Hello, and belated Merry Christmas from J-List.
We hope you all had a pleasant, quiet day with family and friends this Christmas season. We had a fine Christmas, with our traditional giving-more-presents-than-necessary-to-kids. Hit presents this year included a baby for Rina's Rika-chan doll (which Kazuki promptly named Ida Kaori, which could be our Kaori, or the member of the Japanese unit Morning Musume who happens to have the same name), the Kimono version of Rika-chan and Kazuki's favorite, the train that transforms into a big robot, Grand Liner.
Christmas in Japan is a very different affair than in the States. In Japan Christmas Eve is actually the more important day, a special time to have a nice dinner with the family (if you're family oriented), or with your boyfriend/girlfriend. Actually, Christmas Eve is the most popular night of the year for girls to lose their innocence, and love hotels are always full on the 24th. Now that Christmas is behind us, preparations for New Year's are underway.
In many ways, the roles of Christmas and New Year's in Japan are reversed -- Christmas is a happy, fun time of Christmas parties, but New Year's is a solemn time of Buddhist and Shinto rites, on reflecting on what the past year has brought, and praying for happiness in the new year. You would never wear a paper hat and rattle a noisemaker on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, although the sound of bells ringing 108 times at Buddhist temples (or on TV) is quite common.
Monday, December 27, 1999
Thursday, December 23, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 23, 1999
Hello from Japan. Today is December 23rd, and the Emperor's Birthday -- so it's a holiday. Christmas in Japan, of course, is a normal work day.
Another terrible tragedy has struck a Japanese school, with the slaying of a seven year old boy in Kyoto. The killer, who may have been a junior high or high school student by some reports, left several copies of a bizarre note written in squarish Japanese characters, saying, The reason is because I have a grudge against the school. I will run away this time, but I am planning to reveal my name later...The code by which I can be identified is 'Terukuhanoru.' This is a meaningless word that has baffled police and experts alike ever since the terrible tragedy.
We've got a great pre-Christmas update for you today. First, we've added more fine-quality Japanese magazines to the J-List site, including two popular items for fans of Japanese women with long, silky legs -- Panst Dream and Panstopia. There are several nice new photobook items, including the first photobook release of virtual idol Terai Yuki. We've got even more excellent adult manga posted, including another dojinshi anthology based on popular anime characters, as well as a nice new manga item on the Yaoi page for fans of Yaoi themes. JPOP fans have yet another excellent JPOP monthly magazine available via J-List's "reserve subscription" page (page 1): Pachi Pachi, a wonderful magazine filled with lots of pictures and information about what's popular in JPOP and J-Rock now.
We've also got yet another slew of last-minute Year 2000 calendars added, including Glay, lovely swimsuit models Mashiko Rie, and Sakai Ayana, and several of the excellent Nadesico anime calendars, in stock and ready to go now. (As always, we're cutting prices daily to give you a reason to get a few extra.) Keep in mind when browsing the calendar page that the scans we've got posted on our website are actual thumbnails printed on a large poster, which we scan and blow up be large size. The calendars are actually far nicer than the sample picture you see on our site.
I've been having fun with my AirPort wireless base station and Lucent WaveLan Silver PC card, access the Internet from the parking lot outside from my Powerbook. It's great fun! It'll come in handy on nice Spring days when I want to get out of the office for a while, although it's much too cold out right now.
Some people reported trouble with the Quicktime movie featuring a Christmas-ready Kaori and myself at http://www.myjapan.net/christmas99.html . To view the movie, you need to have Quicktime 4.0 installed. Email me if you have problems with the page.
Once again, the warmest Christmas wishes from everyone at J-List!
Another terrible tragedy has struck a Japanese school, with the slaying of a seven year old boy in Kyoto. The killer, who may have been a junior high or high school student by some reports, left several copies of a bizarre note written in squarish Japanese characters, saying, The reason is because I have a grudge against the school. I will run away this time, but I am planning to reveal my name later...The code by which I can be identified is 'Terukuhanoru.' This is a meaningless word that has baffled police and experts alike ever since the terrible tragedy.
We've got a great pre-Christmas update for you today. First, we've added more fine-quality Japanese magazines to the J-List site, including two popular items for fans of Japanese women with long, silky legs -- Panst Dream and Panstopia. There are several nice new photobook items, including the first photobook release of virtual idol Terai Yuki. We've got even more excellent adult manga posted, including another dojinshi anthology based on popular anime characters, as well as a nice new manga item on the Yaoi page for fans of Yaoi themes. JPOP fans have yet another excellent JPOP monthly magazine available via J-List's "reserve subscription" page (page 1): Pachi Pachi, a wonderful magazine filled with lots of pictures and information about what's popular in JPOP and J-Rock now.
We've also got yet another slew of last-minute Year 2000 calendars added, including Glay, lovely swimsuit models Mashiko Rie, and Sakai Ayana, and several of the excellent Nadesico anime calendars, in stock and ready to go now. (As always, we're cutting prices daily to give you a reason to get a few extra.) Keep in mind when browsing the calendar page that the scans we've got posted on our website are actual thumbnails printed on a large poster, which we scan and blow up be large size. The calendars are actually far nicer than the sample picture you see on our site.
I've been having fun with my AirPort wireless base station and Lucent WaveLan Silver PC card, access the Internet from the parking lot outside from my Powerbook. It's great fun! It'll come in handy on nice Spring days when I want to get out of the office for a while, although it's much too cold out right now.
Some people reported trouble with the Quicktime movie featuring a Christmas-ready Kaori and myself at http://www.myjapan.net/christmas99.html . To view the movie, you need to have Quicktime 4.0 installed. Email me if you have problems with the page.
Once again, the warmest Christmas wishes from everyone at J-List!
Tuesday, December 21, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 21, 1999
Greetings from Japan, where a "shortcut" is a hairstyle.
On Sunday's episode of Denpa Shonen, Chuyan and Manaka arrived in India thanks to their ability to hitch a ride with the jewelry designer. Following messages they received on their Iridium pager, they hitchhiked to Calcutta and met up with a Japanese man who was working there. Knowing that Myanmar is a difficult country to get a visa for when traveling, they attempted to find a way to go by boat to Thailand, which is where they're headed now. They only have ten days to reach their goal, Tokyo!
I've always known that Japanese women seem to have problems with constipation, but now I know for sure. 47.7% of Japanese high school girls and 57% of career women report problems with constipation ("benpi" in Japanese, in case it ever comes up in Trivial Pursuit). Why Japanese rates of constipation are so high, no one knows, but it can cause various health problems, such as higher rates of some cancers -- in fact, 80% of women with breast cancer reported that they had problems with constipation.
The various females at J-List have had discussions about this over the years (Japanese are very open about discussing bodily functions openly). To solve her own problem, Kaori started drinking a herbal tea designed to ease constipation called "Last Chance." We've got a lot of really nice new items posted to the J-List site tonight since we missed one of our regular updates (we actually did our regular Saturday update -- the listserver decided not to work properly).
On Sunday's episode of Denpa Shonen, Chuyan and Manaka arrived in India thanks to their ability to hitch a ride with the jewelry designer. Following messages they received on their Iridium pager, they hitchhiked to Calcutta and met up with a Japanese man who was working there. Knowing that Myanmar is a difficult country to get a visa for when traveling, they attempted to find a way to go by boat to Thailand, which is where they're headed now. They only have ten days to reach their goal, Tokyo!
I've always known that Japanese women seem to have problems with constipation, but now I know for sure. 47.7% of Japanese high school girls and 57% of career women report problems with constipation ("benpi" in Japanese, in case it ever comes up in Trivial Pursuit). Why Japanese rates of constipation are so high, no one knows, but it can cause various health problems, such as higher rates of some cancers -- in fact, 80% of women with breast cancer reported that they had problems with constipation.
The various females at J-List have had discussions about this over the years (Japanese are very open about discussing bodily functions openly). To solve her own problem, Kaori started drinking a herbal tea designed to ease constipation called "Last Chance." We've got a lot of really nice new items posted to the J-List site tonight since we missed one of our regular updates (we actually did our regular Saturday update -- the listserver decided not to work properly).
Saturday, December 18, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 18, 1999
Hello again from Japan, home of the Dango Sankyoudai, or the three singing sweet dumplings on a stock.
On Dec 22nd, the Earth and the Moon will be at their closest point, and this will happen during a full moon, making this a rare astronomical event (so get out your telescopes of binoculars). The occurrances of earthquakes is higher during this time, as the Moon's movement stretches the Earth. Sure enough, we had three pretty scary medium-sized quakes all in one day, the other day, and it was enough to start me worrying about an end-of-the-century "Big One" hitting Japan. Kind of frightening.
The dancing baby that was made famous by its appearance in season one of Ally McBiel continues to show up in Japan, now appearing as the star in a Nissan car commercial (he ice-skates now). Soon, we'll be launching a site that will allow you to see Japan's best commercials in Quicktime format -- and there are so many here in Japan, everything from Meg Ryan speaking Japanese (shudder) to commercials for hopelessly cute Japanese household products with little chirping birds. Just one of the many improvements we'll be offering in 2000.
We've got a bunch of nice products for you today. First, there's another cache of new magazines, including "Ike Ike" "DD Toppers" and several others, as well as a healthy addition of popular hardcover photobooks that had sold out in the past. Fans of J-List excellent adult manga pages will enjoy the additions we've posted, including more copies of many items that had sold out in the past, as well as three excllent "how to draw in manga style" theme books (on the hentai manga page) that are very good. If you love JPOP, we've got some nice new "maxi-singles" posted to the JPOP page. There are a few more calendars posted to the calendars page, including the lovely Ayane Sayaka (swimsuit model) and more. And finally
Remember that J-List is closing out our stock of US-release adult anime videos. Our prices are great -- below our cost on most of the items -- so please check out our selection. All items on the US Anime Videos are in stock and ready to go out to you right away. And don't forget we've got great snacks like Poke-Pachi, a Pokemon lollypop combined with pop rocks.
