[Gorilla]

Hi. I'm thinking of switching over to a g4 ibook from my 5 year old sony picturebook.

I do a lot of my work and e-mail in Japanese, and have been using a Japanese keyboard layout for the last 6 years and I'm used to it and work a lot quicker in English and Japanese on it. Unfortunately, I won't be going back to Japan for at least 6 months, and I want my ibook NOW!

Does anyone have any experience ordering localized versions of macs from outside the countries theyre designed for? The ideal thing for me would be able to buy an iBook with Japanese keyboard and OS installed, from the online Apple Canada store. I tried ordering from the Japanese one, but it won't let me ship to Canada, and mails to them have been unanswered.

Any help is appreciated!

[wataru]

I think you can order after-market replacement keyboards from some companies. Do a google search. Maybe you won't need to buy the whole computer in Japan.

By the way, I don't know how you can stand the monstrosity that is the JIS keyboard.

[legacyb4]

Why does everyone dis the JIS layout?

Aside from the smaller space bar due to the henkan (keys to toggle between Japanese script modes), I find that I actually prefer the JIS layout:

1) the "@" key is right under my right pinky; given that this character is used quite frequently, that's a single stroke instead of a shift-2 that becomes necessary

2) punctuation keys (comma, semi-colon, colon) are all single strokes as well

Guess it comes from years of using the Japanese layout...

Cheers.

Originally posted by wataru:
By the way, I don't know how you can stand the monstrosity that is the JIS keyboard.

[Gorilla]

Originally posted by wataru:
I think you can order after-market replacement keyboards from some companies. Do a google search. Maybe you won't need to buy the whole computer in Japan.

By the way, I don't know how you can stand the monstrosity that is the JIS keyboard.

I was under the impression that Apple shipped all products ordered online directly from Taiwan, so I was thinking that they could just move one from the stack bound for Japan to me. I'm not sure I'll bother if it'll cost me too much extra, but thanks.

And I won't say the JIS keyboard is better. But I've been working on one so long that I automatically reach for shift-2 when I want to stick in double-quotes and it ends up slowing me down a bit. That, and I spend a lot of time switching back and forth between English and Japanese so I want that kana key.

[rjenkinson]

you might have some luck going to a service centre and asking them to order you a "replacement" japanese keyboard for you.

-r.