Greetings from J-List December 2, 2002

Hello again from your friends in Japan at J-List!

The Japanese are very big on their four seasons, and have many customs that separate each season from the others. In the spring, people sit under cherry blossom trees and enjoy the fleeting beauty of the season of the sakura. In summer, it's time to don a yukata (cotton summer kimono) and enjoy Japan's festivals. In autumn, have a family barbecue in the mountains while enjoying the blazing colors of the turning leaves around you. In the winter, one of my personal favorite customs is sampling the new "nikuman" at convenience stores in Japan (pronounced "niku-mahn"). Nikuman is a kind of steamed Chinese bun with meat inside, and it's one of the most delicious foods you can eat when visiting Yokohama's famous Chinatown. The ones sold in convenience stores aren't quite as good, but they're hot and tasty nevertheless, and cheap at just 88 yen. Variations on the basic "beef and bread" nikuman dumplings include pizzaman (tomato sauce and cheese), anman (Japanese anko sweet beans), and curryman (curry-filled bread). The best nikuman can be found at convenience stores that carry Yamazaki baked goods, like Sun Every and Yamazaki Daily Store.

Some Japanese gestures are really cute. One famous gesture the Japanese make when having their picture taken is "peace" (also known as the V for Victory sign), which seems to be a national pasttime here. Unfortunately, none of the J-List staff has any idea why virtually all females, and many males, make this gesture -- it's just a cute Japanese thing, we guess. When Japanese get their picture taken, then say "cheese" just like in English. An alternate version is to say "what's one plus one?" (the answer in Japanese is "ni" and will result in a smile, the same as "cheese.")

It's always hard to be an expat and live in another country. No matter how long I live in Japan, I still feel that things from home are just plain "better." American medicine works the best for me, and there's nothing like American Cream of Wheat for breakfast on cold mornings -- I've turned my kids on to it, although my wife sticks her nose up at the stuff, since it looks like "okayu," a watery rice dish Japanese give to sick people. While there are many familiar things to an American living in Japan (McDonald's, Starbucks, Time Magazine), I don't think I could get by without the Internet to give me all the American culture I need. Amazon.com especially is a Godsend for someone like me -- a far cry from eleven years ago, when we had to scour the town to find a store that had some imported Pringles or Doritos, or travel to Tokyo to one of two bookstores that carried English books.

We seem to be experiencing some problems with our shopping cart system, a few users have had trouble checking out. If you find any problems with the J-List site, please email us about it right away, and remember that you can always use the secure email form (see link in the upper left hand corner of our site) to send order information in an emergency.

Announcing our first The Dog sale! For the month of December, you can get 25% off all our cute The Dog plush pets and other products by entering THEDOGSALE in the coupon field at checkout. The Dog plush pets, which feature big heads and super-cute "strange ratio" dimensions, are really great, and uniquely Japanese. And they make great gifts, too.

Also, for the month of December, we're happy to announce we'll give free shipping (for U.S./Canada -- international customers get half price on shipping) on all Peach Princess games! If you haven't completed your collection of excellent English-language love-sim games, now is a great time. As always, if you'd like more information on Japan's unique dating sim games, or a recommendation from our staff, just email us!

In order to help you help us reduce our stock of 2003 calendars, we've gone through and lowered prices on another two dozen of the items. We've still got a huge number of really excellent and unique calendars, including many that you'll treasure all year long, so please browse what we've got for you before the calendars you want are taken.

For the new update, we've got a great selection of new products from Japan for you, including:

• First of all, we've got some great and wacky things in time for Christmas, including a cute "Christmas Reindeer" figure and soft reindeer antlers, great for your Christmas party o Also very cool, enjoy a new plush Haro toy for Gundam fans, and some extremely rare Yujin capsule toys o Also for Gundam lovers, fresh stock of the large-size deluxe Haro, a working alarm clock based on the famous Gundam robot that's just great o We love cute Japanese containers, things to put other things in, and we've got some nice items, including a Japanese bag with funny French on it, a soft portable phone case, and more o For lovers of top-notch Japanese Race Queens, enjoy the new Best of Race Queen photobook that we have o Enjoy elegant and beautiful photobooks by Japanese models like Noriko Sagara, very beautiful to look at and enjoy o For Morning Musume fans, we've been able to get limited stock of the Pocky and Pretz for Mo-Musu fans, which comes with a cute dual-faced mirror o Also for snack fans, find new ochazuke and furikake (delicious foods to put on rice), miso soup, new flavors of ramune candy, delicious "Gravel Choco" (chocolate that looks like rocks), and more o For fans of rare Hello Kitty items, we've got a cool stackable "juubako" bento box, as well as fresh stock of many items, including Hello Kitty cake mix, the best-selling Hello Kitty shoulder massagers o We love Hamtaro at J-List, and have some nice items for you, including a new Hamtaro figure-and-toy set, Hamtaro Hiragana Carta (a Japanese game in which you can learn hiragana), and more o Also for hamster fans, we've got some cute "ramen and chopstick erasers" o Finally, we've got new Japanese funny signs, a traditional way to clean your ears, Japanese style, new bento and chopstick items including the popular Hamster Bento Set, and more!
  

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

Remember that J-List carries that great symbol of Japanese wacky pop culture, the Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager, which is of course intended as massager for your neck and shoulders, although some would call it a Hello Kitty vibrator. A licensed Sanrio item sold only in Japan, the unit features high and low massage modes, and a beautiful image of Kitty and her rabbit friend. It looks just great, in or out of case -- display it as the objet d'art de culture populaire that it is. Why not get a few, and give them out as gifts? We can get them to you in time for Christmas with time to spare via airmail or EMS.

Greetings from J-List November 30, 2002

Hello again from Japan, where the American shampoo Pert is marketed under the product name Rejoy.

It's customary for various regions around Japan to choose a "meibutsu" (literally "famous thing") which they use to promote their uniqueness. Sometimes it's a famous food: Fukushima Prefecture, north of Tokyo, pushes its delicious northern-style ramen, while Nagoya is famous for curry udon, thick noodles in a curry soup (it's great). Our town, Isesaki, is famous for hand-woven silk fabric used to make kimono, and Takasaki, one town over, is famous for hand-made Daruma statues which are used to bring good luck on New Year's Day. Several towns around Japan have a unique angle on self-promotion, with "fertility festivals" that celebrate fertility and, well, the male sex organ. There's a great video posted by our friends at TokyoDV which shows all the sights and sounds of the amazing "Steel Phallus" festival in Kawasaki (Quicktime required). Seeing people carrying a shrine shaped like a male organ through the streets is not something you see every day. The URL is http://www.tokyodv.com/culture/FertilityFestival.html

Sometimes in Japan there are things that defy explanation. For some reason, most of the people who live near our house in Japan have the same last name as us -- Yanai -- despite the fact that they're not related to us in any way. On this month's "kairanban" (a kind of revolving newsletter that goes to everyone in our immediate neighborhood; when one family reads it, the put a check by their name and take it to the next house on the list), I noticed that 11 out of 19 were named Yanai, all of them apparently unrelated. My repeated questions as to how this could be go unanswered. About a kilometer away, there's a patch of houses with families whose last names are all Hosoi, but they, too, are not related to each other. It's one of the mysteries of living in a small town in rural Japan, I guess.

For the weekend update, we've got a great slew of items for you, including rare Hello Kitty items from Japan, with a great item that your kids (or you) will love, a cute High School Jenny doll from Takara, fashionable and fun accessories from Japan, a super item for Ultraman fans, delicious snack items, "green tea" bath tablets, bento related items, fresh stock of anime toys including Totoro music boxes and plush toys, Japan-only Hot Wheels, and more. For our adult customers, enjoy new magazines, including several cool hardcore items and a "photobook magazine" devoted entirely to the lovely Maiko Kazano, new photobooks and other items, some super erotic manga as well as a dozen or so restocked books, fresh stock of popular yaoi books, a dynamite 2003 G-Taste Daily Calendar that we just got in, several excellent new DVDs including fetish items we've been searching for for years, and more!