On Dec 22nd, the Earth and the Moon will be at their closest point, and this will happen during a full moon, making this a rare astronomical event (so get out your telescopes of binoculars). The occurrances of earthquakes is higher during this time, as the Moon's movement stretches the Earth. Sure enough, we had three pretty scary medium-sized quakes all in one day, the other day, and it was enough to start me worrying about an end-of-the-century "Big One" hitting Japan. Kind of frightening.
The dancing baby that was made famous by its appearance in season one of Ally McBiel continues to show up in Japan, now appearing as the star in a Nissan car commercial (he ice-skates now). Soon, we'll be launching a site that will allow you to see Japan's best commercials in Quicktime format -- and there are so many here in Japan, everything from Meg Ryan speaking Japanese (shudder) to commercials for hopelessly cute Japanese household products with little chirping birds. Just one of the many improvements we'll be offering in 2000.
We've got a bunch of nice products for you today. First, there's another cache of new magazines, including "Ike Ike" "DD Toppers" and several others, as well as a healthy addition of popular hardcover photobooks that had sold out in the past. Fans of J-List excellent adult manga pages will enjoy the additions we've posted, including more copies of many items that had sold out in the past, as well as three excllent "how to draw in manga style" theme books (on the hentai manga page) that are very good. If you love JPOP, we've got some nice new "maxi-singles" posted to the JPOP page. There are a few more calendars posted to the calendars page, including the lovely Ayane Sayaka (swimsuit model) and more. And finally
Remember that J-List is closing out our stock of US-release adult anime videos. Our prices are great -- below our cost on most of the items -- so please check out our selection. All items on the US Anime Videos are in stock and ready to go out to you right away. And don't forget we've got great snacks like Poke-Pachi, a Pokemon lollypop combined with pop rocks.
Thursday, December 16, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 16, 1999
It's another quiet evening here at the J-List World Headquarters. Kaori, who left early to get her eyebrows permed (don't ask), is staying late today helping me get the update finished on time.
In Japan, it's year-end gift giving season again. Companies give gifts to each other to show feelings of thanks for services rendered in the past, and to say "yoroshiku onegai shimasu" (a very hard phrase to translate -- it sort of means "please continue to be of service to me in the future") for the coming half year. The two gift-giving periods (called Chugen in the summer, and Oseibo in the winter) is a big part of the Japanese economy, and companies compete to make the most interesting gifts available. This year J-List sent a traditional Gunma gift -- a boxed set of Japanese-style sweets, chocolates, and rice crackers.
It's also time for planning bounenkai (year-end parties) and shin-nenkai (new-year parties). In Japan, you never have a New Year's party before the new year actually arrives, you have year-end parties (or more accurately forget the past year parties). Nearly everyone is busy in late December/early January, scheduling the various parties, and they're great fun. As you can imagine, bars and restaurants raise their prices during this time. This year's J-List year-end party will be at our favorite sushi restaurant.
We've got some nice new items for you today. First of all, several new magazines are in, including the new issues of Dela Beppin, Video Boy and Best Video, all featuring a great selection of some of Japan's most beautiful AV idols. Fans of the beautiful Kusanagi Jun (also known as Kano Mizuho) will enjoy the additional copies of her popular Kubire and Kubire 2 photobooks. We've gotten in a selection of other great photobooks that had sold out before, too, so check these pages. If you love J-List's unique anime page, check out the page, for more stock of the popular Santa Girl soft vinyl figure (a timeless classic), as well as the popular Pikachu ANA Airport set (an entire airport of Pikachu toys, all die cast metal). If you're looking for Pokemon, we've also got several new children's puzzles including a really cool Kitty-chan (Hello Kitty) that Kaori wanted for herself. There is a nice selection of new special-order videos on the special order video pages (as always, new items go on page 1), and more.
We've also gotten in one last shipment of calendars, which we've posted to the in-stock calendars page. Since the new year is nearly upon us, we're frankly eager to blow our stock of calendars out the door, so we've cut the prices on ALL our in-stock calendars. We've got two huge boxes left, with something for everyone: the four cute members of Speed, the great members of JPOP bands like Every Little Thing and Morning Musume, great anime calendars like Slayers and Trigun, and of course, the only authentic Japanese Pokemon calendars you're going to find anywhere. If you've got room left on your walls for some unique, special Japanese calendars, please check out the stock we have available for immediate shipment. Yoko and Kaori will thank you!
In Japan, it's year-end gift giving season again. Companies give gifts to each other to show feelings of thanks for services rendered in the past, and to say "yoroshiku onegai shimasu" (a very hard phrase to translate -- it sort of means "please continue to be of service to me in the future") for the coming half year. The two gift-giving periods (called Chugen in the summer, and Oseibo in the winter) is a big part of the Japanese economy, and companies compete to make the most interesting gifts available. This year J-List sent a traditional Gunma gift -- a boxed set of Japanese-style sweets, chocolates, and rice crackers.
It's also time for planning bounenkai (year-end parties) and shin-nenkai (new-year parties). In Japan, you never have a New Year's party before the new year actually arrives, you have year-end parties (or more accurately forget the past year parties). Nearly everyone is busy in late December/early January, scheduling the various parties, and they're great fun. As you can imagine, bars and restaurants raise their prices during this time. This year's J-List year-end party will be at our favorite sushi restaurant.
We've got some nice new items for you today. First of all, several new magazines are in, including the new issues of Dela Beppin, Video Boy and Best Video, all featuring a great selection of some of Japan's most beautiful AV idols. Fans of the beautiful Kusanagi Jun (also known as Kano Mizuho) will enjoy the additional copies of her popular Kubire and Kubire 2 photobooks. We've gotten in a selection of other great photobooks that had sold out before, too, so check these pages. If you love J-List's unique anime page, check out the page, for more stock of the popular Santa Girl soft vinyl figure (a timeless classic), as well as the popular Pikachu ANA Airport set (an entire airport of Pikachu toys, all die cast metal). If you're looking for Pokemon, we've also got several new children's puzzles including a really cool Kitty-chan (Hello Kitty) that Kaori wanted for herself. There is a nice selection of new special-order videos on the special order video pages (as always, new items go on page 1), and more.
We've also gotten in one last shipment of calendars, which we've posted to the in-stock calendars page. Since the new year is nearly upon us, we're frankly eager to blow our stock of calendars out the door, so we've cut the prices on ALL our in-stock calendars. We've got two huge boxes left, with something for everyone: the four cute members of Speed, the great members of JPOP bands like Every Little Thing and Morning Musume, great anime calendars like Slayers and Trigun, and of course, the only authentic Japanese Pokemon calendars you're going to find anywhere. If you've got room left on your walls for some unique, special Japanese calendars, please check out the stock we have available for immediate shipment. Yoko and Kaori will thank you!
Monday, December 13, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 13, 1999
Good evening from Japan, the country with cars with names like "Sprinter" Soarer "Silvia" and "Super Saloon."
The Princess of Japan, Masako-sama, is "showing signs of being pregnant" with her first child, which has caused a frenzy of news reports and speculation, as well as documentaries on the life of Michiko, the current Empress, and how happy the nation greeted news of her children. It is funny to note that there is no confirmation that Masako-sama (who was educated at Harvard and spent years in the U.S. and U.K. -- although it's interesting to note that she only speaks Queen's English in public) is pregnant at all -- she is scheduled to see a doctor next week -- but this hasn't stopped the media from their reporting frenzy.
Chuyan and Manaka are doing well in their attempts to get around the world in 80 days. Hitchhiking to Brussels to meet a Japanese man who ran a restaurant ("Samurai") there, who offered to help them. He let Manaka work for a week to earn money. Meanwhile, they met up with Japanese man, a man who trades in jewelry, who made them a great offer: if Chuyan (who is quite a talented artist) would design some jewelry for him, he'd pay for them to accompany him to the next stop on his business trip, India. Now they're in India, much closer to their goal than they were before.
The Princess of Japan, Masako-sama, is "showing signs of being pregnant" with her first child, which has caused a frenzy of news reports and speculation, as well as documentaries on the life of Michiko, the current Empress, and how happy the nation greeted news of her children. It is funny to note that there is no confirmation that Masako-sama (who was educated at Harvard and spent years in the U.S. and U.K. -- although it's interesting to note that she only speaks Queen's English in public) is pregnant at all -- she is scheduled to see a doctor next week -- but this hasn't stopped the media from their reporting frenzy.
Chuyan and Manaka are doing well in their attempts to get around the world in 80 days. Hitchhiking to Brussels to meet a Japanese man who ran a restaurant ("Samurai") there, who offered to help them. He let Manaka work for a week to earn money. Meanwhile, they met up with Japanese man, a man who trades in jewelry, who made them a great offer: if Chuyan (who is quite a talented artist) would design some jewelry for him, he'd pay for them to accompany him to the next stop on his business trip, India. Now they're in India, much closer to their goal than they were before.
Saturday, December 11, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 11, 1999
Greetings from J-List, which is officially banned in Saudi Arabia.
People in Japan in Japan have gotten used to getting special perks from the government as it tries to help kick-start the Japanese economy. First it was last year's special $400-per-child gift from the government to people with families, in the form of coupons that had to be used by a certain date. Now there's a special tax deduction arrangement for small companies, allowing them to deduct purchases for computers, office equipment, etc. this fiscal year, rather than breaking the deductions up over time. This is great news for me, since it allows me to get a new PowerMac G4 and take the deduction all at once.
America exports many things to Japan, but one I could have done without was the Infomercial. Now you can't watch late-night TV in Japan without bumping into one or two of them running on different channels. They usually have Japanese infomercials, but occasionally you see a really bad U.S. one with Japanese dubbed over. The other night, though, I saw that you could buy the entire run of the Ed Sullivan Show on videocasette. That would be kind of interesting to watch.
We've got some new toys at J-List -- a Tangerine iMac DV and a new Panasonic digital camera. After setting things up, we were literally making and editing movies of the kids in about ten minutes. See our first zany efforts (a film of our kids tearing the paper off our shoji paper doors) at: http://www.myjapan.net/ourmovie.html .
