Hello, nice to meet you all, this is my first time posting.

Im not actually in the military, but I do come from the usa, and now currently living on the outskirts of Tokyo.

My question is this:

1. Can I buy an American region PS3/Wii on the base, with English games? (my japanese is still not great)

2. For the Wii, can we download english speaking games from it (nes, snes games)

3. I was thinking about getting the new Final Fantasy 14 (an online game), is there a best buy/gamestop on the base?

4. Does the base accept yen currency?

5. If there is a place I can purchase these on the base, can I please have the number?

Thanks, and answers will be appreciated

Im sorry but if you are not SOFA status you can not purchase anything on base. Only millitary ID card holders and autherized other SOFA status can. Im guessing you dont have an AP/FPO addresse either but if you know of anyone who is willing to let you use thiers amazon.com. We all order our gaming stuff from their you get it in a few days to a few weeks much faster than othersites. And just because your from the states doesnt not grant you Status Of Forces Agreement status. Im sorry we cant help you.

I'm playin FFXI atm and will make the switch over to FFXIV. I'm sure someone can bring you on base to buy some at the NEX just make a shopping list and you can get the hook up.

Not to be crabby or mean or anything but on such an open forum where anyone can read this I think its appropriate.

Taking someone on base and buying iteams for them can result in the person who holds SOFA status loosing all base privliages. In addition to this this said person can be sent home to the states .Also the person that is not autherozied to shop at the millitary facility can be charge with fraud not only from both the Japanesse goverment/ american goverment, but extradited to the states and prosecuted there. Same as in the states but here they ship you back home too and add another goverment to deal with.
I know this probly only happends in extream cases (and maybe has never acutally happend). I know the worst thing for a dependant would be being sent back home to the states and that has happend.And really who wants to see that? I dont want to see anyone get into any trouble and I think we can all agree on that. So in cases like these we should stick to the rules and discourage people from using our forums to troll for people to get them on base. This site is a tool for supporting eachother not for this sort of thing.


Also adding my husbands two cents as he won't leave me alone or make his own profile. This is also an OSPEC issuse. We dont know who this person actually is. What we do know is that they are a person looking for a servicemember or a dependant and away to get on base. We do know that the cant get on base and want to play on sympathies. Also we can also infer that they are of no part of  our millitary community.
These are not good things. Even possible meeting this person puts you at risk as there are lots of ememies of the millitary, americans, ect. People get kidnapped everyday. We always teach childern not to trust whom you meet online but rarly follow it our selfs. This is a person who is not autherized to be on base and really has no  business being there. And although we are not mean people and we do like to help who we can. The
responsibility to our community, our website and our safty must come first.

Now Im going to bed and hope he leaves me alone Although I am intrigued as to why he won't shut up about the oringial post.........Im tired.

meh, you best bet is to just order online from amazon, it will get here in a week.

"What we do know is that they are a person looking for a service member or a dependent and away to get on base."

well first of all, as stated i am an American visa holder, and therefore i can get on base by just bringing my passport, at least this is what they let my other American friends do, second i didn't come here "looking for service members" i came here with questions about video games, so tell your husband to stop being paranoid.
also it sounds like your trying to degrade my character in view of other members reading my post, which i absolutely don't appreciate especially since this was my first time posting, and i wanted to possibly meet other Americans in this country, and genuinely wanted to know about the retail on the base as well, and especially since i heard there was a taco bell (guilty pleasure).

Maybe you weren't trying to turn people on me, but you come off the way.

"We do know that the cant get on base and want to play on sympathies."

actually i never said i "couldn't" get on base, you assumed that, instead you should have assumed i was far from the base and had questions that i wanted answered before spending 2-3 hours to get to the base.

"Also we can also infer that they are of no part of our military community."

no, not anymore

"These are not good things. Even possible meeting this person puts you at risk as there are lots of enemies of the military, Americans, etc."

the person whom replied never said he was going to try to meet me, again, where are you getting this from?


Thanks a lot, i came to ask a very innocent question, and you have turned it into persecution, and now that Ive written this, its going to attract hate-mongers whom love to flame war, instead of people who genuinely want to answer my question...

Primemas, thank you for your answer, your maturity and rationality is greatly appreciated.

Could anyone tell me about the wii? If I buy an american version, can i download the american games on the wii's built in "catalog" while residing in japan?

Posted By OhimeKowai on 26 Aug 2010 09:06 AM
Primemas, thank you for your answer, your maturiy and rationality is greatly appreciated.

Could anyone tell me about the wii? If I buy an american version, can i download the american games on the wii's built in "catalog" while residing in japan?

We live off base with Japanese ISP and have ordered games with our Wii Points- in English.  You shouldn't have a problem.  They were US Wii Point cards and an American Wii, but I have no idea if it makes a difference.  Hope that helps a little!

Actually the way you come across is what my husband found disturbing to him. I dont know why and you never stated that you wanted to meet other americans. Also my father could not get on base with just a passport and he is an american citizen. You can not either. You can try if you like. PSD will tell you no and if you try to go directly through the gate the MP's are not friendly. So we know you cant get on base.And if you were ever part of a millitary community you would know. You can even get on a base in the states with out an ID card or ID cardholder. You would also know the strick rules of shopping on base. And my husband is not a hate monger you just sound fishy.Really fishy.

