How to order from Liz Lisa and Tokyo Kawaii Life

NOTE - Tokyo Kawaii Life updated their website on May 10, 2017 and it now appears differently than pictured below.  
The basic concept for how to order is still very similar and you can use the current photos for reference in the interim, but I plan to update this post to the best of my ability after I make my next purchase. (I cannot change the screenshots with the specificity I currently provide without going through the entire process myself. Please be patient.)

I've decided to also do a picture tutorial in addition to my video how-to because this format might be easier for some people. This post is very picture heavy. Click pictures to enlarge.
(Does anyone know why the white in the photos is uploading as a beige-y/grey, non-white color?? Help??)
Important links - tokyokawaiilife.jp and  www.tenso.com/en/

To skip to a section of the tutorial, click below -
>>Register with Tenso
>>Register with Tokyo Kawaii Life
>>Register your address with your Tokyo Kawaii Life account
>>Shop with Tokyo Kawaii Life
>>Check-out with Tokyo Kawaii Life
>>Tenso processing, payment and shipping [updated 11/29]
>>Other notes

Register with Tenso
As Tokyo Kawaii Life does not ship overseas, you will need a Japanese address. When you register with Tenso, you will receive your own, unique address at their warehouse.

Starting from tokyokawaiilife.jp, scroll down the page and find the Tenso banner on the right.

This will take you to a page which explains how Tenso's service works (in Japanese).

Click on the first pink button to proceed.

You will arrive at Tenso's Japanese homepage. Click on "English" in the top right to be directed to the English homepage.

Click on either of the orange "Free Registration" buttons to get started.

Read the terms and conditions. If you agree, click the "Agree and proceed registration" button on the lower right.

Start filling out the member information by providing your first name

in both name blanks.

Then fill in the email address you would like to use. Please pick one that you check often, as email communication is important for this service.

Create a password and re-enter it to confirm.

Select your sex.

Enter your birthday.

And choose your subscription preference for the Tenso newsletter.

Select your country.

Enter your Zip code.

Enter your street address.

Enter your city.

Enter your state/region/province.

Enter your phone number.

Select “use this address as your shipping address” if that is the case. Else choose the other option and fill in your mailing address.

Once you have completed the form, click Continue.

Choose your preferred Payment method. I chose PayPal

Click "Continue"

Check to be sure you have correctly entered all of your information.

Read the bolded statements, check each box to agree.

Click "Send".

Your registration with Tenso is complete.

You will receive an email from Tenso including your new, unique, Tenso address broken down in parts, which can also be found at your my page at Tenso.com.

Register with Tokyo Kawaii Life
Next, you will want to register with Tokyo Kawaii Life. An account is necessary for ordering and is helpful because your information will be stored after entering it once, so you will not have to repeatedly go through the process. There are other advantages to registering such as being able to use the "wishlist/favorites" feature and receiving the member emails. You will also only see special set/sale prices in effect for your cart when you are logged in.

Back at tokyokawaiilife.jp, I am using Google Chrome as my browser with the automatic page translation turned on. This may be a good option for you if you can't read any Japanese. If you do not wish to use Google Chrome, you can still follow along and use my translated pages as a guide.

Click on the New member registration button in the upper right to start your registration with Tokyo Kawaii Life.

Choose and enter a member ID.

Create a password.

Re-enter it to confirm.

Select your sex.

Select your birth date by year

by month

and then day.

Enter your email address.

And enter your SMP email address if you have one. I don’t, so I left it blank.

Select your state as indicated in your Tenso address - "Tokyo Metropolitan area". You may have questions about this, but hopefully it will be cleared up in a few steps when we fill in the address.

Select your mail preferences. It’s my personal recommendation to sign up for Tokyo Kawaii Life emails because they often include special sale announcements or coupon codes.

Read the terms and conditions.

If you agree, check "I agree to the Terms & Conditions".

Click the pink button to proceed.

Confirm the information you have just entered.

If all is correct, click "Register" on the lower right.

 Your registration with Tokyo Kawaii Life is complete. 

Register your address with your Tokyo Kawaii Life account
After you have established your account, it will be useful to register your address. This will make the check out process much easier if done in advance.

Click on the My Page button in the top navigation, third from the left.

At your "My Page", click the third box from the left with the house in it , "Address registration and change".

Go back to your email and find the message from Tenso with your address. It may be helpful to have it open in another window so you can view the pages side by side. Enter your last name and first name as you entered it with Tenso.

The next step, which is your phonetic name, will require either a Japanese keyboard with katakana functionality or

you can google to find an English to Katakana converter.

Type in your name in English and it will convert it for you. Do this for your last and first name, then copy and paste into their respective fields.

Enter the postal code. First copy and paste the numbers left of the hyphen

and then the right.

Select your state (again) as "Tokyo Metropolitan area". This is the labelled “Region” in your Tenso address. Google chrome has translated the kanji in the drop down bar.  

