I just recieved a shipment from Jetpens, my first Japanese pens other than Pilot Varities:
Platinum Preppy (Pink)
four Pilot Petit 1s (Baby Pink, Violet, Blue, and Blue Black)

I will be getting a Blue Black Preppy when it is back in stock.

I have five Pilot Varsities (pink, turquoise, violet, blue, and black)

I love all of these pens, they are some of my best writers. What would you recommend for my next Japanese pen purchase, $15 or under (preferably $10 or under), and avaible in the US or shipped to the US.

a very happy Hélène

I love jetpens! Lots of fun stuff and reasonable prices.
Another place for inexpensive and good value pens is:

isellpens.com

I've bought several from them and they were all good
writers right out of the box. They have a number of
pens in this price range. Check 'em out.

cheers
skyp

I love Preppies too. They're fantastic writers for the price!

Congratulations on your purchase! I hope you enjoy them! JetPens also has Ohto pens, but I can't recommend them. I ordered an Ohto Tasche ($15) and it's the coolest and tiniest pen I've seen, but it has nothing but problems with ink flow and skipping, so it's kind of unusable. I'm waiting for a replacement and then I'll see if it's any better.

Muji pens look pretty interesting (and cheap), but I don't know if Muji in the US sells them. At least one of the Muji pens is a re-branded Ohto.

I just received a shipment from Pendemonium today that had two Platinum Preppies, but the ink cartridges exploded in transit. And I do mean EXPLODED. The ball bearing in one looks like it shot out, ink went everywhere, and even got into the top of the cap where the clip is attached. One barrel is riddled with stress fractures, too. I cleaned them up and other than the ink in the cap, they seem to work fine. In fact I'm pretty impressed with their smoothness and fineness!

Neill

My first japanese pen is a pilot 78G medium. A very good fountainpen for a very reasonable price. Or better to say this is a bargain! Nothing special but a very good nib and for me the M is a better choice (it is closer to a European F).