Thursday, January 03, 2002
Greetings from J-List October 3, 2002
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Greetings from J-List January 3, 2002
Hello and "Akemashite Omedetou" from all of us at J-List! The New Year is here, and J-List is happy to be back to work. We think 2002 is going to be our best year yet!
2002 will no doubt bring many new things to many new people. For Japan and Korea, 2002 is the Year of Cooperation and Good Relations, as the two countries are jointly hosting the World Cup. Everywhere you look there are signs of improved friendship between the two countries -- everything from Korean film getting more attention in Japan to Japanese food companies bring more Korean tastes to customers. After the problems of last year, we're very happy to see these changes. 2002 is also the Year of Soccer here in Japan, and about 40% of TV commercials manage to work the sport into whatever they're selling. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest soccer fan in the world, but it is great to see everyone get so excited. Harumi, the girl who lovingly wraps outgoing J-List orders, is a huge soccer fan. If anyone knows how we could get tickets for any of the Japan games (tickets were not available to the public here at all), please let us know and we'll pass the information on to her.
I received some questions about international drivers' licenses when I mentioned them before, so I thought I'd give information on them. Annoying spam bouncing around the Internet aside, the international drivers' license system basically allows you to go to a foreign country and, along with your normal valid license from home, drive legally. Japanese can go to the Japanese version of the DMV and get a Japanese version of the IDL and drive in the U.S. for up to 6 months, for example, and Americans can do the same in Japan (they get up to 1 year of driving, however). I once got an international driver's license made at a passport photo shop, but was told by a Japanese policeman that the only ones that are really legal (and which will help you out if you're in an accident) are the ones issued by AAA (Triple A). For foreigners living in Japan, it's generally more convenient to keep an IDL and renew it each year. Because you're not in the Japanese computer system, it's virtually impossible to get a ticket for anything in Japan.
Japanese portable phone companies continue to duke it out, trying to give customers better features and keep NTT and NTT Docomo (the "Microsoft" of Japan) from swallowing their market share. J-Phone stresses their phones with cameras in them (now they've got little flashes for the phones), and AU boasts the Qualcomm "CDMA" phone standard, allowing you to go to several cities in Asia and America and use your Japanese phone (if you don't mind paying $3 per minute). Now the first GPS phone has appeared -- if you get lost, just call up a map of Tokyo on your phone and find out where you are. The idea sounds good, but after finding that I can't even view Yahoo on my own Internet-enabled phone, I have to say I'll wait and see how the technology unfolds.
The "Express Checkout" feature of J-List is now live, and so far it's working really well. Basically, if you've already checked out once, you can make subsequent orders using the express checkout, and quickly select shipping, billing address, and payment method from a pull-down list. To add a new address or payment method (credit card, etc.) to your account, just check out once the old way, and the new information will be remembered. Just a note, by the way, that credit card numbers are not stored on the server at all -- just the last four numbers are, for maximum safety.
For our first update of the new year, we're coming out swinging, with a great lineup of new items for you. including:
Once again, all of us at J-List would like to wish you a peaceful and prosperious Happy New Year. "Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu" is what Japanese say when they greet each other for the first time each year, and it's an odd phrase that's is really hard to translate accurately -- something like "Please let us serve you again this year" is pretty close. Please let us serve you!
2002 will no doubt bring many new things to many new people. For Japan and Korea, 2002 is the Year of Cooperation and Good Relations, as the two countries are jointly hosting the World Cup. Everywhere you look there are signs of improved friendship between the two countries -- everything from Korean film getting more attention in Japan to Japanese food companies bring more Korean tastes to customers. After the problems of last year, we're very happy to see these changes. 2002 is also the Year of Soccer here in Japan, and about 40% of TV commercials manage to work the sport into whatever they're selling. I have to admit that I'm not the biggest soccer fan in the world, but it is great to see everyone get so excited. Harumi, the girl who lovingly wraps outgoing J-List orders, is a huge soccer fan. If anyone knows how we could get tickets for any of the Japan games (tickets were not available to the public here at all), please let us know and we'll pass the information on to her.
I received some questions about international drivers' licenses when I mentioned them before, so I thought I'd give information on them. Annoying spam bouncing around the Internet aside, the international drivers' license system basically allows you to go to a foreign country and, along with your normal valid license from home, drive legally. Japanese can go to the Japanese version of the DMV and get a Japanese version of the IDL and drive in the U.S. for up to 6 months, for example, and Americans can do the same in Japan (they get up to 1 year of driving, however). I once got an international driver's license made at a passport photo shop, but was told by a Japanese policeman that the only ones that are really legal (and which will help you out if you're in an accident) are the ones issued by AAA (Triple A). For foreigners living in Japan, it's generally more convenient to keep an IDL and renew it each year. Because you're not in the Japanese computer system, it's virtually impossible to get a ticket for anything in Japan.
Japanese portable phone companies continue to duke it out, trying to give customers better features and keep NTT and NTT Docomo (the "Microsoft" of Japan) from swallowing their market share. J-Phone stresses their phones with cameras in them (now they've got little flashes for the phones), and AU boasts the Qualcomm "CDMA" phone standard, allowing you to go to several cities in Asia and America and use your Japanese phone (if you don't mind paying $3 per minute). Now the first GPS phone has appeared -- if you get lost, just call up a map of Tokyo on your phone and find out where you are. The idea sounds good, but after finding that I can't even view Yahoo on my own Internet-enabled phone, I have to say I'll wait and see how the technology unfolds.
The "Express Checkout" feature of J-List is now live, and so far it's working really well. Basically, if you've already checked out once, you can make subsequent orders using the express checkout, and quickly select shipping, billing address, and payment method from a pull-down list. To add a new address or payment method (credit card, etc.) to your account, just check out once the old way, and the new information will be remembered. Just a note, by the way, that credit card numbers are not stored on the server at all -- just the last four numbers are, for maximum safety.
For our first update of the new year, we're coming out swinging, with a great lineup of new items for you. including:
- First, we've got the excellent new Gokuh, the oversized erotic magazine from Eichi Publishing (great for Ami Ayukawa and Ichigo Milk fans)
- For Anna Ohura fans, we have limited stock of the dynamite "Bauhaus Mook" filled with nothing but photos of the lovely 101 cm busty idol
- We've got other mags for you too, including some really nice amateur and kogal sex books, and a new issue of EX CD-ROM (a value-priced adult magazine with a free video CD of footage)
- We have two great DVD & magazine combos -- DVD Wow, featuring 2 hours of super pro AV, and a rare treat, Aika Miura and Hikaru Oishi in a bold bondage magazine + DVD coupling
- Just because we love you, we've got a super line-up of new photobooks for you, featuring lovely girls like Shinobu Kasagi and Maria Yumeno and more -- both hardcover and softcover photobooks in stock
- If you are into Japan's manga erotica, enjoy the double portion of books we've posted for you, including the excellent "Refrection" (Reflection) by the renowned hentai artist Okawari, the uncensored erotic manga Engine Room, and more, as well as fresh stock of some great manga works that were sold out
- A sneak peak from the December Comic Market, we've got a beautiful "Busty Girls of Doujin" calendar, with 13 large pages capturing beautiful huge-breasted anime girls -- but we've only got three, so hurry
- For DVD and adult video lovers, we've got another can't-be-beat volley for you -- first, from the new Hot Entertainment there's a superb 120 minute lesbian DVD with great lesbian eros (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, three great DVD titles: the lewd "Semen Hospital" (a very erotic place to get medical care), a new "Study of Men's Penis by Innocent Girls" in which 18 year old girls see, touch and "study" a penis for the first time, and a great rape-play offering (all region-free)
- From Moodyz, a superb erotic "soap girl" performance by Bunko Kanazawa (DVD-2)
- If you love the delightful Rin Tomosaki, you'll love her new cosplay DVD by Wanz Factory, with anime, maid, sports wear and kimono erotic costumes
- From Audaz, a very erotic "busty lesbian orgy" (VHS) and a dynamite "Violent Shoot" performance by Maria Yumeno (DVD-2 or VHS) -- best of all, you get a free packet of sex lotion in each Audaz DVD
- A cool new offering from Aroma, a beautiful actress is deprived of the senses of sight and hearing as she's teased and fucked
- Also: a fun erotic "Morning Tekoki Musume" video for fans of the pop group, and a super performance with the lovely Ai Nagase
- Finally, for fans of S&M themes, a very cool "Bondage Battle" with three lovely AV idols, including Maiko Yuuki
- For fans of the incredibly high-quality "cold cast" figures made in Japan, we've got limited stock (exactly one) of two beautiful figures from Kia Asamiya's manga Duplex Divine. The figures are truly incredible and must be seen to be believed (we'll order more so we have stock in the future)
- Also on our anime & toys page, we've got some cool stuffed black cats from the Miyazaki film Kiki's Delivery Service
- We've lowered the prices of our color bishoujo T-shirts based on Peach Princess's games, as we close out our stock to make room for making new shirt designs. Help us out by picking up some Peach Princess T-shirts!
- If you like being able to buy the Japanese snacks and food items J-List sells, we've got some delicious Lamune candy (in many flavors), as well as a major restock of some of our most long-selling items, Milky Strawberry candies, the delicious Milky white carmels, and more
- We've got some wacky traditional items for you, including some cool Buddhist prayer beads (which you can also use as fashionable bracelets), a super traditional bamboo dish, and more
- Finally, find a slew of all-new Wacky Things from Japan for you, including a Hello Kitty pocket tissue holder (works with the J-List tissues you get free with each order, too!), a jumbo deck of playing cards, the ultimate food storage containers for your kitchen, a rare Japanese pan that can make square omelets, and a great vacuum attachment that will get your house really clean, and more. Please stop by and check out what we've got for you!
Once again, all of us at J-List would like to wish you a peaceful and prosperious Happy New Year. "Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu" is what Japanese say when they greet each other for the first time each year, and it's an odd phrase that's is really hard to translate accurately -- something like "Please let us serve you again this year" is pretty close. Please let us serve you!
Tuesday, January 01, 2002
Greetings from J-List October 1, 2002
Hello again from Japan, where drivers should always practice "safety driving."
First, an update on the site. We had two major changes take place over the weekend, a sudden move of our image server (forcing us to serve J-List product images from a backup server), and a change in the way the J-List pages are rendered. The second change caused problems for some customers trying to view adult products via the search or "three day" links. The "adult cookie" that controls which J-List products are displayed was not being set properly. To set the cookie, enter the J-List site from the front again (http://www.jlist.com/) and it should work. If you experience any problems with the site at all as we work out the bugs, please email us.
The most profitable Disney theme park in the world is Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983 and has broken all records for money-making for the theme park line. The Japanese penchant for spending money on souvenirs for family members, called "omiyage," helps push this profitability up. A year ago, Disney's second Japanese park opened: DisneySea, centered around themes of the sea. We took a day off work yesterday and took the kids, although we were miserable for much of the time due to a typhoon that was soaking Japan. Also, Disney's parks are very popular in Japan, and even with all the rain, there were thousands of other gusts, pushing waiting times for some rides up to 3 hours. The park features a volcano, a recreation of Agrabah from Aladdin, a fun under-the-sea area for younger kids, a cruise ship, a "jet coaster" (as they say in Japan) based on Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even a hotel where you can get married, right inside the park (for all the Japanese "Disney otaku" who REALLY love Disney characters). The kids had fun, although my son said it was "kakko warui" (unstylish, uncool) for Mickey Mouse to speak Japanese when he should be speaking English. If you'd like to see pictures of the park, http://www.jtcent.com/disneysea/index.html is a good site. (It was much wetter when we were there.)
The Japanese are a very efficient people, and they're very fond of abbreviating words and making shortcuts. Abbreviations of long words or names are made by taking the first one or two syllables from each part and combining them to make a shorter word. Kokumin Hoken, one of Japan's health care systems, is shortened to "Koku-ho" and the machines that take your picture and print it on little stickers (a huge business in Japan, where there are game centers with nothing but these machines in them) are called "puri-kura" (from "print club"). Virtually all famous actors and singers in Japan acquire nicknames that are often created by abbreviating syllables (singer Kimura Takuya, the Brad Pitt of Japan is universally known as "Kimu-taku"). The names of Western stars can be long and unwieldy in Japanese, so they're often shortened: Arnold Schwarzenegger's been known as "Shuwa-chan" for a decade, and Brad Pitt, the Kimura Takuya of America, is almost always referred to as "Bura-pii" by fans since it's easier to say. Tomo also tells me that the famous Eagle's song Hotel California is shortened to "Hote-Karu" by Japanese fans.
