Greetings from J-List May 15, 1998

Hello, and Happy Friday everyone. It's been very quiet around here all afternoon, mainly because Kaori took the afternoon off to get her teeth worked on. I took some time off myself to take the kids for a long bicycle ride. Now that the rain has stopped, it's been nice every day.

The famous sumo wrestler Konishiki, the first Hawaiian wrestler to reach the level of ozeki (the second highest level in the sport), has retired. He's starring in a line of whisky commercials by Suntory in which he uses his great body (upwards of 450 pounds) to imitate bottles of Suntory whisky.

We've got a ton of great items for you today, starting with the February issue of Urecco, which features the beautiful and luscious Asami Narua, who has a 92 cm bust yet a tiny 52 cm waist. The latest issues of Milky Tsushin and Sakuranbo Ekisu are on the list now, as are many more copies of the popular Jo Mag January 1998 issue, featuring the beautiful catlike Andoh Aya. Finally, the new MPEG CD Soft Catalog (without almost two hours of AV on two CD ROMs) is in -- grab it before they sell out, as last month's did so quickly. Finally, more price reductions in our video and magazine pages for you -- enjoy, and have a nice weekend!

Greetings from J-List May 10, 1998

Hello, all. Chiharu and I are enjoying a Saturday evening of Japanese television. First was "Hit Parade!, a cool show that has top Japanese singers singing songs of other singers, which causes some interesting combinations. Then we watched Much Ado about Love, in which famous Japanese comedian Samba has funny conversations about love and sex with pretty women. And now we're watching old episodes of 90210 that NHK keeps on the air. It's great to meet other ex-pat Americans living in Japan who wouldn't admit to watching the show before coming to live here.

The sudden suicide death of Hide, of the popular Japanese rock band X Japan, is current in the news right now. His death has shocked and galvanized his fans, including my wife, who has been a fan of this group ever since she happened to meet Toshi, the lead singer, in a karaoke bar in Los Angeles.

We have a small update tonight, mainly more magazines and photobooks. Especially recommended are the Asami Mao the Nagai Madoka shashinshus. Also, we've knocked down even more prices on magazines and videos that we have too many of, so please check out those pages if you have time -- thanks.

Greetings from J-List May 8, 1998

Hi. I'm going off to Tokyo tomorrow, so Kaori and I worked today to get a nice update out today. We've got a ton of great stuff for you, on the magazine, shashinshu, and manga pages: wonderful magazines such as Mini & Mini Ska, Nippon Mini-Skirt, Body Body, Jo Mag, and more.

Japan is huming along today. Lots of news about the earthquake off the coast of Okinawa. Miura Kazuyoshi ("Kaz"), the most famous Japanese soccer player, turned 30 today. Alien 4 and Starship Troopers have finally wandered into movie theatres here, so I've got some movies to take in on the weekend.

Well, that's all for now -- have a nice Friday.

Greetings from J-List May 6, 1998

Well, Golden Week is finally at an end. Kaori had a nice week off, which means that I was, er, rather busy make sure the emails got out on time. It's funny how your perception of holidays changes when you run a business. ^_^

I have a new virtual pet. It's called Teku Teku Angel, and it's essentially a simple electronic device for recording the number of steps you take during the day, to encourage you to walk more. But it's got a Teku Teku Angel virtual pet living inside it, and if you don't get enough exercise, your pet will eventually wither and die. Hopefully this will get me away from the computer a little more. Is this the next wave of trendy things from Asia?

We have some great new items for everyone today. First, there are about 50 new JPOP CDs, with some great albums (Matsuda Seiko, Akina Nakamori, Nakayama Miho) as well as excellent recent CD singles by such bands as My Little Lover, Globe, Amuro Namie, and more. Then, we've got a few excellent magazines and photobooks for fans of these items, including great items for fans of Nagai Madoka

Greetings from J-List April 30, 1998

Well, Golden Week has started here in Japan. Golden Week is a bunch of Japanese holidays (Green Day, the former Showa Emperor's birthday, Constitution Celebration Day, Boy's Day, and so on) that usually fall very close to each other. All of Japan goes wild trying to experience leisure, which means that anywhere you go in Japan during this time, you find crowds of people. Chiharu and I are going t hunker down, maybe take in a movie at our favorite American-style movie theater in Ota (home of the Subaru Corporation), and relax.

We've got a ton of new items for you, mostly on the magazine, shashinshu, and video warehouse pages. We've got a bunch of Photoshot and NoWon "shashinshu type" magazines, about 50 new videos, several older and rare magazines, and more. We've got some cool shojo manga on the anime page. There are also about 7 "new" dojinshi on the dojinshi page -- although they are repeats of items that had been posted in the past. Thanks, and have a nice Golden Week!

Greetings from J-List April 28, 1998

Another Monday has come to Japan. The weather is still rather dreary, but I managed to get a little bit of work in on the sun deck we're building on our verandah.

Kazuki and I enjoyed the trip to Shizuoka Prefecture. We went to a wonderful onsen (hot springs) hotel near Lake Hamanako, and bathed in the hot springs while looking out over the lake. Kazuki was thrilled to be able to ride a Shinkansen for the first time. He has memorized all the names of the various Shinkansen (Hikari, Nozomi, Tsubasa, etc.) that run in the Kanto region of Japan -- not bad for the age of three.

The two-man team "Yan-pai" (a Japanese comedian and a man from Hong Kong who are hitchhiking from the Cape of Good Hope up to the top of Europe, on the Japanese television show Denpa Shonen) are in Zimbabwe right now (they couldn't cross through Angola because of civil war there), and working their way north. Great television like Denpa Shonen is part of what makes living in Japan fun.

We've got some nice new items for you today, including about 75 new in-stock videos (Matsukawa Ayumi and Fubuki Akira fans take note). We've also got a small mound of new JPOP and anime CDs, including some of the most popular CD singles in Japan right now. Check out the new items if you have time.

Greetings from J-List April 28, 1998

Another Monday has come to Japan. The weather is still rather dreary, but I managed to get a little bit of work in on the sun deck we're building on our verandah.

Kazuki and I enjoyed the trip to Shizuoka Prefecture. We went to a wonderful onsen (hot springs) hotel near Lake Hamanako, and bathed in the hot springs while looking out over the lake. Kazuki was thrilled to be able to ride a Shinkansen for the first time. He has memorized all the names of the various Shinkansen (Hikari, Nozomi, Tsubasa, etc.) that run in the Kanto region of Japan -- not bad for the age of three.

The two-man team "Yan-pai" (a Japanese comedian and a man from Hong Kong who are hitchhiking from the Cape of Good Hope up to the top of Europe, on the Japanese television show Denpa Shonen) are in Zimbabwe right now (they couldn't cross through Angola because of civil war there), and working their way north. Great television like Denpa Shonen is part of what makes living in Japan fun.

We've got some nice new items for you today, including about 75 new in-stock videos (Matsukawa Ayumi and Fubuki Akira fans take note). We've also got a small mound of new JPOP and anime CDs, including some of the most popular CD singles in Japan right now. Check out the new items if you have time.

Greetings from J-List April 24, 1998

Hello, everyone. The weekend is here, and Kazuki and I are preparing to head down to Shizuoka Prefecture tomorrow to visit a friend of mine. Kazuki is so happy to be able to ride his first Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and go to a hot springs hotel. Unfortunately we both have come down with freak colds -- I hope we're not too miserable tomorrow.

I'm very happy to announce that the latest JAST USA title, Runaway City, is finally shipping, along with RCY America's premier release, Nocturnal Illusion. It was a long battle, and we ended up many months behind schedule, but they are finally out the door. If you don't know about the interactive anime role-playing game for adults category of game software from Japan, I recommend that you check out one of the new titles.

Well, have a good weekend. See you when we get back from Mt. Fuji!

Greetings from J-List April 7, 1998

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Greetings from J-List April 2, 1998

Hi! The J-List homepage is now being served on my Newton Messagepad 2100. We apologize if there is any slowness from the new system. (Okay, happy April, everyone...)

The season of the sakura has come to Japan, but we have a cruel April Fool's present: snow. A freezing cold day has given way to a snowy night, and now the sound of snow falling off our roof is . We had been planning the J-List Flower Viewing Party for a few days from now. Hopefully we won't be thwarted.

Nice small update today. We have some nice items for you today, including about eight new Video CDs. Also, there have been a lot of price reductions on the videos and magazines pages. Please check out these new items. Thanks!

Greetings from J-List March 30, 1998

Monday is here again, and we've got another big update -- videos! No less than 10 great big boxes of videos showed up here at J-List over the weekend. Check out the Video Warehouse for some great new items.

As I write this, Chiharu and I are on the train to Tokyo to see the Elton John & Billy Joel concert. We're happy as clams. Before we go to Tokyo Dome, we're going to swing by Goa, a great Indian restaurant in Harajuku, and then grab a Frap at the newly-opened Starbucks.

In other news, an era has ended: Gilgamesh Night, a popular late-night "ero" television show that ran from 1991, has come to an end. Gilgamesh Night was responsible for the launching of the careers of Iijima Ai, Hosokawa Fumie, Hitomi Yuki, the CC girls, the Sexy Mates, and many other AV and softcore Japanese stars, but on Saturday night

Greetings from J-List March 28, 1998

Hello again. We've been busy all week, which is why there haven't been any updates. We have a big one for you now, though, with lots of nice items -- CD ROM Choice DX, Be Back, Super Mini-ska Deluxe, the new issues of Urecco, Best Video, Gal's Dee (and other magazines), more of the popular Japanese pop music singles

We forewent our customer Friday night movie tonight, and took in a video -- Seven -- at home. A truly fascinating movie, if you haven't seen it. Now Chiharu has gone to bed, and I'm finishing up the evening's uploading (since we're going to be moving into the J-List office in the summer, we still use a lowly 28.8 connection for everything here) with the help of more old Babylon 5 episodes.