We've got some lovely new items for you today. First, there's a positively fabulous all-new Miura Aika photobook for fans of this lovely lady. An extremely high-class piece of work, it features some of the most shocking and erotic pictures of this lady I've seen. For fans of J-List's videos, we've updated both the in-stock videos pages (Mizuno Haruki, Yoshino Sally, and more!) as well as the special-order videos pages (Yoshikawa Minami, Asato Yuka, more!) for you. There is a nice new posting of JPOP albums and maxi singles (half-albums) to J-List's JPOP page, as well as reductions in the prices of our calendars as we get close to the end of the year -- pick up a great bargain on some of these items. For fans of the popular Video CD & DVD Soft Catalog, a dual-VCD sampler providing an all-color magazine and nearly two hours of footage for a great price
People in Japan in Japan have gotten used to getting special perks from the government as it tries to help kick-start the Japanese economy. First it was last year's special $400-per-child gift from the government to people with families, in the form of coupons that had to be used by a certain date. Now there's a special tax deduction arrangement for small companies, allowing them to deduct purchases for computers, office equipment, etc. this fiscal year, rather than breaking the deductions up over time. This is great news for me, since it allows me to get a new PowerMac G4 and take the deduction all at once.
America exports many things to Japan, but one I could have done without was the Infomercial. Now you can't watch late-night TV in Japan without bumping into one or two of them running on different channels. They usually have Japanese infomercials, but occasionally you see a really bad U.S. one with Japanese dubbed over. The other night, though, I saw that you could buy the entire run of the Ed Sullivan Show on videocasette. That would be kind of interesting to watch.
We've got some new toys at J-List -- a Tangerine iMac DV and a new Panasonic digital camera. After setting things up, we were literally making and editing movies of the kids in about ten minutes. See our first zany efforts (a film of our kids tearing the paper off our shoji paper doors) at: http://www.myjapan.net/ourmovie.html .
We've got some lovely new items for you today. First, there's a positively fabulous all-new Miura Aika photobook for fans of this lovely lady. An extremely high-class piece of work, it features some of the most shocking and erotic pictures of this lady I've seen. For fans of J-List's videos, we've updated both the in-stock videos pages (Mizuno Haruki, Yoshino Sally, and more!) as well as the special-order videos pages (Yoshikawa Minami, Asato Yuka, more!) for you. There is a nice new posting of JPOP albums and maxi singles (half-albums) to J-List's JPOP page, as well as reductions in the prices of our calendars as we get close to the end of the year -- pick up a great bargain on some of these items. For fans of the popular Video CD & DVD Soft Catalog, a dual-VCD sampler providing an all-color magazine and nearly two hours of footage for a great price
Thursday, December 09, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 9, 1999
Hello again. The famous December "Kara-kaze" is blowing outside my window as I type this. I hope I won't get too chilled during the walk home tonight...
Daniel Keys is in Japan right now, and was interviewed for a Japanese news show on NHK last night. In the interview he discussed the recent tragedy in Japan, and his take on the Japanese view of education here. He compared Japanese young people who are expected to fill their minds with knowledge in order to move forward in life to his character Charlie Gordon, during his great rise in intelligence during the middle of Flowers for Angernon (my all-time favorite book, by the way). They try to squeeze in information and knowledge so they can pass a certain test and perform academically, but all the while they're moving farther from what's really important, family and the happiness that comes from having a strong family base.
Tonight we've got some great new items for you. First of all, the new issue of the best-selling Urecco is posted, and it's a lovely one, with many lovely "Fresh Nude" features by Misaki Ryoka, Minori Aoi, and many more. "Bed Rooms, the beautiful photobook of Honjoh Sayuri (who was one of the three girls who appeared on the talk show with gaijin from around the world), is in stock on the photobooks page, along with other new photobook items. There is yet another update to the Cards & Puzzles page -- a beautiful new illustration by Yoshitaka Amano, and for esoteric anime fans, a super rare Gatchaman puzzle (known as Battle of the Planets and G-Force in the U.S.). For fans of J-List's new Reserve Subscription" service, allowing you to subscribe to many Japanese magazines as they come out in Japan, we've got a G-Type, a nice new hentai magazine that features a CD ROM of cool demos with each issue. For fans of Pokemon
Remember that J-List has great wacky Japanese T-shirts, with bizarre slogans in Japanese. Imagine walking across campus with your "Super Hentai" shirt on, or your esoteric "Kisho Tenketsu" (which is a four-character compound word that describes the four parts of a classical Japanese essay) shirt. Amaze and impress your Japanese friends! See these items on the Funny Japanese T-Shirts page at J-List.
Daniel Keys is in Japan right now, and was interviewed for a Japanese news show on NHK last night. In the interview he discussed the recent tragedy in Japan, and his take on the Japanese view of education here. He compared Japanese young people who are expected to fill their minds with knowledge in order to move forward in life to his character Charlie Gordon, during his great rise in intelligence during the middle of Flowers for Angernon (my all-time favorite book, by the way). They try to squeeze in information and knowledge so they can pass a certain test and perform academically, but all the while they're moving farther from what's really important, family and the happiness that comes from having a strong family base.
Tonight we've got some great new items for you. First of all, the new issue of the best-selling Urecco is posted, and it's a lovely one, with many lovely "Fresh Nude" features by Misaki Ryoka, Minori Aoi, and many more. "Bed Rooms, the beautiful photobook of Honjoh Sayuri (who was one of the three girls who appeared on the talk show with gaijin from around the world), is in stock on the photobooks page, along with other new photobook items. There is yet another update to the Cards & Puzzles page -- a beautiful new illustration by Yoshitaka Amano, and for esoteric anime fans, a super rare Gatchaman puzzle (known as Battle of the Planets and G-Force in the U.S.). For fans of J-List's new Reserve Subscription" service, allowing you to subscribe to many Japanese magazines as they come out in Japan, we've got a G-Type, a nice new hentai magazine that features a CD ROM of cool demos with each issue. For fans of Pokemon
Remember that J-List has great wacky Japanese T-shirts, with bizarre slogans in Japanese. Imagine walking across campus with your "Super Hentai" shirt on, or your esoteric "Kisho Tenketsu" (which is a four-character compound word that describes the four parts of a classical Japanese essay) shirt. Amaze and impress your Japanese friends! See these items on the Funny Japanese T-Shirts page at J-List.
Tuesday, December 07, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 7, 1999
Hi again from Japan. I had forgotten that it was the 58th anniversary of Pearl Harbor until Tomo mentioned it in passing. Look how far the world has come since then.
In a terrible tragedy that has shocked Japan terribly, a two year old girl (Haruna-chan) was killed by the mother of another girl. The two children were competing to get into a prestigious preschool in Tokyo (much like the one my kids attend, although the scale is a lot smaller). Haruna-chan passed the test and was accepted into the school, but the other girl was not, which drove the mother of the girl not accepted mad. She strangled poor Haruna-chan with her scarf and hid the girl's body in Shizuoka Prefecture. Since we have kids in a hoikuen (preschool) not all that unlike this school, it was especially unsettling to us.
We've got a nice update for you tonight, with lot of great items. First and foremost, the long-anticipated "memorial last nude" of Kusanagi Jun, one of the most beautiful and enticing women in Japan. (Her AV name is Kano Mizuho.) There is a nice volley of adult videos on both the in-stock video pages (including some Hirosue Nao, one of my favorites) and all-new special order videos, so check out the great new items. For dojinshi fans, there's a wonderful new 98 page adult dojinshi by the fine folks at Okachimentaiko featuring parodies of popular game girls in Japan. And for fans our extensive "wide" manga, we've got another 6-8 all-new items, including some nice S&M manga anthologies and more. Finally, we just couldn't resist posting more beautiful and unique puzzles
Remember that J-List has the last available stock of the excellent Bakuretsu Hunter (known as Sorceress Hunter outside of Japan) cold-cast figures, the beautiful Tira Miss and Chocolate Miss. These beautiful figures are extremely well designed and beautifully painted, and stand on solid oak bases. See these excellent figures on the anime page.
We hope you're having a great week. See you on the web!
In a terrible tragedy that has shocked Japan terribly, a two year old girl (Haruna-chan) was killed by the mother of another girl. The two children were competing to get into a prestigious preschool in Tokyo (much like the one my kids attend, although the scale is a lot smaller). Haruna-chan passed the test and was accepted into the school, but the other girl was not, which drove the mother of the girl not accepted mad. She strangled poor Haruna-chan with her scarf and hid the girl's body in Shizuoka Prefecture. Since we have kids in a hoikuen (preschool) not all that unlike this school, it was especially unsettling to us.
We've got a nice update for you tonight, with lot of great items. First and foremost, the long-anticipated "memorial last nude" of Kusanagi Jun, one of the most beautiful and enticing women in Japan. (Her AV name is Kano Mizuho.) There is a nice volley of adult videos on both the in-stock video pages (including some Hirosue Nao, one of my favorites) and all-new special order videos, so check out the great new items. For dojinshi fans, there's a wonderful new 98 page adult dojinshi by the fine folks at Okachimentaiko featuring parodies of popular game girls in Japan. And for fans our extensive "wide" manga, we've got another 6-8 all-new items, including some nice S&M manga anthologies and more. Finally, we just couldn't resist posting more beautiful and unique puzzles
Remember that J-List has the last available stock of the excellent Bakuretsu Hunter (known as Sorceress Hunter outside of Japan) cold-cast figures, the beautiful Tira Miss and Chocolate Miss. These beautiful figures are extremely well designed and beautifully painted, and stand on solid oak bases. See these excellent figures on the anime page.
We hope you're having a great week. See you on the web!
Saturday, December 04, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 4, 1999
Hello from Japan, where restaurant chain Coco's is known as "The California Restaurant."
