Hello again from your friends in Japan!
Our family has four cars in Japan, one for each of us. My father-in-law drives a Daihatsu Sambar for making deliveries of beer and sake from his liquor shop, and my mother-in-law has a Nissan Bluebird Sylphy, the first car made after Nissan joined with Renault. My wife drives our Saturn (we have the first Saturn sold in our prefecture), and my car is a Mazda Bongo Friendee, a large van with a top that opens to make an extra room for the kids, great for watching fireworks. It's a nice car, and I love the silly name.
It can be quite interesting to analyze Japan's car names. Above all, car names must sound "kakko ii" (cool, sylish), and since nothing sounds cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life and Subaru Legend, or Nissan's Sunny and March (March is sold as Nissan Micra in Europe). But many other names come from slightly altered English, so that they cause the same emotional response while being original. Words like Carolla or Tercel or Sylphy or Premacy sound like English, but car companies can still "own" the original names. Also, names taken from Spanish like Daihatsu's little van Vamos (love that one) or Mitsubishi's Diamante are getting more and more popular with car makers here.
Japanese cars must never, ever have Japanese names, since that would be "kakko warui" (un-cool, bad style) -- Japanese are always amused to learn that the Suzuki Jiminy was sold as Suzuki Samurai in the U.S. However, there are some cars whose names started out as Japanese words before being "English-ified." Toyota Camry, for example, gets its name from "kammuri," which means crown in Japanese -- which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan here called Toyota Crown, and in the past as sold the Toyota Corona, which means crown in Spanish. Other names that have a "Japanese" feel to them are Daihatsu's Mira (sort of sounds like "mirai" which means "future") and Mitsubishi's Minica (which sound like what it is -- a very small "mini car").
For bishoujo gaming fans, we're happy to announce two new preorder products. First, JAST USA Memorial Collection is a total re-engineering of three classic games: Three Sisters' Story, Season of the Sakura and Runaway City. The new game collection features a completely updated game engine with new effects including anti-aliased graphics, re-sampled music and many new features. You can get all three games in one package for $24.95. Then, Milky House Memorial Collection brings you three more classic titles: Nocturnal Illusion, May Club and the original Borderline Collection, all for just $19.95. All game work with modern Windows, including Windows XP. Preorder for free shipping on these titles (US/Canada; half price for international shipping) when they come out! (There's a $5 rebate for people who have purchased these games before, too.)
For the new update, we've got some really nice items for you. The new products posted to the site include a great soft vinyl figure of Shrek, sold only in the Japanese market, a fantastic deluxe Totoro music box for serious collectors, new Japanese Hot Wheels cars, two great new all-purpose bento boxes, cute Hello Kitty and Hamtaro items, new "Ochaken" (Tea Dog) keychains, Black Black candy and Meito green tea powder, a super sexy Race Queen trading card series, and more. For our adult customers, new posted items include the beautiful Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, a great Soft on Demand catalog that's just 25 cents, several nice new and restocked hardcover photobooks including the excellent "Zenkai," great new erotic DVDs including the stylish Akira Watase and Ryoko Mitake and a super new Lesbian Kiss Collection from Deep's, and many newly restocked DVD titles (Azumi Kawashima, 24 AV Idols, Lesbian on the Beach in Guam and many more).
One of our most popular products are our wacky Japanese T-shirts, which are printed on 100% cotton T-shirts and printed in the USA. We carry a full range of sizes so we can please every customer, from S all the way up to 3XL. Unfortunately, some shirt colors aren't available in 3XL, however we have added 3XL for our newest shirt release, the yellow "Twenty Years Old" shirt.
The J-Mate site has been updated with two new reviews of DVDs by Akira Watase and Maiko Kazano. Be sure and read part 2 of the "long interview" with Indies Queen Ai Nagase if you haven't yet, it's very interesting.
Saturday, January 12, 2002
Greetings from J-List January 12, 2002
Hello again from San Diego. I head back to Japan tomorrow, but I'm outside in my backyard, enjoying the warm weather, able to work remotely courtesy of Apple's Airport.
If you spend any time in Japan, you're likely to notice that the Japanese really love florescent lights. Because they're very bright, and because they use less power than normal lights, the Japanese use florescent lights for almost any kind of lighting, even in residential homes -- quite different from how lights are used in the U.S. When you build a home in Japan (you almost always build a new home rather than buying a "used" house that someone else has lived in), a lot of the fun is going through the National/Panasonic lighting catalog and choosing what kind of lighting to install in each room. When the Japanese put their minds to designing something beautifully, they really go all out, and the quality and variety of lighting you can choose from is great. The long-life florescent bulbs for normal lamps, which have been getting popular in the States, have been around in Japan for 15 years or more.