If you need confirmation, A quick copy and paste of the "Region" kanji into a translator will show you that the state is indeed "Tokyo Metropolitan area" when translated.

Copy and paste the "City" field from Tenso to the "City" field for Tokyo Kawaii Life.

Copy the first half of the "Street Address" field for Tenso (stopping before the TS number) and paste into the "Town area" field for Tokyo Kawaii Life.

Copy the TS number for Tenso and paste into the "Bill apartment name" for Tokyo Kawaii Life.
Note from another user: "Your TS number followed by 転送コムmight be better suited in the "company name" field instead of the "Bill apartment name". (An anonymous commenter has disputed this. Please use company name at your own risk. I personally fill out the address using either the Bill apartment name field or the lump it with the town area.)

Your gender and date of birth should already be filled in. If that is not the case, provide the information.

Copy your "Telephone Number" from Tenso, and paste into the "Phone number" field for Tokyo Kawaii Life.

Delete the hyphens from the phone number.

Click the "Check" button in the lower right.

Confirm that the information you entered was correct. Your shipping address is an important part of the process.

Your address registration with Tokyo Kawaii Life is complete.

Shop with Tokyo Kawaii Life
Time to shop! From the Tokyo Kawaii Life home page, there are many different ways to navigate and shop with the pink navigation bar,such as "New Item", "Brand", "Category", "Color", "Price", "SALE" and "OUTLET". You can explore the website yourself, but for the purposes of this tutorial, let's start by visiting the Liz Lisa shop specifically.

Hover over the "Brand" category.

Your options with appear. Click on the Liz Lisa icon.

You will arrive at the Liz Lisa section of Tokyo Kawaii Life where you will find only items from the Liz Lisa brand.

You can browse by category and type of clothing or goods, such as "Tops"

If you see an item you are interested in, click on the picture to take you to the listing.

Here you will see other stock photos, color options, and the item description and measurements (not all pictured here). If you plan to purchase this item, click on the "I Add To Cart" button associated with the color option in which you are interested.

If the colorway is sold out, the icon will look differently and of course the item will not be placed in your cart.

If the item is in stock, a screen with your cart contents will pop up. Click on the bottom button to continue shopping.

You are able to shop with any or all of the VENT brands and purchase with one transaction. Let’s say you want to check out the items from Tralala.

Click on the Tralala icon.

You will be directed to the Tralala section of Tokyo Kawaii Life where you will be shown only items from the brand Tralala.

If you find an in-stock item you are interested in, add it to your cart.

As you can see, you are able to have items from both Tralala and Liz Lisa in your cart together. This goes for any combination of any of the brands available through Tokyo Kawaii Life. 

Check-out with Tokyo Kawaii Life
Making your purchase.

When you have added all desired items and are ready to check out, click "I proceed with your purchase".

(The follow 6 screenshots were updated as of Dec 23, 2015. )

This will take you to a more detailed version of your cart where you are able to take out items or increase the quantity if necessary. Once you are happy with your cart contents, click on the pink "Proceed to your purchase" button in the lower right.

Select your shipping address. Since you already registered it, your Tenso address should already be there, and you need only to double check it and make sure it is properly selected.

Below your address, you have the option to select a desired date and time for delivery. (I think the default is the second option which asks for a date.) You should select the first option which essentially says "Do not want" and this will have the package delivered as quickly as possible.
Next, you will enter your payment information. Your Payment Method must be selected as "Credit card".Enter your card number and expiration date. You can choose to "register"/save, your card to your account if you prefer, so that you won’t need to input the information again for your next order.

For the "Credit payment method", select "Bulk" from the drop down menu.If you are not translating the page, it should be the option with the 1 in kanji which looks like a single horizontal line. (Something similar to this - "一度") 

Do NOT select "Cash on delivery" as Tenso does not allow this.

(If you have a coupon code, for example, from an email, enter it in the box and then hit the brown button to apply it.)
Click the pink button to proceed.  

At the top right corner, I have points available for use because I have purchased in the past. If you are a return customer, enter the points you wish to use and click the left brown button. If you are a first time buyer, you probably don’t have any and should skip this step.

Review the information on the page and check to be sure that all the information is correct. The price for domestic shipping should also be included here (if applicable. Tokyo Kawaii Life has certain time periods where they will do a free shipping promotion).

This is your last chance to go back and correct anything before your order is submitted. Orders with Tokyo Kawaii Life cannot be cancelled so please be sure of what you are purchasing!

When you are satisfied that all the information is correct, click on the pink button on the right to complete your transaction.

The check-out process is now complete. 

Shortly after, you will receive an email confirmation from Tokyo Kawaii Life.

I used Gmail's "Translate message" option because the email is in Japanese. It basically shows you the details of the order you just completed.

After about one business day, you will receive another email from Tokyo Kawaii Life to notify you that your order has been shipped (within Japan). It may take longer depending on the season and whether you are purchasing during a major sale period. This email includes shipping information such as the tracking number with Sagawa Express.

