I wrote a post about the large DVD, CD, manga rental chain called “TSUTAYA” in Japan…(click here to read it).
Well, I just saw a TV commercial for a new service they’re beginning…CD / DVD rental delivery.
To use this service, you would access their website via computer or cell-phone, order the DVDs you want, and they’ll mail them to you…then to return them, you simply place them in a public mailbox (outgoing mail is never placed in home mailboxes like it is in America. Contrary to the picture above, Japan’s mailboxes don’t have flags on them for outgoing mail like U.S. mailboxes do).
There is no membership fee to join the TSUTAYA delivery service, nor any late return fees.
And the postage for both the delivery and returning the DVD is paid by TSUTAYA.
The cost is ¥1,974 / month (about US$21*) and up to eight DVDs can be rented each month. That comes to ¥247 (about US$2.73) per DVD.
How much is DVD rentals in your city? (What city do you live in?) Leave a comment about it.
I won’t use this service, though. For four reasons:
- I don’t rent DVDs or CDs too often.
- There’s a TSUTAYA within walking distance from my house…I can just go there.
- I have never bought anything online yet. I don’t feel comfortable with online shopping.
- Although ¥247 (about US$2.73) isn’t a bad price for DVD rental…every Wednesday, TSUTAYA rents DVDs for ¥199 (about US$2.20) each (even new ones) at the branch near my house (I’m not sure if all their branches do that).
So, if I want to rent a DVD or CD, I go there on a Wednesday.
If you live in Japan and you want to use the TSUTAYA DVD Delivery Service. Click here to access their delivery site (it’s in 日本語 (Japanese)).
* (All US dollar amounts are based on the Japanese ¥en → U.S. Dollar exchange rate on February 1, 2009.)
Tokyo Five 
Yeah, bee really careful of returning DVDs late…..even 1 minute will cause a “the system charges automatically” response (which is actually untrue, as even non-managerial staff have waved late fees for me in the past, when I was 2 min late) It’s worth trying to get the fees waved.
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It’s best just to return them time and avoid that hassle! That said, I’ve forgotten to return rented DVDs before and had to pay late fees…sometimes more than I paid to rent the movie in the first place!
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gigihawaii…
>We were the only ones laughing!
Yeah, humor is hard to translate!
I’ve had similar experiences. One that comes to mind is when I watched “Mr. Baseball” in a Tokyo theater in about ’92.
That movie stars Tom Selleck as an American baseball player who gets traded to a Japanese team…and all of the cultural differences.
The parts that I found funny and the parts that the Japanese audience laughed at were quite different.
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We watched BIG, starring Tom Hanks, in a theater in Zagreb, Croatia back in 1990.
We were the only ones laughing! I guess the Croats didn’t catch the humor. Pretty bizarre.
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Eric…
HAHAHA! 😀
That’s part of the experience, I guess.
Maybe I’ve become old-fashioned…but I enjoy going to the theater occasionally.
Actually, in my experience, Japanese people are usually quite polite and quiet at theaters (and everywhere else, too).
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gigihawaii…
Sorry, I misunderstood. It’s quite a bargain then!
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I don’t usually go to the movie theater. Nowadays the experience is always disappointing I find. The picture quality is no where near Bluray, and I hate putting up with other peoples annoying habits. The last movie I went to see an old couple sat behind me and ate noisily from a crinkly noisy plastic bag, and talked a lot.
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NO, it does NOT come to $6 a disc. We get 3 discs AT A TIME, not per month. So depending on how fast we watch the discs and return them, we could very well be paying 50 cents or less per disc!
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Sir Pent…
>$4-5 per rental.
Is it that expensive in America? People say Japan is expensive…but I think it’s less expensive than America for alot of things.
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gigihawaii…
>For around $18 per month, we get 3 DVDs at a time.
That’s US$6 per DVD. I pay the equivalent of just over US$2 per DVD here.
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Mario…
>free movies online
I can’t condone free movie or music sites. 😉
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Eric…
>the internet is the best video store ever.
I know what you mean 😉
But sometimes we like to watch a DVD on the TV as a family. And sometimes we like to go to a theater to watch a movie together.
When we go to the 映画館 (movie theater), we buy tickets at the “discount ticket” shops. Or we’ll go on the first day of the month…when theaters have “Ladies Day” and tickets are ¥1,000 for women (then only I need to buy a ticket at the discount shop).
Do you ever go to a theater? Do you use the discount ticket shops?
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Tom…
>I’d consider using this just so I wouldn’t have to pay the late fees.
Do you return DVDs late often?
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bartman905…
>I wonder how long physical discs will stay around and be replaced by streaming videos with the ever increasing bandwidth speed?
But for paranoid people like me who never buy anything online, regular “brick & mortar” stores and regular DVDs, CDs, airline tickets, etc are necessary (and I hope they remain forever!)
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I wonder how long physical discs will stay around and be replaced by streaming videos with the ever increasing bandwidth speed? For example, Japan has the fastest broadband speed in the world.
I think I read somewhere that Netflix is one of the few companies that have done well during this global recession and that their new streaming video service (I think available through the Xbox360 console) has been a big hit.
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I’d consider using this just so I wouldn’t have to pay the late fees. (And Tsutaya is in walking distance from my house.)
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The service sounds interesting. I don’t think I would use it enough to get my moneys worth. Let’s just say the internet is the best video store ever.
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You can save money by watching free movies online. Two good sources I use are:
thecinemahub.com
watch-movies.net
The first one appears to be new, and doesn’t have a lot of content, but what’s cool is you can subscribe and get e-mail notifications when something is put up. The second has a lot more content, even brand new stuff, but the quality is so-so.
Cheers!
Mario
P.S. Both are streaming, so no need to worry about downloading viruses or any junk like that
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We use Netflix. For around $18 per month, we get 3 DVDs at a time. Just mail each back in the enclosed envelope postage-free and you get another one coming to you.
It is very convenient, and the blu-ray discs we get are beautiful.
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We used to rent movies regularly, but then they got up to $4-5 per rental. Late fees, poor selection and such…it just got to be a hassle.
I’ve started just using the ON-DEMAND service with my cable provider. It’s too expensive; $4 for regular movies or $5 for Hi-Def. However, it’s way too convenient. You never leave the house, the movies are always available and you just pay for it on your monthly cable bill.
I know a lot of people that use a similar service in the U.S. called Netflix. I thought about it, but the ON-DEMAND service suites my needs better.
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