It's quite interesting to analyze how Japanese name their cars. First of all, names given to Japanese cars must sound "kakko ii" (cool), and since nothing sounds cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life and Legend, or Nissan's Bluebird and Sunny, or Mazda's Roadster (aka the Miyata, although all Japanese think it means "road star" just as they think Pizza Hut is really "Pizza Hat"). But many other names come from slightly altered English, so that they cause the same emotional response while being original. Words like Carolla or Tercel or Soarer or Sylphy or Premacy sound like English, but car companies can still "own" the original names.
Japanese cars must never, ever have Japanese names, since that would be "kakko warui" (un-cool) -- Japanese are always amused to learn that the Suzuki Jiminy was sold as Suzuki Samurai in the U.S. However, there are some cars whose names started out as Japanese words before being "English-ified." Toyota Camry, for example, gets its name from "kammuri," which means crown in Japanese -- which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan in Japan called Toyota Crown. (Incidentally, the Camry is not popular at all in Japan -- too boring.) Other names that have a "Japanese" feel to them are Daihatsu's Mira (sort of sounds like "mirai" which means "future") and Mitsubishi's Minica (which sound like what it is -- a very small "mini car").
For the new update, the J-List team has added another large volley of new products to the J-List website. For adult customers, we've got new magazines (amateur, kogal), new photobooks (including our last restock of I Mai Me by Mai Hagiwara and Emily Yoshikawa's very nice photobook), new manga (including new Rei Nekojima and other titles), a restock of our popular Lunatic Party hentai Sailor Moon manga, excellent new DVDs and some videos (including new "Penis study" fetish titles from Soft on Demand), new doujinshi, and more. We've also got cool new "traditional" Japanese items including stylish chopsticks and dishes, new Japanese snack items including delicious soft, shreaded ika, new Morning Musume cards, Hello Kitty and Hamutaro items, fresh stock of Godzilla items, more Buddhist Prayer Beads, and a restock of the positively beautiful extra-large cold cast "completed figure" of Urd from Ah My Goddess and Love Hina SkyLuv Project toys.
At J-List, we have a great selection of DVDs from Japan. Nearly all our DVDs are "region free," meaning you can play them on any DVD player in the world, but an increasing number of "Indies" DVDs, as well as all anime and "hentai" DVDs released in Japan, are encoded for region 2 (Japan and Europe). The simplest way to view region 2 DVDs is to buy a region free DVD player, and we recommend the Sampo DVE-611 (which can be made region free via a simple hack). And we found a source for these players for just $109 -- we've bought two ourselves. Since you need a region-free player to view many of the recent Indies DVD releases, and all anime DVDs from Japan (including the Miyazaki films, which will all be released in 2002), it's our sincere hope that everyone will get one of these players and oppose the anti-globalists who thought of the DVD regions in the first place. The link to the $109 Sampo players is here.
Are you interested in learning Japanese? Our friends over at YesJapan (http://www.yesjapan.com) have such a good online course, allowing at-your-pace study, thousands of audio files, and an "ask-a-teacher" service, that we wanted to plug them on the list. We think this is a great way to learn Japanese and we hope you'll give them a try.
If you spend any time in Japan, you're likely to notice that the Japanese really love florescent lights. Because they're very bright, and because they use less power than normal lights, the Japanese use florescent lights for almost any kind of lighting, even in residential homes -- quite different from how lights are used in the U.S. When you build a home in Japan (you almost always build a new home rather than buying a "used" house that someone else has lived in), a lot of the fun is going through the National/Panasonic lighting catalog and choosing what kind of lighting to install in each room. When the Japanese put their minds to designing something beautifully, they really go all out, and the quality and variety of lighting you can choose from is great. The long-life florescent bulbs for normal lamps, which have been getting popular in the States, have been around in Japan for 15 years or more.
It's quite interesting to analyze how Japanese name their cars. First of all, names given to Japanese cars must sound "kakko ii" (cool), and since nothing sounds cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life and Legend, or Nissan's Bluebird and Sunny, or Mazda's Roadster (aka the Miyata, although all Japanese think it means "road star" just as they think Pizza Hut is really "Pizza Hat"). But many other names come from slightly altered English, so that they cause the same emotional response while being original. Words like Carolla or Tercel or Soarer or Sylphy or Premacy sound like English, but car companies can still "own" the original names.