One of my personal favorite games is our Hentai Anime Poker, a very enjoyable single player game in which you take on computer-controlled anime girls. Now that Hentai Anime Poker comes with all 12 expansion pack girls free (a $24.95 value), it's a great buy. And this month, we're giving free shipping (half price for international) for this game, making it an even better buy than before. Enjoy the best poker game you'll ever play, with fantastic female anime opponents!
For the new update, we've got a huge selection of cool things from Japan for you, including:
One of our favorite series are the Yellows photobooks by photographer Akira Gomi. For ten years, he's photographed beautiful nude women from Japan, America, and China, and presented the photos in high-quality photobooks that detail the names and other information about the models. A very interesting ongoing project from a famous Japanese photographer of nude women. We carry all the Yellows photobooks in stock at J-List.
Remember that J-List stocks a wide range of hilarious Japanese T-shirts with message that say "Expel the foreign barbarians" and "I'm looking for a Japanese girlfriend" and "I wish I were Japanese." Our shirts are 100% cotton, printed in the USA, and are really fun. Since no all customers are the same size, we go the extra mile for you, stocking size S, M, L, XL, XXL and XXXL in almost all shirts. Check out our shirts for guys and girls on our site!
First, an update on the site. We had two major changes take place over the weekend, a sudden move of our image server (forcing us to serve J-List product images from a backup server), and a change in the way the J-List pages are rendered. The second change caused problems for some customers trying to view adult products via the search or "three day" links. The "adult cookie" that controls which J-List products are displayed was not being set properly. To set the cookie, enter the J-List site from the front again (http://www.jlist.com/) and it should work. If you experience any problems with the site at all as we work out the bugs, please email us.
The most profitable Disney theme park in the world is Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983 and has broken all records for money-making for the theme park line. The Japanese penchant for spending money on souvenirs for family members, called "omiyage," helps push this profitability up. A year ago, Disney's second Japanese park opened: DisneySea, centered around themes of the sea. We took a day off work yesterday and took the kids, although we were miserable for much of the time due to a typhoon that was soaking Japan. Also, Disney's parks are very popular in Japan, and even with all the rain, there were thousands of other gusts, pushing waiting times for some rides up to 3 hours. The park features a volcano, a recreation of Agrabah from Aladdin, a fun under-the-sea area for younger kids, a cruise ship, a "jet coaster" (as they say in Japan) based on Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even a hotel where you can get married, right inside the park (for all the Japanese "Disney otaku" who REALLY love Disney characters). The kids had fun, although my son said it was "kakko warui" (unstylish, uncool) for Mickey Mouse to speak Japanese when he should be speaking English. If you'd like to see pictures of the park, http://www.jtcent.com/disneysea/index.html is a good site. (It was much wetter when we were there.)
The Japanese are a very efficient people, and they're very fond of abbreviating words and making shortcuts. Abbreviations of long words or names are made by taking the first one or two syllables from each part and combining them to make a shorter word. Kokumin Hoken, one of Japan's health care systems, is shortened to "Koku-ho" and the machines that take your picture and print it on little stickers (a huge business in Japan, where there are game centers with nothing but these machines in them) are called "puri-kura" (from "print club"). Virtually all famous actors and singers in Japan acquire nicknames that are often created by abbreviating syllables (singer Kimura Takuya, the Brad Pitt of Japan is universally known as "Kimu-taku"). The names of Western stars can be long and unwieldy in Japanese, so they're often shortened: Arnold Schwarzenegger's been known as "Shuwa-chan" for a decade, and Brad Pitt, the Kimura Takuya of America, is almost always referred to as "Bura-pii" by fans since it's easier to say. Tomo also tells me that the famous Eagle's song Hotel California is shortened to "Hote-Karu" by Japanese fans.
One of my personal favorite games is our Hentai Anime Poker, a very enjoyable single player game in which you take on computer-controlled anime girls. Now that Hentai Anime Poker comes with all 12 expansion pack girls free (a $24.95 value), it's a great buy. And this month, we're giving free shipping (half price for international) for this game, making it an even better buy than before. Enjoy the best poker game you'll ever play, with fantastic female anime opponents!
For the new update, we've got a huge selection of cool things from Japan for you, including:
- First, for fans of Japanese trading cards, enjoy great series from Chobits and Di Gi Charat, but extremely cool
- For fans of Hello Kitty, we've got a cool item: a "hot or cold refrigerator" that can be used in your home or in your car -- it's so cute, and very Kitty
- Also, an incredibly stylish Kitty bathroom cup, soap dispenser and cotton ball holder that would greatly improve any bathroom, especially if you want to impress guests
- There's a delicious snack from Japan called Mountain of Chocolate Mushrooms, little cookie mushrooms with chocolate tops -- we have this in stock now
- Also: a cute parody cell-phone strap (which can be used as a keychain as well) with little chocolate mushrooms made or rubber -- so cute and fun!
- We have two cute strap/keychains from "Doko Demo Issho," the funky-looking cat character from Sony
- For toy collectors, we have more cool only-sold-in-Japan Hot Wheels cars, that are really cool and great for fans
- For Macross/Robotech fans, we've got new *transformable* toys from Bandai and Yamato, which can transform into Fighter, Gerwalk and Battloid mode -- so cool!
- Look for nice items for your kitchen, including some high-quality bamboo chopsticks, a cool bowl for drinking miso soup, a cute My Melody bento box, and more
- We've got fresh stock of an old favorite: a Japanese calligraphy set including brushes, ink well, ink and paper, great for learning Chinese brush writing
- Also, restock of ear cleaners that contains little lights and batteries, so you can more accurately clean the ears of your loved ones (only from Japan)
- Finally, see many other new items, including a "wet tissue" pack moistened with 2000 year old water, cute hamster tissues, a great "rocket pencil" featuring the cute character Thunder Bunny (Kaori's favorite), a big restocking of bento box items, and a spiffy pencil case with random French written on it.
- For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. These new items include:
- For fans of Japan's unique adult magazines, we've got new issues of some great magazines for you, including the new Gal's Dee, just brimming with busty Japanese idols
- We've got the new issue of Bachelor, featuring the beautiful Russian nude idol, Yulia Nova (but stock will go fast), as well as the new Do-Up, featuring super-detailed hardcore Do-Up
- We've got superb new photobooks, including a positively fantastic look at high-end bondage and rope work in Japanese erotica, with fifteen different models featured
- Also very cool, two "Chinkame" style photobooks which document the prettiest high school uniforms of Japan (a non-adult item)
- Courtesy of Yasu, we've posted a major restock of beautiful photobooks, including fresh stock of Morning Musume, Yellows, Yinling of Joytoy and many other cool items, all back in stock for you
- We love Japan's pretty swimsuit idols, we've got a very nice new photobook featuring Eriko Satoh, a really lovely girl
- Of course we've got more great hentai manga in stock for you, with new works by Peace Comics, Tsukasa Comics and others, with some excellent (and uncensored) work in stock
- Also, a HUGE slew of great hentai doujinshi in stock, with many of the best items we've put out in a long time -- be sure and see these items before they disappear
- For erotic DVD lovers, we've got some great titles for you, starting with Nao Oikawa's super-deluxe Cosplay Beautiful Breast Idol, with parodies of Fujiko from Lupin III, Lum, Astro Boy, Gundam and an Evangelion parody that must not be missed (region free)
- The lovely Cocolo, a professional AV performer popular in Japanese adult magazines, has a great costume play release out too (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, the stylish "smart older woman" Natsumi Kawahama who is very classy as she shows you her top-notch sex (region free)
- From Deep's, we've got a new Lesbian Hospital, with some excellent all-female performances for lesbian fans (region free)
- Enjoy the very erotic anime cosplay, lesbian bukkake and more with the wonderful Nanami Yusa, from Moodyz (region 2)
- Audaz, a super new Violent Shoot, featuring Mirai Hoshizaki in a great bukkake performance (each DVD comes with a free packet of sex lotion courtesy of Audaz)
- Finally, look for various restocked DVDs from some of Japan's most popular studios, such as Tohjiro's Blue Sexual Desire series, the Fetish Lesbian releases, titles by Ai Nagase and more.
One of our favorite series are the Yellows photobooks by photographer Akira Gomi. For ten years, he's photographed beautiful nude women from Japan, America, and China, and presented the photos in high-quality photobooks that detail the names and other information about the models. A very interesting ongoing project from a famous Japanese photographer of nude women. We carry all the Yellows photobooks in stock at J-List.
Remember that J-List stocks a wide range of hilarious Japanese T-shirts with message that say "Expel the foreign barbarians" and "I'm looking for a Japanese girlfriend" and "I wish I were Japanese." Our shirts are 100% cotton, printed in the USA, and are really fun. Since no all customers are the same size, we go the extra mile for you, stocking size S, M, L, XL, XXL and XXXL in almost all shirts. Check out our shirts for guys and girls on our site!
Monday, December 31, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 31, 2001
Hello and "yoi otoshi o" (have a happy new year) from J-List!
Dec 31st he here in Japan, and that's a special day in Japan. While people run around town making last minute preparations for the long Japanese holiday. Since Japan closes down completely for three days, except for convenience stores and certain department stores, most people buy all the food and other items they think they'll need during the New Year's festivities. (The post office opens again on Jan 4th.)
In the U.S., at least, New Year's Eve is a time to party, but in Japan this is seldom true. Japanese eat soba (noodles), known as "toshi-koshi soba" ("Cross into the New Year noodles"), which are said to give you a long life, since the noodles are long. They sit in the kotatsu (low table with a heater under it) and eat mikans (mandarin oranges), and look back on the past year. Most Japanese watch the famous Kouhaku (lit. "Red-White"), a 3 hour TV show in which all the famous Japanese singers -- from enka singers to Morning Musume to Japanese rappers -- do "battle" (male singers vs. female singers) by singing songs, to see which team is more talented. Kouhaku is broadcast in something like 80 countries around the world, so if you've got a Japanese TV channel in your cable box, maybe you can get it too. If viewers don't want to watch Kouhaku, don't worry -- all the other TV networks in Japan eagerly fight for ratings with interesting shows of their own.
Another part of New Year's in Japan is eating mochi. Mochi is basically white rice that has been compressed until it's a hard object that looks like white plastic. But when you cook it (in a microwave or toaster oven), it becomes a hot and delicious treat that all Japanese enjoy. It's very, very chewy, and every year a number of elderly Japanese go to their deaths choking on mochi. Since it's made from compressed rice, it's also very high in calories -- there are supposedly two rice bowels of rice crammed into one square of mochi. Some mochi, which may look like a little snowman to Western eyes (a large ball of mochi with a smaller ball on top), is actually ornamental and used as a decoration.
On New Year's Day, it's time to go off to your favorite Shinto shrine for "Hatsumoude" (First Prayer of the New Year), in which you will clap your hands together and pray for happiness. Rather than a religious event, this is a fun thing that Japanese take part in almost universally. When you meet people for the first time in the new year, you tell them "Akemashite omedetou" which literally means "Congratulations on opening [the new year]." The phrase I used above, "Yoi otoshi o" (have a happy new year) is only used before Jan 1.
All rites and customs that have to do with New Year's Day flow from Shinto. Shinto (lit. "Way of the Gods"), if you don't know, is one of the two religions of Japan, and is originally a system of beliefs that there are "kami" (gods or spirits) in things like trees, rocks, mountains -- quite similar to the American Indian beliefs, actually, and logically so, since Japanese and American Indians are probably descended from the same stock. The other religion in Japan are the many flavors of Buddhism (there are as many sects of Buddhism as there are Protestant religions). As a general rule, Japanese turn to Shinto for anything to do with life (marriages, baby christenings), but turn to Buddhism for anything relating to death (funerals).