Poor Kaori lost her wallet the other day, with her drivers' license and some money in. (Just like Kaori-chan, she was more upset by the loss of the wallet itself, which was her favorite character, Thunder Bunny.) Hopefully someone will find it and contact her. In Japan, I've had many instances of lost wallets being returned, with money in it in all cases, although when I stupidly left my favorite Zero Haliburton case on a train, I never saw it again. Once, when my wife managed to leave her purse with $800 in cash on top of her car as she drove away while in the U.S.
The economy is still limping along here in Japan. One segment that is in for a shake-up is education, especially the lower tier schools that historically provided a 2- or 4-year education for Japanese college-bound students who couldn't get into prestigious schools like Waseda or Keio University, and lower-quality preparatory schools (Yobiko). As the Japanese birth rate drops, there's literally a "famine" of students for these schools. In order to get enough students, higher-tier colleges will lower their academic standards, putting the pinch on "suberi-dome" ("stop the downward slide") schools which currently "catch" students who can't get into better schools. When anyone who wants to go to a four-year college can easily do so without studying, it will force changes in the Japanese perception of education as a social "equalizer" and the basis of the Japanese middle class. I wonder what will happen?
We've got some really cool new items on the J-List site tonight. First, there are some excellent new photobooks on the photobook pages, including a photobook of a Japanese pro-wrestling star, more copies of the popular "Dahlia" by Wakana Sena and Wet Heaven, and more. We've got a bunch of all-new adult manga the hentai manga page -- including two new parody dojinshi anthologies in the high-quality wide-manga format. The anime toys page has been updated again, and there are new calendars on the calendar page (more Glay, Kitty-chan, Speed and more). We've add another "reserve subscription" magazine for JPOP fans -- it's Zappi, a great monthly JPOP magazine that comes with a CD of music and messages from your favorite JPOP artists. Finally, we've scored more really nice puzzles for the card & puzzle page
Videos are selling well with the new December sale we've started. Remember that you can order videos from our special-order videos pages at the lower prices, too, so you can stock up with some cool Kawashima Azumi, Wakana Sena, or whoever your favorite happens to be...
Remember that J-List has a big stock of unique and fun candy and snacks from Japan, including a lot of cool Pokemon stuff, including the excellent Pokemon Choco (which comes with a Pokemon reflective card). Other cool snacks include Wata-pachi (cola-flavored cotton candy with pop rocks inside), Wata-gum (cola-flavored cotton candy that turns to gum in your mouth), Himo-Q (gummy string, I love it), Pocky, and more.
Well, I've got to get back and set up a Christmas tree. Have a nice weekend!
Poor Kaori lost her wallet the other day, with her drivers' license and some money in. (Just like Kaori-chan, she was more upset by the loss of the wallet itself, which was her favorite character, Thunder Bunny.) Hopefully someone will find it and contact her. In Japan, I've had many instances of lost wallets being returned, with money in it in all cases, although when I stupidly left my favorite Zero Haliburton case on a train, I never saw it again. Once, when my wife managed to leave her purse with $800 in cash on top of her car as she drove away while in the U.S.
The economy is still limping along here in Japan. One segment that is in for a shake-up is education, especially the lower tier schools that historically provided a 2- or 4-year education for Japanese college-bound students who couldn't get into prestigious schools like Waseda or Keio University, and lower-quality preparatory schools (Yobiko). As the Japanese birth rate drops, there's literally a "famine" of students for these schools. In order to get enough students, higher-tier colleges will lower their academic standards, putting the pinch on "suberi-dome" ("stop the downward slide") schools which currently "catch" students who can't get into better schools. When anyone who wants to go to a four-year college can easily do so without studying, it will force changes in the Japanese perception of education as a social "equalizer" and the basis of the Japanese middle class. I wonder what will happen?
We've got some really cool new items on the J-List site tonight. First, there are some excellent new photobooks on the photobook pages, including a photobook of a Japanese pro-wrestling star, more copies of the popular "Dahlia" by Wakana Sena and Wet Heaven, and more. We've got a bunch of all-new adult manga the hentai manga page -- including two new parody dojinshi anthologies in the high-quality wide-manga format. The anime toys page has been updated again, and there are new calendars on the calendar page (more Glay, Kitty-chan, Speed and more). We've add another "reserve subscription" magazine for JPOP fans -- it's Zappi, a great monthly JPOP magazine that comes with a CD of music and messages from your favorite JPOP artists. Finally, we've scored more really nice puzzles for the card & puzzle page
Videos are selling well with the new December sale we've started. Remember that you can order videos from our special-order videos pages at the lower prices, too, so you can stock up with some cool Kawashima Azumi, Wakana Sena, or whoever your favorite happens to be...
Remember that J-List has a big stock of unique and fun candy and snacks from Japan, including a lot of cool Pokemon stuff, including the excellent Pokemon Choco (which comes with a Pokemon reflective card). Other cool snacks include Wata-pachi (cola-flavored cotton candy with pop rocks inside), Wata-gum (cola-flavored cotton candy that turns to gum in your mouth), Himo-Q (gummy string, I love it), Pocky, and more.
Well, I've got to get back and set up a Christmas tree. Have a nice weekend!
Thursday, December 02, 1999
Greetings from J-List December 2, 1999
Greetings from Japan, where "that's true" means "no" and people bow while talking on the phone (I do it too...).
Japan is watching the Microsoft monopoly case unfolding with interest, and rumblings are starting to be heard about Japan's own monopoly -- NTT. A massive, sprawling company, NTT supplies local telephone service to nearly all of Japan, and nearly all Internet traffic moves through undersea cables that it leases for as much as it likes. To get a telephone in Japan, you must buy an $800 bond from NTT, a system which provides nearly limitless free capital for the company. Finally, while the U.S. and Asia are investing in high speed cable modem and DSL technology, NTT is strongly pushing ISDN, despite the fact that ISDN clearly plays no part in the future of the Internet at this point in human history. (For our from-Japan Internet access
Continuing our before-Christmas theme, we've got some more really special items for you. First, the excellent soft-vinyl "Santa Girl" was reissued by Sub-Zero, so we've got some of those excellent items for you on the anime page. For the Pokemon-lovers in your family, we've got -- Pokemon cards! They're cool, they come in full packs, and they're in stock on the Cards & Puzzles page. To go with the cards, we've got official Pokemon card holders, and the complete guide to Japanese Pokemon cards in stock, as well. Fans of the excellent Microman/Micronauts toys will see some new items on the anime page
Moving along to other items, we've got some excellent new and back-in-stock magazines and photobooks, including Wet Heaven, Memories in Palau, and more. If you like the super beautiful model Inoue Harumi, check out her dynamite photobook, which is great. There's a great volley of special order adult videos on the Video Catalog pages (page 1 has newer items), including some great new offerings by Wakana Sena, Aoi Minori, and more. Finally
Announcing the J-List December Video Sale! To help you choose that very special Christmas gift this December (maybe yourself), we've lowered the price of every over-18 video on J-List, both in-stock and special-order videos! Enjoy the new lower prices!
J-List lost its internet access for 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday. This didn't affect our site at all, only ability reply to email and process orders. Everything's running fine now though. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Last weekend, Kaori and I attended two weddings, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. It was a real "shutter chance" (i.e., an opportunity to take some nice pictures), so I brought my little Sony digital camera along and documented both days. See my "two weddings, no funeral" special report, including pictures of Kaori's Miffy the Rabbit doll, pictures of many lovely Japanese girls all dressed up, and observations on how to write "Live long, and prosper" in kanji
Japan is watching the Microsoft monopoly case unfolding with interest, and rumblings are starting to be heard about Japan's own monopoly -- NTT. A massive, sprawling company, NTT supplies local telephone service to nearly all of Japan, and nearly all Internet traffic moves through undersea cables that it leases for as much as it likes. To get a telephone in Japan, you must buy an $800 bond from NTT, a system which provides nearly limitless free capital for the company. Finally, while the U.S. and Asia are investing in high speed cable modem and DSL technology, NTT is strongly pushing ISDN, despite the fact that ISDN clearly plays no part in the future of the Internet at this point in human history. (For our from-Japan Internet access
Continuing our before-Christmas theme, we've got some more really special items for you. First, the excellent soft-vinyl "Santa Girl" was reissued by Sub-Zero, so we've got some of those excellent items for you on the anime page. For the Pokemon-lovers in your family, we've got -- Pokemon cards! They're cool, they come in full packs, and they're in stock on the Cards & Puzzles page. To go with the cards, we've got official Pokemon card holders, and the complete guide to Japanese Pokemon cards in stock, as well. Fans of the excellent Microman/Micronauts toys will see some new items on the anime page
Moving along to other items, we've got some excellent new and back-in-stock magazines and photobooks, including Wet Heaven, Memories in Palau, and more. If you like the super beautiful model Inoue Harumi, check out her dynamite photobook, which is great. There's a great volley of special order adult videos on the Video Catalog pages (page 1 has newer items), including some great new offerings by Wakana Sena, Aoi Minori, and more. Finally
Announcing the J-List December Video Sale! To help you choose that very special Christmas gift this December (maybe yourself), we've lowered the price of every over-18 video on J-List, both in-stock and special-order videos! Enjoy the new lower prices!
J-List lost its internet access for 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday. This didn't affect our site at all, only ability reply to email and process orders. Everything's running fine now though. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Last weekend, Kaori and I attended two weddings, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. It was a real "shutter chance" (i.e., an opportunity to take some nice pictures), so I brought my little Sony digital camera along and documented both days. See my "two weddings, no funeral" special report, including pictures of Kaori's Miffy the Rabbit doll, pictures of many lovely Japanese girls all dressed up, and observations on how to write "Live long, and prosper" in kanji
Monday, November 29, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 29, 1999
Greetings from Japan, where a "pace maker" is the soccer player who sets the pace for the rest of his team.
Well, Chuyan and Hitomi managed to get to Madrid, Spain, safely. They checked their Iridium email receiver and found an offer of friendship from a Japanese teacher of flamenco dancing. They stayed with this lady for four days, working during the day cleaning a flamenco bar, as they prepared to move towards their goal. They're in the Middle East now, so if you can help them in anyway, please email them at DENPA80@iridium.co.jp .