The J-Mate site has been updated, with new reviews of the fun "Blue" underwater fetish DVD series, as well as Soft on Demand's interesting "darkness fetish" DVD release as well. J-Mate is a great place to browse through product reviews and interviews in English with Japanese AV actresses. The URL is http://www.jmate.com/ Remember that we're always interested in getting your reviews of products for posting to the site!

At J-List, we carry dozens and dozens of English-translated "bishoujo" games, i.e. Japanese interactive love-sim games. We've dropped the price of two of our favorite games, Legend of Fairies and Fairy Nights, a two-part game that features great artwork by Mercy Rabbit, an artist that has been very popular at J-List over the years. Each game is now just $9.95, and they work on all Windows systems and Macintosh (System 7.x-9.x, classic mode in OS X supported). For Mac users, OS X versions of the games are planned, and the upgrade will be free when they're ready.

Remember, too, that we have FREE SHIPPING on all G-Collections games this month, but this month is almost over. Why not browse our bishoujo game list and see which ones you'd like to add to your collection? We've also got the brand-new Private Nurse in stock, a great new English-language love-sim game that's fully uncensored and features beautiful graphics.

Greetings from J-List November 28, 2002

Hello and happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Thanksgiving is a very American holiday, and when you live in another country as I do, it's frankly hard to keep in the spirit all the time. Turkey is all but unheard of in Japan, unless you order it through companies that import food for the foreign community, and even if you get your hands on some turkey, most Japanese homes don't have ovens, so it'd be impossible to cook it. Most of us take the easy way out and get a bucket of KFC, which is delicious and easy to buy. We all have many things to give thanks for in the world, our health and the loved ones around us -- I know all of us at J-List feel especially blessed and thankful for all that we have. We wish everyone reading this, both in the U.S. and all over the world, a happy and warm special day!

One of my favorite entries in the You've Been in Japan Too Long When list (found at http://www.peterpayne.net) is, "You've been in Japan too long when 'natsukashii' comes out of your mouth instead of 'what you're saying makes me so nostalgic that I must look like one of those wide-eyed manga characters with a tear rolling out of my eye.' Natsukashii, a Japanese word which could be translated as "nostalgic," is a fun word that comes up quite a bit in anime. Basically, when you see something that reminds you of the fond memories of your youth, give it a try. It's pronounced NOTS-ka-SHEE.

One thing you learn when you study a language like Japanese, is that a meaning in one language will not necessarily match up with meanings in other languages perfectly. In English, there is one concept for the word "cold," but in Japanese, there are two, one for coldness in the air (samui) and one for something that's cold to the touch (tsumetai). Getting these two concepts down is always difficult for learners of Japanese, just as learning the genders in nouns in Romance languages is difficult. When you learn very a basic word like "life" in another language, you realize how difficult it can be to match meanings of some concepts up with their counterparts in other languages -- some of the words used in Japanese which correspond with the English word include "seikatsu" (which means a person's life, as in, a new life in a new city), "jinsei" (which is a person's life, from their birth to their death), and "seimei" (the biological fact of life, and also used for life insurance). Implementing the Chinese character for "life" was evidently difficult for the Japanese, too, and as a result, this character has many possible pronunciations, compared with most characters, which have two pronunciations (one Japanese and one Chinese). To see this character for yourself, click here: http://www.jlist.com/c2/life.jpg

A potential problem with the "top 5" links on the J-List site has been fixed. Before, clicking on the links when using some browsers, customers could find themselves diverted to strange URLs that didn't exist. Please let us know if you experience any problems with the site!

For the new update, we've got tons of cool items for you, including many nice items that would be great for Christmas gifts, including:

• First, we've gone through and lowered prices on a bunch more calendar items, making them even better buys -- we've got hundreds of great items in stock for you, so check them out now!
  
• Since Christmas is around the corner, we've got a huge volley of potential Christmas presents for your loved ones, staring with a super-cute set of robot plush dogs that we fell in love with
  
• For anyone fans of Tokyo Mew Mew, we've got the super-cute Tokyo Mew Mew costume sets, which feature the girls ears, cute chokers (necklaces) and tails -- they're great, from Takara
  
• Also for Tokyo Mew Mew fans, we've got a cute soft character figure set, so cool!
  