Chiharu is happy -- we now are the owners of that great icon of American convenience, the clothes dryer. In Japan, dryers are about as common as central heating, but I finally broke down and bought her one as a wedding anniversary present (which was today).

Greetings from J-List March 19, 1998

Another update for you all, on this fine Thursday morning. We've got a bunch of new items, including more copies of Super Mini-suka Deluxe, the popular softcover photobooks Clover, Tsugumi, Sentimental, and more. Be sure to check out the Magazines and Photobooks page -- and see the cheaper close-out items on page 2 of the magazines page as well, as there are a lot of items we're closing out.

The JAST USA homepage has been totally redesigned and updated, with new information on all our games, character background and other information, a "Visual FAQ" that gives more information on the "look and feel" of interactive anime role-playing games, and more. Please stop by and see our new format.

Also, my grandmother, Virginia Larson, has published her popular book, How to Write a Winning Proposal in both digital and conventional formats. A proven book with information on business proposal writing that was "most likely to be stolen" from public libraries (because people were loath to return the book). The digital version of my grandmother's book is $10, and J-List will give $10 off anyone making a $100 or greater purchase if you pick up her book (i.e., you can get her book for free). See the Classic House homepage at here. My grandmother is 79 years old and just tickled to have her book on the Internet. Please see her homepage if you're interested in the field of business proposal writing.

Greetings from J-List March 3, 1998

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Greetings from J-List February 27, 1998

Well, Thursday is about to give way to Friday here in Japan. Friday in this case -- the 27th -- is Kaori's birthday (she'll be 23), and she's taking the day off to go somewhere with her "darling."

Lots of nice items in tonight's update. First, the new issue of the excellent dojinshi anthology Paradise Lost (vol. 6) is out, and its a nice one. Lots of nice stories for eva fans in it. Then, there are new dojinshi! We've got a bunch of off-the-beaten-track dojinshi for fans of Final Fantasy 7, Eva, and more, and in large supply this time. Also, we've cut our prices again as we try to get rid of a lot of our stock -- check out these great bargains. Finally, we've got a new offering from Otaku Publishing, their latest adult anime game release

Hot Oil Sumo Wrestling? Beelzebubsledding? The Men's 500, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 Meter Barefoot Speed Skating competition? They're all part of the "Top Five (sic) Olympics in Hell" list, one of the daily "Top 5" [sic] lists put out daily by the cool guys at Topfive.com (http://www.topfive.com). I find their mailing list quite fun to read, so I thought I'd pass the link along to J-List readers.

Greetings from J-List April 25, 1998

Hello, everyone. The weekend is here, and Kazuki and I are preparing to head down to Shizuoka Prefecture tomorrow to visit a friend of mine. Kazuki is so happy to be able to ride his first Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and go to a hot springs hotel. Unfortunately we both have come down with freak colds -- I hope we're not too miserable tomorrow.

I'm very happy to announce that the latest JAST USA title, Runaway City, is finally shipping, along with RCY America's premier release, Nocturnal Illusion. It was a long battle, and we ended up many months behind schedule, but they are finally out the door. If you don't know about the interactive anime role-playing game for adults category of game software from Japan, I recommend that you check out one of the new titles.

Did you know there was almost an anime based on Babylon 5? See http://home.pacbell.net/bchan/b5.anime.home.index.html for a very interesting view of what might have been.

Well, have a good weekend. See you when we get back from Mt. Fuji!

Greetings from J-List February 21, 1998

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Greetings from J-List February 19, 1998

Hello out there in The World. It's late Wednesday night as I write this, and a tall 500 ml Asahi Super Dry is keeping me company. Wife Chiharu is taking notes on what she has to go tomorrow. (Since we're a Japanese company, she gets to handle all the Japanese red tape.)

We're proceeding with our plans to build an office again. After a careful search of suitable companies, we were going to go with Toyota Home (yes, Toyota builds houses here -- what a wacky place). At the last minute, we found a small but reliable company that looks like they'll suit our needs better. Let's just hope they don't go belly up, too.

We've got some nice items for you tonight. First, the new Urecco is in, and it is lovely -- especially for fans of Fubuki Akira. New issues of Gal's Dee, Milky Tsushin, and Sakuranbo Ekisu are also in -- and all are great. Finally, there's a new Miura Aika Video CD on the VCD/DVD page, which presents clips of videos from various points in Aika's long career -- which makes for some interesting viewing. Check out the new items if you have time.

Also, be sure to check the CD ROMs page, page 2 of the magazines page, and the "in stock" video pages for special bargins, as we close out items we're trying to clear out. Thanks!

Greetings from J-List February 14, 1998

Just got back from seeing "The Game" at the Cinema World Ota, the American-style large movie theatre that my wife and I go to nearly every weekend. A great flick, truly -- I recommend it.

Saturday is Valentine's Day here in Japan -- as everyone who has played Season of the Sakura knows, it's a day when men can expect chocolate from their girlfriends, wives, daughters, etc. Kaori brought me chocolate versions of Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet (she's got a thing for Whinnie the Pooh). I hope you all get some chocolate, wherever you are.

Nice new items for the weekend include a bunch of new magazines, including Gokuh, Dela Beppin, Panst Love, and a new one, Lucky Crepe. Also, we have some new photobook-class items on the shashinshus page. All very nice, so take a look at the magazine and photobook pages. And don't forget to browse the new "in stock" videos recently added to the Video Warehouse.

Greetings from J-List February 11, 1998

Well, the flu still has us all down, but Kaori was able to crawl into work for the first time day this week. Unfortunately, the flu has slowed down the speed with which we get packages out the door. We'll do our best to get caught up by Friday -- sorry for any inconvenience.

The Nagano Olympics are progressing nicely. It was nice to see Shimizu take gold the men's speed skating. It means so much to the Japanese to have the world looking at them during this time. Since much of Japan's actions as a country over the last 150 years can be traced to wanting to be seen as an equal among other nations, getting this kind of attention really makes everyone here happy.

We've got some nice new items for you today -- tons of new "in stock" videos, which can be found on the Video Warehouse pages. Miura Aika, Uehara Ayaka, Wakana Sena, Kanabun and more -- all in stock now and ready to be ordered with no waiting. There are about 75 new video in all.

Well, that's all for now. I've got to get back to bed so I can finish getting over my own flu. Have a nice day!

Greetings from J-List February 7, 1998

Well, another Friday has come to Japan, and today it's Mika who's out sick. Kaori and I are both coughing a lot, though. I hope the flu passes up by quickly.

Well, Japan is getting ready to host the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. On a map, Nagano is right next to Gunma, although in reality, it's quite far for us to drive. Given the massive numbers of people, the special high rates for everything from hotels to trains, and the excellent TV coverage, we'll be happy to spend our Olympics at home.

There are some new magazines on the list this weekend, including a new Milky Tsushin and "Sakura Ekisu, the successor to Sakuranbo Tsushin. Both are excellent for fans of sexy women with long legs that go all the way down. Remember to check page 2 of the magazines for extra special bargains.

We've also got, ahem, a few dojinshi for you today. About 100, actually, including some really nice ones (the Touch one just slew me). As usual, I recommend that you give a list of secondary choices when making an order, as items to tend to go very quickly. Be sure to check out the closeout dojinshi we've got -- they're going for practically nothing.

Incidentally, a lot of people have asked, so I'll re-iterate: any DVD that J-List sells will be compatible with your DVD players, regardless of where you are. There is a country lockout" feature built into DVD, which allow the makers to make a disc that will only play, say, in Asia -- but it's up to the makers if they want to use them or not. All the discs we sell are verified to be for "ALL" regions, so there will be no problems with the disc not playing in your region.

Greetings from J-List January 28, 1998

Today was a big day for all of us at J-List. It was the day we had the local Shinto Priest (who is a friend of my mother in law's) come and perform a Shinto purification ceremony in preparation for the J-List office that we're building. I've been nearly a year that we've been trying to get permission to build on our land, which was designated as "agricultural land, so this day meant a lot to us. It was interesting to watch the ceremony -- it reminded me of the last episode of Blue Seed, if you're familiar with that anime show -- and so I made a little page of digital photographs, accessible from the J-List front page. Check it out, of you're interested in Japanese religious ceremonies.

We've gotten in some new items today, including more copies of the excellent Bishojo Syndrome adult dojinshi anthologies. Like the popular Lunatic Party, Paradise Lost and Angelic Impact series, Bisho Syndrome are dojinshi anthologies" -- collections of the best dojinshi stories that are republished in a high-quality "wide version" manga book. We've got all four volumes of Bishojo Syndrome back in stock, and we've even got a money-saving "Bishojo set, too.

The other big news we have today is -- dojinshi! Yes, we've gotten in another Big Batch of Dojinshi, and we've posted them to the homepage. There are about 50 new titles or so. There are some excellent items in today's batch, so take a look at what we've got. As usual, we recommend that you hurry and list alternate choices in case the ones you want are gone.