Japanese cars must never, ever have Japanese names, since that would be "kakko warui" (un-cool) -- Japanese are always amused to learn that the Suzuki Jiminy was sold as Suzuki Samurai in the U.S. However, there are some cars whose names started out as Japanese words before being "English-ified." Toyota Camry, for example, gets its name from "kammuri," which means crown in Japanese -- which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan in Japan called Toyota Crown. (Incidentally, the Camry is not popular at all in Japan -- too boring.) Other names that have a "Japanese" feel to them are Daihatsu's Mira (sort of sounds like "mirai" which means "future") and Mitsubishi's Minica (which sound like what it is -- a very small "mini car").
For the new update, the J-List team has added another large volley of new products to the J-List website. For adult customers, we've got new magazines (amateur, kogal), new photobooks (including our last restock of I Mai Me by Mai Hagiwara and Emily Yoshikawa's very nice photobook), new manga (including new Rei Nekojima and other titles), a restock of our popular Lunatic Party hentai Sailor Moon manga, excellent new DVDs and some videos (including new "Penis study" fetish titles from Soft on Demand), new doujinshi, and more. We've also got cool new "traditional" Japanese items including stylish chopsticks and dishes, new Japanese snack items including delicious soft, shreaded ika, new Morning Musume cards, Hello Kitty and Hamutaro items, fresh stock of Godzilla items, more Buddhist Prayer Beads, and a restock of the positively beautiful extra-large cold cast "completed figure" of Urd from Ah My Goddess and Love Hina SkyLuv Project toys.
At J-List, we have a great selection of DVDs from Japan. Nearly all our DVDs are "region free," meaning you can play them on any DVD player in the world, but an increasing number of "Indies" DVDs, as well as all anime and "hentai" DVDs released in Japan, are encoded for region 2 (Japan and Europe). The simplest way to view region 2 DVDs is to buy a region free DVD player, and we recommend the Sampo DVE-611 (which can be made region free via a simple hack). And we found a source for these players for just $109 -- we've bought two ourselves. Since you need a region-free player to view many of the recent Indies DVD releases, and all anime DVDs from Japan (including the Miyazaki films, which will all be released in 2002), it's our sincere hope that everyone will get one of these players and oppose the anti-globalists who thought of the DVD regions in the first place. The link to the $109 Sampo players is here.
Are you interested in learning Japanese? Our friends over at YesJapan (http://www.yesjapan.com) have such a good online course, allowing at-your-pace study, thousands of audio files, and an "ask-a-teacher" service, that we wanted to plug them on the list. We think this is a great way to learn Japanese and we hope you'll give them a try.
Thursday, January 10, 2002
Greetings from J-List October 10, 2002
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Tuesday, January 08, 2002
Greetings from J-List October 8, 2002
Hello again from all of us in Japan!
Japan can be a funny place. Although it's one of the most pro-American countries in the world, at the end of the day, Japan really loves Europe, and secretly wishes it could be a part of that continent. During the Meiji period, when Japan was looking to other nations as it modernized its institutions, they chose many elements from Europe to incorporate here. The French prefectural system, for example, was used as the model for Japan's internal organization; they modeled their military on Prussia's, and their Diet on Britan's Parliament, the Mother of Parliaments. In much the same was as the British will jokingly pretend they're not part of Europe (since they're an island nation), the Japanese seem to pretend they're not a part of Asia, and actually say "Asia and Japan" as if one were not part of the other. The fact that Japan and most of Europe are grouped in the same DVD region (region 2) area speaks volumes about how Japan perceives itself.
As part of their ongoing efforts at "internationalizing" Japanese young people, Japanese must study six years of English by the time they're 18, and more if they go on to college. But there's always a subtle conflict that no one openly acknowledges: do they study American English or British English? The Japanese have always had great respect for England, and have copied them in many ways (including their penchant for Empire-building) during the past 150 years. Still, the Japanese tend to study American spelling ("color" not "colour"), as a general rule. The problem is, it's not a fixed rule -- British English is sometimes used in schools, but other times American English is used: just enough to confuse and frustrate the poor kids. When my wife was in Junior High school, she took part in a pronunciation contest. She practiced and practiced the text she was supposed to read, but unfortunately, the teacher who helped her with the material had learned British English, and the two accents confused her terribly.