• Next we have limited stock of a fabulous Totoro apron that's really beautiful, a great gift for all fans of Hayao Miyazaki's classic film
  
• Then, for Snoopy fans,
  
• For fans of rare Star Wars items sold only in Japan, we've got the R2-D2 light saber game back in stock, as well as some of the last remaining stock of the Japan-only light saber (much cooler than what was sold in the U.S.)
  
• For fans of beautiful Japanese idols, enjoy photobook offerings by Wakana Sakai and Takako Uehara
  
• We carry many Japanese films on DVD with English subtitles, and we've got a new item for you: the riveting story of a hostage drama involving the Japan Red Army and the police trying to do battle with them (region 2)
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we've got a great cardboard pen and pencil stand as well as other cute only-sold-in-Japan Hello Kitty items
  
• We've lowered our prices on all delicious Mousse Pocky, and added a fantastic new flavor: Blueberry Yogurt, a creamy and delicious Pocky that makes you think you're floating on a cloud
  
• Also for fans of Japanese foods, more furikake (food which you sprinkle on white rice) and new flavors of miso soup!
  
• For your kitchen, we have a handy Japanese soup bowl for miso soup, cute eating utensils for you or your children, and more!
  
• Finally, we've got a new bento set that has two levels for hefty eaters, Japanese onsen powder, great Japanese cotton ear cleaners, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japanese adult magazines, we've got some nice items for you, including the new Junk, with many nice Japanese couples in love hotels
  
• Magazines with anal themes are always popular, and we've got an interesting new issue of "Anal Shower"
  
• We have some nice photobook items, including classic works shot by photographer Shin Yamagishi and a new "Chinkame" format photobook
  
• For hentai manga, we've got some excellent new items for you, including great erotic comics from AV Comics, Million Comics and more
  
• For erotic DVD fans, enjoy many new offerings, starting with "five super coquettish" women, including Ran Asakawa, in a fantastic lingerie paradise (region free)
  
• See the sexuality of "young wives" in a super new offering from E:Complex (region free)
  
• Enjoy the bukkake of Rika Uehara and Yukari Sakura in a new "How do you do, Mr. Semen?" from Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• SOD has an F1 racing team and a set of lovely SOD Racing Girls -- see the sexual lives of the lovely Nanase Nanami as a real Race Queen (region free)
  
• From Moodyz, a great "Semen Real Battle" in which ten red-hot AV actresses do battle with bukkake (region 2)
  
• Also, enjoy the sweet and erotic lesbian performances of Yayoi Yukino as only Moodyz can bring it (region 2)
  
• Finally, enjoy fresh stock of many nice adult works, including lesbian works from Aroma Planning, Hikari Kisugi's excellent 180 minute offering, restocking Bunko Kanazawa DVDs, and more!
  

J-List sells many interesting items from Japan, including our trademark "funny Japanese T-shirts" which are printed in the USA and come in all sizes, from small all the way up to XXXL. Our most popular T-shirt by far is the "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend," which outsells all other shirts, followed by "Dirty American Devil" "Confident in my Sexual Power" and "I am a Pervert" shirts. Up and coming is the very popular shirt "Respect the Emperor, Expel the Foreign Barbarians." All shirts are 100% cotton and all sizes are stocked, for speedy shipment to you! And yes, we can get your shirts to you by Christmas with time to spare.

Greetings from J-List November 22, 2002

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Greetings from J-List November 20, 2002

Greetings and salutations from Japan, where it's said that if your middle toe is longer than your big toe, you'll go farther in life than your parents did.