We're closing out many of our CD ROMs, so if you've got a moment, please swing by that page and take some of them off our hands. For the price of a back issue of Urecco you can get a CD ROM & full-color magazine, hundreds of digital photos and Quicktime movies, game software, and more. We need to make room for

Greetings from J-List January 27, 1998

Hello, from a very cold Japan. Kaz and I just got back from the local sento, or public bath. The place we go to is large, with six different baths: scalding hot, medicinal, strong and medium jets, you name it. I'm glad that Japan has such cool father-son customs. There's a Japanese word to describe what a parent-child relationship should strive to attain -- "skinship." Japan is a cool place sometimes.

I enjoyed watching the Superbowl, although trying to watch football with any non-North American (my wife in this case) is never easy. We Americans don't realize how difficult the rules are to outsiders. This was my first Superbowl watched entirely with Japanese announcers, and it was surprising how well it worked.

We've got a small update for you today -- a new issue of the popular Panstopia, and some new in-stock videos on the Video Warehouse pages. Also, there are new CD ROM items on the CD ROM page. That's all for now -- thanks, and take care.

Greetings from J-List December 31, 1997

Well, it's time to fire up your web browsers, everyone, because I got back from Tokyo last night with the proverbial "car full of dojinshi." It was a very fun and educational trip this time around, and I have more photos and comments right here. Incidentally, if you ever want to see old pages containing pictures from Japan I've posted over the months, see my personal homepage for an archive.

I had fun this year, buying a lot of stuff, trying as much as possible to get as many of a given item as possible. It was tiring, and crowded, and hectic, but it was also great to be there in the heart of the Dojinshi movement. The new items are up as you read this, and there should be no problems with bad links or anything. So let the dojinshi wars begin!

When checking out the new items, please do scroll all the way down to the bottom of the dojinshi. In addition to many items that had been "sold" (but that we had extras of), there are some major bargains waiting for you (i.e., $5 and the like) on items that we still have too many in stock of. Thanks.

Want a gorgeous, large-size calendar of one of the most popular ladies of J-List? (No, it's not Kaori.) Check out the calendars page for some more ridiculous deals as I try to get rid of the last of the calendars.

New Years' is a very important time here in Japan, a season when you greet the coming year with a positive attitude. "Big cleaning" is done all through the house on the 30th and 31st, and everything is made as clean as it can be. New shoji paper is put on the doors (my wife did this today), and new toothbrushes are bought. Finally, on the evening of the 31st, it's customary to eat toshi-koshi soba or buckwheat noodles for crossing into the New Year.

Note that Japan will basically shut down until the 5th of January. We'll be here, of course, but the post office will be completely closed. We apologize for any inconveniences in mailing of packages.

Greetings from J-List December 25, 1997

Merry Christmas to all of you, or Merry Christmas Eve, at least, depending on what part of the world you're in. All of us at J-List sincerely hope that you have a wholesome and good Christmas with family, friends and loved ones this year.

Tonight we have a bunch of new products for you. First and foremost, there are a bunch of new magazines and shashinshus, including more copies of the popular Lewd Flower hardcover photobook (Chiasa fans take note), and one very original item on the shashinshus page. There videos on the Video Warehouse pages -- about 100 new videos, actually, that are available right now, without any waiting, with great videos by Kanazawa Bunko, Ozawa Madoka and others in. Also new to J-List are a cache of new Video CDs, including a Video CD version of Madoka Ozawa's "Kaguya Hime II" DVD title

Have you gotten a chance to enjoy JAST USA's excellent (IMHO) game, Season of the Sakura? If not, this is a good time for you to pick up your copy. Since we're a bit overstocked, we're reducing the price by $5 on this title. Coupled with the free shipping you get if you order anything else on J-List pages (even a CD single from the JPOP page), this makes for a real substantial savings. If you want to see more about JAST USA's interactive anime games, see the Games page, or check out JAST USA.

Although Christmas isn't even a holiday here in Japan, we're giving Kaori and Tomoe the day off to spend time with their friends/boyfriends. (Alas, they do have boyfriends...) I'll be manning the computers off and on over Christmas, but if you've got email into us and don't get a reply, please be patient and I'll get to you as soon as I can.

Once again, Merry Christmas to all.

Greetings from J-List December 22, 1997

J-List's Christmas Present to everyone has arrived early, in the form of -- a massive update for you!
First and foremost, we've got a bunch of nice ones, including hot new issues of Bejean, Suppin and Dela Beppin, to add to the recent new magazine arrivals of last week.

But it's near the end of the year, and that means it's a time to do "O-soji" or "big cleaning, and take stock of what we have. We've uncovered a a huge number of magazines, CD ROMs and shashinshus that had not been posted to the list. We've got multiple copies of popular magazines like Photoshot, Nowon, Urecco, Beppin, and much more, including some of the most popular and coveted issues ever. Check out the magazines pages, as well as the shashinshus page for the new items.

One thing we found is that we really do have far too many CD ROMs -- far, far too many. So I'm declaring a massive, final sale on our non-Video CD CD ROMs, and lowering the prices of everything by up to $10 per item from their already-reduced levels. For less than an issue of Beppin School, you can pick up a CD ROM for Mac or Windows that has over 200 sexy pictures, up to an hour of Quicktime movie adult sampler quickies, game software and demos, and all-color magazines to boot. J-List is the only place on the web or elsewhere that you can get CD ROM Choice, CD ROM Collection, the Windows and Mac 100% series, and the excellent MPEG Soft Catalog. So check out our magazine, CD ROM and shashinshus pages for some cool items at bargain prices.

And we've got more good stuff for you on the calendar page, too! In addition to a new addition -- a calendar by the lovely Kanazawa Bunko -- most of the prices are lessened to half or below what they were in October, and we're really eager to get rid of them before 1998 gets here and the time for calendar buying is over. We still have tons of great calendars, like Ozawa Madoka, Henmi Emiri, and much more.

Finally! Just when you thought we were done, we have a whole bunch of those ever-popular Chiasa Aonuma videos, MV133 (which is the same as LD1 High School Chiasa). Hopefully this will tide everyone over for a while, but if you're a Chiasa fan, you should get your copy while we've got them in stock.

Well, that's all for now. I'm taking a day off tomorrow to go on a cruise around Yokohama harbor with my wife. Best holiday wishes to all!

Greetings from J-List December 21, 1997

It was a lovely day here in Japan, a very comfortable temperature with none of the freezing "karakaze" wind that Gunma is famous for. We're happy because we got to meet Hosokawa Fumie, the former co-anchor of the legendary Japanese adult TV show, Gilgamesh Night. She was quite surprised to hear she has a cult following on the Internet. Read all about it on our homepage.

We have lots of new items on the web pages today, including the new CD ROM Choice (over 240 sample pics, with lots more stuff on two CDs), dynamite new issues of Urecco and Cream, and other new magazines like Jo Mag. As always, we're happy to be able to offer excellent products for you, so please stop by the web pages for more information.

We're still desperate to sell the last calendars. We have over 60 calendars still in stock, so I have lowered the prices of virtually all remaining calendars by at least $5. All this with free shipping -- it makes the calendars we have left a real bargain. Please try to take some of these calendars off our hands

That's all for now, folks. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Greetings from J-List December 15, 1997

Lots of new items for you today. First of all, we have twenty or so new videos on the "Video Catalog" page. These are for-order videos that can be ordered through our distributor. There are some dynamite choices, including all-new Aonuma Chiasa, Ozawa Madoka and Kanazawa Bunko videos.

Moving right along. we have new magazines: the new Bejean, which features Akira Fubuki and many other lovelies, and the new Best Video. These are excellent examples of high-quality Japanese magazines, which are very popular for their excellent photography and models.

Finally, an announcement: since we still have too many dojinshi, I am declaring a "buy-3-get-1-free" sale on all of the dojinshi we have in stock right now, effective starting now and going through Christmas Day. This applies to all the dojinshi, including the popular Rocket Brothers works, Look Out/Okachimentaiko, Choccola, all the rest. As before, choose four dojinshi, and least expensive of them will be the "free" one. Shipping is charged normally

Thanks for everyone's understanding and support regarding my father's funeral arrangements. Your warm words have meant a lot to me. We should be back up with the credit card processing by the time you read this.

Greetings from J-List December 13, 1997

Greetings from Japan. It's dojinshi time again around here, with about 45 new "one-shot" dojinshi added to the list. Competition is always fierce for these items, so check the list while you have time. There are some great items up, for fans of Sailor Moon and Evangelion and Plastic Little, and more. Better hurry!

J-List will be unable to process credit card orders sent through the secure server until Tuesday, December 16 (America time), due to an unfortunate event: the sudden death of my father, aged 70, in his home in Severna Park, MD. We'll be back up as soon as we can, to avoid inconveniencing anyone more than necessary. We're re-organizing our family slightly so that my sister can attend the funeral in my absense. We appreciate your understanding -- thanks.

My parents were divorced when I was two years old, so I didn't get many chances to spend time and get to know my father. My wife and I are really glad that we were able to spend the week we did with him back in the summer, when we had so many problems with the J-List email -- it meant a lot to us that he could hold Kazuki and little Rina on his lap, and get to know our children. All of that was indirectly thanks to all of you at J-List, so thanks, everyone. You never treasure the ones you love enough until they're not there anymore.

Greetings from J-List December 11, 1997

Well, we've had a busy day, with no less than ten big boxes of videos showing up out of the blue.

I am happy to say that we finally have the problems with the elusive LD1 'High School Chiasa' videos resolved. The bad news is that LD1 has been determined to be a duplicate of the PER201/MV133 video -- those damn Japanese video makers are pretty shifty. People who were waiting for copies of LD1 will receive either PER201 or MV133, unless you have already bought one of these. Email us if you have any questions -- we apologize for the inconvenience. LD1 will not be coming in at all, so I have removed them from the page entirely.