We were surprised to hear that Ultraman Tiga is being shown in the U.S. on Fox. Ultraman Tiga is the first of the Ultraman series made in Japan after the long gap between the "classic" Ultraman series of the 1960s and 70s. I've been a big fan of Ultraman ever since I was a child and saw the original on TV, and I've enjoyed a fun second childhood, watching the newer Japanese series with my son. We carry some nice items for Ultraman lovers, including the 2003 Ultraman calendars, and the Eiji Tsuburaya Anniversary calendar, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Tsuburaya, the Father of Godzilla and Ultraman (we highly recommend it). For a fantastic page documenting everything there is to know about Ultraman, see http://www.waynebrain.com/
We've received some questions about how the ongoing dock closures along the West Coast might affect J-List shipment delivery. Happily, all SAL, airmail and EMS shipment are all sent via air, so only seamail shipments should be affected by the delays.
For the new update, we have many cool products for you from Japan, including:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. These new items include:
J-List loves wacky things from Japan. One thing we love is Japan's bento culture, that is, attractive boxed-lunch that can be very beautifully decorated. Not only do we carry authentic Japanese bento boxes, but we also have the cool 2003 World of Bento calendar, which shows some incredibly beautiful ways to make Japanese bento.
Japan can be a funny place. Although it's one of the most pro-American countries in the world, at the end of the day, Japan really loves Europe, and secretly wishes it could be a part of that continent. During the Meiji period, when Japan was looking to other nations as it modernized its institutions, they chose many elements from Europe to incorporate here. The French prefectural system, for example, was used as the model for Japan's internal organization; they modeled their military on Prussia's, and their Diet on Britan's Parliament, the Mother of Parliaments. In much the same was as the British will jokingly pretend they're not part of Europe (since they're an island nation), the Japanese seem to pretend they're not a part of Asia, and actually say "Asia and Japan" as if one were not part of the other. The fact that Japan and most of Europe are grouped in the same DVD region (region 2) area speaks volumes about how Japan perceives itself.
As part of their ongoing efforts at "internationalizing" Japanese young people, Japanese must study six years of English by the time they're 18, and more if they go on to college. But there's always a subtle conflict that no one openly acknowledges: do they study American English or British English? The Japanese have always had great respect for England, and have copied them in many ways (including their penchant for Empire-building) during the past 150 years. Still, the Japanese tend to study American spelling ("color" not "colour"), as a general rule. The problem is, it's not a fixed rule -- British English is sometimes used in schools, but other times American English is used: just enough to confuse and frustrate the poor kids. When my wife was in Junior High school, she took part in a pronunciation contest. She practiced and practiced the text she was supposed to read, but unfortunately, the teacher who helped her with the material had learned British English, and the two accents confused her terribly.
We were surprised to hear that Ultraman Tiga is being shown in the U.S. on Fox. Ultraman Tiga is the first of the Ultraman series made in Japan after the long gap between the "classic" Ultraman series of the 1960s and 70s. I've been a big fan of Ultraman ever since I was a child and saw the original on TV, and I've enjoyed a fun second childhood, watching the newer Japanese series with my son. We carry some nice items for Ultraman lovers, including the 2003 Ultraman calendars, and the Eiji Tsuburaya Anniversary calendar, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Tsuburaya, the Father of Godzilla and Ultraman (we highly recommend it). For a fantastic page documenting everything there is to know about Ultraman, see http://www.waynebrain.com/
We've received some questions about how the ongoing dock closures along the West Coast might affect J-List shipment delivery. Happily, all SAL, airmail and EMS shipment are all sent via air, so only seamail shipments should be affected by the delays.