We've got some nice items for you on the J-List site today, as posted by Mayumi and Yasu and Tomo. New stock of DVDs, including a killer 4 hour DVD from Big Morkal, some fresh stock of new manga and other items, new stock of Japanese "Black Black" caffeinated spicy gum, new toy item, some interesting "wacky" items too, some new $5 magazines, and some new stock of photobooks that have come in. Please check out the new items!
We're still seeing that many customers are getting multiple copies of our J-List mailings. We're still on the problem and hope to have it solved soon. If you are getting multiple copies of our mailings, please email us and we'll check into the problem for you.
Dec 31st he here in Japan, and that's a special day in Japan. While people run around town making last minute preparations for the long Japanese holiday. Since Japan closes down completely for three days, except for convenience stores and certain department stores, most people buy all the food and other items they think they'll need during the New Year's festivities. (The post office opens again on Jan 4th.)
In the U.S., at least, New Year's Eve is a time to party, but in Japan this is seldom true. Japanese eat soba (noodles), known as "toshi-koshi soba" ("Cross into the New Year noodles"), which are said to give you a long life, since the noodles are long. They sit in the kotatsu (low table with a heater under it) and eat mikans (mandarin oranges), and look back on the past year. Most Japanese watch the famous Kouhaku (lit. "Red-White"), a 3 hour TV show in which all the famous Japanese singers -- from enka singers to Morning Musume to Japanese rappers -- do "battle" (male singers vs. female singers) by singing songs, to see which team is more talented. Kouhaku is broadcast in something like 80 countries around the world, so if you've got a Japanese TV channel in your cable box, maybe you can get it too. If viewers don't want to watch Kouhaku, don't worry -- all the other TV networks in Japan eagerly fight for ratings with interesting shows of their own.
Another part of New Year's in Japan is eating mochi. Mochi is basically white rice that has been compressed until it's a hard object that looks like white plastic. But when you cook it (in a microwave or toaster oven), it becomes a hot and delicious treat that all Japanese enjoy. It's very, very chewy, and every year a number of elderly Japanese go to their deaths choking on mochi. Since it's made from compressed rice, it's also very high in calories -- there are supposedly two rice bowels of rice crammed into one square of mochi. Some mochi, which may look like a little snowman to Western eyes (a large ball of mochi with a smaller ball on top), is actually ornamental and used as a decoration.
On New Year's Day, it's time to go off to your favorite Shinto shrine for "Hatsumoude" (First Prayer of the New Year), in which you will clap your hands together and pray for happiness. Rather than a religious event, this is a fun thing that Japanese take part in almost universally. When you meet people for the first time in the new year, you tell them "Akemashite omedetou" which literally means "Congratulations on opening [the new year]." The phrase I used above, "Yoi otoshi o" (have a happy new year) is only used before Jan 1.
All rites and customs that have to do with New Year's Day flow from Shinto. Shinto (lit. "Way of the Gods"), if you don't know, is one of the two religions of Japan, and is originally a system of beliefs that there are "kami" (gods or spirits) in things like trees, rocks, mountains -- quite similar to the American Indian beliefs, actually, and logically so, since Japanese and American Indians are probably descended from the same stock. The other religion in Japan are the many flavors of Buddhism (there are as many sects of Buddhism as there are Protestant religions). As a general rule, Japanese turn to Shinto for anything to do with life (marriages, baby christenings), but turn to Buddhism for anything relating to death (funerals).
We've got some nice items for you on the J-List site today, as posted by Mayumi and Yasu and Tomo. New stock of DVDs, including a killer 4 hour DVD from Big Morkal, some fresh stock of new manga and other items, new stock of Japanese "Black Black" caffeinated spicy gum, new toy item, some interesting "wacky" items too, some new $5 magazines, and some new stock of photobooks that have come in. Please check out the new items!
We're still seeing that many customers are getting multiple copies of our J-List mailings. We're still on the problem and hope to have it solved soon. If you are getting multiple copies of our mailings, please email us and we'll check into the problem for you.
Saturday, December 29, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 29, 2001
Greetings from Japan, where tako salad always contains fresh octopus.
We had great time at the J-List year-end party last night, drinking dark German-style beer and fruit sours and eating tons of food, including kimchee nabe (meat, tofu and vegetables simmered in a spicy Korean broth), with sushi and octopus salad. Most of the J-List crew don't drink, but Yasu, Chiharu and I managed to get quite hammered. Most Japanese possess a gene that causes their faces to turn bright red when they drink alcohol, by the way, in case you've ever noticed it. Yasu was especially red last night, all over his body, and his wife had to come pick him up.
J-List has been honored to be able to bring a wide range of Japanese pop culture goods to customers around the world for five years now. We've got customers in practically every country in the world, including Luxumbourg, South Africa, and even Iran. I recently ran a script to see where most of J-List's customers were located. Not surprisingly, the lion's share of J-List customers are in the U.S. and Canada, where Internet connection rates are the highest. England and Australia are also well represented. In Europe, countries with a lot of interest in Japan order from J-List, with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in the lead. In Asia, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong have the front position. We've also got quite a few customers in South America, especially in counties with large Nikkei (Japanese descended) populations.
When foreigners come to Japan, it seems they are always striving for a way to understand the country and put it into some kind of context. Some gaijin who like anime or manga try to see Japan through the eyes of their particular hobby, while others try to view the country through, say, Japanese martial arts. Another way to understand Japan is through its dramas. In the U.S., the "basic" unit of television entertainment is the 30 minute situation comedy, but in Japan, dramas are the most popular form of television, and there are always several running at any given time on Japan's major networks. Featuring famous stars and dramatic romantic situations, each weekly episode of a standard Japanese drama is an hour, and dramas generally run for 15 weeks, building up to a big dramatic finale. The people and places in popular Japanese dramas become cultural symbols that all Japanese recognize -- for example, when Masaru Fukuyama played the character of the kind oldest brother in the drama "Under One Roof," the name of his character became an icon of its own, and he's forever known as "Chii-niichan" because of that role. Japanese dramas are broadcast in many countries in Asia and spottily in the U.S. (if you have access to a Japanese TV channel), or can be rented from Japanese video rental stores if you can't find them any other way. Watching Japanese dramas can provide "hooks" for foreigners wanting to learn more about the country and culture, and they're fun to watch, too.
We'll be going ahead with the checkout system upgrade for the J-List site, which will add the much-requested "express checkout." Once you've checked out with the site once, you'll be able to quickly checkout in the future, and the system will remember your credit card information, too. As always, there's a chance something could break, so if you have a problem ordering from our site, you can always use the secure email form link.
For the weekend update, we've got a big slew of new products for you, including:
We've updated the J-Mate site again, this time with a killer English interview with Sally Yoshino that gives a lot of insight into her as an adult video performer. The site is located at http://www.jmate.com
We had great time at the J-List year-end party last night, drinking dark German-style beer and fruit sours and eating tons of food, including kimchee nabe (meat, tofu and vegetables simmered in a spicy Korean broth), with sushi and octopus salad. Most of the J-List crew don't drink, but Yasu, Chiharu and I managed to get quite hammered. Most Japanese possess a gene that causes their faces to turn bright red when they drink alcohol, by the way, in case you've ever noticed it. Yasu was especially red last night, all over his body, and his wife had to come pick him up.
J-List has been honored to be able to bring a wide range of Japanese pop culture goods to customers around the world for five years now. We've got customers in practically every country in the world, including Luxumbourg, South Africa, and even Iran. I recently ran a script to see where most of J-List's customers were located. Not surprisingly, the lion's share of J-List customers are in the U.S. and Canada, where Internet connection rates are the highest. England and Australia are also well represented. In Europe, countries with a lot of interest in Japan order from J-List, with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in the lead. In Asia, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong have the front position. We've also got quite a few customers in South America, especially in counties with large Nikkei (Japanese descended) populations.
When foreigners come to Japan, it seems they are always striving for a way to understand the country and put it into some kind of context. Some gaijin who like anime or manga try to see Japan through the eyes of their particular hobby, while others try to view the country through, say, Japanese martial arts. Another way to understand Japan is through its dramas. In the U.S., the "basic" unit of television entertainment is the 30 minute situation comedy, but in Japan, dramas are the most popular form of television, and there are always several running at any given time on Japan's major networks. Featuring famous stars and dramatic romantic situations, each weekly episode of a standard Japanese drama is an hour, and dramas generally run for 15 weeks, building up to a big dramatic finale. The people and places in popular Japanese dramas become cultural symbols that all Japanese recognize -- for example, when Masaru Fukuyama played the character of the kind oldest brother in the drama "Under One Roof," the name of his character became an icon of its own, and he's forever known as "Chii-niichan" because of that role. Japanese dramas are broadcast in many countries in Asia and spottily in the U.S. (if you have access to a Japanese TV channel), or can be rented from Japanese video rental stores if you can't find them any other way. Watching Japanese dramas can provide "hooks" for foreigners wanting to learn more about the country and culture, and they're fun to watch, too.
We'll be going ahead with the checkout system upgrade for the J-List site, which will add the much-requested "express checkout." Once you've checked out with the site once, you'll be able to quickly checkout in the future, and the system will remember your credit card information, too. As always, there's a chance something could break, so if you have a problem ordering from our site, you can always use the secure email form link.
For the weekend update, we've got a big slew of new products for you, including:
- First of all, some great new magazines, including the new Video Boy and Best Videos, the two "all purpose adult video magazines" that feature all lovely AV idols from Japan
- For fans of Ami Ayukawa, we have a very cool item, a special magazine dedicated to nothing but this lovely lady, all throughout
- If you like magazines with discs in them, check out the new issue of DVD Wow! we've got in, featuring a full color magazine and 120 minutes of AV for you, on a region free DVD
- For photobook fans, we've got some nice items for you, including a very rare item capturing the lovely nudes of eight lovely Russian models (Russian girls are popular in Japan)
- Also: fresh stock of Strawberry Diary with Honami Seki
- If you love lovely girls and asses, we recommend the dynamite Hip Paradise, featuring the lovely ass and leg photographs of Kaya Asami and Hitomi Ikeno
- For manga fans, we've got a large number of all-new books, including manga from Do Comics, Fujimi Comics and more
- Also, we've posted a bunch of fresh stock of sold-out items, including manga by Yui Toshiki, fresh stock of "Motherhood And Sexuality" and "Sexbeast Fight Vaginass " and more
- Out doujinshi special ends soon, and we've got more doujinshi for you to grab, all new and all in single issues so they'll go fast (so hurry)
- We've got many new video and DVD items for you. From Audaz, enjoy the "Shameful Love" of Rin Tomosaki, who is made to do embarrassing and shameful things on video
- From Moodyz, there's a super special all-lesbian video ("Lesbian Room"), followed by the indies debut of Minami Yoshikawa, a favorite "demure type" AV idol that Tomo and I like
- From Waap, we've got a great "Dream Shower" performance for zamen fans, starring Nana Houshou (known for her beautiful legs), followed by a very erotic new Aika Miura video ("A disguise of actress, her nature of a slut")
- From Soft on Demand, we've got a "reverse fucking" offering with the lovely karate black belt "ball breaker" Erika Nagai, an all-lotion cat-fight video in which girls fight in a pool of lotion in which the losers are raped on-camera, and finally, a super "special edit version" of Nanami Nanase's Fan Thanks Day
- From Wanz Factory, there's a great indies DVD featuring the "super angle of manko" (pussy) of Natsumi Kawahama
- For fans of the lovely Shinobu Kasagi, of White Sexual Desire fame, she's got a new 120 minute bondage DVD, great fun
- There's a dynamite *four hour* erotic cosplay DVD, with lots of anime costume sex, and a DVD dedicated to watching women have sex from behind (doggy style)
- Finally, for fans of the beautiful AV gals, check out Shinobu rei's very lovely Love Juice video
- Also: look for more discounted video items on our discount video page (they ship free)
- For Star Wars fans, we've posted more of the "super deformed" Star Wars talking figures, which speak lines from the movies when you put them on your hand (Stormtrooper and Darth Vader)
- Also on our anime & toy page, we've got fresh stock of the very cool Godzilla 2002 Deluxe Figure, Deluxe Ghidora, Gamera, and the Love Hina SkyLuv Project figure, as well as an excellent new toy figure for Japanese professional wrestling fans, and more
- If you like Hello Kitty, check out the new items we've posted, including Hello Kitty rice bowl, fresh stock of Hello Kitty towel holder, and more
- For our Japanese snack lovers, we've got fresh stock of Morinaga Carmel, a cool brand of carmels that have been around for over 100 years, as well as a totally cute Hamutaro Peanuts and Choco snack that comes with cool Hamutaro characters tags
- We've got new calendars! Well, they're not really "new" per se, but we've freed up some very nice calendars by deleting some old orders that hadn't been paid for -- it's a great second chance to pick up that swimsuit or idol calendar you'd like to have
- Finally, we've got a great way to massage your neck and back, a "pollen and cold mask" which you wear to protect yourself and others from pollen and germs, and more cool New Years' items, including fresh stock of the square "masu" sake cups (you can drink sake out of them, or use them to organize your workspace since they look so cool
We've updated the J-Mate site again, this time with a killer English interview with Sally Yoshino that gives a lot of insight into her as an adult video performer. The site is located at http://www.jmate.com
Wednesday, December 26, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 26, 2001
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Monday, December 24, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 24, 2001
The warmest wishes to everyone for a Merry Christmas from J-List!