For fans of J-List's Japanese adult videos, we have a treat -- a BUNCH of videos added to the Video Warehouse. All of these videos are in stock NOW, and ready to go out any time, without any waiting. New additions include lots of good MV and PER items, as well as the popular PEM series of "slightly odd" videos. There are about 100 new in-stock videos on the page now.
Some fans of J-List's anime toys page pointed out that not all the items I said were added to the page were actually posted. This was because I forgot to change one tiny field in the database. All the new items are up now.

J-List has a new mailing address in the U.S., for people mailing payment. It is

Peter R. Payne
P.O. Box 421106
San Diego, CA 92142

The reason for the change is an unhappy one -- my grandmother, who had been collecting and reporting the checks to me, had a mild stroke two weeks ago, and will be unable to continue helping out. If you have mailed anything to the old address recently, don't worry, all mail will be forwarded for six months. But try to use the new address from now on -- thanks.

Greetings from J-List December 10, 1997

Today was a Good Day. First and foremost, my Powerbook G3 show up -- ah, the joy of being "edge, even if for only a few months. The speed and power of this thing is incredible, though, consdiderably faster than all the 200 mhz 604e desktop Macs here at J-List. I will post some benchmarks to my personal homepage later.

But today was a Good Day for one other reason. For the past eight months, my wife and I have been working hard to get permission to build on a patch of land my Japanese family owns. The land was previously zoned as agricultural use" land, in an area that, for reasons of tradition and silly local politics -- could not be built upon. Finally, though, after many months and pulling of strings, permission to build on the land has been granted. This means that J-List will be moving out of our current small three rooms and into a medium-sized two-story office building sometime around May of next year -- a welcome change for all of us. This step has been the dream of my wife and I for most of the life of J-List, and we're taking everyone here out for sushi on the weekend. We couldn't be happier.

We have some nice new items for you today, mostly on the anime/toys page, where you'll find the GERWALK version of the great Macross "completed model" (really a detailed, moveable toy). Three different versions of the GERWALK Valkyrie are on the page. Also, you can see a slew of new models from Gundam, Macross and Macross 7.

Also new to the page are -- more magazines and shashinshus. We've got two new issues of Girls, a Big-4-style high-quality magazine, as well as a few Beppin Schools and more. Also, the cat-like Kitahara Rina has a softcover "mild mook" nude shashinshu on the photobooks page -- enjoy them.

Greetings from J-List December 9, 1997

Hope you are all having a nice Monday. It rained cold, drizzly rain here in central Japan all day, so it was a nice day to turn the heater up and work all day. One of the problems of places with great weather, such as San Diego (I hear it's in the balmy 70s this week) is how hard it is to make yourself work (or study, if you're in college) when the weather outside is fine.

We have some nice new things for you tonight. The new issues of Milky Tsushin and Sakuranbo Tsushin are in, as are January 1998 issues of Fantajenne. All are popular items, so take a look at the site to see the pictures that I've posted. We also have more issues of the very popular Photoshot on the shashinshu page.

Also in are more copies of the popular CD ROM Choice vol. 5, to go with the new copies of vol. 6 and 7, which we got in last week. These are top-quality CD ROMs featuring hundreds of samples of "hentai" games currently shipping here in Japan.

I am waiting with bated breath for my new baby, a Powerbook G3, the ultra-fast Macintosh notebook (http://www.powerbook.apple.com) that is on its way to me here from San Diego. This hot notebook is 74% faster than the 240 mhz Powerbook 3400, and even blows away all but the fastest desktop Macs, including my trusty Power Computing clone with a 200 eh 604e. I can't wait to take it for a spin.

Well, that's all for now. Take care, and enjoy your day.

Greetings from J-List December 7, 1997

Just when you think that the world is going to be a peaceful place for a while, we go and get another 75-or-so dojinshi and throw them onto the list. Yes, it's time for the Dojinshi Wars again, folks, and we've got some nice ones. Anyone interested in dojinshi should probably check out the ones we're adding now, or risk being disappointed when the great books you want are gone.

While you're checking for that rare Rayearth dojinshi you've always wanted, be sure to scroll all the way down. We're trying to clear our our previous stock in anticipation of more dojinshi coming in at the end of the month, when the "Fuyu-komi" (Winter Comic Market) arrives. Thanks!

Other than that, we're all doing fine here in Japan. I have officially closed down all but one of my English conversations classes, which frees up about ten hours for me that I can devote to keeping things running smoothly around here. That a chapter in my life has ended gives me a little pause -- I was a teacher of English as a Second Language for 7 years -- but I am actually happy to be done with it. Incidentally, anyone interested in reading about teaching ESL in Japan should check out my personal homepage, where I have some comments.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Greetings from J-List December 3, 1997

December is here, and that means the Winter Comic Market -- the massive Dojinshi fair that powers the whole dojinshi craze in Japan -- is going to be here soon. Which means we're going to get lots of dojinshi in. In order to make room for them, we're having a sale on the dojinshi we have in stock now -- up to $7 off almost everything in our stock. Please check out the dojinshi page now. Incidentally we do have about 15 new dojinshi that we just got in -- including some really cool ones. Take a look.

We got a nice bunch of new calendars in for everyone -- nice calendars like Amuro Namie and Henmi Emily, more copies of the popular Amuro and Fubuki desktop calendars, and a bunch of the deluxe Evangelion wall calendars. They are great, although frankly, I am worried that we have over-ordered -- so I have put all the new calendars on the list at low prices. In addition, we'll still pick up all shipping for the calendars. Please help us out by checking out the calendars page.

Other than that, fans of Aika Miura should not fail to check out her new shashinshu, which just came in, too. It is a darn nice book...

We got a phone call from our local post office, who loves us, by the way, since we give them so much business. They have asked that we hold all outgoing mail to Canada until the strike is resolved. We'll let all Canadian customers know as soon as we hear anything on this end -- hopefully the strike will be over soon. I imagine there will be a lot of disappointed kids in Canada this Christmas otherwise...
Well, it's my bed time, so goodnight for now. Have a nice day.

Greetings from J-List November 30, 1997

Hello out there in the world. It was a rainy Saturday here in Japan, with lots of cold drizzle. A good day to turn up the "fan-heater" (a kerosene room heater) and get an update out to you.

We have a bunch of new odds and ends for you on the magazines and shashinshu pages, many of which are replacements for items that have sold out (Chiasa fans take note). Beppin School, Photoshot issues, more copies of Be Back and others are among the updated items.

Two of our best selling CD ROMs, The Borderline Collection and Dream World, have been discounted $5 each, making them great Christmas buys, or whatever. These are collection of "dojin-soft, collections of erotic anime-style pictures created by two different circles that also create dojinshi. In each case, the images were released on floppy disks over the course of several years. We've purchased the rights to these two collections (of course we do everything 100% legally around here), and issued them on a dual-platform CD ROM for you -- uncensored, of course. Check these two items out if you're interested.

Also, please note that we are just about to the end of November, which means the end of our buy-3-get-1-free CD ROM offer. I have pushed the offer enough to you so far, but let me say once again that it is a great bargain -- choose three items such as CD ROM Choice, CD ROM Collection, the All Pasocom CD ROM Soft Catalog, and the like, and get a fourth, free. I will honor orders up til Dec. 1st, Japan time (to give people in other time zones the full month of November).

Well, that's all for now. See you again soon!

Greetings from J-List November 27, 1997

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Greetings from J-List November 22, 1997

Well, I am off to Tokyo again on Saturday, this time to the illustrious Imperial Hotel, for another fun day of being a businessman in Japan. It beats teaching English conversation.

My, those new dojinshi didn't last very long, did they? Twelve hours after posting the new items, all but a few have been gobbled up. If you are interested in dojinshi, though, don't let that keep you from checking out the page. We reduced all prices on our stock yesterday, so that we can make room for new items.

New to the list tonight are several new items on the list, including a new issue of MPEG CD Soft Catalog and Windows 100% vol. 8. These are top-notch CD ROM items that are made even better by the buy-3-get-1-free sale that is going on this month. Buy three items from the CD ROM page, and get a fourth one free.

Let me pontificate about these CD ROM/magazine combo items for just a moment. Basically, items such as CD ROM Collection, All Pasocom CD Soft Catalog, Windows 100% and the MPEG CD Soft Catalog are "stiffened" magazines containing one or two CD ROMs in them, protected against bending or breaking. Great "sampler" items, they typically include dozens of adult Quicktime or MPEG movies -- often nearly an hour of footage on a CD ROM -- 200+ adult photographs in JPEG or BMP format (i.e., you can use one as your desktop wallpaper if you like), some sample "hentai" games (in Japanese), and more. Items of a slightly different genre, items like CD ROM Choice and the Fantajenne CD ROM Magazines give you hundreds of sample adult anime images from various popular adult anime games

Personally, I like these CD ROM items and make an effort to carry a large selection, because they provide such an excellent value. The latest MPEG CD Soft Catalog, for example, gives you a cool sampling of Japanese AV, an hour and 58 minutes of total footage, plus an all-color magazine, all for just $25 -- compare with J-List videos, which mostly sell for $45. The CD ROM Choice series gives you hundreds of current, top-quality images -- much better than spending hours downing hentai pictures off of Usenet and finding they were all from a game that came out in 1989.

Other items we have on the list in time for the weekend include a few new magazines, and (ta-da!) more 'b' videos! So make sure you browse through the new stuff.

