Whiiee, I got it working! I took a break from Japanese homework to figure out a trigger circuit to trigger the dimmer, I got confirmation on that from the guys at the parts-shop I frequent, and got it working.
Only thing is that the casing I chose turned out to be too small after all; the leads were squeezed onto parts of the dimmer and after a few successful test runs, it shorted out.
Nothing to panic about: it just needs a new triac and a different case, and I'm back in business. :)
A complete write-up will be posted later on.
Cheers, K.