It's Christmas Eve in Japan, and to the Japanese, it's a time to have a special dinner that Okaasan (mother) makes. Over the past 20 years, the idea of giving a Christmas present has taken hold (helped along by Toys R Us Japan), and so most Japanese kids can expect a special present from their parents, or maybe their grandparents, too. Presents are also exchanged by young people, and of course boyfriend and girlfriend. Older Japanese, for whom Christmas is an "outside" thing, don't usually give gifts. The other "big event" that is related to Christmas Eve is that it's the #1 night for girls to lose their virginity, and for weeks in advance love hotels are booked solid with couples waiting for this perfect night.
We won't be having a White Christmas on the Kanto Plain this year, but it certainly a cold and windy one. Geographically Japan is a very vertically oriented country, and the farther north you go the colder things get, until you are in "Yuki-guni," or Snow Country, the setting (and title) of the famous novel by Kawabata. Known as the Tohoku region of Japan, the northern part of the main island of Honshu (roughly everything north of Tokyo) is an interesting area, and have hitchhiked up there several times. A cold and lonely area, with few large cities, Tohoku is cursed with a problem many Japanese rural areas face: shrinking populations as young people go to live in larger cities, leaving nothing but old people at home. Tohoku is the birthplace of many singers of "enka," a sad form of traditional Japanese music that corresponds to country music in the U.S. (i.e., truck drivers listen to it). As you travel through Japan, you can see how Japanese architecture changes to reflect the regional climate. In the Tohoku area of Japan, houses are constructed with roofs that are slanted, to keep snow from piling up, and the front doors are extra-insulated to keep the heat in.
First of all, we've done our final price reduction on the 2002 calendars, and most of them are all the way down to $10, which is way below our cost. If you'd like to pick up a couple of these lovely calendars at this price, please help us out, we'd greatly appreciate it. The calendars that are still in stock are mostly the Japanese swimsuit and lovely actress/idol calendars, and some of the girls are really lovely. And you can put these up in your office without getting in trouble ^_^
For this yuletide update, we've got some very nice items for you, including:
Remember that J-List is having a "free shipping sale" on all English-language bishoujo games and doujin CG collections from San Diego. This is a great time to snap up those JAST USA, Himeya Soft, Peach Princess or other titles you've been wanting but don't get for Christmas.
It's Christmas Eve in Japan, and to the Japanese, it's a time to have a special dinner that Okaasan (mother) makes. Over the past 20 years, the idea of giving a Christmas present has taken hold (helped along by Toys R Us Japan), and so most Japanese kids can expect a special present from their parents, or maybe their grandparents, too. Presents are also exchanged by young people, and of course boyfriend and girlfriend. Older Japanese, for whom Christmas is an "outside" thing, don't usually give gifts. The other "big event" that is related to Christmas Eve is that it's the #1 night for girls to lose their virginity, and for weeks in advance love hotels are booked solid with couples waiting for this perfect night.
We won't be having a White Christmas on the Kanto Plain this year, but it certainly a cold and windy one. Geographically Japan is a very vertically oriented country, and the farther north you go the colder things get, until you are in "Yuki-guni," or Snow Country, the setting (and title) of the famous novel by Kawabata. Known as the Tohoku region of Japan, the northern part of the main island of Honshu (roughly everything north of Tokyo) is an interesting area, and have hitchhiked up there several times. A cold and lonely area, with few large cities, Tohoku is cursed with a problem many Japanese rural areas face: shrinking populations as young people go to live in larger cities, leaving nothing but old people at home. Tohoku is the birthplace of many singers of "enka," a sad form of traditional Japanese music that corresponds to country music in the U.S. (i.e., truck drivers listen to it). As you travel through Japan, you can see how Japanese architecture changes to reflect the regional climate. In the Tohoku area of Japan, houses are constructed with roofs that are slanted, to keep snow from piling up, and the front doors are extra-insulated to keep the heat in.
First of all, we've done our final price reduction on the 2002 calendars, and most of them are all the way down to $10, which is way below our cost. If you'd like to pick up a couple of these lovely calendars at this price, please help us out, we'd greatly appreciate it. The calendars that are still in stock are mostly the Japanese swimsuit and lovely actress/idol calendars, and some of the girls are really lovely. And you can put these up in your office without getting in trouble ^_^
For this yuletide update, we've got some very nice items for you, including:
- First, we've got some excellent new magazines for you, including the new Dela Beppin, filled with lovely girls including Maiko Kazano (heart)
- We've got a treat for adult magazine collectors, a cache of older Japanese magazines from 2000, which feature some very popular actresses who are unfortunately retired now, and quite hard to find -- check magazine page 3 for the newly posted and discounted items. Once these sell out, they will be gone for good...
- For fans of erotic nude photography, we have another elegant issue of Photoshot for you, featuring some of the most lovely photographs we've seen in a long time
- Also, we've got fresh stock of several of the Strawberry Diary series by nude photographer Garo Aida
- For fans of hot Japanese AV stars like Anna Ohura, Natsumi Kawahama and more, we present Dynamite Body Sexual Collection, a nice new photobook for you
- We have fresh stock of some previously sold out photobooks, including Weekend Party, Love Target, and many more
- If you're a fan of the very cool erotic manga we carry at J-List, check out the new volumes we've posted
- In addition to the new manga, we've got fresh stock of some sold-out manga, including Lovely Eyes, Rocket Oppai, Stripper Mai and more
- Remember that our Doujinshi sale is still on -- buy 5, get $20 off -- and we've posted some nice new doujinshi
- For fans of J-List's adult DVD, we've got another great selection of new items. From Wanz Factory, we've got an erotic How to Perfect series DVD for fans of the leggy and sexy Kaori Shimizu, followed by a Happy Date with Yuuna Akimoto
- From Moodyz, vol 2 in the very best-selling Dream Gakuen series, featuring an all-star cast including Bunko Kanazawa, Mami Gotoh and more -- over 30 girls in this 190 minute production
- From Soft on Demand, we've got some great new items, including an erotic DVD for fans of "Kissing, oral sex and horse-riding style sex," a graceful and erotic "Zenra Swimming" (featuring an actual semi-pro swimmer swimming gracefully in the water, all photographed with underwater camera), and Vol. 2 of the popular "Anal Torture" 2-in-1 DVD from Deep's
- From Waap, a super erotic Dream Shower video starring one of Yasu's favorite AV idols, Mirai Hoshizaki
- Audaz chimes in with a new "Shameful Love" video starring Aya Otosaki, and a very nice an erotic video and DVD featuring Momo Kawai
- Finally, a bizarre item from Aroma, we present the ultimate"panty line fetish" video that captures beautiful Japanese women walking with tight pants, very nice
- For fans of Miyazaki's animation, we've got a very nice item we'll try to carry more of in the future: color film comics from Miyazaki's movies, which present all animation from the movie in a great format. See vol. 1 & 2 of Nausica and Spirited Away on the English Manga page now (although this manga is in Japanese)
- Since it's Christmas, we've got an extra volley of cool toy items for you. Macross fans should check the restock of the dynamite VF-1A and the limited stock (as in one copy) of the VF-1S "Skull 1" that is just too cool to live
- For serious collectors of My Neighbor Totoro items, we've got some very rare items from the Totoro's Wonder Tin Toy Collection, featuring toys that are made out of tin, in the tradition of the toys of the 1950's
- Our Capcom toy line has sold so well, we've posted stock of the Capcom vs. SNK super deformed figures that are really cute
- For bento fans, we've got fresh stock of two conservative colors of bento boxes, for those who are a little embarrassed to eat out of a cute Hamutaro box
- On our Japanese snacks page, we've got a tasty package of rice crackers and nori, along with fresh stock of two of the most popular Pocky items, Mousse Pocky White and Strawberry (Mmmm...)
- Finally, for those interested in traditional Japanese decorations, see the very nice "Maneki-neko" (Inviting Cat) piggy banks we have in stock, which are associated with good luck and business success in the new year -- it's really cool.
Remember that J-List is having a "free shipping sale" on all English-language bishoujo games and doujin CG collections from San Diego. This is a great time to snap up those JAST USA, Himeya Soft, Peach Princess or other titles you've been wanting but don't get for Christmas.
Saturday, December 22, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 22, 2001
Greetings from Japan, where a hamburger with a bun is a hamburger, but hamburger meat alone is a "hamburg." Consequently, a hot dog with bun is a "frankfurter" but a dog by itself (say, on a stick) is just a "frankfurt."
One of my life's goals has been achieved today -- I have officially received my "eijuuken," or my permanent resident visa for living in Japan. I drove to the administration office for foreigners' visas today and got the stamp in my passport. Since I've lived in Japan almost ten years and am married to a Japanese national and have kids here, it was not that much of a problem for me, but this isn't the case for millions of other foreigners living in Japan, who have a harder time of it than I do. I have a friend who's a major Japanophile and who wants to live in Japan all his life, but because he's single, it's much harder for him to show the authorities why he should be given permanent residence status.
Incidentally, although it's possible for foreigners who get Japanese citizenship (all the Hawaiian sumo wrestlers like Konishiki do it), I wouldn't go to the trouble myself. There are too many little "plusses" when you're a foreigner living in Japan. For one, you get to use an International drivers' license all the time, rather than having to switch to a Japanese license. Since you're not in the computers of the Japanese police, you never get traffic tickets if you get stopped for something.
When you learn a language, there are always some things that are more complex than the language you're coming from. If I were to learn Spanish, for example, I'd have to deal with feminine and masculine nouns, which don't exist in English. In English, we use "wear" or "put on" for just about any kind of object of clothing you could think of, but the Japanese have different words for where you're wearing the item in question. For anything going on your legs or feet (shoes, pants, etc.) the verb for to wear is "haku." For anything you wear around your abdomen, or for dresses, the verb is "kiru" (the "ki" from this verb is part of the word kimono, which really just means "thing that you wear"). Put something on your hands, like a ring or gloves, and you use "suru," and anything worn on the head is "kaburu." Similarly, the Japanese have two concepts for cold, one for cold in the air around you, and another for things that are cold to the touch. If the air around you is cold, you use "samui," but if you're washing dishes in cold water, the words is "tsumetai." Whichever one comes out of your mouth, it's pretty certain to be there wrong one for the situation you're in. Foreigners making mistakes like using the wrong word for cold are "cute" to the Japanese, kind of like Japanese making L/R mistakes (e.g., the Japanese sent us Viagra last December because we couldn't get an election).
We've improved the organization of the DVD pages slightly. Now, all of the non-SOD Indies DVDs (which are almost without exception zoned for region 2) appear in grouped with Japan-release hentai DVDs and other region-2 zoned DVDs together on the new "Indies, Hentai & Region 2" page. This way, those who have region-free players or can view the DVDs on their computer's DVD-ROM drives can find all the region-2 DVDs in one place, and we can get away with a simpler organization.
Speaking of region 2, since it's a fact of life that some DVDs from Japan (adult indies and Japan-released anime and hentai DVDs) are going to have the region encoding, we've made a new DVD Region 2 Help page, incorporating all our links to hacks and informative pages on how to view region 2 DVDs. The simplest solution to to the problem is to buy a region-free DVD player. The model we recommend, the Sampo DVE-611, is a low, low $129 from several online resellers. See our new DVD page for the links.
