Using Steam in Japan

My Steam purchasing process:
“Ooo, I want that.” -> Add to cart -> Purchase for Myself -> Steam:Unknown Error!
(Gah! Bullshit, Steam, you know…)
Exit Steam -> Sign into VPN (Are my torrents closed? Crap…) ->Restart Steam -> Open Cart -> Purchase for myself -> Steam purchase: Success.
I hate Steam while I’m in Japan…

So to say the least, I’ve been having difficulties with buying things on Steam.  Luckily, I still have access to my VPN from when I was a student, but who knows how long until that gets shut off.  For those Steam-heads that don’t have a VPN like me, the best way to get around this is to use the web browser and make sure you browse to http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=us and make your purchase.  This was the best answer I could get from Steam Support.

In a world of digital distribution that is permanently tied to one account, why should region-locking even matter.  To some extent, I can understand why region-locking works for physical media, but games on Steam are intangible (Intangir, what have you!)!  It’s not like I can buy a bunch of English copies of the game and sell them to other people in Japan (while I could gift them to other people for an outside/under-the-table agreed priced, such a deal would put both accounts at risk of being terminated by Steam’s TOS).

Bah, Steam, get it together!  Especially since I want to give you my money!