Ordering My Golden Child 2018 1st Japan Fan Meeting DVD and Using Tenso

Golden Child held their first Japan fan meeting in March 2018. On March 15th, 2019, the Official Golden Child Twitter account retweeted the DVD release of this event on May 15th here. The DVD, entitled <Golden Childのわくわく日本滞在記!>, is only sold through Tower Records Japan and online pre-orders come with a group postcard while supplies last while the Shibuya location has its own pre-order benefit of a random member postcard.

I was surprised that Woollim was releasing a DVD for this event, especially when nothing was released for Golden Day and the Fanclub Founding Ceremony was only released online on vlive. And furthermore ordering from Tower Records Japan isn't very straightforward for international fans.

Pre-orders opened exactly 2 months before the release here. Tower Records Japan only ships domestically within Japan, therefore I used proxy service Tenso where I order from Tower Records, have my order shipped to Tenso's Tokyo warehouse, and then Tenso ships my order to me. I'll walk through my process here.

1. Create an account at https://www.tenso.com/
2. Tenso will assign you an address (it's their Tokyo warehouse) that includes your unique Tenso ID
3. Provide ID verification and payment information to Tenso
4. Place your order on Tower Records (or any other Japanese site in general) and use your assigned Tenso address for the Ship To Address
5. Tenso will send an email when they receive your package (it's important that your Tenso ID is in your Ship To Address on the package so Tenso can quickly identify it's yours). Select your shipping method
6. Tenso will send your package to you

Ordering on Tower Records was quite confusing for me, especially when the site is in Japanese. There is a FAQ on ordering using Tenso on Tower Records' site, but it wasn't up to date. Below is my order information (selecting bulk order vs. individual shipments; inputting Tenso address with Tenso ID (where the red dots are); selecting shipping method):

I had pre-ordered the DVD on April 10th for ￥5,476 including domestic shipping. On May 15th (PST) I received an email from Tower Records (in Japanese) stating that my payment method was declined. I updated my payment method and Tower Records sent an email stating that my package was shipped later that day with tracking, but I was worried that my order would no longer qualify for the pre-order benefit.

Tenso emailed me stating they received my package on the 15th (PST) and asked if I had multiple packages to consolidate and for me to choose my shipping method. There were four shipping methods ranging from cheapest to most expensive: ship, SAL, AIR, and EMS. For my package, shipping and handling for AIR cost ￥1,600 and EMS cost ￥2,500 (the handling fee was ￥500). I selected EMS and Tenso shipped out my package with tracking on the 17th (PST). My package arrived on the 20th (PST)!

Tenso opened the original package to identify the contents, then sealed it back together and placed their own label on top of the original to ship to me.

Here are the contents inside! The DVD, the pre-order postcard (thank goodness I did receive one!), and the invoice. I was surprised that there was no bubblewrap or packaging cushion; the goods were just loosely placed inside the box. Thankfully the DVD looks to be in excellent condition, however the corners of the postcard are slightly bent (but hardly noticeable).

I'll review the DVD in a future post! Also I just checked the item listing on Tower Records again on May 20th, and it looks like the DVD is no longer available for purchase. I'm truly so grateful I was able to get this DVD and postcard, especially as it's my first real Japanese purchase! Update: I checked the item listing again on May 28th, and it looks like this product is back in stock, but of course without the postcard.