For the pre-weekend update, we've got some very nice items for you. They include:
J-List carries monthly subscriptions to many Japanese magazines in two categories. First, we've got "timed" subscriptions (6 or 12 months) to magazines like Urecco, Bejean and Gokuh, for which you pay up front but get free issues with your subscriptions. You can get some anime, manga, JPOP, hobby and other magazines sent to you each month from Japan, while they're hot on the newsstands here, via our "reserve subscription" system, which allows you to get each month's magazines sent to you automatically, until you tell us to stop. Tomo and Yasu work hard to bring these magazines to you, and are often driving around Isesaki to bookstores when we don't get enough issues sent to us by our distributors, and we're glad we can make these items available to you.
Some time ago, J-List had a "text-based mailing list" via which we'd sent text versions of updated J-List pages to people who requested to be added to the list. With all the updates to the site over the summer, this list stopped going out, but we've fixed the scripts that were broken, so customers can now once again request the jlist-text list. If you want notification of J-List product including lists of actual products (good for people who can't view the J-List site all the time), and don't mind the long emails, just reply to this and asked to be added to the list.
One of my life's goals has been achieved today -- I have officially received my "eijuuken," or my permanent resident visa for living in Japan. I drove to the administration office for foreigners' visas today and got the stamp in my passport. Since I've lived in Japan almost ten years and am married to a Japanese national and have kids here, it was not that much of a problem for me, but this isn't the case for millions of other foreigners living in Japan, who have a harder time of it than I do. I have a friend who's a major Japanophile and who wants to live in Japan all his life, but because he's single, it's much harder for him to show the authorities why he should be given permanent residence status.
Incidentally, although it's possible for foreigners who get Japanese citizenship (all the Hawaiian sumo wrestlers like Konishiki do it), I wouldn't go to the trouble myself. There are too many little "plusses" when you're a foreigner living in Japan. For one, you get to use an International drivers' license all the time, rather than having to switch to a Japanese license. Since you're not in the computers of the Japanese police, you never get traffic tickets if you get stopped for something.
When you learn a language, there are always some things that are more complex than the language you're coming from. If I were to learn Spanish, for example, I'd have to deal with feminine and masculine nouns, which don't exist in English. In English, we use "wear" or "put on" for just about any kind of object of clothing you could think of, but the Japanese have different words for where you're wearing the item in question. For anything going on your legs or feet (shoes, pants, etc.) the verb for to wear is "haku." For anything you wear around your abdomen, or for dresses, the verb is "kiru" (the "ki" from this verb is part of the word kimono, which really just means "thing that you wear"). Put something on your hands, like a ring or gloves, and you use "suru," and anything worn on the head is "kaburu." Similarly, the Japanese have two concepts for cold, one for cold in the air around you, and another for things that are cold to the touch. If the air around you is cold, you use "samui," but if you're washing dishes in cold water, the words is "tsumetai." Whichever one comes out of your mouth, it's pretty certain to be there wrong one for the situation you're in. Foreigners making mistakes like using the wrong word for cold are "cute" to the Japanese, kind of like Japanese making L/R mistakes (e.g., the Japanese sent us Viagra last December because we couldn't get an election).
We've improved the organization of the DVD pages slightly. Now, all of the non-SOD Indies DVDs (which are almost without exception zoned for region 2) appear in grouped with Japan-release hentai DVDs and other region-2 zoned DVDs together on the new "Indies, Hentai & Region 2" page. This way, those who have region-free players or can view the DVDs on their computer's DVD-ROM drives can find all the region-2 DVDs in one place, and we can get away with a simpler organization.
Speaking of region 2, since it's a fact of life that some DVDs from Japan (adult indies and Japan-released anime and hentai DVDs) are going to have the region encoding, we've made a new DVD Region 2 Help page, incorporating all our links to hacks and informative pages on how to view region 2 DVDs. The simplest solution to to the problem is to buy a region-free DVD player. The model we recommend, the Sampo DVE-611, is a low, low $129 from several online resellers. See our new DVD page for the links.
For the pre-weekend update, we've got some very nice items for you. They include:
- First, the excellent new Bejean, the famous extra-wide adult magazine from Eichi Publishing -- features everyone from Kanabun to Hitomi Hayasaka and more
- We've also got fresh stock of some more discounted magazines, as well as the new issue of the very hardcore "wet" magazine Aishite Ageru (I'll Love You)
- If you dig Japan's outrageous kogals, the girls with questionable moral, we've got a large-format Cho Mach!! for you
- Other photobooks are in stock, including the excellent swimsuit hardcover photobook by Mayumi Uehara, a beautiful new Photoshot with Mai Hagiwara and many other lovely ladies, fresh stock of Mai-chan's "Tennyo" photobook, and more
- For leg lovers, we've got some stock of the sold-out Mini-Suka Deluxe June issue, which features excellent "low angle" photographs
- Also, fresh stock of many formerly out of stock photobooks, including several in the Bishoujo Memorial series, and the long-lost photobook of Bauko Euchi, on the photobooks page
- On our manga page, we've got several excellent new volumes by Tsukasa Comics, Orange Comics and others, as well as fresh stock of the very nice "Heartthrob on a crowded tain"
- We also have some new doujinshi for you, including new works from Ryu-Seki-Do and more
- From Soft on Demand, a bunch of region-free DVDs for you, including two fun productions that make use of their Magic Mirror Bus -- Amateur Bukkake, and the all-new Magic Mirror Reverse Nampa, in which lovely ladies engage in "boy hunting"
- Kurumi Morishita's "Forbidden Privates Garden" was one of the best-selling lesbian titles ever, and now it's out on DVD for fans of this great gal
- Another region-free release, and a super one for swimsuit fetish fans (yes, they think of everything here in Japan), the Swimming Girl series features hot AV idols like the popular Shinobu Kasagi performing in Olympic-grade name-brand swimming suits
- Another interesting performance is Kitora!, an erotic "Sentai" production in the spirit of Kamen Rider and Kikaida, parodying the best Japanese rubber monsters and Power Ranger's style fighting
- On our slightly reorganized adult DVD and video pages, we've got some great new items, including top-notch erotic performances by two classy Japanese actresses, Ayaka Fujisaki and the silky Manami Suzuki, released by Moodyz
- From Wanz Factory, we've got a new super leg fetish production, this time featuring the excellent Kaori Shimizu, followed by Marin Kobayakawa's own "How to Perfect"
- If you like the popular fetish known in Japan as "new half" or "Mr. Lady," we've got a new video for you from GloryQuest
- For the bargain-minded, find many big bargains on the Discount Videos page, which come with free shipping, to boot
- Finally, for anyone who appreciates the beautiful grace of stripper Kaori Shimamura, we've got a nice soft porn DVD for her fans
- For fans of the Kodansha Bilingual Comics, which let you enjoy famous Japanese manga in English and Japanese, we've got Cardcaptor Sakura vol 5 and Love Hina vol 8 in stock
- If you're into Macross, we've got a very cool limited-run die-cast metal recreation of two Valkyrie slips, and it comes in a display case that's to die for
- Two other unique items on the Anime & Toys page are a dynamite Kubrick figure of Tony the Tiger, and the ultimate item for the Seattle Mariners fan, cute little Ichiro action figures!
- For fans of cute things from Japan, especially Hello Kitty (the symbol of "cute" after all), we've got a bunch of new items, including fresh stock of the sold-out Hello Kitty Happiness Bags, Hello Kitty cake mix (make a kitty-cake in just 1.5 minutes), Hello Kitty mayonnaise cups, Hello kitty chopsticks, Hello kitty cupcake papers, and of course fresh stock of our trademark Hello Kitty toilet paper
- Since cute Japanese hamsters are fast becoming their own category of item, we've got more Hamster Club bento boxes, fork and spoon sets, a new Hamster lollipop + hard candy item, and more Hamutaro Gum (not hamster-flavored, as far as I know)
- We've got more wacky signs for you, including fresh stock of wacky "Emegency Exit" sign plates that come complete with tape for mounting
- On our Japanese snacks & food page, enjoy a tasty new set of miso soup, with bits of fried tofu in them (tastes great, even if it doesn't sound so good in English), as well as fresh stock of the sold-out March of the Koalas chocolate-filled koala cookies
- Finally, new items on our "traditional" things from Japan page include some nice chopsticks that are easy for foreigners to eat with, some onsen (hot springs) bath powder for your bath, and more.
J-List carries monthly subscriptions to many Japanese magazines in two categories. First, we've got "timed" subscriptions (6 or 12 months) to magazines like Urecco, Bejean and Gokuh, for which you pay up front but get free issues with your subscriptions. You can get some anime, manga, JPOP, hobby and other magazines sent to you each month from Japan, while they're hot on the newsstands here, via our "reserve subscription" system, which allows you to get each month's magazines sent to you automatically, until you tell us to stop. Tomo and Yasu work hard to bring these magazines to you, and are often driving around Isesaki to bookstores when we don't get enough issues sent to us by our distributors, and we're glad we can make these items available to you.
Some time ago, J-List had a "text-based mailing list" via which we'd sent text versions of updated J-List pages to people who requested to be added to the list. With all the updates to the site over the summer, this list stopped going out, but we've fixed the scripts that were broken, so customers can now once again request the jlist-text list. If you want notification of J-List product including lists of actual products (good for people who can't view the J-List site all the time), and don't mind the long emails, just reply to this and asked to be added to the list.
Wednesday, December 19, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 19, 2001
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Monday, December 17, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 17, 2001
Hello again from Japan!
When is the color blue really green? When you're in Japan. For some reason that we're not able to fathom at all, the color green is often called "blue" ("ao" or "aoi") in Japanese. When foreigners come to Japan, they learn that the color green is "midori," but when you see a green traffic light, Japanese universally describe he light as "ao" (blue). If you go to Aomori Prefecture, don't look for a "blue forest" because there isn't one, but there are plenty of green forests. When they buy fresh vegetables, Japanese say they want to find the ones that are "ichiban aoi" (the most blue). Why is this? Tomo thinks that it's because a long time ago, there was another kanji that described the color green, but it unfortunately had the same reading (pronunciation) as the normal character for blue, "ao." Through some mechanism that is beyond my comprehension, certain objects (the green of a traffic signal, the green of a leaf on a tree) are described as "ao" (which means blue today), while the actual color green is "midori." Like bowing to a vending machine that has just verbally thanked you for making a purchase, it's all part of the wackiness of living in Japan.
There's an unfortunate phenomenon that affects all Japanese who use computers or "waapro" (word processors) at work: they lost almost all ability to write Kanji, Chinese characters. With the steady acceptance of computers into Japanese life, many people use keyboards all day long, and as a result, almost never actually write characters by hand. Because kanji is a very structured system, not writing it for long periods of time really makes you forget how to write (although reading ability is retained). I imagine this happens not only with Japanese, but with all cultures that use kanji. Sadly, I am affected by this as well, as I almost never hand-write Japanese anymore, and it's shocking when I go to write an elementary character but can't bring it up in my mind.
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, while in college in the 80's, and wondering why they always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, though, it's believed that you can tell a lot about a person's personality and character traits from his blood type. Type A people are neat, tidy, and plan things meticulously, almost to a fault. Type B are "going my way" (as the Japanese say), meaning that they do their own thing without worrying about the eyes of others, and don't plan things out in advance. They can be messy, and tend to act on impulse (I am B, and my wife is always commenting on why do some things I do based on my blood type). Type O people have a private world inside their minds, supposedly, and they're quick to become passionate about something, but then change to something else just as easily. Type O people are the ability to lead others. Finally, AB have "two faces," one that they make in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. Like the various beliefs (myths) that are related to Buddhism (such as, you're not supposed to sleep with your pillow pointing north, as this is reserved for the dead before cremation), the Japanese blood type beliefs are hard to get used to at first, but when you live here long enough, you start thinking there might be something to them after all...