The social phenomenon known as "kogals" -- Japanese girls who wear outrageous fashions, with blonde-dyed hair and silly elevator shoes and over-tanned bodies -- was one of the keywords of the late 1990's in Japan. Kogals themselves owe their origins to the fashion-conscious teen movement of the mid 90s called "Amulers," when every high school girl wanted to dress up like JPOP singer Namie Amuro. But nothing is as constant as change, and the concept of the classic kogal slowly morphed into other versions: mago-gal (literally "grandchild-gal"), a label used for junior high school girls who wanted to dress up in ridiculous fashions too; "gals," a softer, less brash version of the original kogals; one-gals (oh-NAY-gals), basically ultra-fashionable girls in their low to mid 20s; and yamanba (literally "mountain hags"), girls who tan themselves totally black then wear bizarre makeup. As the sun set on the old Kogal boom, even the trademark of their movement, the "print club" digital photo stickers, called "puri-kura" in Japanese, has faded: game centers in Tokyo which stocked nothing but the print club machines are hard to find, and you no longer have to wait in line to get use them. Every once in a while you see a remnant of the old kogal phenomenon, the "gal mama" -- girls who got pregnant in their kogal days and are still dressing up in outrageous furs and false eyelashes, even though they're pushing baby carriages now. Seeing two "gals" exchanging child-rearing tips while they put on their thick make-up can be quite a sight, and is a uniquely Japanese experience.

It sometimes seems to outsiders living here that Japan is a very death-oriented society. Don't give gifts in multiples of four because the number four is read "shi" in Japanese, which also means death. Don't put you chopsticks straight up in your rice, since that's only done as part of a ceremony for the dead. Likewise, don't sleep with your head facing north, as bodies about to be cremated are laid facing this direction. Yes for all the customs that have to do with death, nearly all of which spring from Japan's various versions of Buddhism, the Japanese have almost no concept of estate planning. As far as I can tell, virtually all the things we do in the States to prepare for the event of one's death, from writing wills to making living trusts to investigating how to avoid death taxes are not practiced here in Japan at all. Since my parents have some land that will be transferred to my wife's name at the time of their death, I brought the topic up with them once, but it seem like something you just don't talk about. Likewise, I asked our accountant to recommend some options we might want to keep in mind, but he said no one really did anything to prepare for death estate-wise. Even the concept of drafting a will is not really practiced here. Because all Japanese have strong "common sense" built into them, a natural sense for the "way things should be," wills are not necessary here. If I were to die, common sense dictates that my wife and children would receive my property, and this logic is rarely contested here.

For the mid-week update, we've got a great lineup of products for you from Japan, including:

• First, for fans of our Japanese snacks, we've got the delicious Melty Kiss, a limited edition chocolate fudge snack sold only in the winter in Japan -- it's great
  
• Also, fresh stock of a popular item, Candy Bubbles, bubbles you can blow like soap bubbles, but these can be eaten!
  
• Cosplay is a national past time in Japan, and we've got a special two-volume cosplay photobook set that's extremely cool
  
• For fans of high-quality anime statues, we've got a superb cold cast statue of Maetel, from Galaxy Express 999, an incredible item from Epoch
  
• For fans of Japan's charming swimsuit idols, go to Rome, Italy with the lovely Yumiko Shaku in her new photobook with DVD (region 2)
  
• See a great photobook by former child idol (now grown into a "sexy idol") Yumi Adachi, a rare and special item
  
• For bento fans, we've got a new deluxe bento set (everything you need in one package), as well as fresh stock of some other popular bento box items
  
• If you love Doraemon, the most popular anime character ever according to a recent Japanese poll, we've got a great alarm clock
  
• For fans of our Totoro music boxes, we've got another one for you, this one based on a picture from the ending credits of the famous film
  
• We've got a dynamite Hello Kitty mug that's beautiful, as well as fresh stock of some cool Hello Kitty products available only from Japan
  
• Finally see many other nifty items from Japan, including a wood tissue holder, a funny pencil case,
  

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

• For fans of beautiful Japanese women with large breasts, we've got the new Gal's Dee, featuring many fabulous women, D cup and larger
  
• Other popular magazine items include love hotel and amateur magazines featuring authentic Japanese amateur kogals and "hitozuma" (married women)
  
• For fans of our discount magazines, we've added several new items to our "Under $7" page -- check out these reduced price items
  
• For fans that want AV samples with their magazines, enjoy the new issue of MPEG Indies, which features a full color magazine and two Video CDs (playable on computer or in most DVD players), a great bargain
  
