I am an American... Honest...

All I want to do is order software...

Here's a little background:

I am running an American computer with an American OS (For you folks in Colorado, it's my little black laptop... I haven't changed anything... it even still has some of Kevin's bookmarks in it).

All I want to do is order Manga Studio (A comicbook making program).

I go to their website and find that I can order anything for download except Manga Studio... which I must purchase a boxed copy of... and they will not ship the boxed copy to Japan, sorry.

I call technical support, they say, "Well, the Japanese version is called "Comic Studio" (Now THERE'S an irony), you could buy that.

No, actually, I can't. 1) it's Japanese Windows, which may or may not work on an American Windows system, 2) It's all in Japanese... which, as amazing as I have become in Japanese over the last three months (Read: Not at all), I'm still not ready to spend three months trying to figure out how to open a file...

Right, well (Continues Technical Support). Then here's a link to the US store, go on ahead and go through there.

Cool! (I have to get all kinds of other things together for the purchase, so it's not until yesterday that I actually start the process).

I go there, order the product and everything, and before I get to payment screen, I get "This item is not available in your area. Check with your local retailer". The website had figured out I was connecting from Japan...

Here we are in a global economy, and people are able to figure out what part of the internet you are "calling" from?

My options are to wait until I return to America, Order a boxed copy and have it shipped to me (At an additional $40 expense... since the program is $50, that's doubling it's price, not to mention making dad or someone have to repackage it and ship it over here). Or (And here's where things get all kinds of messed up), have someone in the States download it, then upload it to my server space, and then I can download it from there...

All of this because I happened to be an American using an American PC overseas...

Instead, they are absolutely sure I am Japanese using a Japanese PC who wants to really mess up his system by installing American software which was purchased with American Dollars which were exchanged from Japanese Yen just for this nefarious purpose...

Well, I'm glad they have a plan to stop that... it must happen more often than Americans using computers overseas...

---Me. (Stuck with whatever I came over here with for three years, until I figure out a better plan, anyway)