You don't value the little things until they're broken. My wife has broken one of her toes by bumping it against a table, and now she's got her whole foot in a huge cast, and has to walk around with crutches, where stairs are much steeper than in the States (due to less land). Poor Chiharu.
Recently the Toshiba corporation was sued for millions of dollars because the possibility that data could be lost through a defect in notebook floppy drives. The decision was viewed as quite unfair from this side of the Pacific, almost as Japan-bashing, as no data was reported lost by any customer. Japan is a much more down-to-earth place, where law suits are about as common in everyday life as meteor strikes. Perhaps the fact that Japan has only 17, 000 lawyers compared with America's 880, 000 has something to do with it.
We've got some very nice items on the J-List site for you. First of all, we've added more great items that are suitable for anyone looking for that special Christmas gift. There are some very unique genuine "from Japan" Sailor Moon items on the anime page, in addition to other great items that kids would like. The card and puzzles page has been updated with even more very nice puzzles for that special someone on your Christmas list (yourself?), including a cool Amano World puzzle featuring Vampire Hunter "D" and more. There are new items on the unique Japanese Snacks page, including "Mogi Mogi Fruits, a selection of gummi fuits that come with their own gummi fruit tree. We've also stocked up on the popular Pokemon Choco snacks, which each come with their own cool reflective card, written in real Japanese! We've add another half dozen excellent adult wide" manga to manga page 2, including some really beautiful new items, like "Mercy's File." Yaoi fans should check out the new wide manga posted there, too. There are also new photobooks on the photobook pages, and a slew of new in-stock adult videos posted (including Silence Memory
We had some technical difficulties over the weekend, including the shopping cart entering the wrong items for a few hours. All the problems should be fixed now. If you ever have difficulties with the J-List site, please let us know immediately.
Well, Chuyan and Hitomi managed to get to Madrid, Spain, safely. They checked their Iridium email receiver and found an offer of friendship from a Japanese teacher of flamenco dancing. They stayed with this lady for four days, working during the day cleaning a flamenco bar, as they prepared to move towards their goal. They're in the Middle East now, so if you can help them in anyway, please email them at DENPA80@iridium.co.jp .
You don't value the little things until they're broken. My wife has broken one of her toes by bumping it against a table, and now she's got her whole foot in a huge cast, and has to walk around with crutches, where stairs are much steeper than in the States (due to less land). Poor Chiharu.
Recently the Toshiba corporation was sued for millions of dollars because the possibility that data could be lost through a defect in notebook floppy drives. The decision was viewed as quite unfair from this side of the Pacific, almost as Japan-bashing, as no data was reported lost by any customer. Japan is a much more down-to-earth place, where law suits are about as common in everyday life as meteor strikes. Perhaps the fact that Japan has only 17, 000 lawyers compared with America's 880, 000 has something to do with it.
We've got some very nice items on the J-List site for you. First of all, we've added more great items that are suitable for anyone looking for that special Christmas gift. There are some very unique genuine "from Japan" Sailor Moon items on the anime page, in addition to other great items that kids would like. The card and puzzles page has been updated with even more very nice puzzles for that special someone on your Christmas list (yourself?), including a cool Amano World puzzle featuring Vampire Hunter "D" and more. There are new items on the unique Japanese Snacks page, including "Mogi Mogi Fruits, a selection of gummi fuits that come with their own gummi fruit tree. We've also stocked up on the popular Pokemon Choco snacks, which each come with their own cool reflective card, written in real Japanese! We've add another half dozen excellent adult wide" manga to manga page 2, including some really beautiful new items, like "Mercy's File." Yaoi fans should check out the new wide manga posted there, too. There are also new photobooks on the photobook pages, and a slew of new in-stock adult videos posted (including Silence Memory
We had some technical difficulties over the weekend, including the shopping cart entering the wrong items for a few hours. All the problems should be fixed now. If you ever have difficulties with the J-List site, please let us know immediately.
Sunday, November 28, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 28, 1999
Hello from Japan, land of wasabi, pickled eggplant and dried, shredded squid to go with your beer.
I remember, when I first came to Japan, I was amazed at the popularity of actress Aubrey Hepburn. An incredibly popular actress here, she stars in the movie that many Japanese girls claim as their all-time favorite, Roman Holiday. She's popular in Japan, I am told, because she was the first world actress to become famous despite having a slender (Japanese) body. Another person who is far more famous here than in the U.S. is Sydney Sheldon. A walk through tiny English section of any bookstore in Gunma is like a Sydney Sheldon special selection. (Incidentally, did you know that Sydney Sheldon is the creator of I Dream of Genie, that old TV show?)
In an effort to jump-start the economy, and also to commemorate the new century, Japan will be printing a 2000 yen bill next year. Currently, Japanese currency comes only in 1000, 5000 and 10, 000 yen denominations, making things quite simple. There used to be 100 and 500 yen paper money, but these have wisely been retired and turned into coins, something that I believe Americans should consider doing to the $1 soon -- paper money costs millions to print, but coins last for years. The new bill will cause some confusion
There are a lot of nice items in tonight's update. First of all, we've added a lot of cool items we consider to be great Christmas gifts. On the cards & puzzles page, for example, check out our beautiful only-available-from-Japan puzzles featuring cool Pokemon as well as beautiful traditional Japanese artwork puzzles. We've also got some smaller easy-to-display puzzles, and a great puzzle for Micronaut fans. On our anime & toys page, we've got cool Microman/Micronaut figures, a deluxe battle mech from Front Mission 3, and more. On the magazine front, there are several nice new additions, including the new Bejean
The calendars are selling well, as people pick up the extra calendars we ordered before the Year 2000 calendar pre-orders closed down. We've got plenty left, but the supply is limited, so please check out the in-stock calendar pages to see if there are any items you want. We can still get them to you by Christmas if you choose airmail as the shipping method. Among the great large-size Y2K calendar we have in are Anzai Hiroko, the lovely Matsuda Jun, the great pop groups Speed, Max and Every Little Thing, hot race queen Suzuki Fumika, only-from-Japan Pokemon and Evangelion calendars, the lovely Kusanagi Jun
Remember that our buy-4-get-1-free sale on dojinshi will end soon. This is a great chance to get some nice dojinshi for up to 20% off, and help us make room for more stock of cool dojinshi. Yoroshiku!
If you've got kids who like those fine wooden Brio trains, please check out Spruce Goose, a nice company that sells Brio-compatible track and trains at very reasonable prices. The URL is Plug https://www.addr.com/~spruceca/cgi-bin/ordpage.cgi?uwrhrfrst .
I remember, when I first came to Japan, I was amazed at the popularity of actress Aubrey Hepburn. An incredibly popular actress here, she stars in the movie that many Japanese girls claim as their all-time favorite, Roman Holiday. She's popular in Japan, I am told, because she was the first world actress to become famous despite having a slender (Japanese) body. Another person who is far more famous here than in the U.S. is Sydney Sheldon. A walk through tiny English section of any bookstore in Gunma is like a Sydney Sheldon special selection. (Incidentally, did you know that Sydney Sheldon is the creator of I Dream of Genie, that old TV show?)
In an effort to jump-start the economy, and also to commemorate the new century, Japan will be printing a 2000 yen bill next year. Currently, Japanese currency comes only in 1000, 5000 and 10, 000 yen denominations, making things quite simple. There used to be 100 and 500 yen paper money, but these have wisely been retired and turned into coins, something that I believe Americans should consider doing to the $1 soon -- paper money costs millions to print, but coins last for years. The new bill will cause some confusion
There are a lot of nice items in tonight's update. First of all, we've added a lot of cool items we consider to be great Christmas gifts. On the cards & puzzles page, for example, check out our beautiful only-available-from-Japan puzzles featuring cool Pokemon as well as beautiful traditional Japanese artwork puzzles. We've also got some smaller easy-to-display puzzles, and a great puzzle for Micronaut fans. On our anime & toys page, we've got cool Microman/Micronaut figures, a deluxe battle mech from Front Mission 3, and more. On the magazine front, there are several nice new additions, including the new Bejean
The calendars are selling well, as people pick up the extra calendars we ordered before the Year 2000 calendar pre-orders closed down. We've got plenty left, but the supply is limited, so please check out the in-stock calendar pages to see if there are any items you want. We can still get them to you by Christmas if you choose airmail as the shipping method. Among the great large-size Y2K calendar we have in are Anzai Hiroko, the lovely Matsuda Jun, the great pop groups Speed, Max and Every Little Thing, hot race queen Suzuki Fumika, only-from-Japan Pokemon and Evangelion calendars, the lovely Kusanagi Jun
Remember that our buy-4-get-1-free sale on dojinshi will end soon. This is a great chance to get some nice dojinshi for up to 20% off, and help us make room for more stock of cool dojinshi. Yoroshiku!
If you've got kids who like those fine wooden Brio trains, please check out Spruce Goose, a nice company that sells Brio-compatible track and trains at very reasonable prices. The URL is Plug https://www.addr.com/~spruceca/cgi-bin/ordpage.cgi?uwrhrfrst .
Thursday, November 25, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 25, 1999
Happy Thanksgiving from J-List, if you're in the States. Thanksgiving is a nice day for Americans, a quiet time to stay home and have a nice dinner with the family, then perhaps go visit some friends. In Japan, there is no Thanksgiving, and certainly no turkey to, so this year, we'll be getting a bucket of chicken at good old KFC.
That reminds me of my first weeks in Japan. To my mind, Kentucky is a U.S. state, but to the Japanese, Let's go to Kentucky is an invitation to eat chicken. It just felt weird. Similarly, the Japanese pronunciation of some English words such as "micro" (they usually pronounce it "meecro") gave me the heebie-jeebies. I was also vaguely disturbed to see a series of map books with an apple on the cover, called "Mapple."
