so, I live in the UK. I'm pretty sure when I took my 3ds to the European mainland, I could still access eshop and the prices were still in £s. Right now, though, I'm in the USA for Christmas and eshop just wont open up. I'm connecting to the internet just fine but I get an error message whenever I try using eshop. Anyone know if this is deliberate?

I don't know why you couldn't be able to access the UK eShop in the US. Over the summer, I was able to connect to the US eShop from rural New Zealand, update an NES title and download a game demo, and a UK-in-US eShop access is probably far more common than what I did. It's probably server strain; you know, loads of kids just got new 3DSs and/or eShop cards and of course they have to use them right now. If you're there for a few more days you should be fine once everyone else gets off the service.

Did you try again? I'd like to know since I'm going to the States for a year (German 3DS) this coming August and don't want to miss Pokémon!

You can, because some people imported a Japanese 3DS (not me sadly ) and have DLed games, you just need to be within wifi range

Thanks. That's good to know!

Just know that if you're planning on getting an X/Y cartridge, you'll need to import that from Germany ... though you can always retail DL it from the US.

It just seemed unreliable. I got on eventually but it took a lot of goes. The wi-fi connection was seemingly good where I was.....just one of those quirks, I guess.

I live in Kyrgyzstan and I can snag games off the American eShop. It's a bit slower but it is functional as my Fire Emblem demo can attest ^__^