Well, that's all for me. Got to get back to work.

Greetings from J-List November 21, 1997

Hi from Japan. I just got back from my favorite restaurant, Kawashima's, where I had a great meal of Chicken Katsudon Teishoku, a kind of fried breast-of-chicken fillet which you put on rice and eat with a delicious sauce that is called "sauce" (soosu) in Japanese.

It is, I am happy to say, Dojinshi Time around here. We have about 30 new dojinshi on the J-List dojinshi page today. These are, without exception, one shot dojinshi, items that I have only one of. There are many older items, dojinshi that you will likely not see around again, like classic Ah My Goddess adult comics, Ranma 1/2 items, Video Girl Ai stuff

When checking out the new dojinshi, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page, since we've slashed prices on almost all the remaining stock we have (some as low us $6!). We have literally hundreds of dojinshi, and they can all go out to you in a day, so check out what we've got, along with the new prices.

Other cool items include a Whole Big Bunch of new magazines and shashinshus, including the popular Super Mini-Skirt Deluxe large magazine, a mess of Photoshot issues, and many more. And make sure you stop by the calendars, toys, and VCD pages to see the stuff we put up yesterday if you missed it.

While I'm evangelizing about dojinshi, I should mention how much I like the Fusion "dojinshi anthologies" which you can find on the "adult manga" page. These are basically collections of great Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and other dojinshi that have been reprinted by the publisher. They are great ways to get a lot of dojinshi stories for cheap, and since they're published by a large company, we have tons available and can reorder them anytime we fun out. Finally, the depth of the stories found in these books are truly excellent, and I enjoy reading them myself -- those explorations of the Eva characters are really interesting. Now that J-List sells the Paradise Lost, Angelic Impact and Lunatic Party series in sets at reduced prices, it's a great way for you snap up a whole set.

Greetings from J-List November 20, 1997

Another week is speeding by, as we continue our fast-paced life in Japan. Can you believe we'll be done with 1997 in less than 6 weeks?

I have some really nice things for you today -- starting with more high-quality Japanese anime toys. The newest line is a re-issuing of Macross toys and models by Bandai, Sega and some other companies. We have the first three in a series of Battloid "ready models" (really poseable, full-featured toys), and they are absolute must-haves for anyone who ever loved Macross or Robotech. Roy Fokker's Skull-1 is staring at me as I type this, and every once in a while I pick it up and reenact Roy's death in the Macross movie for Kaori's benefit.

Besides these Battloid figures, we also have models (two Macross and one Gundam so far) -- really excellent items that anyone interested in the genre should love. A word about the models. I have avoided breaking into pura-model (plastic models) up til now because, frankly, I know very little about the genre. Many great models exist, including models from various anime shows and more, and frankly, J-List will be able to provide them at quite reasonable prices. If you are knowledgeable in the world of Japanese model kits, I would appreciate some advice or comments -- thanks.

In addition to the above items, we have a bunch of new magazines and shashinshus, including more copies of that darned Erotic Flower hardcover photobook that keeps selling out within 24 hours of me getting more copies. There are also some new Video CDs on the VCD page.

Finally our Thursday update offerings include a massive reduction in prices on the calendars page. Not only have we slashed prices on the in-stock calendars $5-$15, but we'll pick up your shipping (an extra $5 savings) and even throw in a free mailing box if you get two or more. Why are we practically giving away calendars? Well, the main reason is that we love you all, but along with that is the obvious fact that no one wants a calendar that they can't enjoy looking at every month. Help us out and check out the calendars page -- thanks.

A brief note to California residents: J-List will no longer be collecting CA sales tax, and will be issuing refunds/credits for any sales tax collected since May 1. This is because we will be organizing J-List as a Japanese corporation, not as a California one, as we had previously planned. We have made an attempt to contact everyone who has a refund coming, but if you have not received an email from us, and/or have any questions, email us. Thanks.

Greetings from J-List November 18, 1997

Well, I have to get to bed tonight so I can get up and Do Tokyo again tomorrow -- I am really learning the trains and subway lines by heart these days.

My wife and I finally got around to seeing the "last" Miyazaki movie, Mononoke Hime (Princess of Hairy Beasts?). It was very nicely done, with a good story, excellently executed animation, and all the classic Miyazaki themes. Check it out at a theatre or video store near you. This movie has out-grossed even E.T., the previous #1 movie here in Japan, to become the biggest money-making movie, Japanese or American, here in Japan.

We have some nice new items, including some new magazines (the "new" issue of Suppin is really great), another copy of the Lewd Flower hardcover shashinshu, and ... anime and JPOP CDs! Yes, it's been a while, but we have about 12 new JPOP and anime CDs on the anime and JPOP pages. We still lack a supplier, unfortunately -- these are just some ones I came across. On the other hand, they items we got are great, including Gundam and Nadia soundtracks, and more cool stuff. As always

Other items of interest include calendars, in-stock videos, and anime toys, which we have tons of. Also, the buy-3-get-1-free sale on Japanese CD ROM & magazine combos such as CD ROM Collection, CD ROM Choice, and more, continues! Thanks, and enjoy your Tuesday.

Greetings from J-List November 14, 1997

Wow, I'm tired -- new updates to the J-List homepage, three days in a row. But I'm really happy today, because we've got some really great items for you today. As most long-time J-List readers hopefully know, I only carry items on J-List I can be personally excited -- even evangelical -- about, from the standpoint of spreading great Japanese stuff all around the world. This is why I am pleased to tell you about the new toys we have gotten in.

First, to commemorate the upcoming Christmas season, J-List has a whole slew of great Japanese toys available for you. Newly added items include Tsukuda Hobby's line of 1/6 scale Evangelion figures, the new Sentimental Graffiti issue, Sakura Wars potable "finished models, more Evangelion mecha toys, Rayearth figures, and the finale -- large, hard to find figurines for Nadia and Maison Ikkoku fans.

We have more than just toys, though. There are new videos added to the Video Warehouse, including copies of the popular PER193 Perfect Collection video, in stock and ready for you to snap them up. Some of the videos we've gotten extra stock in of have begun to sell out, so if there is anything you want to claim, take some time and check out our video offerings.

Finally, there are new items on the Adult Manga page, great new issues of Fusion's excellent Evangelion Sexual Anthologies, Paradise Lost and Angelic Impact. If you don't know what Fusion's dojinshi anthologies" are, they are compilations of the best Eva, Sailor Moon and other adult manga stories, and they feature high-quality adult stories with great artwork and writing. If you like Fusion's stuff

Greetings from J-List November 13, 1997

Hello again from Japan. It's a real mess around here as we continue to sort through the mess cause by the sudden delivery of tons of stuff here at the J-List office. There just are not enough hours in the day to do what we need to do then tidy things up at the end of the day. In better news, I have gotten the official word that the X-Files premier video is speeding on its way to me right now. Hurry, X-Files tape!

We have a fistful of magazines and shashinshus for you today. In addition to new issues of Urecco, Cream, Beppin School, Photoshot, Be Back, and many more, we have some cool new shashinshu items for you, including more copies of an item we had on J-List about 8 months ago (the busty Hosokawa Shinobu's "Barefoot Girl"), new "mook" style shashinshus, and more. It's a nice way to enter a Friday

Be sure to look through all the magazines pages, as prices are falling all the time, and we're trying to push the last few copies of some of our books out the door to clear out our stock room and reduce load time for the pages. You can get some really good bargains. Also, I ask again that you take a moment to look through the calendars page (there are still many great calendars in stock, including Ozawa Madoka's excellent nude calenar) and CD ROMs page (buy three, the fourth is free).

Greetings from J-List November 12, 1997

Having a nice Wednesday? I am tired out from all the events in the week so far. Yesterday I had to dash to Tokyo on business, and today I had another "special lesson" in front of 20+ Japanese elderly people, in which I discussed life in Japan for a foreigner, my daily customs, and the like. Now that I have all those special projects out of the way, I can roll up my sleeves and cut through the backlog of email. Sorry if you were kept waiting for a reply from us.

We have some nice items for you, mostly replenishing the supply of magazines and shashinshus that were sold out. Chiasa fans should certainly check out the photobooks page, and we have some more magazines, too.

We did have one unpleasant surprise: the PER201 and MV133 videos have 75% duplicated content. I have notified everyone who has ordered both items, and removed PER201 (although some back ordered videos will no doubt come in). We've never printed an official policy on this because there have been so few cases, but in the even that two videos you buy from J-List ever did have the same content (it has happened 5-6 times in the past year, so the odds are low, but not zero) we will take care of it, since we stand by what we sell in all things.

Please check out the CD ROMs page! There are tons (well, hundreds of pounds) of great CD ROM magazines, like Windows 100%, CD ROM Collection, CD ROM Choice, and the All Pasocom CD ROM Catalog. These CD ROM & magazine combos, which frequently have hundreds of pictures and dozens of Quicktime movie clips of different AV models doing, well, what you'd expect them to be doing, already represented one of the best deals anywhere on J-List

Greetings from J-List November 11, 1997

Big changes here at J-List. First and foremost is the official division of our videos pages into two sections, the Video Catalog, offering a wide variety of excellent Japanese adult videos available through our Japanese distributor (read: it will take time to get your order in, but we have great selection); and the Video Warehouse, a large collection of in-house videos which can be snapped up immediately -- although, as always, quantities are limited to what we have.