Sumo Grand Master Musashimaru, of Hawaii, has won the latest Sumo tournament. He's on a great winning streak, which is good for the new Grand Master. He's one of just two American wrestlers to achieve the highest ranking in Sumo, and is the only wrestler ever to look like a big Sicilian mafia guy.
We've got a lot of nice items for you tonight. First and foremost, we've got dozens of great Year 2000 Japanese calendars in stock, now that the preorders are processed and in the mail. There are many great calendars available, including anime, JPOP and more, and they're all in stock and ready to go out to you. There are new photobooks and magazines, including some single issues, and several really nice new hard- and softcover photobooks. JPOP fans will enjoy the 10+ new items posted to the JPOP page, and we've added some cool new items to the anime toys page last time, including some out of print Sakura Wars figures. (There are some slick new Yamato toys that had been posted
We've been upgrading everything around here, including our web server. J-List now has its own dedicated setup, so loading speed should be increased for everyone. The problem with the J-List secure order form not showing as secure in some browsers should also be fixed. If you notice anything strange over the next couple of days, please let us know immediately and we'll fix it. (The secure order form on the JAST USA hentai game site is still broken, so if you want to get any of the hentai games from that site, please order them from J-List instead, until we get it fixed.)
That reminds me of my first weeks in Japan. To my mind, Kentucky is a U.S. state, but to the Japanese, Let's go to Kentucky is an invitation to eat chicken. It just felt weird. Similarly, the Japanese pronunciation of some English words such as "micro" (they usually pronounce it "meecro") gave me the heebie-jeebies. I was also vaguely disturbed to see a series of map books with an apple on the cover, called "Mapple."
Sumo Grand Master Musashimaru, of Hawaii, has won the latest Sumo tournament. He's on a great winning streak, which is good for the new Grand Master. He's one of just two American wrestlers to achieve the highest ranking in Sumo, and is the only wrestler ever to look like a big Sicilian mafia guy.
We've got a lot of nice items for you tonight. First and foremost, we've got dozens of great Year 2000 Japanese calendars in stock, now that the preorders are processed and in the mail. There are many great calendars available, including anime, JPOP and more, and they're all in stock and ready to go out to you. There are new photobooks and magazines, including some single issues, and several really nice new hard- and softcover photobooks. JPOP fans will enjoy the 10+ new items posted to the JPOP page, and we've added some cool new items to the anime toys page last time, including some out of print Sakura Wars figures. (There are some slick new Yamato toys that had been posted
We've been upgrading everything around here, including our web server. J-List now has its own dedicated setup, so loading speed should be increased for everyone. The problem with the J-List secure order form not showing as secure in some browsers should also be fixed. If you notice anything strange over the next couple of days, please let us know immediately and we'll fix it. (The secure order form on the JAST USA hentai game site is still broken, so if you want to get any of the hentai games from that site, please order them from J-List instead, until we get it fixed.)
Monday, November 22, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 22, 1999
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Saturday, November 20, 1999
Thursday, November 18, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 18, 1999
It's a cold Thursday evening in Japan now, as I finish up today's update. I would have been finished hours ago, but I got the sudden urge to take the afternoon off and hit my favorite sauna for some relaxation, Japan-style.
The Leonid Meteor Shower, which peaked over Israel and Europe twelve or so hours ago, was watched quite closely by the evening Japanese news shows, who had teams of reporters all over the world. It was a great show, if you happened to live near the peak area and didn't have cloud cover to block your view. The footage taken by a special NASA plane, flying above the clouds, recorded hundreds of beautiful meteors falling like raindrops. Unfortunately, Japan completely missed the show. Cheers to everyone who caught some meteors.
There's no such thing as Thanksgiving in Japan, so Japan has started its Christmas Season officially. Everywhere you go, the music played in coffee shops and department stores has changed to bouncy Christmas songs -- every store seems to be selling the "Jitterbug" Santa, that moves his waist from side to side to music. Convenience stores such as Seven Eleven, Lawson and Sun Every have all started reservations for this year's "Christmas Cake" -- a unique (?) Japanese tradition that was likely created by retailers.
Tonight's update is a nice one. First of all, we've got a huge bunch of all-new adult "wide" manga posted to manga page 2. Some of the new books are truly excellent. There are some interesting "one-shot" magazines posted to magazine page 2, including some special and older magazines, for fans of girls who have retired. There are some interesting new items on the anime toys page, and some some new in-stock videos on the video page. Many of our dojinshi (both on the dojinshi and yaoi pages) have been reduced in price, too, so please check out the great bargains. We've got fresh stock of the very popular Bejean and Crystal Card AV idol cards, too (although they may go out of print soon).
Remember that J-List has a huge variety of monthly magazines available by subscription, including magazines for fans of anime, hobby modeling, JPOP, photography, Sony Playstation and Sega Dreamcast, yaoi comic art, and more. These magazines are valuable windows into contemporary Japanese life and culture, and are a great way to see a little piece of Japan every month. Each magazine has been chosen partially on the basis of its value to readers who can't read the Japanese text -- lots of color pictures and artwork, for example. Check out the great "reserve subscription" magazines
The Leonid Meteor Shower, which peaked over Israel and Europe twelve or so hours ago, was watched quite closely by the evening Japanese news shows, who had teams of reporters all over the world. It was a great show, if you happened to live near the peak area and didn't have cloud cover to block your view. The footage taken by a special NASA plane, flying above the clouds, recorded hundreds of beautiful meteors falling like raindrops. Unfortunately, Japan completely missed the show. Cheers to everyone who caught some meteors.
There's no such thing as Thanksgiving in Japan, so Japan has started its Christmas Season officially. Everywhere you go, the music played in coffee shops and department stores has changed to bouncy Christmas songs -- every store seems to be selling the "Jitterbug" Santa, that moves his waist from side to side to music. Convenience stores such as Seven Eleven, Lawson and Sun Every have all started reservations for this year's "Christmas Cake" -- a unique (?) Japanese tradition that was likely created by retailers.
Tonight's update is a nice one. First of all, we've got a huge bunch of all-new adult "wide" manga posted to manga page 2. Some of the new books are truly excellent. There are some interesting "one-shot" magazines posted to magazine page 2, including some special and older magazines, for fans of girls who have retired. There are some interesting new items on the anime toys page, and some some new in-stock videos on the video page. Many of our dojinshi (both on the dojinshi and yaoi pages) have been reduced in price, too, so please check out the great bargains. We've got fresh stock of the very popular Bejean and Crystal Card AV idol cards, too (although they may go out of print soon).
Remember that J-List has a huge variety of monthly magazines available by subscription, including magazines for fans of anime, hobby modeling, JPOP, photography, Sony Playstation and Sega Dreamcast, yaoi comic art, and more. These magazines are valuable windows into contemporary Japanese life and culture, and are a great way to see a little piece of Japan every month. Each magazine has been chosen partially on the basis of its value to readers who can't read the Japanese text -- lots of color pictures and artwork, for example. Check out the great "reserve subscription" magazines
Monday, November 15, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 15, 1999
Hello again from Japan. Sorry for the pictures on the "about us" page all being dead -- the problem is fixed now. What a difference a search/replace can make...
And now for an update on Chuyan and Manaka, hitchhiking across the world in 80 days: they got a message on their pager that a friend in Des Moines had some Japanese friends and would help them. It turned out he was a pilot with a small plane, and he offered to fly them all the way to New York -- so they've crossed the rest of the U.S. in one fell swoop! At the end of the show, where they tell you what help they need now, they requested that anyone with helpful information on Europe (where they can go for food or shelter, etc.) send it to them at DENPA80@iridium.co.jp . (Since they're in Europe, they must have found a way across the Atlantic for free.) Remember, you can see their progress (in Japanese) at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (although last night's broadcast isn't up yet).
Japan has a few new laws in the books. Starting next April (Japanese start everything in April, by the way), they're finally getting a child car-seat law. I can't help but thinking that this has come about partially from foreigners living here like me, who were horrified to see children jumping around unrestrained in a moving car. Also, starting this month, it's now illegal to use a portible phone in a moving vehicle, due to the high incidence of traffic accidents that result from this. (At a street near J-List, where a Mr. Doughnuts stood before it went out of business, there are several wreaths of flowers left in memory of a sixteen-year-old girl who was killed by a driver using his "keitai denwa" (portible phone).)
In a way, Japan is sensitive to criticism from both the foreign community living in Japan, and from other countries, since Japanese aways want to look good in the eyes of people of other nations as a matter of its national pride. issues such as the child seat law and occasional loopholes and poor
tell them about how the japanese are always lookingforaffirmation from overseas, hence they're rebuilding narita airport
We've got some nice items on the J-List site for you this evening. First, there is a big cache of both new and back-in-stock adult dojinshi, for fans of Japanese parody manga. Included on the list are some rare items, so check them out fast. (Remember that you can enter alternate items in the "extra order information" field of the order form.) We've got new magazines on the list, including the new Gal's Dee. Final Fantasy VIII fans will enjoy the excellent new action figures posted to the anime page -- we've also got several items available as special order on the anime page, including Sentimental Graffiti soft vinyl figures and a really cool Great Mazinger die-cast metal toy.
Christmas is right around the corner, and J-List has some unique items that would brighten the day of anyone on your Christmas list. If you've got Pokemon fans in your family, J-List has several interested in "authentic" (read: written in Japanese) Pokemon items, including some snacks that come with collectible cards and toys. If they love Japanese animation, we have some unique and special anime cards, puzzles and toys -- including new cool Gundam and FF8 items. For over-18 friends, why not give a 6 or 12 month subscription to Urecco, or a DVD they'd never expect, to go with their new DVD player? And while calendar pre-orders have closed, we've got quite a few Kusanagi Jun calendars coming in
And now for an update on Chuyan and Manaka, hitchhiking across the world in 80 days: they got a message on their pager that a friend in Des Moines had some Japanese friends and would help them. It turned out he was a pilot with a small plane, and he offered to fly them all the way to New York -- so they've crossed the rest of the U.S. in one fell swoop! At the end of the show, where they tell you what help they need now, they requested that anyone with helpful information on Europe (where they can go for food or shelter, etc.) send it to them at DENPA80@iridium.co.jp . (Since they're in Europe, they must have found a way across the Atlantic for free.) Remember, you can see their progress (in Japanese) at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (although last night's broadcast isn't up yet).
