Thanks for the advice. Found an online retailer in Japan, who's
shipping out my new drive.

My Japanese coworker, who did the translating for me, was the one who
told me it was more expensive because it was a Canadian laptop. There
may have been a miscommunication problem somewhere down the line, but
I'm inclined to believe it. (The repair shop also asked me for more
(five times more) for the obligatory look-under-the-hood fee, which I
had already paid, because it was a non-Japanese model.)

-m.