• For photobook fans, some great items, including fresh stock of Anna Ohura's best-selling iNude, and Maiko Yuki's super hardcover photobook "Maiko"
  
• For hentai manga fans we have another great selection of new works for you, including beautiful large breast fetish, female teacher, tentacle sex, bukkake and other fetish themes
  
• It's a great day for Mai Hagiwara fans, because we have not one but two killer new DVD releases by her -- the first is Front Mirukuru, and allows you to go on a virtual date with Mai to the beautiful island of Saipan (region free)
  
• Then enjoy Back Mirukuru, another fantastic soft porn erotic release featuring Mai at her all-time sexiest, an incredible sight to behold (region free)
  
• We've got the final installment of Blue, the beautiful underwater fetish, featuring Takako Nagashima giving you a "sweet kiss in the water" (region free)
  
• For Ami Ayukawa lovers, enjoy a staggering 4 hours of her best performances in a new Max File presentation (region free)
  
• Ryo Aihara and Chika Kobayashi battle it out to see who has the most beautiful breasts in a super "coupling" by Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• Enjoy the mature eroticism of Miyuki Hourai in a great offering from SOD in which she shows her extreme experience for you (region free)
  
• Finally, a great restock of DVDs, including Ai Kurosawa and Hitomi Hayasaka Re-MIX (3 hours each), the popular Temptation Lesbian 2, and more!
  

Remember that we're having a "free shipping sale" on the G-Collections games this month (half price for orders outside the U.S. and Canada), making it a great time to complete your collection of these great games. And a little bird has told us that the newest game from the company, Private Nurse, will be coming in any day now. Preorder it now and be one of the first to get this super new Japanese love-sim game!

J-List sells wacky T-shirts with message like "I'm looking for a Japanese girlfriend" (our most popular shirt ever), "Your mother has a protruding navel" and so on. They're funny and wacky, and make great gifts, too. Why not browse our selection of T-shirts today? Because your satisfaction is important to us, J-List goes the extra distance for you, stocking a wide range of sizes (from small to XXXL for most shirts), so everyone can enjoy our fun Japanese T-shirts. They're printed in the USA and all sizes are full American sizes.

Greetings from J-List November 18, 2002

Hello from Japan, where the word for violence is "rambo."

Some customers have told us of problems loading some pages of the site, including some or all of the "Wacky things from Japan" pages. We're looking into the problem, but if you experience problems viewing the site, please let us know. Meanwhile, the "three days" link and product searching should work at any time, so you can use this method to view products.

Each language is unique, with its own set of interesting features. Romance languages, for example, have nouns that come in male and female genders, which is very different from English, and potentially confusing for English learners of those languages. In Japanese, there are other interesting features unique to that language. For example, the subject and object are often left off of sentences if the speakers know what is meant. Thus a girl might say to her friend "Iku?" which literally means "Go?" Who is going, and where are they going, and when are they going, are all implied. Also, there's a highly developed system of "keigo" or polite Japanese used in formal and business settings. Often, you choose extra-polite verbs and nouns (called sonkeigo or "honorific language") when talking with, say, a company you do business with, to raise them up to a higher level than you. At the same time, you choose other words when referring either to yourself or your own company to push yourself a lower level (called kenjogo or "humble language"). Many basic verbs such as to eat, to go and so on come in three versions, a normal version, an honorific version and a humble version.

Simple concepts like "you" and "I" can get quite complicated in Japanese, too. The basic word for "I" is "watashi," and this is what is used in formal settings (also pronounced "watakushi"). Girls get a cute version of this word -- "atashi" -- and good boys are supposed to use a boy's word for referring to one's self. "boku." Rough and tough boys, as well as men who want to project their manliness, will use the men's word "ore" (oh-rey) for "I." Kenshiro, of Fist of the North Star, uses this term. For "you," the formal word is "anata," but "kimi" (a familiar word for use among friends) and another rough man's word, "omae" (oh-MAH-eh), are used depending on the situation. A person's choice of what words he uses for "I" and "you" reveals much about his personality and self-image. A cute little girl will use the term "atashi" or "watashi" and play with Licca-chan dolls; a girl who is a rebellious tomboy might use the boy's word "boku" to the disdain of her parents; and young boys, such as my son, will experiment with acting tough by using the word "ore" (think of young Simba from The Lion King, bragging about his nonexistent mane).

