petrucci: I'm in the same boat as you. I'm based in UK and went ahead and registered on Rakuten/Tenso. If all goes smooth I should have it next week or so.
The tricky part is that Tenso requires address/identity confirmation, so I've sent the information to them, but not sure how long it will take for them to process it. Hopefully before Dec 5
Price-wise it's a disaster already. rough calculations to import into UK:
Device 100'000 (just rounding the price for easier calculations)
Shipping/handling to UK 10'000 (also rounded up)
UK Customs duty/VAT 30'000 (possibly more)
=> Expected price receiving it in UK is 40% higher... I hope it will be worth it.
Also, I asked a person who speaks Chinese to look at Taobao links and she said that they will be shipping only in the second part of December.