Ok so I want to take on learning a traditional japanese instrument such as a shamisen or koto but I have no idea how? How much are they, where online can I learn, where can I buy books? I live in the us and no where near california. I would like to do electric style shamisen as well. Will pick-ups for a guitar from america work on an electric shamisen?

maby you should try to translate a japaneses page about the instrument

I haven't learnt any Japanese instruments myself, but I have seen a koto performance before in the UK and apparently it's very rare to see/hear them in this country. I think for the US it is probably slightly easier to find performers, but you can probably ask somebody a local Japanese community group or something who may be able give you some advice.

At the moment I'm learning a traditional Chinese instrument called the Guzheng, which is basically the koto's ancestor. I have my own instrument which had to get shipped over from China and also equipment such as stands and picks from there. I have a music book for the Guzheng too but it is all in Chinese. As far as I know, there are NO books for it in English readily available like this. My local Chinese community group ordered 6 Guzheng from China so they got a bit of a discount for me that way. I also have a teacher from the group too.

Of course, this is not Japanese instruments, but I think that if you contact a Japanese group you might have better luck. I think that you will probably have to import your instrument too, although there might be some American suppliers too (I suggest you compare prices though vs import). The music book I saw the koto performer use contained kanji for numbers so I doubt there are (m)any good music books in English for traditional instruments, therefore basic Japanese reading ability will be required!

spoon puppet how much did your guzhen cost?

It costed me over £300 including delivery. I just came back from Hong Kong and while I was there I looked at the shop the guzheng came from. Some of them are something like HK$1500 while others were over HK$4000.