Have you ever spoken to a Japanese person and wondered why they make noises of agreement while you're talking? This is aspect of Japanese speech called "aizuchi," basically "agreeing sounds" that speakers make when having a conversation. In Japanese, I could be explaining something that happened to me, and the person I'm speaking to would say things like "ee" (yes), "so" (that's true), and "ne" (a general word of agreement) constantly as I spoke. It may sound funny in English, but in Japanese it's necessary to show that you're listening attentively to the other person -- not making these noises shows you're not paying attention, and the person you're talking with is likely to stop talking and ask what's wrong. The trouble is when you carry aizuchi into English, and butt into what the other person is saying with "that's right" and "yes." It's sounds very strange when done in English.

Our price reductions over the weekend on nearly all our 2003 calendars have has a good effect, and we saw more than 100 of them go out the door today. We've still got many hundreds of super Japanese calendars for fans of famous anime shows, beautiful Japanese idols, cute characters and more, and we've added detailed digital pictures of several more dozens of calendars so you can choose the ones you want. (Of course, please keep in mind the pictures are being taken quickly, sometimes with poor lighting, and that the real calendars are much nicer in real life.) The prices are great, and the calendars are beautiful, printed on large sheets of high-gloss paper right here in Japan. Check out what we've got for you before the calendars you want are gone!

For the new update to the J-List website, we've got a bunch of great items for you, including:

• First, we've got another volley of new calendars in stock, including some of the popular anime calendars that had not come in yet including the Akira and Chobits calendar items -- check them out!
  
• For Star Wars fans, a very cool item, a sold-in-Japan-only pre-painted soft vinyl model of Mace Windu and Yoda in full fighting mode from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, made by Kotobukiya for the Japanese market only
  
• For fans of rare Hello Kitty good only sold in Japan, we've got a super tea cup, a nifty holographic sticker set, and deluxe hair dryer set for girls and more
  
• Japan's sexy Race Queens are famous all over the world, and we've got a great photobook of the beautiful Yasuko Akiba in stock for you
  
• For fans of the aesthetic beauty of Japan's high school uniforms, we've got a great manga/illustration book featuring the actual high school uniforms of famous schools around Tokyo, great for costumers
  
• For fans of delicious and bizarre Japanese snack foods, we've got the tasty Crispy Pizza Pretz in stock, and it really is like eating a delicious pizza!
  
• Also, a super favorite snack item from Japan, Morinaga's Choco Ball, in strawberry and peanut flavor, as well as other unique Japanese foods
  
• We were happy with the response to our Japanese "Bub" dissolving bath tablets, so we've posted two new types to the site now
  
• For fans of Studio Ghibli's anime films we have a positively fantastic Soot Sprite, from Spirited Away (and also seen in My Neighbor Totoro, sans feet and arms) -- a very cool item!
  
• Also, we love the ceramic music boxes from Hayao Miyazaki's anime movies, and have a super new Totoro music box in stock for you today
  
• For your kitchen, we've got a cute way to peel oranges, fresh stock of a cute deluxe bento set, and more
  
• For dieters, some Chinese "slim tea" to help you lose weight -- a delicious jasmine tea
  
• For fans of our bizarre Japanese erasers, a super item: Japanese sweets erasers, featuring classic Japanese "wagashi" sweets like dango, dorayaki, mochi rice cakes and more
  
• Finally, find inflatable versions of the American Space Shuttle and Japan's H-II rocket, a keychain that catches the light of the sun and changes color, wacky Japanese pins, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japanese magazines for adults, we've got several nice amateur and love hotel magazines
  
• For fans of Japan's hardcover nude photobooks, always a popular item at J-List, we've got some new items, including the first nude photobook of Hana Kojima, a lovely "nud-ol" (nude idol), age 20
  
• Also, the steamy idol photobook of the lovely Kazuki Chiharu, sexy idol and kogal from Japan
  