We thank all customers who have helped make the 2002 Calendar Season such a big success. We've still got almost 100 2002 wall calendars in stock, almost all in the "attractive swimsuit model or actress" category (although we have quite a few of the Bondage Nude and airbrush tattoo erotica calendars too). If you can find it in your heart to take a calendar or two off our hands, we'd appreciated (and we've reduced prices yet again!) Also of note are the Ryoko Hirosue and Norika Fujiwara desktop calendar/diaries that are very cool.
For the new update to the J-List page, we've got another great volley of products for you, including:
Bewildered at Bishoujo? Confused about Kogal? Head hurting over Hentai? If you're confused at some of the terms used on the J-List site and this updates list (which can be quite out there, we admit), be sure to check out our online J-List Glossary of Terms -- the link is on our site, right below the product category listing on the left side of your browser window. We explain all confusing terms from Anime to Tekoki and more. If there are any terms we haven't covered adequately, please let us know.
When is the color blue really green? When you're in Japan. For some reason that we're not able to fathom at all, the color green is often called "blue" ("ao" or "aoi") in Japanese. When foreigners come to Japan, they learn that the color green is "midori," but when you see a green traffic light, Japanese universally describe he light as "ao" (blue). If you go to Aomori Prefecture, don't look for a "blue forest" because there isn't one, but there are plenty of green forests. When they buy fresh vegetables, Japanese say they want to find the ones that are "ichiban aoi" (the most blue). Why is this? Tomo thinks that it's because a long time ago, there was another kanji that described the color green, but it unfortunately had the same reading (pronunciation) as the normal character for blue, "ao." Through some mechanism that is beyond my comprehension, certain objects (the green of a traffic signal, the green of a leaf on a tree) are described as "ao" (which means blue today), while the actual color green is "midori." Like bowing to a vending machine that has just verbally thanked you for making a purchase, it's all part of the wackiness of living in Japan.
There's an unfortunate phenomenon that affects all Japanese who use computers or "waapro" (word processors) at work: they lost almost all ability to write Kanji, Chinese characters. With the steady acceptance of computers into Japanese life, many people use keyboards all day long, and as a result, almost never actually write characters by hand. Because kanji is a very structured system, not writing it for long periods of time really makes you forget how to write (although reading ability is retained). I imagine this happens not only with Japanese, but with all cultures that use kanji. Sadly, I am affected by this as well, as I almost never hand-write Japanese anymore, and it's shocking when I go to write an elementary character but can't bring it up in my mind.
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, while in college in the 80's, and wondering why they always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, though, it's believed that you can tell a lot about a person's personality and character traits from his blood type. Type A people are neat, tidy, and plan things meticulously, almost to a fault. Type B are "going my way" (as the Japanese say), meaning that they do their own thing without worrying about the eyes of others, and don't plan things out in advance. They can be messy, and tend to act on impulse (I am B, and my wife is always commenting on why do some things I do based on my blood type). Type O people have a private world inside their minds, supposedly, and they're quick to become passionate about something, but then change to something else just as easily. Type O people are the ability to lead others. Finally, AB have "two faces," one that they make in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. Like the various beliefs (myths) that are related to Buddhism (such as, you're not supposed to sleep with your pillow pointing north, as this is reserved for the dead before cremation), the Japanese blood type beliefs are hard to get used to at first, but when you live here long enough, you start thinking there might be something to them after all...
We thank all customers who have helped make the 2002 Calendar Season such a big success. We've still got almost 100 2002 wall calendars in stock, almost all in the "attractive swimsuit model or actress" category (although we have quite a few of the Bondage Nude and airbrush tattoo erotica calendars too). If you can find it in your heart to take a calendar or two off our hands, we'd appreciated (and we've reduced prices yet again!) Also of note are the Ryoko Hirosue and Norika Fujiwara desktop calendar/diaries that are very cool.
For the new update to the J-List page, we've got another great volley of products for you, including:
- For fans of high-quality Japanese magazines, find the new issues of Urecco (featuring Hitomi Hasegawa, Rio Sannomiya and many more), as well as another old favorite, the lovely Cream
- We have added more bargain magazines to magazine page 3, for the thrifty-minded out there
- If you dig video CDs with your magazines, see the new Amateur Hamedori Paradise, featuring some lovely footage on two VCDs that you can play on your computer or most DVD players
- For fans of Japan's bishoujo (hentai) games, we've posted some backissues of the popular Push!! (which features a CD-ROM, so really get a great value)
- For lovers of Japanese hardcover photobooks, we've got a huge update for you, with many new hardcover photobooks as well as fresh stock of some items we've sold out of -- all at reduced prices, too
- Japanese have many interesting sexual themes in their adult products, and one of them is rape-play. For fans of these themes, see the fresh stock of K.O. we've posted
- Japan's hentai manga have become famous all over the world, and no matter how many we keep in stock, J-List customers tell us they'd like to see more. So we've got a very nice volley of new erotic manga, as well as many back in stock items for you
- For yaoi lovers, see a new issue of Double, the "Danger & Desire Comic" too
- If you love doujinshi, we've added more for you, including some very cool works by Ryu-seki-do that are new to J-List
- Our new dedication to bringing you really cool AV from Japan's top independent AV studios continues, and we've got another big update for you today. From Soft on Demand, find an excellent performance by Kurumi Morishita, a super "coupling" of two Idol Zamen bukkake performances onto one DVD, and Airi Kago performing "reverse fucking"
- From Wanz Factory, we've got a tremendously good leg fetish DVD from Mirai Hoshizaki, a chance for you go to on a "happy date" with Ai Nagase, and the very lovely Honey Morimura being made to do shameful things
- Moodyz is another very bold company, which J-list customers have requested for many months. Newly in stock is an amazing 2-video production (180 minutes) in which four lovely AV girls go to Los Angles to perform with gaijin (two black guys, two white guys and a white woman) -- very interesting!
- Also from Moodyz, a super all-new performance featuring the lovely Madoka Ozawa, out of retirement and acting again
- Waap has many nice productions, and for Waap fans, we've got a great Dream Shower starring one of my favorite actresses, Lum Nagase, followed by a super "busty lesbian orgy" offering
- From Aroma, a great live-action "cat girl fuck" with "Hello Kichi"
- Finally, in a new addition to our lonely "Indies videos (other)" page (where we'll feature productions from companies that are smaller, but still make fantastic products), see one of the hottest Kyoka Usami videos we've ever seen
- Finally for DVD customers, look on DVD page 2 ($35 and under DVDs) for some extra cheap and discounted items from Tomo
- We have many neat new toy items here at J-List. First, we've got some very cool "blank" Kubrick toys, which you can detail yourself. Gundam fans will enjoy the very cool RX-78-NT1 Gundam from Gundam 0080. And for gamers, we've got some very cool and very rare Capcom game girl figures
- Also: fresh stock of the Godzilla 2002 figure (the large one) and the "super deformed" Chewbacca
- We've got some cute metallic Hamster Club stickers, for those who find themselves doodling little anime hamsters (we warn you that this show might be the next Pokemon, if they decide to bring it to the U.S.) as well as Hamutaro and Pokemon gum (with cool stickers inside)
- We love the interest J-List customers are taking in Japanese New Years' customs, and so we've added some more cool traditional Japanese items, including a square Japanese "masu" cup for drinking sake in the New Year, and some Japanese envelopes for giving New Year's money gifts to young ones
- On our popular Japanese snacks and gum pages, we've got more super-sour Shigekix and fresh stock of "Ramune" Hi-Chew Kids
- We have a new funny Japanese sign plate in stock, in case you want to decorate your room with funny Japanse signs
- Also: new designs of Hello Kitty
- An item I've wanted to carry for a long time, the Japanese "green leaf mark" (aoba mark) which drivers who have just gotten their drivers' licenses here must put on their car
- J-List is fast becoming a major provider of Bento boxes and related items to the world, and we've got fresh stock of some of our most popular items for you
- Finally, see a nifty leopard-skin scarf to help you keep warm in the winter, more excellent Japanese warming pads (which will keep you warm in the winter), new Japanese study cards to help you learn Japanese, and more!
Bewildered at Bishoujo? Confused about Kogal? Head hurting over Hentai? If you're confused at some of the terms used on the J-List site and this updates list (which can be quite out there, we admit), be sure to check out our online J-List Glossary of Terms -- the link is on our site, right below the product category listing on the left side of your browser window. We explain all confusing terms from Anime to Tekoki and more. If there are any terms we haven't covered adequately, please let us know.
Saturday, December 15, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 15, 2001
Hello from Japan on a very windy Saturday!
The terrorist attacks have changed many things, and one area that's been affected is the tourist industry in Hawaii, which has seen a massive reduction in the numbers of Japanese tourists in the past three months. My wife receives many emails from travel agencies trying to get Japanese to start buying airline tickets again, and some of the fares are ridiculously low (I could literally fly from Tokyo to Los Angeles for less than it costs to go from Los Angeles to Monterey). Seeing this reaction by Japanese, who have also stopped going to the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa (oo, lots of terrorists there!) caused my Japanese wife to shout "Baka nihonjin!" (What stupid Japanese). The prospect of being able to go to Hawaii cheaply and not be surrounded by millions of Japanese tourists has my wife and I thinking of taking a trip soon. It's the patriotic thing to do, after all.
Last December 10 was the anniversary of the day my father passed away, which is his "mei-nichi" (or life-day) in Japanese. I've lived in Japan for nine years now, and much of the country has rubbed off on me, so much that I even start talking like a Japanese person sometimes when I'm not careful (ha-ha). But partially through my wife Chiharu, I've learned a lot about Japan's version of Buddhism and how the Japanese feel about death.
Japanese Buddhism differs from the "fasting, self-denial and enlightenment" Buddhism found in other Asian countries, in that it's really about remembering (some would say worshipping) one's ancestors. "If it weren't for your parents, and your parents' parents, you wouldn't be here," she has said tome. When foreigners come here, one of the most common first impressions they have is that "everything's about death." You're not supposed to stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice, because this is done only in connection with funerals (offering a last bowl of rice to the departed). You're never supposed to hand food from chopsticks to chopsticks because it resembles the large tongs used to remove the bones after someone is cremated. And you're not supposed to give gifts in sets of four, as the number four in Japanese is "shi" which also means "death" (thus, gift sets you buy in stores tend to have 5 of each item, not 4).
There are many customs that are connected with death in Japan, but boiled down to its core, it's about remembering those who have gone before us so that they will know they are loved and remembered. In a way, I think it gives peace to the living, who know that if they remember those who have died, they themselves will be remembered when it is their turn. (If you're curious about the life of my father, Peter R. Payne Sr., please see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/graeme/prpayne.htm).
For the update to the site for this weekend, we've got another great volley of new products for you, including:
Have you heard J-List's ad on the radio? During the past few months we've been sponsoring an independent anime radio show on WHFC, which is heard in parts of Baltimore, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne's counties in Maryland and Pennsylvania. If you heard about J-List through the radio spots, please let us know. Also, we've started running an ad in Animerica. If you first saw J-List because of these ads, we'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!
The terrorist attacks have changed many things, and one area that's been affected is the tourist industry in Hawaii, which has seen a massive reduction in the numbers of Japanese tourists in the past three months. My wife receives many emails from travel agencies trying to get Japanese to start buying airline tickets again, and some of the fares are ridiculously low (I could literally fly from Tokyo to Los Angeles for less than it costs to go from Los Angeles to Monterey). Seeing this reaction by Japanese, who have also stopped going to the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa (oo, lots of terrorists there!) caused my Japanese wife to shout "Baka nihonjin!" (What stupid Japanese). The prospect of being able to go to Hawaii cheaply and not be surrounded by millions of Japanese tourists has my wife and I thinking of taking a trip soon. It's the patriotic thing to do, after all.
Last December 10 was the anniversary of the day my father passed away, which is his "mei-nichi" (or life-day) in Japanese. I've lived in Japan for nine years now, and much of the country has rubbed off on me, so much that I even start talking like a Japanese person sometimes when I'm not careful (ha-ha). But partially through my wife Chiharu, I've learned a lot about Japan's version of Buddhism and how the Japanese feel about death.
