I'm coming home to the U.S. and want to bring some illicit material (ero manga) with me. "pornograhpic material" is listed in customs as a no-no. Have others done this without a problem? I imagine if I put it in a bag and tape it, it won't be checked. Should I put it in carry on or with my check in?Or am I better off mailing it home?The bigger a deal you make about it (suspicious packaging, nervous behavior), the more likely the customs folks are going to mistake your relatively harmless porn comic for something quite serious -- and they're going to search it.I think the best strategy would be to wrap your comic up in gift-wrap and put a gift sticker on it that says "From: [your first name]" and "To: [somebody you know in America, preferably immediate family who aren't with you on this trip]". Then, put this gift-wrapped book in your suitcase. Make sure the wrapping is thin so that the suitcase checkers can tell it's a paperback book and not a box containing explosives or drugs or some such. It wouldn't hurt to have several books of similar size packaged in this way, porn or not. One draws attention, but multiple gifts seems perfectly reasonable for somebody traveling internationally. Also, thin wrapping paper's important to let dogs get the scent of the package. I don't know if they have book-sniffing dogs (lol) but they obviously have the drug-sniffing ones, and you'd rather the dog tell its master "this is 100% not a drug" than tell its master, "Well, I'm sort of on the fence with this one. Sort of hard to tell what it is, to be perfectly honest with you," forcing the human to open up the package to see what's inside.If you'd prefer to place it in your carry-on bag, then do so but don't draw attention to yourself or to your bag. Be totally calm when they dump your bag's contents on the Customs table, if they even feel the need to do that. And when they ask what the gift-wrapped package is, tell them as very near to the truth as you can without disclosing the pornographic nature of the book. Tell them quite honestly that it's a rare Japanese comic book written by one of your little brother's favorite authors. Okay, maybe the "little brother" bit is a white lie, but how're they gonna prove that? This way, in a worst case scenario, if they rip open the packaging and see the dust jacket or flip through the book and see its contents, at least you won't have said anything to them which they could prove was a lie. It is, after all, a Japanese comic book. ^_^;Hey, thanks for your input and experience. I appreciate it. I've given it some thought, and decided I'm probably gonna mail it home. I remembered that some of the stuff I want to bring home could be considered illegal by a certain law passed under the Bush administration.Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but people have gotten in trouble for much, much stupider reasons.Any other opinions or advice from anyone is welcome though.Sorry, I could only give you some advice for importing stuff into the European Union, but not into the U.S.Normally I would think that importing illegal stuff always is a risc which cannot be calculated. In the best case the material will be confiscated only so that you won큧 see it again, but there even can be a high financial punishment or more like jail or something. Is it worth that risc?Just regarding child porn (even virtual/drawn = loli) the world has changed a lot in the younger past...Bestiality is another indexed material in the U.S.That's right. I bought it on a whim, and if there is even the slightest chance of getting arrested, then tossing it now is preferable.While we're on the subject. What's the deal with having girl cashier's in Ero-manga shops? I know Japan is less uptight about the stuff than American's, but you'd think people would prefer guy cashiers on the non-yaoi floors.If you don큧 have problems to enter a sex/porn shop why worry about female cashiers? Would you leave the shop with a red head when a female customer is entering it too?Males and females have sex, so there are male and female customers in these shops, at least I know that, and there are male and female cashiers too...Rooster, of course you speak with logic. I don't deny that. And because of that I entered the checkout despite being embarrassed.Maybe it's different in the UK, but in the U.S. we have underlying (arguably archaic) puritan principles that are a part of society and permeate the perceptions of even non-christian people like me. In other words, yeah, I was embarrassed that some of the stuff I was buying was loli. Hell, I'm a bit embarrassed to say it here, though I'm sure you guys aren't judgemental.I don't see why gender should matter. If you're embarrassed about what you're buying -- so embarrassed that you think it would ruin your chances at a relationship with the cashier once he/she sees what you're purchasing -- then it doesn't really matter whether the cashier's a man or a woman. Sure, if it's a woman, you could say it means you've lost a chance at a girlfriend. But that's really wishful thinking, quite frankly. If the odds are 100:0 that any given cashier man would be your friend but not your boyfriend (b/c you don't swing that way), then I'd say the odds are 99:1 that any given woman would be your friend but not your girlfriend. In other words, for every 100 female cashiers who see you buying loli, only one of them might have been a potential gf for you. The other 99 are incompatible. (Maybe you're too ugly for them, maybe they're too ugly for you? Maybe they're too stupid or too intelligent? Maybe they're psychotic? Maybe they're devoid of emotion? Maybe they're a lesbian? Maybe they only have a few years left to live? So on and so forth.)And of course, if you're not embarrassed about what you're buying, then all the more reason to not worry. And you really shouldn't be embarrassed: it's not like you bought a lolikon eromanga at K-Mart. You bought it at a store that sells nothing but hentai and related products, and a good deal of that hentai is loli. Whatever it is that you bought, it ain't nothin' compared with what she's seen before.Hmm, is this how all those cases where people get arrested for bringing loli manga overseas starts out? I wonder.....wait, there are cases of that? Please elaborate.Oh, and for the record, I've decided not to bring it on the plane. I went and bought some dollar store wrapping paper and am wrapping my manga now while I watch crappy torrented sitcoms. Not a bad way to end my stay in Japan. I'll send it to my home address tomorrow.