I don’t usually track my package between Tokyo Kawaii Life and Tenso since it only takes around 1 business day to travel (to Tenso), but if you like, you can see the status by copying the tracking number and

clicking on the link provided below that.

You will directed to the Sagawa Express tracking site. Paste the number into the first slot and click the longer button on the right to search.

Here is your package information.

If you need this information in English, click "English" on the right.

Here is your package information in English.

Tenso processing, payment and shipping
After you make your purchase, you do not need to notify Tenso to expect your package. Tenso will dutifully contact you via email when they have received it and finished the initial processing.
UPDATE! As of mid-November 2014, Tenso has initiated new shipping options and rates! I will make edits/screenshots when I can, but the basic process is reasonably the same, and I think most of you will be able to get through this part of the process on your own without a very specific step-by-step.

This is the email you will receive from Tenso when your package has arrived at their warehouse.

Find the link to go to the login page.

Enter your email address and password, then click "Log In".

You will be directed to your Tenso "My Page".

Under "Package and Payment Information", you should see that you have one item pending for international shipment. Click on that option.

You will arrive on a list of pending items.

Review the information such as sender, number of items, subtotal and your shipping address. The default listed Shipping Method is "EMS" which is Tenso's recommended method. You do not have the option to change it on this screen. Click on the "Proceed with this Shipping Method" button to move to the next screen where you will actually get to pick.

 You will be shown a table with the different shipping methods and their prices with a breakdown of the service fee as well. The estimated shipping time is listed below the Select button.

 For more information about each shipping method, you can go to the link in the upper right

(shown here)

Select which shipping method you'd prefer. In this case, I picked SAL (Small Package). Estimated shipping time was 14 days and it was about $16 cheaper than EMS. Since I wasn't in a rush to get my package, I decided this was a good deal. Once your preferred shipping method is selected, click on the orange "Proceed with this Shipping Method" button.

Since I chose to PayPal as my payment option, I will proceed to pay via PayPal. (The process is slightly different for those who prefer to pay with credit card, obviously.)

Confirm that you will be pay the usage fee as shown by clicking "Continue".

If you are also using PayPal, click on the "Check out with PayPal" button.

Sign into your PayPal account, check your preferences and click "Continue".

Review your information one last time.

Click "Complete".

Your payment to Tenso is complete.

You will receive an email from Tenso confirming your payment and telling you that they are preparing to ship your package. If you want to get a better idea of when exactly your package will be shipped, go back to the Tenso window. If you have closed it, you may need to log in again to get to your My Page.

On the right, look at the Next Shipping Time. I made a payment before 8:00 on April 19^th, so Tenso will ship my package from Japan before 18:00 on April 21.

If you want to know what time and day it is in Japan, Tenso also provides that information for you.

The next email you will receive will be from Tenso alerting you that they have shipped your package.

If you wish to track your package from Tenso to your mailing address, copy the tracking number provided.

Click on the "Checking Shipment Status" link provided in the email. (I didn't update this photo but just look for the link.)

Click on the red "Item No. Search" button.

Paste your tracking number into the first slot.

Click the red "Tracking start" button to search.

It typically takes around 4-5 days for me to receive my package from Tenso with EMS.  
When I recently shipped with SAL, it took 7 days from the date I received the shipped email from Tenso to arrive at my house.
 Variables include time at customs and the efficiency of your local post office as well as whether Sunday or other federal holidays are included during that time.

Please feel free to ask for clarification on any of the points in the process. I will be happy to do my best to explain. If you notice any errors, please let me know!

Other notes:

• I am not fluent in reading or speaking Japanese and made this tutorial based only on past experience.
• The basics of this process will also work for other Japanese online shops such as Ank Rouge. 
• There are other business that do much of the same thing that Tenso does, but I personally have only ever used Tenso, and therefore can only speak to the reliability of its service and not others.
• If your credit card is getting rejected and you have ensured that you entered the numbers correctly, call your credit card company or bank. It may be the case that international transactions set off alerts as suspicious activity, and you will need to approve this purchase before being able to complete your order. If you plan on making more purchases in the future, considering okay-ing all activity with this company.
• You may receive an email from Tenso asking you to submit proof of identity. I completed this over a year ago and do not remember the intricacies of the process. That being said, I did not experience any problems with it. Others have mentioned that it is not mandatory to complete, and they have been able to use the service satisfactorily without it. Unless you have personal issues surrounding your ID, I would personally suggest to complete the proof of identity on the chance that you may need to ship to an address other than your own with a time restriction, which you would not be able to do without it. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact Tenso's support team directly. As I am not a Japanese resident and completed the process some time ago, I am unsure of the specifics and don't have my old email to look back on.   
• If you are having trouble with your order or using either Tenso or Tokyo Kawaii Life's services, please consider contacting them directly. 

Other posts that you might find useful -
Emiii's guide: Buying Liz Lisa online 
Tenso Usage Fees Examples
Tenso.com: Package Consolidation
Emiii's guide: How to wash (Liz Lisa) clothes