Japanese Buddhism differs from the "fasting, self-denial and enlightenment" Buddhism found in other Asian countries, in that it's really about remembering (some would say worshipping) one's ancestors. "If it weren't for your parents, and your parents' parents, you wouldn't be here," she has said tome. When foreigners come here, one of the most common first impressions they have is that "everything's about death." You're not supposed to stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice, because this is done only in connection with funerals (offering a last bowl of rice to the departed). You're never supposed to hand food from chopsticks to chopsticks because it resembles the large tongs used to remove the bones after someone is cremated. And you're not supposed to give gifts in sets of four, as the number four in Japanese is "shi" which also means "death" (thus, gift sets you buy in stores tend to have 5 of each item, not 4).
There are many customs that are connected with death in Japan, but boiled down to its core, it's about remembering those who have gone before us so that they will know they are loved and remembered. In a way, I think it gives peace to the living, who know that if they remember those who have died, they themselves will be remembered when it is their turn. (If you're curious about the life of my father, Peter R. Payne Sr., please see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/graeme/prpayne.htm).
For the update to the site for this weekend, we've got another great volley of new products for you, including:
- First, we've got the new issue of Gokuh in, and it's a very nice one, featuring some of the most popular girls at J-List, like Ai Kurosawa and Hitomi Hasegawa and more
- For fans of Japan's popular bishoujo (aka "hentai") games, we have the new issue of the popular Push!!, which features a CD-ROM filled with sample images, wallpapers, sound files and demos
- We've added fresh stock of very nicely-priced magazines, on magazines page 3, for bargain-hunters
- Another item that's great for value-minded customers is the DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog, a magazine that gives you 2 video CDs with 2 hours of fun sampler AV footage for a great price
- For photobook lovers, we've got the new Tennyo, this time featuring the lovely Koharu Tohno with lots of excellent photos taken on Father Island in Thailand, as well as fresh stock of the Emily Yoshikawa photobook that sold out so quickly
- For bondage lovers, check out the Crime of Bondage DVD & magazine set, which features a region free DVD with 2 hours of great material
- We've got some great hentai manga for you, including new releases from Mujin Comics, Toen Comics and the hentai illustrator Wataru Watanabe, as well as a major restock of titles like Blue Eyes, Fetish Doll,
- For yaoi fans, we've got a nice new "non stop lover boys comic" for you
- For doujinshi lovers, we've got a positively killer new *all color* Street Fighter II hentai work, that's just beautiful -- why not buy 5 doujinshi, and get $4 off each one (for a total of $20)?
- The response to our new selection of Japanese indies videos and DVDs has been excellent, so we've got some more for you, from the new companies we're carrying as well as SOD
- From Moodyz, we've got the dynamite Dream Gakuen, an erotic tale of sex and private lessons (140 minutes!), and also the very interesting Black Semen, in which Kurumi Aoyama performs with dozens of black men
- From the excellent Audaz, enjoy performances by the lovely Yuna Miyazawa, who is made to do embarrassing things on camera, and a very erotic production starring the erotic and grown-up Natsumi Kawahama (video and DVD available)
- From Waap Entertainment, we have a killer "chijo" (slut) performance by the stylish Akira Watase, and an all-new Dream Shower performance by the famous Aika Miura
- From Wanz Factory, we have some excellent new products for you, including a very nice cosplay by Bunko Kanazawa, Ai Nagase's excellent "How to Perfect," Kyoka Usami's "Special AV training" and a new "Be Covered Shameful Lady" title
- The Aroma adult videos were among the most poplar added last time, and we've got a new one from this rare AV studio, a nice item for fans of "new half" (she-male) sexual themes
- From Soft on Demand, we have an incredibly bold White Sexual Desire bukkake offering, in which the lovely Shinobu Kasagi takes 112 loads of sperm willingly
- Also, positively wonderful new releases from Anna Ohura ("Maxumim Bust") and the lovely new up-and-coming Aya Otosaki both on video (see "Adult Videos (Pro)")
- Japan is experiencing hamster-mania right now, as the most popular kids show is Tottoko Hamutaro, about a cute little hamster and his friends. We've got new hamster items for you, including Hamutaro ochazuke (delicious food you eat over rice), Hamster Club chopsticks, and on our snacks page, delicious gummi Hamutaro!
- Our Japanese New Year's decorations sold out so fast, we got fresh stock of several items for you, as well as some nice new good luck decorations that promote traffic safety. Also in stock are some really cool authentic New Years' cards (nengajo)!
- We've restocked several of our bento-related items, including cute little cutters to make sausages look like penguins, tulips and crabs
- Our Japanese headbands (hachimaki) sell so well, we've restocked several of them, including "Nippon Ichi" ("The best in all Japan")
- See fresh stock of many of our popular "wacky" things from Japan, including sushi and onigiri makers, funny soy sauce holders, more stock of Japanese resume forms, Hello Kitty cookies (they're really good), the stylish coffee dripper, and our super Tofu Saver refrigeration box
- Finally, in Japan around the end of the year, department stores make "happiness bags" (fukubukuro) which have random things inside -- clothes, jewelry, various fun things. In this tradition, Mayumi has put together some very nice Hello Kitty "happiness bags" with various fun (and useful) things inside. Plus, the bag is very useful and cute, too!
Have you heard J-List's ad on the radio? During the past few months we've been sponsoring an independent anime radio show on WHFC, which is heard in parts of Baltimore, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne's counties in Maryland and Pennsylvania. If you heard about J-List through the radio spots, please let us know. Also, we've started running an ad in Animerica. If you first saw J-List because of these ads, we'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!
Thursday, December 13, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 13, 2001
Greetings from a very busy J-List!
When you're a foreigner living in Japan, it's always nice to have familiar things around you. With a great job like J-List that allows me to have fun all day and go to home several times a year, I consider myself the luckiest gaijin in Japan. Because I get to home to San Diego so often, there's never a shortage of American shaving cream, breakfast cereal and Listerine at my house. Foreigners who don't get to go home as often can go to one of the many supermarkets that stock food from foreign countries, if you live in or near a city like Tokyo or Kobe, but if you're in a rural area like Gunma Prefecture, the most popular way to get familiar food is the Foreign Buyers' Club, a company started by an American family that will get you anything you want from the States, from bagels to taco shells to granola -- the only catch is that you must buy it in supermarket cases, which usually means 12 boxes of cereal, 6 huge containers of dill pickles, and so on. The URL, if you want to see their site, is http://www.fbcusa.com/public2/index.php3
One of the first things foreigners notice when they come to Japan is that all food seems to be wrapped extremely well -- far too well, some might argue. Kaori brought in some Oreos to work, and I was surprised that they were individually wrapped with color-printed foil wrapping. Pick up a Kit Kat bar, and you'll find there's another wrapping of airtight wax paper around the snack, that's not there in Kit Kats sold in the U.S. It works the other way, however, and Japanese are sometimes surprised how flimsy American packaging can be. When Kaori opened the Kraft macaroni and cheese which we ordered from the Foreign Buyers' Club, she was surprised that the macaroni was right there, inside the box, without a second airtight bag inside.
Today's the day we're going live with our huge selection of Japanese indies videos and DVDs by famous indies houses like Wanz Factory, Waap, Moodyz and Audaz. Thanks to strong customer demand and the hard work of Tomo, we've been able to obtain distribution relationships with some of Japan's best erotic AV studios, whose products are almost never available to customers living outside of Japan. Over the past half-decade there's been a massive boom of indies AV in Japan, spearheaded by companies like SOD and others, and it has split the adult video world into two groups: the "pro" video houses like Kuki, Alice Japan and Uchu Kikaku, whose products are checked by the Video Morality Association (Bideo Rinri Kyoukai), versus the independent AV studios, whose products are not checked by the VMA but are "self-checked" instead. As a rule you can expect much harder hardcore, much finer mosaics, and visible pubic hair and more. Each indies studio has a slightly different style, and so we've made separate product categories for each group. You can browse all the indies videos and DVDs viewing the "View all Indies" category.
We've got a small bug in our site, which causes the "show cart" link to show the main page instead or showing you your current shopping cart contents. We're on it, but in the meantime you can still check out normally (just add an item to your cart and then checkout from there). The new checkout script, which will have a very cool "express checkout" for making purchases fast, will be ready soon.
For this very special update, we've got a huge selection of new products for you, including:
In our ongoing efforts to improve your shopping experience at J-List, we've added a new feature to our system: an automated mail that we'll send to you when your order ships from Japan. This will let you know when you order is safely on its way to you. If you're ordering products from Japan via EMS, this system will automatically let you the EMS number so you can track your package online. Thanks for all the feedback on the J-List site and how it can be improved (and please keep it coming).
When you're a foreigner living in Japan, it's always nice to have familiar things around you. With a great job like J-List that allows me to have fun all day and go to home several times a year, I consider myself the luckiest gaijin in Japan. Because I get to home to San Diego so often, there's never a shortage of American shaving cream, breakfast cereal and Listerine at my house. Foreigners who don't get to go home as often can go to one of the many supermarkets that stock food from foreign countries, if you live in or near a city like Tokyo or Kobe, but if you're in a rural area like Gunma Prefecture, the most popular way to get familiar food is the Foreign Buyers' Club, a company started by an American family that will get you anything you want from the States, from bagels to taco shells to granola -- the only catch is that you must buy it in supermarket cases, which usually means 12 boxes of cereal, 6 huge containers of dill pickles, and so on. The URL, if you want to see their site, is http://www.fbcusa.com/public2/index.php3
One of the first things foreigners notice when they come to Japan is that all food seems to be wrapped extremely well -- far too well, some might argue. Kaori brought in some Oreos to work, and I was surprised that they were individually wrapped with color-printed foil wrapping. Pick up a Kit Kat bar, and you'll find there's another wrapping of airtight wax paper around the snack, that's not there in Kit Kats sold in the U.S. It works the other way, however, and Japanese are sometimes surprised how flimsy American packaging can be. When Kaori opened the Kraft macaroni and cheese which we ordered from the Foreign Buyers' Club, she was surprised that the macaroni was right there, inside the box, without a second airtight bag inside.
Today's the day we're going live with our huge selection of Japanese indies videos and DVDs by famous indies houses like Wanz Factory, Waap, Moodyz and Audaz. Thanks to strong customer demand and the hard work of Tomo, we've been able to obtain distribution relationships with some of Japan's best erotic AV studios, whose products are almost never available to customers living outside of Japan. Over the past half-decade there's been a massive boom of indies AV in Japan, spearheaded by companies like SOD and others, and it has split the adult video world into two groups: the "pro" video houses like Kuki, Alice Japan and Uchu Kikaku, whose products are checked by the Video Morality Association (Bideo Rinri Kyoukai), versus the independent AV studios, whose products are not checked by the VMA but are "self-checked" instead. As a rule you can expect much harder hardcore, much finer mosaics, and visible pubic hair and more. Each indies studio has a slightly different style, and so we've made separate product categories for each group. You can browse all the indies videos and DVDs viewing the "View all Indies" category.
We've got a small bug in our site, which causes the "show cart" link to show the main page instead or showing you your current shopping cart contents. We're on it, but in the meantime you can still check out normally (just add an item to your cart and then checkout from there). The new checkout script, which will have a very cool "express checkout" for making purchases fast, will be ready soon.