For the new update, we have many cool products for you from Japan, including:
- First, a very special item that we just love: the limited-edition Laputa Collector's Box, a massive box filled with tons of goodies for fans of Hayao Miyazaki's famous film, including the English DVD, soundtrack and image album, novelization, and a very detailed Laputa robot from Cominica
- Also, we've got a very cool limited-edition die-cast Arcadia, from Leiji Matsumoto's famous anime series
- For fans of Snoopy, we've got a rare item that's not available outside Japan: beautiful Chinese tea cups with images of Snoopy, which we think is really cool
- For Macross/Robotech fans, a very special item: the Macross Design Works, featuring all design sketches and color illustrations of mecha designed by Shoji Kawamori
- For fans of Japan's breathtakingly beautiful idols, we've got a great item for you: Yellow Girls, a collection of photos by the three most famous idols in Japan
- Also, a hardcover photobook for fans of the very popular Rei Kikukawa, an incredibly beautiful starlet in Japan who is a very interesting persona: despite her incredibly beauty, she attends Tokyo University, the top-rated school in Japan (see her 2003 calendars too)
- For Hello Kitty fans, we've got several fun items that you can't get outside of Japan, like a cute Kitty stamp set with 30 rubber stamps of Kitty and her family
- For manga lovers, we've got another selection of adult comics from Japan, including the very erotic Melt-Down by Angel Comics
- Also, for fans of Japan's popular yaoi (homosexual) comics, we have a nice new anthology work for you, with great romantic stories by some of Japan's top artists
- For fans of sexy Race Queens, we've restocked the popular Miho Yoshioka and Mario Racing Girls title for you (region free) and the very nice Fumika Suzuki Trading Card Bible
- Just in time for Christmas, we've got a super-cute Gremlins plush, little Gizmo dressed up as Santa
- For our snack fans, enjoy Japanese animal cookies, bean snacks and fresh stock of Pocky, which was starting to sell out already (it's very popular)
- Speaking of Pocky, we've got stock of a great "parody pen" that looks like dark and white chocolate Pocky -- it's wacky!
- For fans (or parents of fans) of Yu-Gi-Oh, we've got a neat item: Yu-Gi-Oh Dual Monsters chocolate wafer cookies, which come with very cool collectible stickers
- We've got some cool anime toy items in, including the Kiki's Delivery Service figure set, fresh stock of the Spirited Away figure set, new Japan-only Hot Wheels, and a rare item we were lucky to get: stock of the Giant Robo "Robot Wars" strap
- We've added stock of our popular Japanese notebooks with funny English on it, for people who want to write on a quality Japanese notebook with funny English
- Finally, see cool "super deformed" figures from Ojamajo Doremi, a great soft leather case that can be used for just about anything (I use mine as an iPod case), erasers that look like toilet paper, a fun way to separate egg whites and yolks, a great item for fans of Pom Pom Purin, and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. These new items include:
- For fans of Japanese magazines, we've got some new ones for you, including amateur and "hitozuma" (married women, a major Japanese fetish) for you
- Also, we've got the new MPEG Typhoon, which features a full magazine and two video CDs of great AV "quickies" -- a fun sampler item
- Something very cool from Gal's Dee: the Gal's Dee DVD, a 2 hour DVD that comes with a full color magazine, and at a great price!
- Japan has a very highly developed sense of bondage photography, and we've posted the second volume of the Heisei Bondage Deluxe, a great collection of 15 top-quality bondage models
- Fans of Japan's leg fetish photography will enjoy the new Mini-Suka Queen, featuring five lovely Race Queens who show you everything
- Enjoy our stock of hundreds of Japanese photobooks, including the new "Seaside Erotica" by photographer Fujio Saimon
- For DVD collectors, we've got a great selection of items, starting with a great "3 in 1" offering from Hitomi Hayasaki -- 3 hours of her best works! (region free)
- Another great DVD from Kuki, enjoy Mayu Yoshino's No Cut!! DVD, with three full video releases collected in this DVD for you, 240 minutes (region free)
- We love Bauhaus's soft porn DVDs, and there's a new one in their "Bishoujo Sonata" series, starring the beautiful Yui Kawai (region free)
- From SOD, the lovely Kokoro Amano receives "bukkake" constantly over the course of 24 hours, while eating, sleeping, even brushing her teeth (region free)
- Another great volume in the Obscene Kiss of Amateur Girls series, see the tender and erotic kissing of Japanese girls (region free)
- For indies fans, there's a new "Hip and Vagina" offering from Wanz Factory, starring the beautiful Miyuki Hourai (region 2)
- Finally, restocked DVDs include the great DVD releases of Emily Yoshikawa (Japan's "latino" AV star), the venerable Akira Fubuki Special, Rio Sannomiya's great Double United release, and more!
J-List loves wacky things from Japan. One thing we love is Japan's bento culture, that is, attractive boxed-lunch that can be very beautifully decorated. Not only do we carry authentic Japanese bento boxes, but we also have the cool 2003 World of Bento calendar, which shows some incredibly beautiful ways to make Japanese bento.
Monday, January 07, 2002
Greetings from J-List January 7, 2002
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)