Customer Reviews

Non-No - Woman

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Don't purchase subscriptions from Amazon or Magazine Express.

The following are my experiences with a subscription to Hiragana Times from Amazon.

This page doesn't tell you is that the Japanese magazines subscribed to on Amazon and filled by a company called Magazine Express are shipped SEAMAIL from Japan which mean you'll recieve every issue 8 to 10 after it's released.

I placed my order in January and it to date have not recieved a single issue. After several phone calls, the Magazine Express people (who fill the Amazon subscriptions) said they had to restart my subscription for the May issues which will take 8-10 weeks due to shipping issues. So after ordering in January, I will not receive a single issue of this uncancelable magazine until possibly in late July. Very poor service.


This is unacceptable for a magazine that most US Japanese bookstores can get within a week or that you can order directly from the publisher for ony a few dollars more. If I had known the shipping policy I would not have ordered and the magazine supplier, Magazine Express will not cancel the subscrition.

I advise avoiding ALL Amazon magazine subsriptions due to their poorly stated policies.

**Update, I wrote this review in June. It is now July 8th and I've just been informed I must wait until August 15th to see if an issue arrives. I ordered the magazine on January 9th and I have had no resolution from either Magazine Express or Amazon who provides no way to contact anyone within Amazon about magazine orders. I reiterate, buying magazines from Amazon if a poor idea.

I've read Non-No now for several years, and I truly recommend it to anyone wanting to expand their fashion outlook-- it's true, what the previous review said about wacky fashion! However, they eat this stuff up over there! And apparently I do too or else I wouldn't have bought the magazine! My earliest Non-No mag is from may of 1995, and the fashion in that magazine didn't really catch on in America until 1997 or 1998. I promise! So if you want a two-year fashion forecast THIS IS A MUST!!!!

By the way, my brother lived in Japan for some time and he said that a Gap t-shirt was $78.

This was the first Japanese magazine I had ever perused and I was pretty impressed by all the pretty, yet conservative models. Some of the fashions are wacky and funny to the American reader, but that's what they go for. Some fashions, however, find their way into the US scene years later. Keep that in mind. The Japanese are, for the most part, trendsetters. Hong Kong and Taiwan just copy them. Most of the magazine is in color but the black and white section is probably just horoscopes, advice and interviews. I don't know. I can't read Japanese. It's alright because the pictures are entertaining enough. By the way, the Japanese have a ravenous obsession with shoes. Whatever nobody else is really wearing, they'll wear it. I hear that their fashion changes each week. I wonder how much money they spend on clothes...

The styles and trends shown in Non-No magazine are always at least 3 years ahead of the American's. I received my first Non-No magazine in June of 2001, and it is only now (in late 2006) that I'm seeing those styles here in the United States. Back in 2001, while we were still wearing regular-rise/high-rise bellbottoms, hip huggers or flare jeans, Non-No was already featuring low-waisted hip huggers, modified skinny jeans (lower-waisted, more flattering fit), and designer brands that were still relatively unknown here (Seven For All Mankind, Juicy Couture). Definitely give this magazine a shot if you want to stay aead of the trends here.

Not only is Non-No several years ahead, but it is also ahead when it comes to beauty, cosmetics and makeup application.