and emails. As far as I'm concerned XP technology has a core system which is the same across all languages, a new thing they brought out after Win ME and 2000. It is only the layouts/icons that are different so theoretically the programs will work on any language XP installation.

Although a Japanese's keyboard is fairly diff to an US keyboard. So you have to get adapted to its format. 2ndly, should you decide to reinstall an English XP/VISTA on it one day, you need to install the right keyboard driver.

As for where to buy the SONY VAIO - I suggest you purchase in Kyoto because I compared prices and it is cheaper there for most electronics. Osaka and Tokyo's Akihabara however are similarly priced, also you might be able to get 5% Tax off at the bigger shops.

SONY VAIO - hmmm.. does it have international warranty? Laptops aren't easily fixable unlike a desktop pc. One component failure might render the whole laptop useless.

Please make sure it has international warranty. Or I think Toshiba has that, and they also make really good laptops. Or consider buying an HP from Japan?

Check out the Sony Building in Ginza. That is the only store that is authorized to sell English language versions of their laptops.

http://www.sonybuilding.jp/e/index.html

I bought a TX-series VAIO there last year before they were out in the States. It was a ''For Export Only'' model and carried a 1 yr International warranty.

That is the only store that is authorized to sell English language versions of their laptops.

Are you sure? I thought that I saw lots of English language Vaio laptops being sold in the duty-free shops of Akihabara:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3003.html

well ts true u can buy very cheap laptop in japan.well i would really recommend yamada denki store in namba nankai station.they have best price all over japan.u should buy japanese os its cheap all u need to do just put ultimate visat and change language whichever u want.