And when you want to ask question you need to make your self sound not so fishy. We just got back our site. If we start getting alot of posts that sound fishy the navy will shut us down again and I dont think we will get our site back a 2nd time. So be aware that we are troll by offical channles.

I think she was just asking a question because she didn't know if she could or not. Unfortunately, the answer to the question is that the Japanese government doesn't allow us to let people from off the base come here to shop. But somehow, they allow us to open the gates several times a year to ANYone who wants to come in the name of "friendship" and buy overpriced food and drink (that is another story for another day).

So my advice to the OP is to come to one of the open bases, spend some time with some fellow Americans, make some friends who like games and other stuff same as you, and go from there. Or make friends with some people here and meet somewhere off base sometime. That way you are a person, and people can verify that you are who you claim to be and get to know you. No one is really going to just bring someone on the base who they dont know the very first time that they meet, its just the way the current world is. But I'm sure someone wouldn't mind hosting you for some Taco Bell from time to time once they get to know you.<!--Session data--><input onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setTimeout('jsCall()',500);}" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><div id="refHTML"></div>

Rea, no offense but you sound really immature, Im going to ask you in a really friendly manner this one time to not post in my thread again unless it pertains to what I originally asked, and as you can clearly see no one else thought my post sounded "fishy" which is wasnt, but it does sound to me like your someone who likes to create drama where there is none.

Im going to ask you one more time, since after all, you are representing the military and our country, and although this is a site for military in Japan, nonetheless, people around the world are able to view your comments. So once again Im going to ask you not to post unless it pertains to my question, I dont want you hijacking my thread with an unnecessary flame war, be it from yourself or others. Oh, and I didnt need to state that I wanted to find American friends in my OP, quite frankly thats none of your business, and neither is my extremely short term in the military (which is why I know little about it - obviously).

And to others viewing this; once again please dont pertain your answers to Rea's comments, but instead to my original question. Shes seeking attention, so please dont give it to her.

Now, onto a random bit of info, I was walking through Akibahara today and found a shop on the 2nd and 3rd floor selling English games. I'll give the address when I get on again, but my husband wants to use the PC now.

To the guy with the wolf icon (sorry dont remember the sn) thanks for the info! Youve helped me make a decision about the wii

oops, sorry the person who gave me the info about wii is Tirani! Thank you!

Ok, so if your ever in Akibahara you can go here for some english games: 1-15-3, sotokanda, chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0021

I have the address because I asked for a business card so I can find the place again, just wanted to mention this just in case I sounded "fishy"... lol

Edit: They sell only consoles, and console games, no PC games.

@Primemas, Tirani

Primemas, you said your getting ff14, did you preorder it? Anyhow I have a question about FF14 maybe you would know.

If I bought FF14 from a Japanese store, and get the Japanese CD's, can I choose to run it in English?

When my husband and I went to Akiba yesterday, we asked one of the clerks about the English version, but he said something about downloading the english version when it comes out, although FF11 and WoW comes with CD's...???!
Is this something new? I know WoW started doing something similar to this.

Tirani Im asking you as well since you live off-base, and maybe you have to deal with the dual-language as well (but im only assuming you reside with a Japanese person).

Any info would be great

For your first question, closest Gamestop is Guam. Just returned from there today, if I saw your post a week ago I could have picked you up something while there. There are 2 that I know of, 1 on Anderson Air Force base and the other at the Micronesia Mall. I'll be heading back in about 3 months if anyone wants me to make a run for them :-D

FF14 will be avail for direct down load if you can not find a place to buy it. I sure you will not be able to run it in English if you buy it in japan. PM me if you need help finding a copy of the English one. I got into the beta but couldnt run it on my computer so make sure you have the right setup. You should check out playonline.com thats how I D/L FFXI a few times lol.

Hi Mikel, I actually found a place in Akiba that sells English games, and he said several of the US Wii games are compatible with the Japanese Wii, and apparently PS3 has no region setting (when we get one)

Primemas, thanks for the info, my next question would be (this is probably dumb to ask since no one has the game yet), if i do the download, do they give you a serial number for the purchase? My PC gives me problems, and I have to reformat every now and then. Would I have to spend an extra 50 after reformatting just to get the game again?

Also, my husband wants to be able to play FF with me, and I know that we're able to load the game again (if we have the CDs) onto another PC/PS3, is it possible to make a second character on my account and play both characters at the same time (So I dont have to spend an extra 50).

Haha, sorry I know Im asking a lot

You will have to buy two content ID's and pay $30 bucks a month to run both accounts. You'll only pay the $50 once and get the serials and stuff. If you have issues with your PC you should just buy it on disc because the files are saved on your PC. When they get it in at the NEX I'll let you know. Keep in mind even if you buy it on disc you'll still need to buy two content ID's if you two want to play together. You can more than one character under one Id but they can not play at the same time, we call those characters mules as they are normally used to store extra goods.

alright thanks everyone! unfortunately i just ran the benchmark yesterday and only scored a 188

Guess Im going to have to either go to a manga kissa shop to play it, or Im going to have to wait to get it on the PS3 (when we get that system)

FF14 is once again doing the beta testing. Im going to see if my PC really CANT run it smoothly.

For anyone reading this, now is the time to find out yourself as well. Just stop by square-enix' site to apply for beta.