I'd like to make a new paragraph to tell you how happy I am to so many copies -- dozens in many cases -- of some of the most popular videos we've ever had at J-List. Great videos, by the likes of Aika Miura, Fubuki Akira, Ozawa Madoka, and yes, we even have 20 copies of MV133 Chiasa Aonuma hard-core video (I have, ahem, verified that it is hard core after all, now that my wife has gone to sleep -- damn it's a trip seeing Chiasa do this). I am aware that the lameness of our current video distributor setup causes delays for many people that I consider unacceptable. Hopefully, our new "stock a lot" policy will prove to be convenient for everyone. Still

The other big news is that we have tons of new calendars on the calendars page -- the rest of the extras we had ordered have come in, and there are some great items available for you, including more Fubuki Akira and Ozawa Madoka posters, more beautiful models like Henmi Emiri and Sakai Noriko, Japanese JPOP and idol calendars, and more. In addition, many of the calendars' prices have been cut -- see the calendars page now.

Greetings from J-List November 4, 1997

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Greetings from J-List October 31, 1997

Happy Halloween, everyone, from Japan, which is 16 hours ahead of California (which is why my updates may always seem a day ahead if you're in the States). There is understandably not much Halloween spirit around here, being as we are in a country that doesn't care about Halloween. I was watching late-night Japanese TV with my wife last night, and a model named Hayami Yu was on TV making pumpkin pudding in commemoration of the American event. She mentioned that it was originally a day when spirits of the dead return home, and said that it was similar to the Japanese Obon holiday -- which caused my wife to nod our heads, as we had not thought of the two as being similar at all.

Some nice new items for you tonight on the magazines page. The new JoMag and Momo Creams are in, and they look very spiffing. Also, some new items have popped up on the videos pages (5) and elsewhere on the magazines/shashinshu pages. I see that I had the wrong picture for one of the Final Fantasy action figures on the anime page -- this error has been corrected, if you're interested in these toys.

I have closed the calendar orders because our distributor told us that the end of October would be the end of orders. If you're still interested in seeing some of our great calendars, don't worry -- we bought some extras, many of which are on the calendars page right now, as "b" calendars. These are in stock now and can be sent off right away, so let me know if you want one of then. I have updated the calendars example page with pictures of Akira Fubuki and others, since, well, they looked good.

I have updated my Newton Pre-Buyers' Guide again with some more screenshots of the Newton's web browser, and more. You can find a lot of information about the Newton portable computers at my site, so drop by if you have time. Thanks.

Well, that's all for now. Until next month, I'll see you later.

Greetings from J-List October 26, 1997

We're having a nice, quiet weekend here in Japan. It's cool, but not cold, and we're getting some shopping and relaxing done, and late at night I have been putting serious hours into Civilization II, recently released for the Macintosh (you can find it at http://www.cdw.com/. I will make a small update today, though.

Our deadline for ordering calendars has passed, although we're going to leave the calendar information up for a while, until the 5th of November or so. The reason we set the deadline early is that we wanted to be sure to get orders in in advance to allow the calendar company to get the calendars to us before they start becoming unavailable. Unless the calendar you want is extremely popular, we should still be able to order and get your calendar for you -- so let us know what you want. Note that payment by credit card is the best way to do this, since we don't have to inconvenience you if the calendar is not available.

I hadn't mentioned it before, but along with the two new Final Fantasy action figures, we have available three dolls in the Sentimental Graffiti Collection. These are soft vinyl dolls of high quality by Tsukuda Hobby, and they are nice, although without the very high attention to detail of the first vinyl dolls from Lyceen (the ones that came with the CD ROM, and have removeable cloth panties instead of molded plastic ones). These are much more reasonably priced, though. See these and other items on the toys page.
We're having a nice, quiet weekend here in Japan. It's cool, but not cold, and we're getting some shopping and relaxing done, and late at night I have been putting serious hours into Civilization II, recently released for the Macintosh (you can find it at http://www.cdw.com/. I will make a small update today, though.

Our deadline for ordering calendars has passed, although we're going to leave the calendar information up for a while, until the 5th of November or so. The reason we set the deadline early is that we wanted to be sure to get orders in in advance to allow the calendar company to get the calendars to us before they start becoming unavailable. Unless the calendar you want is extremely popular, we should still be able to order and get your calendar for you -- so let us know what you want. Note that payment by credit card is the best way to do this, since we don't have to inconvenience you if the calendar is not available.

I hadn't mentioned it before, but along with the two new Final Fantasy action figures, we have available three dolls in the Sentimental Graffiti Collection. These are soft vinyl dolls of high quality by Tsukuda Hobby, and they are nice, although without the very high attention to detail of the first vinyl dolls from Lyceen (the ones that came with the CD ROM, and have removeable cloth panties instead of molded plastic ones). These are much more reasonably priced, though. See these and other items on the toys page.

After spending some minutes fawning over the Akira Fubuki and Ozawa Madoka posters, I decided to take some digital pics of the pages inside. They are at http://www.jlist.com/personalstuff/calendarspics.html. Note my camera is just a digital, but you can certainly see the great professionalism and high quality of the pictures inside. Let us know if you want to make an order.

I have some new screenshots of web browsing on the Newton Messagepad. See my Newton Pre-Buyers' Guide (http://www.jlist.com/peter/newtonrev.html).


After spending some minutes fawning over the Akira Fubuki and Ozawa Madoka posters, I decided to take some digital pics of the pages inside. They are at http://www.jlist.com/personalstuff/calendarspics.html. Note my camera is just a digital, but you can certainly see the great professionalism and high quality of the pictures inside. Let us know if you want to make an order.

I have some new screenshots of web browsing on the Newton Messagepad. See my Newton Pre-Buyers' Guide (http://www.jlist.com/peter/newtonrev.html).

Greetings from J-List October 21, 1997

Hello from Japan. We have been busy here, but now it's time to update the site and go out to one of our favorite restaurants, Miya, a steakhouse. (Yes, there is steak here in Japan...)

The first calendars are in! Yes, the first batch of 75 or so calendars are in, and customers whose calendars are ready have been notified by email. It was our first chance to see the insides of some of the calendars, and I really must say that the Fubuki Akira calendars, the Shin Bishojo Densetsu and the Madoka Ozawa items are all truly lovely, with the inside pages as good or better than the covers. I urge you to order your copy soon -- since the deadline for ordering is just a few days away. They are truly high-quality items.

J-List's email replies will be slow over the next few days, for two reasons. The first reason is, I am taking Kaori, Tomoe and my wife on a bunch-deserved "shain ryoko" (company vacation). We're headed to Kusatsu, on the other side of the prefecture from where we are, to a nice onsen (hot springs hotel). Usually onsens are very Japanese places, where you wear cotton yukata and eat very Japanese-style food, while drinking beer and sake and bellowing out songs on the karaoke machine. The place we are going to is a pension, actually, so the food is western. I will have a report for you all when we get back.

The second reason is, my grandfather has died, and my mother is flying from San Diego to Ohio for the funeral, so credit card processing will be delayed slghtly. My grandfather was 78, and died of a brain hemorrhage after a long chain of strokes, so we are all frankly glad he has finally gone on to a better place. Incidentally, he was the only member of my large family to oppose my marrying a "Jap" -- I never held it against him, of course, since he did fight in World War II, and everyone is entitled to a little narrow thinking sometimes.

Thanks for checking out J-List, and see you again soon!

Greetings from J-List October 24, 1997

Greetings from Japan on this Friday evening. My wife and I are going to go see the hit Miyazaki movie, Mononoke-hime (Princess of Beasts?). We always go on Fridays, since it's Ladies' Night at the big American-style Cinema-o-rama in Ota, and my wife can get in for just $10. I, of course, pay the full price of $18 for myself. Living in Japan has its drawbacks, but we're happy to have a theatre that has showings past 7 pm...

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have two new Final Fantasy action figures by Bandai, Legendary Soldier Sephiroth and Vincent Valentine, and they look really cool. The bad news is that we have received official word that the figures are out of production and will not be coming in. So everyone who ordered the Tifa Lockhard, Cloud and Aerith Gainsborough action figures and is waiting for our backorder to come in is going to be disappointed. Everyone who was waiting for the figures will have received an email from me, but if you have any questions, please let me know. I apologize for not being able to get these for you -- but that is Japan for you. FF was released here in Japan about 6 months ago, which is why the products for it are disappearing now. Eva fans should note that Evangelion toys and other items will start disappearing now, so if you like, say, the deluxe Ayanami Rei dolls we have on the anime/toys page

We have a lot of nice items in stock and on our various pages for the weekend, so please take a look at them and let me know how we can serve you. Remember to check out the calendars pages (as well as the anime, JPOP and magazines pages, where some of the specialty calendars have been put to reduce load time), since the official deadline is tomorrow!

Thanks for supporting J-List. We'll see you on the web page!

Pete

Greetings from J-List October 17, 1997

Greetings, programs. We have some nice items for you just in time for the weekend.

Fans of high-quality Japanese erotic items have a lot of celebrate today. Yuki Maiko's new shashinshu, Idol, is not available at J-List on the shashinshus page. Also, fans of the lovely Fubuki Akira will be happy to see we have more copies of her great hardcover shashinshu, Impressive, available as well. Other new items include more copies of the excellent CD ROM Choice Deluxe CD ROM, the new Second Half of 1997 Fantajenne CD ROM Forever Version, and other assorted goodies.