Japan has a few new laws in the books. Starting next April (Japanese start everything in April, by the way), they're finally getting a child car-seat law. I can't help but thinking that this has come about partially from foreigners living here like me, who were horrified to see children jumping around unrestrained in a moving car. Also, starting this month, it's now illegal to use a portible phone in a moving vehicle, due to the high incidence of traffic accidents that result from this. (At a street near J-List, where a Mr. Doughnuts stood before it went out of business, there are several wreaths of flowers left in memory of a sixteen-year-old girl who was killed by a driver using his "keitai denwa" (portible phone).)
In a way, Japan is sensitive to criticism from both the foreign community living in Japan, and from other countries, since Japanese aways want to look good in the eyes of people of other nations as a matter of its national pride. issues such as the child seat law and occasional loopholes and poor
tell them about how the japanese are always lookingforaffirmation from overseas, hence they're rebuilding narita airport
We've got some nice items on the J-List site for you this evening. First, there is a big cache of both new and back-in-stock adult dojinshi, for fans of Japanese parody manga. Included on the list are some rare items, so check them out fast. (Remember that you can enter alternate items in the "extra order information" field of the order form.) We've got new magazines on the list, including the new Gal's Dee. Final Fantasy VIII fans will enjoy the excellent new action figures posted to the anime page -- we've also got several items available as special order on the anime page, including Sentimental Graffiti soft vinyl figures and a really cool Great Mazinger die-cast metal toy.
Christmas is right around the corner, and J-List has some unique items that would brighten the day of anyone on your Christmas list. If you've got Pokemon fans in your family, J-List has several interested in "authentic" (read: written in Japanese) Pokemon items, including some snacks that come with collectible cards and toys. If they love Japanese animation, we have some unique and special anime cards, puzzles and toys -- including new cool Gundam and FF8 items. For over-18 friends, why not give a 6 or 12 month subscription to Urecco, or a DVD they'd never expect, to go with their new DVD player? And while calendar pre-orders have closed, we've got quite a few Kusanagi Jun calendars coming in
Saturday, November 13, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 13, 1999
Hello again from Japan. We got our first taste of really cold weather, so we knew it was time to break out the kerosene space heater (called a "stove" in Japanese). These stoves are smelly, especially when they're first turned on or off, but in a way, the musty smell of burning kerosene lets you know that the season is changing, in kind of a warm way (the word that describes how you feel when you reminisce about something in the past is "natsukashii").
This week there was a very special episode of "Nipponjin yo! Koko ha hen!" (People of Japan! This is Strange!), the show that puts 50 Japanese-bilingual foreigners in a room and lets them bat around issues about racism, sexual harassment and life in Japan. This episode featured three of Japan's famous AV actresses -- Wakana Sena, Honjoh Sayuri and Komuro Yuri -- fielding questions about the content and attitudes of the Japanese adult industry. It was great to see three of my favorite talking about why they got into the AV industry, and also interesting to hear what the foreigners in the room had to say. Since I figured J-List readers would be interested in this show too, I've posted a full report, complete with Quicktime excerpts, on my personal homepage (http://www.myjapan.net). (Please report any problems with the QT movies.)
Tonight's update is a good one. We've got lots of great new items, including a beautiful photobook of Wakana Sena, new issues of several popular adult magazines including Gal's Shower and Milky Dolls. There are 25+ new JPOP CD albums and singles posted on the JPOP page (remember, we've still got that JPOP sale!), all new items that have never been on the list before (including Moritaka, TRF, Puffy and more). The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog is posted, too. Finally, there are some more beautiful adult manga posted to the adult manga page (page 2), including a fabulously drawn and highly erotic work
Announcing -- the J-List Funny Japanese T-Shirt Page. Everyone knows how Japanese love to "get creative" with the English language on T-shirts. Since Japanese on T-shirts is fashionable all around Asia now, we've decided to get a little creative with Japanese ourselves. There are four different shirts on the page currently, each with a zany, nonsensical kanji slogan or vocabulary word. The shirts are 100% cotton Hanes Beefy-T's (the only shirts we'd buy, so we figure the same is true for you), and the feel and look is great, and available now.
There are new faces at J-List! And in the great J-List tradition, we've got wacky pictures of all of us posted on the "About J-List" page. Meet Tomo, our new full-time employee, along with the cute and lovely helpers Yoko and Shizu, who will lovingly wrap your orders with care.
Kaori thanks everyone who wrote to her with comments on the mixing of mayonnaise and soy sauce. She got over 100 replies (!), and apologizes for not being able to answer everyone in person. But she's printed them out as proof for her friend that mayonnaise and soy sauce is not strange at all.
This week there was a very special episode of "Nipponjin yo! Koko ha hen!" (People of Japan! This is Strange!), the show that puts 50 Japanese-bilingual foreigners in a room and lets them bat around issues about racism, sexual harassment and life in Japan. This episode featured three of Japan's famous AV actresses -- Wakana Sena, Honjoh Sayuri and Komuro Yuri -- fielding questions about the content and attitudes of the Japanese adult industry. It was great to see three of my favorite talking about why they got into the AV industry, and also interesting to hear what the foreigners in the room had to say. Since I figured J-List readers would be interested in this show too, I've posted a full report, complete with Quicktime excerpts, on my personal homepage (http://www.myjapan.net). (Please report any problems with the QT movies.)
Tonight's update is a good one. We've got lots of great new items, including a beautiful photobook of Wakana Sena, new issues of several popular adult magazines including Gal's Shower and Milky Dolls. There are 25+ new JPOP CD albums and singles posted on the JPOP page (remember, we've still got that JPOP sale!), all new items that have never been on the list before (including Moritaka, TRF, Puffy and more). The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog is posted, too. Finally, there are some more beautiful adult manga posted to the adult manga page (page 2), including a fabulously drawn and highly erotic work
Announcing -- the J-List Funny Japanese T-Shirt Page. Everyone knows how Japanese love to "get creative" with the English language on T-shirts. Since Japanese on T-shirts is fashionable all around Asia now, we've decided to get a little creative with Japanese ourselves. There are four different shirts on the page currently, each with a zany, nonsensical kanji slogan or vocabulary word. The shirts are 100% cotton Hanes Beefy-T's (the only shirts we'd buy, so we figure the same is true for you), and the feel and look is great, and available now.
There are new faces at J-List! And in the great J-List tradition, we've got wacky pictures of all of us posted on the "About J-List" page. Meet Tomo, our new full-time employee, along with the cute and lovely helpers Yoko and Shizu, who will lovingly wrap your orders with care.
Kaori thanks everyone who wrote to her with comments on the mixing of mayonnaise and soy sauce. She got over 100 replies (!), and apologizes for not being able to answer everyone in person. But she's printed them out as proof for her friend that mayonnaise and soy sauce is not strange at all.
Thursday, November 11, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 11, 1999
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Monday, November 08, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 8, 1999
It's a dark, quiet night in Japan as we finish up tonight's update. If you are in the States, you may not like setting your clock ahead and behind one hour when Daylight Savings Time rolls around, but it's better than having it get dark at 4:30 every day. I'm off to Tokyo tonight, to stay in my favorite capsule hotel in Shibuya, but first -- an update.
Last night's broadcast brought Chuuyan and Hitomi to Salt Lake City, where a kind Japanese American woman gave them a place to stay and made them onigiri (rice balls) for them to eat while they were hitchhiking -- kindness which brought tears to the eyes to the eyes of Chuyan. Then they were off again. Currently, they're in the New York area (the broadcast is about a week behind their actual position), looking for a way to get across the Atlantic for free. See their progress at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (all in Japanese, click on the date links on the left of the screen to call up that day's broadcast). Email them at DENPA80@iridium.co.jp .
Yesterday was Sunday, so of course my family and I watched the longest running anime show (perhaps the longest running show in history?), Sazae-san. Sazae-san is a classic anime show about a normal Japanese family that has various educational adventures each week -- somehow reminiscent of a simpler Japan of the 1960's and 1970's. Running for more than 35 years, it's older than my wife and I. It's been on channel 8 at 6:30 since time out of mind, and Japanese children know that the weekend has come to an end when the theme song starts.
Tonight's update is a nice one. We've got lots of cool and rare magazines and photobooks and magazines that were out of print before -- including 20+ older issues of magazines that had sold out. There are several super-rare items, such as several copies of Fubuki Akira's photobooks, as well as several other cool items. Look for new magazines on magazine pages 2 and 3, and new photobooks on photobook page 1. Kaori's added another 6+ in-stock adult videos, including cool titles from Ozawa Madoka and the "Slave Secretary." There are 15+ JPOP CD singles and albums, including some cool ones by Amuro Namie, My Little Lover, Ribbon and more (remember that our buy-4-get-1-free sale is still on). And there are more Japan-CD ROM items on the CD ROM page.
Some people still had email problems with our list server. If you get multiple copies of this, or have funny line feeds, please let me know and we'll get it figured out... Thanks.
Well, I'm off to happy, bustling Tokyo -- until next time, see you on the web.
Last night's broadcast brought Chuuyan and Hitomi to Salt Lake City, where a kind Japanese American woman gave them a place to stay and made them onigiri (rice balls) for them to eat while they were hitchhiking -- kindness which brought tears to the eyes to the eyes of Chuyan. Then they were off again. Currently, they're in the New York area (the broadcast is about a week behind their actual position), looking for a way to get across the Atlantic for free. See their progress at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (all in Japanese, click on the date links on the left of the screen to call up that day's broadcast). Email them at DENPA80@iridium.co.jp .
