self importing foreign BD titles

[buckshot]

how does one go about importing titles from say japan (same region code correct?) by oneself? is it as simple as going to amazon.co.jp? if so how does the currency conversion work? i have gone to amazon.co.jp and the translator doesn't get all the characters so much of the text is still in japanese. is there a way to solve it? i see a lot of titles whose names i can't read and/or don't have pictures.

i'd like to pick up akira, cinderella man and a few others. also, does anyone know if there is a place with the same region code as the u.s. that has serenity on blu-ray?