I have a friend coming up from Shizuoka Prefecture tonight. We studied for the Japanese Ability Test (the Japanese text that corresponds to TOEFL or TOEIC in the U.S.) together. We're going to drive into Maebashi and go to our favorite restaurant, Yukara. This is a sort of cult among college students in Maebashi -- it's open from 11 pm to 5 am, and serves the most delicious, fattening Chinese food. Despite the odd hours the store keeps, the Master never has a shortage of customers, we have waited hours to get in. I think I will have the Sweet n Sour Pork tonight.

Well, enjoy the new items on the page, and have a nice weekend!

Greetings from J-List October 16, 1997

Nice little update for you today. You can find some great new items on the magazines and shashinshus pages -- principally the latter -- as well as new dojinshi and more. Fans of Aonuma Chiasa or some of the classier Japanese AV gals should certainly take note. Also, Aika Miura is in the new Nessha Boy, on the videos page (page 1).

We also have, for fans of Japanese adult videos, lots of new "b" videos on page 5 of the videos, items that were never paid for or that we ordered extras of. There are tons of videos that are ready right now, and all have free SAL shipping. Please check out the page if you think you're interested in some great Japanese AV action.

The videos recently added to the page (page 1) are selling very well, and Aonuma Chiasa's AV video "High School Chiasa" has broken the J-List single-day sales record. Be sure to swing by and see the new offering we have for you.

Greetings from J-List October 14, 1997

It's a great day for Chiasa Aonuma fans. Thanks to the efforts of two readers bringing it to our attention, J-List has secured her video, High School Chiasa, for our videos page. This title represents Chiasa-chan's debut into the world of real AV -- in other words, she's gone from being a beautiful nude model to being a full-scale AV figure. Some might balk at watching Chiasa doing something that would make her father cry with with strange men, but I for one look forward to seeing her in action.

We have a ton of great stuff for you today. In addition to *29* great new videos on page one of the videos pages (including two by Ms. Aonuma, new entries by Fubuki Akira and Madoka Ozawa, a bizarre and interesting title for Miura Aika fans, and much more), we have new magazines (Sakuranbo Tsushin. Gal's Dee and more) and a new deluxe All Pasocom CD ROM soft catalog, which features three CD ROMs packed with photos and Quicktime movies. Lots of neat stuff, so check it all out.

We've had a lot of activity here at J-List today, with tons of videos going out daily. I'll be in Tokyo on Tuesday, Japan time, following up on a new distributor lead (it's a secret, but let's just say it has to do with something J-List is always selling out of). If you're waiting for an email reply from us and it doesn't come right away, hold tight, we'll get to you.

Remember, the deadline for ordering calendars is drawing near. You can still order past the deadline date, but the chance that you won't get that Ultraman calendar you've got your heart set on will go up.

Thanks, and have a nice day!

Peter

Greetings from J-List October 11, 1997

J-List is happy to present one of the finest items I've ever seen -- Akira Fubuki's newest shashinshu, Impressive. It's a good word to describe the soft beauty and erotic colors used by photographer Yamagishi Shin to record the many faces of Ms. Fubuki, who is fast becoming the No. 1 AV actress in all Japan. Sexy and sensuous, Akira-chan is one of the hottest women to enter the business. I imagine the 10 copies we currently have in stock will go very quickly.

The new Ureccos and Creams are going quickly, although there are a lot left in stock. Be sure to check them out, and remember about our sale. You can save yourself some money and get a nice bunch of magazines in the process. Enjoy our very large selection.

There is a big change in the J-List homepage files today, even though you may or may not notice it -- it's one of those technical "under the hood" HTML things. The graphics images that J-List uses now have their sizes referred to directly in the HTML text, rather than before, when they used the "UseImageHeight" and "UseImageWidth" tags. The end result is that the J-List pages should feel much speedier to users of browsers such as Netscape, which require the image sizes to be specified before they can load in the surrounding text. Many thanks to K.G. for his help and to Marc Boon, creator of GifScan 2.2. As with any change to the J-List's pages, I welcome feedback from you.

I have to plug the Mac, here. A very nifty system-wide scripting tool called Applescript was used to enable Filemaker Pro to talk ask GifScann to poll the 8500 graphics files we've got in the J-List database and get the height, width and size properties. It was accomplished in less than two hours, once I had the script set up. If we tried to run J-List with Windows PCs, we would not have access to any of this great stuff. Long live the Mac for being so easy to use. (Applescript is also used for the creation of all email here at J-List.)

Today was a holiday in Japan, so we took Kazuki to Kezoji Park, a large amusement and park that we happen to live near, for the annual Open Air Concert. It's put on by a local company that rents studio time to bands, and was a chance for small bands to play in front of an audience. (Note: some of them were awful.) We had fun, and Kazuki got to play to his heart's content. October is a nice time for sitting back with a beer, talking with friends, in Japan.

Greetings from J-List October 10, 1997

Today was a Good Day. First and foremost, my Powerbook G3 show up -- ah, the joy of being "edge, even if for only a few months. The speed and power of this thing is incredible, though, consdiderably faster than all the 200 mhz 604e desktop Macs here at J-List.

But today was a Good Day for one other reason. For the past eight months, my wife and I have been working hard to get permission to build on a patch of land my Japanese family owns. The land was previously zoned as agricultural use" land, in an area that, for reasons of tradition and silly local politics -- could not be built upon. Finally, though, after many months and pulling of strings, permission to build on the land has been granted. This means that J-List will be moving out of our current small three rooms and into a medium-sized two-story office building sometime around May of next year -- a welcome change for all of us. This step has been the dream of my wife and I for most of the life of J-List, and we're taking everyone here out for sushi on the weekend. We couldn't be happier.

We have some nice new items for you today, mostly on the anime/toys page, where you'll find the GERWALK version of the great Macross "completed model" (really a detailed, moveable toy). Three different versions of the GERWALK Valkyrie are on the page. Also, you can see a slew of new models from Gundam, Macross and Macross 7.

Also new to the page are -- more magazines and shashinshus. We've got two new issues of Girls, a Big-4-style high-quality magazine, as well as a few Beppin Schools and more. Also, the cat-like Kitahara Rina has a softcover "mild mook" nude shashinshu on the photobooks page -- enjoy them.

Greetings from J-List October 9, 1997

Well, tomorrow is another holiday here in Japan -- "Taiku no Hi", aka Sports Day. Alas, the Internet knows no holidays, so I'll be here tomorrow working on the email, although we're taking half a day off to take my son Kazuki to the zoo in Kiryu (where Japanese singer Shinohara Ryoko happens to be from, if you follow Japanese pop music).

We have some nice items for you this evening. First of all, the new Ureccos and Creams are in -- and they are great, so go grab your copy now. Since we're still having the buy-3-get-1-free sale, you can get a nice little bargain. The other new items are dojinshi, about 15 one-shots on the dojinshi page. There are some excellent Sailor Moon dojinshi as well as many others, so check out our offerings. In general, tons of magazines remain, so take a look and let me know if there's anything

Remember that the deadline for ordering calendars is only two weeks away. The first batch of calendars should start coming in by the end of October, and rest will come in in November. Don't forget that these unique calendars would make great gifts for that Japan-loving friend of yours (especially Fubuki!).

Well, that's all for now. Take care!

Greetings from J-List October 7, 1997

Lots of nice items for you this week, including the new Fantajenne, the new Milky Tsushin, the new Gal's Shower, and a nice new edition of the All Pasocom CD Soft Catalog. Of course the buy-3-get-1-free special applies to these new items as well as everything else on the list, so check out the magazines pages now. Other new items include new manga on the manga page, some dojinshi that were thought to be sold out, and more.

Magazines continue to sell fast. Remember, when ordering, it's best to give alternates so we can process your order without delay.

My Newton Pre-Buyers' Guide (http://www.jlist.com/peter/newtonrev.html) has received a major update. If you want to see what computing with a Newton is like, please check it out.

Greetings from J-List October 3, 1997

First of all, let me aplogize for filling your mailbox with updates three days in a row. It's rare that we have this many new items for you. I've got some good news, though, that should make up for it.

We have yet another update for you, along with some big news (see the paragraph below). In the way of new items, we have a lot of new "one shot" magazines and photobooks, mostly on the page 2 of the magazines and the shashinshus page. There are a lot of nice items, but the one that really shines is Kanno Miho's explosive nude shashinshu, Nudity, which is all the rage in Japan right now, and quite impossible to get without waiting in line, scouring the Kanda region of the city (known for its
selection of books), and so on. We have 19 copies as of Thursday night, Japan time.

Now onto the big news. Effectively immediately, in commemmoration of J-List's one-year anniversary this month, we'll be having a buy-3-get-1-free sale on all magazines and shashinshus! Let me explain how it works: pick four magazines, and the least expensive one will be free. That's it, nothing more to it. (Note that the shipping will be calculated normally.) This sale will stop October 15th, so make your selections quickly. We have about two truckloads of magazines in stock right now, and all the items that just went on the list are part of the sale. It's a great time to stock up, get those back issues of Urecco you want to give as Christmas gifts this year, and so on. Thanks, and enjoy the update!