Yesterday was Sunday, so of course my family and I watched the longest running anime show (perhaps the longest running show in history?), Sazae-san. Sazae-san is a classic anime show about a normal Japanese family that has various educational adventures each week -- somehow reminiscent of a simpler Japan of the 1960's and 1970's. Running for more than 35 years, it's older than my wife and I. It's been on channel 8 at 6:30 since time out of mind, and Japanese children know that the weekend has come to an end when the theme song starts.
Tonight's update is a nice one. We've got lots of cool and rare magazines and photobooks and magazines that were out of print before -- including 20+ older issues of magazines that had sold out. There are several super-rare items, such as several copies of Fubuki Akira's photobooks, as well as several other cool items. Look for new magazines on magazine pages 2 and 3, and new photobooks on photobook page 1. Kaori's added another 6+ in-stock adult videos, including cool titles from Ozawa Madoka and the "Slave Secretary." There are 15+ JPOP CD singles and albums, including some cool ones by Amuro Namie, My Little Lover, Ribbon and more (remember that our buy-4-get-1-free sale is still on). And there are more Japan-CD ROM items on the CD ROM page.
Some people still had email problems with our list server. If you get multiple copies of this, or have funny line feeds, please let me know and we'll get it figured out... Thanks.
Well, I'm off to happy, bustling Tokyo -- until next time, see you on the web.
Sunday, November 07, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 7, 1999
It's a cool, silent Saturday night here in Japan, as I finish up the weekend update and prepare to send off the update emails before I steal home for some a quiet evening taped Ally McBiel and X-Files reruns from America. I usually go down to the liquor store for a beer and some kakipea (spicy rice crackers and peanuts that are shaped like persimmon seeds, since the name kakipea), although recently I've rediscovered the joy of dried, shredded ika (squid) with my beer. The longer you're in Japan, the stranger you become...
My wife has a new portible phone. Made by Kyocera, it's so light it feels like one of those samples they have in stores, with the electronics removed (so you won't steal the phones). Whereas the previous generation of phones let you program your own song for the ringer, this model lets you harmonize, allowing her to enter Pachelbel's Canon, which was impossible before. It receives and sends email, has a daily horoscope feature, and you can even speak the name of the person you want to call into the phone, and it will dial for you. Other phones on the cutting edge of technology feature color LCD displays, and even have tiny cameras
We've got a bunch of great items for you in tonight's update. Firstly, we've got a super volley of new adult manga on manga page 2, including some of the coolest new titles hot off the Japanese manga presses. There are new dojinshi, including Final Fantasy VIII and Street Fighter adult dojinshi from the "Kaiten" series that are excellent. Our new cards & puzzles homepage is off to a great start, so we added even more cool collectible cards -- cute Japanese idol cards, anime game cards, excellent Ah My Goddess metallic cards, and more. We've also heard the many requests to increase the number of Pokemon-related Japanese snacks, so there are some great new items on the Japanese snacks page, including collectible Pokemon key holders and "mascot pins." There are new Japanese adult videos posted to the Video Catalog pages
J-List takes pride in the products we sell, and in the high rate of return customers we have. So to make sure we're serving everyone as best we can, we've decided to start a price-matching policy. If you ever happen to find any of the in-Japan items (manga, photobooks, magazines) that J-List sells at another other Japan-based site for a lower price, please let us know, and we'll match or beat their price.
We hope you're having a great weekend. See you on the web!
P.S. We're still getting the kinks out of the new list-server software. If there are any problems with this message (funny characters, getting two copies), please let us know.
My wife has a new portible phone. Made by Kyocera, it's so light it feels like one of those samples they have in stores, with the electronics removed (so you won't steal the phones). Whereas the previous generation of phones let you program your own song for the ringer, this model lets you harmonize, allowing her to enter Pachelbel's Canon, which was impossible before. It receives and sends email, has a daily horoscope feature, and you can even speak the name of the person you want to call into the phone, and it will dial for you. Other phones on the cutting edge of technology feature color LCD displays, and even have tiny cameras
We've got a bunch of great items for you in tonight's update. Firstly, we've got a super volley of new adult manga on manga page 2, including some of the coolest new titles hot off the Japanese manga presses. There are new dojinshi, including Final Fantasy VIII and Street Fighter adult dojinshi from the "Kaiten" series that are excellent. Our new cards & puzzles homepage is off to a great start, so we added even more cool collectible cards -- cute Japanese idol cards, anime game cards, excellent Ah My Goddess metallic cards, and more. We've also heard the many requests to increase the number of Pokemon-related Japanese snacks, so there are some great new items on the Japanese snacks page, including collectible Pokemon key holders and "mascot pins." There are new Japanese adult videos posted to the Video Catalog pages
J-List takes pride in the products we sell, and in the high rate of return customers we have. So to make sure we're serving everyone as best we can, we've decided to start a price-matching policy. If you ever happen to find any of the in-Japan items (manga, photobooks, magazines) that J-List sells at another other Japan-based site for a lower price, please let us know, and we'll match or beat their price.
We hope you're having a great weekend. See you on the web!
P.S. We're still getting the kinks out of the new list-server software. If there are any problems with this message (funny characters, getting two copies), please let us know.
Wednesday, November 03, 1999
Greetings from J-List November 3, 1999
Hello again, from that wacky place where they make cotton candy into gum, Japan.
Our big news around here is -- we were robbed! In the early hours of the morning on Monday night, a robber entered our house (the liquor store) through our unlocked front door, looking for cash to steal. In the end, he only got the cash register itself (which had no money in it), some coupons for free beer, and some sausages. You can see a picture I snapped of one of the policemen at http://www.myjapan.net/personalstuff/policeman2.jpg (they dusted all the doors for prints). The thief was nice enough to discard our cash register outside when he realized it was empty (they got some prints from it).
We've had two other instances of theft at the liquor store over the past three years -- the other two times by a thief who knew that my father in law had a habit of keeping most of the cash in a yellow bag under the register. Both times my parents lost about $3000, but fortunately, this time the thief got almost nothing. Still, it's very upsetting.
Thanks for all the comments on Chuyan and Hitomi, who are hitchhiking across the world in 80 days. You can see their progress at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (in Japanese only, unfortunately). It would be really cool if a J-List reader could assist them in their quest (and get on Japanese TV, to boot). If you can give them a ride, a place to stay, or know some way they can get across the Atlantic for free (since they have no money with them; that's part of the challenge), email them at denpa80@iridium.co.jp (160 chrs max).
The first delivery of calendar has arrived, so people who ordered their Y2K calendars early will be hearing from us in 1-2 days as we get them processed and out the door. We really do have to close down orders on the calendars, so if you haven't chosen your Y2K calendars, please do so within the next two days. (We'll keep the calendar pages up through the 10th of November or so, but as November rolls along, the chances that we'll be able to get the calendars you want drops sharply.)
We've got some really nice new stuff for the J-List site. First, we've made a new page, Cards & Puzzles, where we'll showcase collectible cards from Japan, and our unique puzzles featuring classical views of Japan, beautiful artwork, and anime themes. To commemorate the new page, we've posted two beautiful sets of collectible nude AV cards -- the Bejean Generation series, and the new Crystal Card series (1999 vol. 2). Both sets are really wonderful, with great thick stock and excellent quality printing -- but demand for these cards has been high in the past
We've got lots of other items for you, though. For fans of Japanese magazines and photobooks, there are several nice new items posted to those pages -- . There are 30+ new JPOP CDs and albums posted to the JPOP page -- and yes, our Y2K "buy four, get one free" sale does apply to the new items. So check them out.
Finally -- we're using a new listserver to send these updates out. If anything goes wrong (you get two copies of this, etc.) please let me know right away.
Our big news around here is -- we were robbed! In the early hours of the morning on Monday night, a robber entered our house (the liquor store) through our unlocked front door, looking for cash to steal. In the end, he only got the cash register itself (which had no money in it), some coupons for free beer, and some sausages. You can see a picture I snapped of one of the policemen at http://www.myjapan.net/personalstuff/policeman2.jpg (they dusted all the doors for prints). The thief was nice enough to discard our cash register outside when he realized it was empty (they got some prints from it).
We've had two other instances of theft at the liquor store over the past three years -- the other two times by a thief who knew that my father in law had a habit of keeping most of the cash in a yellow bag under the register. Both times my parents lost about $3000, but fortunately, this time the thief got almost nothing. Still, it's very upsetting.
Thanks for all the comments on Chuyan and Hitomi, who are hitchhiking across the world in 80 days. You can see their progress at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (in Japanese only, unfortunately). It would be really cool if a J-List reader could assist them in their quest (and get on Japanese TV, to boot). If you can give them a ride, a place to stay, or know some way they can get across the Atlantic for free (since they have no money with them; that's part of the challenge), email them at denpa80@iridium.co.jp (160 chrs max).
The first delivery of calendar has arrived, so people who ordered their Y2K calendars early will be hearing from us in 1-2 days as we get them processed and out the door. We really do have to close down orders on the calendars, so if you haven't chosen your Y2K calendars, please do so within the next two days. (We'll keep the calendar pages up through the 10th of November or so, but as November rolls along, the chances that we'll be able to get the calendars you want drops sharply.)
We've got some really nice new stuff for the J-List site. First, we've made a new page, Cards & Puzzles, where we'll showcase collectible cards from Japan, and our unique puzzles featuring classical views of Japan, beautiful artwork, and anime themes. To commemorate the new page, we've posted two beautiful sets of collectible nude AV cards -- the Bejean Generation series, and the new Crystal Card series (1999 vol. 2). Both sets are really wonderful, with great thick stock and excellent quality printing -- but demand for these cards has been high in the past
We've got lots of other items for you, though. For fans of Japanese magazines and photobooks, there are several nice new items posted to those pages -- . There are 30+ new JPOP CDs and albums posted to the JPOP page -- and yes, our Y2K "buy four, get one free" sale does apply to the new items. So check them out.
Finally -- we're using a new listserver to send these updates out. If anything goes wrong (you get two copies of this, etc.) please let me know right away.
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