For this very special update, we've got a huge selection of new products for you, including:
- First, we've got new magazines posted, including (yes!) more of our popular $5-$6 magazines. Also among the reposted magazines are many "long lost" issues of Urecco that had sold out (but were really sleeping in our stock room)
- For fans of photobooks we have fresh stock of the excellent lesbian Flowers photobook, as well as a nice item featuring Eriko Satoh
- If you love Japan's famous leg, stocking and mini-skirt fetish material, look for more photobooks and other items on the leg fetish photobooks page
- For lovers of Japan's very specialized hardcore bondage photography, we highly recommend the new issue of The Most Obscene Slave, featuring 16 different models and some of the most amazing bondage and medical fetish pictures we've seen
- For fans of Japan's hentai manga, we've got a fresh update for you, with new adult comic works by Watanabe Wataru and many others, as well as fresh stock of the very popular "Nationally Treasured Breast Girl Chami"
- For fans of hentai doujinshi themes that parody existing anime and video game characters like Street Fighter II, see the new Electric Fighting Daughter vol 13
- Speaking of doujinshi, we've got some dynamite items for you from Saigado and others, but our stock is limited, so snap it up while you can -- of course our big manga sale is still on, too (save up to $4 per doujinshi you get)
- For our first massive update of Japanese indies products, we've got a huge ton of stuff for you. First, from Moodyz, we've got a positively dynamite VHS (DVD region 2 also available) starring four lovely ladies -- Bunko Kanazawa, Aika Miura, Manami Suzuki and Junko Asamiya, with 200 minutes of superior hardcore action
- From the excellent AV studio Wanz Factory, we have stock of many DVD region 2 titles (VHS are also available), including their How to Perfect series (Kanabun, Yuuna Akimoto, Maria Yumeno), Be Covered Shameful Lady (Sayaka Ijiri), AV Special Training (Yuuna Akimoto), Happy Date (the lovely Lum Nagase), and Leg Fetish World (Fuuka Sakurai as a sexy and leggy OL)
- Also from Wanz Factory, the first erotic video performed and directed by Aika Miura (very nice!), a totally new production of course
- The very eccentric and zany indies maker Aroma, who publishes only on VHS as a matter of company policy, has three very interesting titles: Ticklish Boxing Woman, Dick Girl (girls with strap-on dildos who pretend they're men), and Hard Nipples Collection (for men fascinated by what nipples look like as they get hard)
- One of the best-selling Kanabun DVDs of all tie is Go go! Kanabun Land, extra-cool for J-List customers as it's subtitled in English -- it's been re-released at a lower price so you can enjoy this great title!
- Just because we're carrying non-SOD indies titles now, doesn't mean SOD's going to go down without a fight -- see Anal Torture (a 2-in-1) and a dynamite new Do Lesbian! release (both are region-free DVD)
- More than a year ago, J-List carried some Japanese "loose socks" (the baggy socks that look so cool on Japanese high school girls). They didn't turn out to be very good, so we stopped carrying them. Now we're happy to announce that we've got two different sizes of truly deluxe and authentic Japanse loose socks (80 cm and 120 cm lengths), just for you!
- We've had some excellent last-minute additions to the calendar pages, including high-quality desktop calendars for Ryoko Hirosue and Norika Fujiwara, as well as a Morning Musume CD-ROM calendar for Windows -- and of course, we've lowered prices on another huge group of calendars to get the rest of our stock out (we've still got over 75 calendars though)
- For fans of Kodansha's bilingual comics series, which gives you authentic Japanese manga with both English and Japanese, right on the page, we present the fantastic Tale of Genji English-translated manga for you, from Kodansha
- New and restocked "cute" items at J-List include fresh stock of Picky's Bear cute Japanese bento boxes, more Hello Kitty color printed lunch bags, Hello Kitty small containers (you can put everything from mayonnaise to contact lenses in there), and more
- For fans of our popular and well-stocked Japanese snacks page, we've got fresh stock of both Blue and Black Toppo (a crunchy pretzel stick filled with chocolate or almond, very tasty), as well as fresh stock of the long-selling Sake Candy and Strawberry Milk Candy
- For those studying Japanese, or for fans of Japanese stationary with funny English on it, enjoy the new Japanese notebooks, Japanese study cards, and Japanese traditional report paper (genko-yoshi)
- Like our patented Japanese headbands? We've got fresh stock of our most popular headband ever, "Watashi wa H" (I'm a pervert), as well as the old stand-by, "Certain Victory"
- Finally, from a category I've loved ever since I was a child, we've now got some extra cool new soft vinyl toys of Godzilla, King Ghidora, Gamera and Godzilla (the "meltdown" version that's very cool).
In our ongoing efforts to improve your shopping experience at J-List, we've added a new feature to our system: an automated mail that we'll send to you when your order ships from Japan. This will let you know when you order is safely on its way to you. If you're ordering products from Japan via EMS, this system will automatically let you the EMS number so you can track your package online. Thanks for all the feedback on the J-List site and how it can be improved (and please keep it coming).
Monday, December 10, 2001
Greetings from J-List December 10, 2001
Hello again from Japan, where the opposite of "red" is "white."
Christmas is approaching fast, and Japan is getting ready for the holiday in traditional Japanese style. Christmas is a nice, warm time in Japan, but to be honest, foreigners living here get frustrated with how superficial everything can seem. It's a time of plastic battery-operated Santas that are made in Japan, and of Christmas parties, and foreigners living in Japan are apt to be asked to don "Santa wear" (a Santa Claus suit) and play Santa for Japanese kids -- I've done this a half-dozen times at least. Christmas is never an easy time to be away from home, and gaijin living in Japan are apt to be extra sensitive and homesick around this time of the year.
Much more important to the Japanese than Christmas is New Year's Day, which is a quiet, solemn event for most Japanese -- first of all, you clean your house from top to bottom, so you can start the new year off right, and replace the toothbrushes with new ones. You decorate your house with kadomatsu (decorations made of bamboo and pine, which we happen to have for sale on the J-List site today by happy chance). At night on December 31st, you put your legs in the kotatsu and watch Kohaku ("Red-White"), a 3 hour TV special featuring everyone who's anyone in the Japanese music world, and eat toshi-koshi soba ("cross into the near year" noodles), which are supposed to make you live a long time. In the U.S., Christmas is a solemn event, and New Year's Eve is time for loud parties, but in Japan, that's reversed. I imagine that Japanese living in the U.S. are extra lonely around the new year because the customs are so different.
The J-List site was down for a couple of hours on Sunday, for upgrades to the server. Sorry if you were affected by the problem. Things seem to be running smoothly on the server now. Meanwhile, on the mail sever front, several customers did get multiple copies of our December 6 mailing. We're working on the problem now and hope this mail doesn't reach anyone multiple times.
Our efforts to get our stock of calendars down continue, and we've lowered prices yet again, to almost ridiculous levels. Also, because it's hard to choose a calendar with a small scan from a thumbnail, we've opened all the calendars and taken pictures of some of the pages inside, so you can see more clearly how beautiful the pictures inside are. We've still got over 100 anime, JPOP, swimsuit idol, race queen and nude Japanese calendars. In addition to the reduced prices, get free tubes if you buy 2 or more.
For the first update of the new week, we've got some extra nice items for you, including:
By the way, remember that J-List has a price-matching policy. If you see the same item we sell at another site (as long as they're based in Japan, as we are), we'll meet or beat any price of theirs. When requesting a price match, please us the comments field of our order form, and provide the URL -- thanks!
Christmas is approaching fast, and Japan is getting ready for the holiday in traditional Japanese style. Christmas is a nice, warm time in Japan, but to be honest, foreigners living here get frustrated with how superficial everything can seem. It's a time of plastic battery-operated Santas that are made in Japan, and of Christmas parties, and foreigners living in Japan are apt to be asked to don "Santa wear" (a Santa Claus suit) and play Santa for Japanese kids -- I've done this a half-dozen times at least. Christmas is never an easy time to be away from home, and gaijin living in Japan are apt to be extra sensitive and homesick around this time of the year.
Much more important to the Japanese than Christmas is New Year's Day, which is a quiet, solemn event for most Japanese -- first of all, you clean your house from top to bottom, so you can start the new year off right, and replace the toothbrushes with new ones. You decorate your house with kadomatsu (decorations made of bamboo and pine, which we happen to have for sale on the J-List site today by happy chance). At night on December 31st, you put your legs in the kotatsu and watch Kohaku ("Red-White"), a 3 hour TV special featuring everyone who's anyone in the Japanese music world, and eat toshi-koshi soba ("cross into the near year" noodles), which are supposed to make you live a long time. In the U.S., Christmas is a solemn event, and New Year's Eve is time for loud parties, but in Japan, that's reversed. I imagine that Japanese living in the U.S. are extra lonely around the new year because the customs are so different.
The J-List site was down for a couple of hours on Sunday, for upgrades to the server. Sorry if you were affected by the problem. Things seem to be running smoothly on the server now. Meanwhile, on the mail sever front, several customers did get multiple copies of our December 6 mailing. We're working on the problem now and hope this mail doesn't reach anyone multiple times.
Our efforts to get our stock of calendars down continue, and we've lowered prices yet again, to almost ridiculous levels. Also, because it's hard to choose a calendar with a small scan from a thumbnail, we've opened all the calendars and taken pictures of some of the pages inside, so you can see more clearly how beautiful the pictures inside are. We've still got over 100 anime, JPOP, swimsuit idol, race queen and nude Japanese calendars. In addition to the reduced prices, get free tubes if you buy 2 or more.
For the first update of the new week, we've got some extra nice items for you, including:
- First, we have some excellent new adult magazines in for you, including the new Beppin School, a very special issue (and one which we're probably going to run out of quite soon)
- People told us they loved our $5 and $6 magazine sale, so we've posted another dozen or so nice backissues of popular adult magazines like Bejean and beppin School and Video Boy to magazine page 3 -- it's you last chance to get some of these issues, which are out of print permanently
- We have new photobooks for you, including both nude and sexy swimsuit model photobooks
- We've got some nice leg fetish items in stock, including the very nice Mini Suka Deluxe April 2001 issue, great for fans of Japanese "low angle" erotic photography
- For manga lovers, we've got more manga for you, including several new volumes posted, as well as fresh stock of some very popular past issues, including some popular "dick girl" themed manga that many customers enjoy
- Our doujinshi sale is proving very popular with customers. You can save $1, $2, $3 or $4 per doujinshi if you buy 2, 3, 4 or 5 or more doujinshi at a time. We've even added some great new books (very limited stock, I'm afraid) to help you pick
- For DVD fans, we've got a huge volley of new offerings, starting off with a great Zamen (sperm fetish) collection DVD and a "best selection" of jukujo (older models, aged 25-34)
- For loves of lesbian themes, enjoy SOD's latest Deep Kiss offering, Deep Kiss vol. 13, featuring 130 minutes of incredibly intense female kissing, followed by Les Animal, a very erotic indies offering from DMN
- If you love cute-as-a-button Japanese girls, we suggest you check out Ai Kuraki's Let's Do Sex in Club, loaded with dynamite sexual imagery
- Finally, for region 2 capable customers, Kurumi Morishita stars in a new kind of production by SOD, a "sell cinema" (similar to V cinema) in which Kurumi and her female staff run a traditional Japanese in "zenra" style (all nude)
- J-List makes available a wide range of adult and non-adult magazines which you can get sent to you each month, automatically, while they're still in newsstands here. Newly added to our revolving subscription page for adults is Monthly Mujin Comic, a fantastic 550+ page hentai manga you can get each month
- For anime fans, especially those who dearly love the cute female anime characters, we offer a monthly subscription to Otomex, the "new style heroine magazine," which covers anime and game girl characters, especially the pretty ones
- Christmas is almost here, but more important than Christmas is New Years' Day (Oshogatsu), and we've decided to carry a large selection of very nice New Years' decorations for those who want to decorate their home or car in Japanse style. We've also got some good luck charms for traffic safety -- see these on the "Traditional wacky things" page
- Winter is approaching fast, and in Japan, the cold "kara-kaze" winds are really chilling everything. To combat the cold, we're carrying the very popular Japanese hand-warmers we had last year. Just pop open one of the packets and it will become warm in a few minutes, and the heat lasts for up to 18 hours (really, it does!)
- On our "cute things" page, we've got fork and knife sets for Ojamajo Doremi and Masked Rider Agido, and some cool chopsticks for fans of the silly Japanese character Bad Badtz-Maru
- For anime card collectors, be sure to check out the Inuyasha card game, featuring beautiful printing and laminating
- We have some wacky new signs, including a deluxe Japanese signplate that says "please take your shoes off here"
- We've got fresh stock of the delicious Tsubu Tsubu Pocky strawberry flavor, with real bits of fresh strawberries in them
- For fans of our Japanese chewing gum, we've got a new flavor, Lotte Strawberry Gum, as well as fresh stock of Japanese Ume (plum), La France (pear) gum and Black Black (spicy caffeine gum)
- Finally, look for a wacky heart-shaped ice cube tray, some Japanese oil paper to clean the oil from your face (with real flakes of gold inside), more wacky Japanese ear cleaners with light, and more!
By the way, remember that J-List has a price-matching policy. If you see the same item we sell at another site (as long as they're based in Japan, as we are), we'll meet or beat any price of theirs. When requesting a price match, please us the comments field of our order form, and provide the URL -- thanks!
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