Greetings from J-List October 2, 1997

Hello from Japan. Today is a special day for us here at J-List -- it's October 1st, and we've been in business for one year today! It's enough to give me pause, to think how quickly a year can go by when you're running a business. Although we've had our share of ups and down over the past twelve months, it's been a hell of a ride for all of us. We sincerely thank you for your support, and look forward to great times ahead together with you all. As the Japanese say, kore kara mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

We have some nifty new items for you today, including new dojinshi (including new copies of several of the often-requested Okachimentaiko circle's work), a few new magazines, and more. Look for a big announcement from us in a day or two, too... (evil laugh)

Response to the calendars has been good, although since all calendars were on one HTML page, the loading time quite slow (especially from Japan, where I am). I have compensated by moving the anime calendars to the anime page, the JPOP calendars to the JPOP page, and the adult calendars to the adult page. The remaining items left on the calendar page include calendars of Japanese actresses and models, swimsuit calendars, large wall calendars, and others. I urge anyone with any time on their hands to just check out the calendars page, not so much to see if you want to buy one

Greetings from J-List September 30, 1997

If you've ever lived in Japan, you may know that it's a very seasonal place. Summer is the season for tanktops and showing your belly button, but it comes to an abrupt halt at the 1st of September, when fall starts (to the Japanese). Stop a Japanese on the street, and he's apt to start talking about how Japan has four seasons (shiki in Japanese), although there are many more than four -- rainy season, which stretches from mid-June to mid-July, cannot be called summer, for example.

There's a season for buying calendars, too. Starting in October or so, you can find Japanese calendars in bookstores everywhere. It lasts until around the 20th of December, when most of the calendars will have begun to disappear. After the 1st of the year nearly all the calendars are gone. You cannot buy, for love or money, a calendar at any other time of the year save Calendar Season.

This year's 1988 calendar offerings are excellent, and J-List is offering a large assortment of them for you. There are calendars for fans of JPOP, lots of anime calendars, Japanese baseball calendars, and of course, sexy gravure bathing suit calendars. But perhaps the most welcome news to J-List readers is the inclusion this year of nude calendars for Fubuki Akira, Ozawa Madoka, and many others. Please see the calendars page for more information.

Note that the deadline for ordering calendars is October 25th. The same as last year, there is a chance that the most popular items will start to sell out, so we might not be able to get everything you want. That's why we're moving the deadline up, to help ensure that there are no problems.
J-List now has a links page, with links to other anime and related sites. Please check it out the next time you're surfing around the Internet. One thing that is important to me is the quality of the links on our links page -- you won't see this becoming a bloated list of thousands of sites. Feedback on the links page is appreciated.

Greetings from J-List September 26, 1997

It's been a short week -- can't believe it's Friday already. Tomoe and Kaori are helping finish up the day's invoice as I type these words. I have to go though, since Fifth Element finally started playing here in Japan, and I've got a date with my wife to go see it.

We have some nice new items on the list before the weekend. First, there are new dojinshi, including more copies of the popular Final Fantasy VII dojinshi, Limit Break. Also, two series Utena/Lamune series that appeared on the page after the last Comiket are back. New magazines and CD ROMs round out our weekend offerings -- enjoy browsing through the new items.

My computer setup has gotten one step cooler. I got a second monitor, and hooked it up to my Macintosh. Now I can have the Windows environment on the 15" monitor and my Mac setup on the big 20" -- it's fun. I am putting in as many hours as I can into JAST USA's third release, Runaway City. Look for it sometime in December.

Thanks for supporting J-List. Hope you have a nice weekend.

Greetings from J-List September 24, 1997

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Greetings from J-List September 23, 1997

Hello from Japan again. I had a nice trip to Tokyo on Saturday night/Sunday, and had a nice "power lunch" at the Imperial Hotel, the most famous hotel in Tokyo, at least to my knowledge. On my way back through Shinjuku (I always swing by Kinokunia, the best English-language bookstore in Tokyo), I was surprised to see a lot of busty, cute Japanese girls with tight, bright-red shirts that had AOL on them. It seems that America Online is making a big push into Japan. Finally, I went into the Saturn Dealer that recently opened up in Shinjuku and got their pamphlets. It's cool to see the Saturn sales pitch done in Japanese. Still, we liked driving my mother's new Saturn wagon while we were in the States

We have some nice items for you today. In addition to more copies of the popular Hotel 1957 Tohno Natsuko CD ROM, we have an even cooler item, the Beppin School CD ROM edition, vol. 4, which has Tohno Natsuko, Aonuma Chiasa, Ikegami Misa, and two other lovelies, in addition to games, movies of these girls

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Japan, Shuubun no Hi, also known as the Autumnal Equinox, also known as the first day of Autumn. The first days of Fall and Spring are national holidays here in Japan, which always seemed to make sense to me.

Greetings from J-List September 20, 1997

Greetings again from J-List. We got a big surprise today -- a huge load of boxes from our supplier in Tokyo. We now have more many nice magazines on the magazines page for you -- lots of great ones, like Beppin School, Bejean, Dela Beppin, and the new Suppin, which features the ever-popular Akira Fubuki in excerpts from her great shashinshu. Everyone should walk, not run, to the magazines page (1).

There are also many excellent items still on page 2 of the magazines, including lots of rare "one shot" magazines that we only have one copy of, as well as many magazines which we're selling at very low prices so we can get rid of our stock. Also, the shashinshu page has many issues of Endless, Big 4 and Photoshot available for you.

Thanks, and have a nice weekend.

Greetings from J-List September 19, 1997

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Greetings from J-List September 17, 1997

Hello again, from 1:15 Wednesday morning, here in wacky, fun-loving Japan.

We've got twenty or so new videos for you on page one of the adult videos section. There are many nice new videos by Madoka Ozawa, Akira Fubuki, Aida Momo, Aonuma Chiasa, and more, including Madoka Ozawa's sayonara video (gasp!). Also, there are additions to the Toys page -- a new line of action figures from the popular Final Fantasy VII game. Finally, there are some new dojinshi on the dojinshi page, including the summer release by Zatoichi. Enjoy all the new items.

Also, we're having a sale on the Magazines and CD ROMs pages. We have tons of magazines on the magazines pages that are causing stocking problems, so we're going to get rid of them as quickly as we can before building up a lot of new stock. On the CD ROM front, we've gone through and taken a good stock of everything , and lowered prices while we did it. If you're interested in the excellent CD ROM Choice, CD ROM Collection or Windows 100% series of CD ROM & magazine combinations, we've got a lot for you. A lot of items that had been taken off the list beacuse they were out of print are still available, at least until our current stock is gone.

Now that we've got the Special Editions of the Star Wars movies on video here, Kazuki won't let us watch anything else. He is beside me right now, as I type, humming his 2-year-old's rendition of Darth Vader's Theme and playing with a TIE Fighter. It actually got so bad that we had to go buy a VCR to keep in the J-List office, so Kazuki could watch his Star Wars movies in here, and give his mother a break. His favorite toys are the little Jawa action figures, which we bought at the recently-opened Toys R' Us in Ota, a city near us.

Greetings from J-List September 12, 1997

Good evening from J-List on this lovely Thursday night/Friday morning. We've just completed a massive update for you, so please enjoy browsing through the new items we have just posted.

First and foremost, J-List now carries Japanese toys, on the newly re-christened Toys & Anime page. Thanks to many requests from J-List readers, we were able to find a good distributor of dolls, toys, puzzles and other interesting items down in Tokyo. We have selected some very nice items for you, including large figurines of anime shows (Ayanami Rei, Shiori Fujisaki, Lum, and more)

Other new items include a large number (24) of new videos on page 1 of the videos page, a large number of new regular magazines (the new Urecco & Milky Tsushin among them) on page 1 of the magazines, many "one shot" magazines of rare and hard to find items on page 2 of the magazines (including the infamous "wriggling labias" Urecco issue), and many (the most we've ever had in our history, actually) new issues of Photoshot, Big 4, Megashot, and others, on the photobooks (shashinshu) page. There are tons of great items, so please check out the pages. Fans of Tohno Natsuko

The Japanese magazine FAQ has been updated, finally. You can find the link to it from the top of the Japanese magazine pages. This is especially good for people who don't know much about Japanese adult magazines.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks, and see you on the web.

Greetings from J-List September 9, 1997

Lots of neat stuff for you on the J-List homepage. First of all, we've got new dojinshi! Four new books, and lots of copies of each. Included are the excellent Night Song of the Sakura and A Harvester be Known as Death (which were on the list for a few minutes during the Great Dojinshi Feeding Frenzy of last month), as well as two new titles, Sakura no Fubuki and a great item for Final Fantasy VII fans, Limit Break. See all of these on the dojinshi page.

Moving right along, we've got new magazines, including new issues of Sakuranbo Tsushin and Milky Tsushin, Panst Freak, Video Boy, and more. Fans of hentai art will enjoy the new Fantatajenne, as well as CD ROM Collection vol. 7 and 8 and a dynamite new item, CD ROM Choice Deluxe, a great oversize edition of the excellent CD ROM Choice that is similar to the Fantajenne CD ROM editions in the massiveness of images (over 1000).

Chiharu and I took in the End of Evangelion movie last night. While I enjoyed it, I have to say it gave me the creeps. Picture the freaky weirdness you felt when watching Akira for the first time, when Tetsuo morph into an old man, then into a baby. Picture that creepy weirdness amplified over two hours, and that's what the End of Evangelion is. On the plus side, many great "classic" Gainax scenes, as well as many good, rewarding deaths, although this is the most wantonly violent piece of Japanese animation you will ever see (don't show it to someone who's not used to the genre). If anyone knows of any homepage providing an explanation (and/or an English translation) I'd appreciate it.

Japan continues to mourn Princess Diana. Television specials about her life and death are on nearly every hour of the day and night, and the newscasters reporting on the official funeral in London do so wearing black, with bouquets of white chrysanthemums arranged behind them. Above the flowers, a picture of Diana happy, smiling, in Japanese tradition. I can't imagine anyone whose death could have affected so many all the way in Japan as Diana's.