Greetings from J-List October 8, 2002

Hello again from all of us in Japan!

Japan can be a funny place. Although it's one of the most pro-American countries in the world, at the end of the day, Japan really loves Europe, and secretly wishes it could be a part of that continent. During the Meiji period, when Japan was looking to other nations as it modernized its institutions, they chose many elements from Europe to incorporate here. The French prefectural system, for example, was used as the model for Japan's internal organization; they modeled their military on Prussia's, and their Diet on Britan's Parliament, the Mother of Parliaments. In much the same was as the British will jokingly pretend they're not part of Europe (since they're an island nation), the Japanese seem to pretend they're not a part of Asia, and actually say "Asia and Japan" as if one were not part of the other. The fact that Japan and most of Europe are grouped in the same DVD region (region 2) area speaks volumes about how Japan perceives itself.

As part of their ongoing efforts at "internationalizing" Japanese young people, Japanese must study six years of English by the time they're 18, and more if they go on to college. But there's always a subtle conflict that no one openly acknowledges: do they study American English or British English? The Japanese have always had great respect for England, and have copied them in many ways (including their penchant for Empire-building) during the past 150 years. Still, the Japanese tend to study American spelling ("color" not "colour"), as a general rule. The problem is, it's not a fixed rule -- British English is sometimes used in schools, but other times American English is used: just enough to confuse and frustrate the poor kids. When my wife was in Junior High school, she took part in a pronunciation contest. She practiced and practiced the text she was supposed to read, but unfortunately, the teacher who helped her with the material had learned British English, and the two accents confused her terribly.

We were surprised to hear that Ultraman Tiga is being shown in the U.S. on Fox. Ultraman Tiga is the first of the Ultraman series made in Japan after the long gap between the "classic" Ultraman series of the 1960s and 70s. I've been a big fan of Ultraman ever since I was a child and saw the original on TV, and I've enjoyed a fun second childhood, watching the newer Japanese series with my son. We carry some nice items for Ultraman lovers, including the 2003 Ultraman calendars, and the Eiji Tsuburaya Anniversary calendar, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Tsuburaya, the Father of Godzilla and Ultraman (we highly recommend it). For a fantastic page documenting everything there is to know about Ultraman, see http://www.waynebrain.com/

We've received some questions about how the ongoing dock closures along the West Coast might affect J-List shipment delivery. Happily, all SAL, airmail and EMS shipment are all sent via air, so only seamail shipments should be affected by the delays.

For the new update, we have many cool products for you from Japan, including:

• First, a very special item that we just love: the limited-edition Laputa Collector's Box, a massive box filled with tons of goodies for fans of Hayao Miyazaki's famous film, including the English DVD, soundtrack and image album, novelization, and a very detailed Laputa robot from Cominica
  
• Also, we've got a very cool limited-edition die-cast Arcadia, from Leiji Matsumoto's famous anime series
  
• For fans of Snoopy, we've got a rare item that's not available outside Japan: beautiful Chinese tea cups with images of Snoopy, which we think is really cool
  
• For Macross/Robotech fans, a very special item: the Macross Design Works, featuring all design sketches and color illustrations of mecha designed by Shoji Kawamori
  
• For fans of Japan's breathtakingly beautiful idols, we've got a great item for you: Yellow Girls, a collection of photos by the three most famous idols in Japan
  
• Also, a hardcover photobook for fans of the very popular Rei Kikukawa, an incredibly beautiful starlet in Japan who is a very interesting persona: despite her incredibly beauty, she attends Tokyo University, the top-rated school in Japan (see her 2003 calendars too)
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we've got several fun items that you can't get outside of Japan, like a cute Kitty stamp set with 30 rubber stamps of Kitty and her family
  
• For manga lovers, we've got another selection of adult comics from Japan, including the very erotic Melt-Down by Angel Comics
  
• Also, for fans of Japan's popular yaoi (homosexual) comics, we have a nice new anthology work for you, with great romantic stories by some of Japan's top artists
  
• For fans of sexy Race Queens, we've restocked the popular Miho Yoshioka and Mario Racing Girls title for you (region free) and the very nice Fumika Suzuki Trading Card Bible
  
• Just in time for Christmas, we've got a super-cute Gremlins plush, little Gizmo dressed up as Santa
  
• For our snack fans, enjoy Japanese animal cookies, bean snacks and fresh stock of Pocky, which was starting to sell out already (it's very popular)
  
• Speaking of Pocky, we've got stock of a great "parody pen" that looks like dark and white chocolate Pocky -- it's wacky!
  
• For fans (or parents of fans) of Yu-Gi-Oh, we've got a neat item: Yu-Gi-Oh Dual Monsters chocolate wafer cookies, which come with very cool collectible stickers
  
• We've got some cool anime toy items in, including the Kiki's Delivery Service figure set, fresh stock of the Spirited Away figure set, new Japan-only Hot Wheels, and a rare item we were lucky to get: stock of the Giant Robo "Robot Wars" strap
  
• We've added stock of our popular Japanese notebooks with funny English on it, for people who want to write on a quality Japanese notebook with funny English
  
• Finally, see cool "super deformed" figures from Ojamajo Doremi, a great soft leather case that can be used for just about anything (I use mine as an iPod case), erasers that look like toilet paper, a fun way to separate egg whites and yolks, a great item for fans of Pom Pom Purin, and more!
  

