buying vaio in japan?

1) will the keyboard in japanese or with english option? or have any dedicate layer/sticker ?

2) the window will be in Japanese also, will it able to change to English version? will the shopkeeper able to help on this?

3) I saw some shop is showing duty free sticker, the retail price that shown in those price is normal already duty-free or have not minus out the 5% yet?

thanks

1) will the keyboard in japanese or with english option? or have any dedicate layer/sticker ?

Japanese. Sony products especially are heavily regionalized, and I haven't heard of vaio offering english anything in Japan. So if its a laptop you are likely out of luck, but you can always swap out to a 3rd party keyboard if it is a desktop.

2) the window will be in Japanese also, will it able to change to English version?

Yes, if it is a laptop you will lose the use of your function keys and other oem functions. Desktops will also lose some functionality. Note that vaio puts a lot of proprietary software on their machines that you may or may not want. Reinstalling the OS will wipe out this software.

will the shopkeeper able to help on this?

Depends on where you buy it. It will require the purchase of an english os, essentially canceling any price advantage you may have by buying in Japan.

3) I saw some shop is showing duty free sticker, the retail price that shown in those price is normal already duty-free or have not minus out the 5% yet?

The tax should be included in the price (its part of the law in Japan), so you can expect a 5% discount from the sticker price. However, shops that handle primarily duty free merchandise may not be required to add tax to the sticker price. It would be best to ask before purchasing.

Just to add to that, if you get the "Ultimate" version of Windows (e.g. Vista Ultimate) then you can change the language without reinstalling the OS.

If you are buying with a plan to take it home soon, and you want an English OS and keyboard, I have my doubts whether it would be worth it.

Buy your Vaio at the Sony Building in Ginza. An international version should be available and will be sold duty free if you show your ticket and passport. But I don't think it will be cheaper than what you can buy back in your country.

The keyboard will be the normal English keypad if you buy the international version and Japanese keypad for Japanese version.

Windows Vista can be swapped to other operating language in the control panel by yourself.

Not sure about the price but remember to show your passport if you are a tourist!

I bought my international version Vaio at Yodobashi Umeda but that's a while ago (2004). I'm pretty sure you can still get them but generally they are more expensive than their Japanese counterpart. Oh, and they do comes with a year of international warranty.

Jimmy makes a good point about Vista Ultimate. I would wait until after October 22 to buy as they will then come with Windows 7, and if you get the Enterprise or Ultimate editions you can change the OS language as with Vista Ultimate. Again, unless the computer comes with Windows Vista/7 Ultimate, then paying for an upgrade will likely cancel out any savings. Really the only advantage to buying in Japan would be to get a model that they don't offer in your country. Otherwise you will likely be paying more and go through more trouble then you really have to.

here's a link to changing windows 7 languages:

http://windows7center.com/tutorials/how-to-download-and-install-window...

at the moment they come with window xp home only, i may need to think twice again as upgrade to enterprise or ultimate may cost me a lot and this better for me to purchase in my own country which come in English.

thanks

please help, for this package, is that they are offering one day metro ticket free?

1) if staying 3 nights, are there free 3 tickets?

2) each ticket is per room or per person as we got 2 persons in room?

thanks

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You will be given 1 ticket per person for the whole duration of your stay.

just to add some info. if you are going to buy the owner-made(meaning customizable) laptops, then you can change the keyboard to an English one for 5000yen.

a Yodobashikamera(famous electric shop )have a outlet shop in Kawasaki.Kawasaki is near Tokyo district.
You can buy a various old model PC including VAIO more than about 20% discount.
Let's visit there if you chance to go Tokyo direct.

Note that a "Japanese keyboard" is a standard "English" qwerty keyboard with some keys rearranged and some keys changed, however the overall design is very similar to your standard "English" keyboard, so if you are already used to your standard "english" qwerty keyboard, once you start usin a Japanese keyboard and understand some keys are different, you get used to it pretty fast.

As for operating system, since they are shipped with XP mainly (vista really got a cold reception in Japan, so it is very common to still see XP shipped with products) new Windows 7 might be an improvement. If you're getting your standard Japanese XP home which is most likely shipped with the Vaio then no you can't change the OS to english, you'd pretty much have to install an Enlish OS version which means you either have one or you need to purchase one. Which then makes the price nil.

Picture of a Japanese keyboard:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Japanese_keyboards....

I have a vaio an old one (9 years old) but using Linux, newer windows takes up too much memory space and is not secure, over 90 percent of the functions found on windows the average person doesn't need or would probably never use. I never understood someone who needs 3ghz processor to check email and surf the net.

If you can understand some japanese it should be fine. I bought a sony vaio VGN-NW70JB, great price at nojima.

I know some japanese and it has been really easy to use.

The keyboard has all the keys you need only in a kinda diferent order.

Vista Ultimate will allow you to install several language packs for your operating system (Windows 7 Ultimate offers the same functionality I think). Contrary to what a previous poster wrote, Windows Vista is (was) available on almost every computer sold in Japan. The only place where I've seen Windows XP still being sold on new computers was in the case of business models that offered the option to downgrade from Vista to XP.