For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. These new items include:

• For fans of Japanese magazines, we've got some new ones for you, including amateur and "hitozuma" (married women, a major Japanese fetish) for you
  
• Also, we've got the new MPEG Typhoon, which features a full magazine and two video CDs of great AV "quickies" -- a fun sampler item
  
• Something very cool from Gal's Dee: the Gal's Dee DVD, a 2 hour DVD that comes with a full color magazine, and at a great price!
  
• Japan has a very highly developed sense of bondage photography, and we've posted the second volume of the Heisei Bondage Deluxe, a great collection of 15 top-quality bondage models
  
• Fans of Japan's leg fetish photography will enjoy the new Mini-Suka Queen, featuring five lovely Race Queens who show you everything
  
• Enjoy our stock of hundreds of Japanese photobooks, including the new "Seaside Erotica" by photographer Fujio Saimon
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got a great selection of items, starting with a great "3 in 1" offering from Hitomi Hayasaki -- 3 hours of her best works! (region free)
  
• Another great DVD from Kuki, enjoy Mayu Yoshino's No Cut!! DVD, with three full video releases collected in this DVD for you, 240 minutes (region free)
  
• We love Bauhaus's soft porn DVDs, and there's a new one in their "Bishoujo Sonata" series, starring the beautiful Yui Kawai (region free)
  
• From SOD, the lovely Kokoro Amano receives "bukkake" constantly over the course of 24 hours, while eating, sleeping, even brushing her teeth (region free)
  
• Another great volume in the Obscene Kiss of Amateur Girls series, see the tender and erotic kissing of Japanese girls (region free)
  
• For indies fans, there's a new "Hip and Vagina" offering from Wanz Factory, starring the beautiful Miyuki Hourai (region 2)
  
• Finally, restocked DVDs include the great DVD releases of Emily Yoshikawa (Japan's "latino" AV star), the venerable Akira Fubuki Special, Rio Sannomiya's great Double United release, and more!
  

J-List loves wacky things from Japan. One thing we love is Japan's bento culture, that is, attractive boxed-lunch that can be very beautifully decorated. Not only do we carry authentic Japanese bento boxes, but we also have the cool 2003 World of Bento calendar, which shows some incredibly beautiful ways to make Japanese bento.

Greetings from J-List January 7, 2002

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Greetings from J-List October 5, 2002

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Greetings from J-List January 5, 2002

A very quick hello from J-List! I am rushing to get this update out the door, as I'm off to San Diego and Las Vegas on business. The "Azalea" bus (the bus that takes you right to Narita Airport, it's so-named because the Azalea is the official flower of Gunma Prefecture) leaves in an hour!

We are certainly hoping for some good economic news here in Japan, but so far all the indicators point to things getting worse. Unemployment is up to 5.5%, which is supposedly equal to a 7.5% unemployment rate if the measurement were taken the same was as it is done in the West. It's somewhat embarrassing being one of the few growing, busy companies in the city where we live -- we get deliveries of stock several times a day by truck, and the delivery man often remarks that we're the only busy business for miles around. The bad economy has a direct effect on J-List in many ways -- mainly, several of the distributors and other companies we've worked with over the years have gone out of business and disappeared, making it more difficult to get the products we need for you. In some industries, the poor economy is combined with a double whammy of competition from American companies, which really destroys their business -- small toy retailers and aging toy distribution companies, for example, have been greatly changed by the coming of Toys R Us to Japan.

For some reason, there are several English phrases that have burned themselves into the consciousness of the Japanese. When Dr. Clarke left Sapporo, where he helped establish what would become Sapporo University, he said left the words "Boys, be ambitious, which has endured ever since (making him far more famous than he deserved to be). When idol singer Yamaguchi Momoe retired from singing, she sang a tear-filled song that contained the English words Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your tenderness." All Japanese seem to know these little snippets, and if you ever want to make Japanese people's heads turn, try saying some of these words to them.

Winter is here, and with it, winter fashion. The fashion this year is decidedly leather -- specifically, light, shiny, well-tailored leather jackets hung on Japanese girls so slender as to challenge Ally McBiel. Tight jeans are also really big this year.

There was a problem with the shopping cart, caused by our programmer who accidentally overwrote some records while he was working on the site. We think around 20 orders may have been erased before we processed them. If you made an order yesterday but didn't hear from us, would you please email us to make sure all is well? Thanks.

We've got some great items for you today, including new magazines (the new Penthouses are in, loaded with beautiful Japanese women), many new photobooks (including that beautiful Chinese Yinling, many new and back in stock erotic manga volumes, great new erotic doujinshi for collectors, a huge slew of 18+ DVD and video items from Japan's best video houses (everything from anime cosplay dvds to tekoki to nude boxing and more), great new anime toys (including the new Laputa robot series), fresh stock of Men's Pocky and Coconut Pocky, fun things for Hello Kitty fans, and new wacky items like Buddhist prayer beads and much more. Please check out the newly added items!

We're kicking around the idea of attending an anime convention in Germany or Italy this Spring, but it can be hard to get information on all the cons that are out there. If you have information on large cons coming up in the Spring in these countries, would you let us know? Thanks.

Greetings from J-List October 3, 2002

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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:

• 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!

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:

• 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!

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.

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:

• 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

Greetings from J-List December 26, 2001

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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:

• 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.

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:

• 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.

Greetings from J-List December 19, 2001

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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:

• 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.