• For fans of hentai manga, we have an especially great line-up for you today, with new works from Chosuke Nagashima, a super devil tentacle sex offering, and a beautiful manga about first love
  
• For erotic DVD fans, we've got even more fabulous Japanese DVDs, starting with a new "The Idol" series from Kuki, this time featuring the youthful and lovely Riho Kazami in three complete video releases, collected on one DVD for you over 180 minutes (region free)
  
• We have another Blue, underwater fetish DVD from Pepper Shop, featuring the lovely Yuri Harada (region free)
  
• Enjoy the beautiful Nao Oikawa in a large-breast fetish special with lots of fun breast activities for you (region free)
  
• Soft on Demand has made a fabulous new "darkness fetish" DVD featuring AV idols and men who grope through the darkness to find the women and have sex wit them, all while special night camera film the scene (region free)
  
• Also from SOD, enjoy Yuka Harajima as she goes to "semen paradise" for you (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy a superb lesbian kissing and "tongue fetish" offering from Aroma Planning, the super Japanese indies AV studio (region 2)
  
• Finally, Tomo has posted some fresh stock of popular adult DVDs and reduced prices on some other, overstocked items -- please see our DVD pages for all of these items (to conveniently view all DVDs, you can see the "view all DVD" page if you like).
  

Remember that J-List carries authentic Japanese "loose socks" in two different sizes, and also carries "socks glue" which you can use to glue your socks to your legs to hold them up. Worn by virtually all Japanese high school girls (except those who go to strict schools where they are forbidden), they are similar to the leg warmers worn in the 1980s in the U.S., and look great when bunched up just so. Enjoy a little slice of Japanese fashion culture courtesy of J-List -- they also go great with the authentic high school uniforms we sell, too! Great for cosplay at anime cons.

Greetings from J-List November 15, 2002

Hello again from all of us in Japan!

The cold weather has begun in Japan, and we can feel real winter right
around the corner. Because Japanese homes lack central heating found in
most American homes, it can be hard to keep warm, especially for a San
Diego boy like me. In general, rooms are heated one at a time in Japan --
which is good, since you don't spend energy heating rooms you're not using.
We have a kotatsu at our house, which is a low table with a blanket over
it, and a heater inside; put your legs inside the kotatsu and you'll be
toasty in no time. (My daughter and our cats love to go to sleep inside the
kotatsu, which is not healthy, however.) Since electricity is expensive in
Japan, most people use kerosene heaters, either stand-alone heaters called
"stoves" (sutoobu) in Japanese, or electric-kerosene heaters that blow
heated air (called "fan heaters"). These are economical, but smell bad (the
kerosene fumes give you a headache after a few hours, and you must open a
window to ventilate), and whenever the tank inside the heater runs out of
fuel, someone has to go outside and freeze while they refill the tank from
the kerosene jugs kept outside. Heating pads, called "kairo" (which we
happen to have in stock), are also ways of keeping warm when you're cold.

In Japanese, the English word "convenience" refers to convenience stores,
also called "conbini." Japan is very big on convenience stores, and several
chains -- 7-11, Lawson, Sun Every, Thanks, Yamazaki Daily Store -- compete
to bring the best products to their customers. Japanese convenience stores
always offer a large selection of bento (Japanese boxed lunch), onigiri
(rice balls wrapped in nori seaweed), bread (which includes things like
sweetened chocolate bread, bean paste bread, and so on), as well as other
items you might expect, such as drinks (Coke, Pepsi, oolong tea and Calpis
Soda). You can send packages from any convenience store, and if you're
going to fly out of Narita Airport, you can send your suitcases ahead for
about $20 per suitcase -- very handy when you want to travel but don't want
to lug suitcases. Japan is a completely check-less society, with no concept
of personal checks. To pay your phone or electric bills, you can just them
down to the local conbini and pay them in cash (the bills have bar codes on
them so the girl can process them quickly). They say imitation is a form of
flattery, and it must be true. Two convenience store chains in Gunma sport
names "borrowed" from American chains -- Save-On and K-Mart. Alas, the
Golden Age of the Conbini might be over for good, though. In the early and
mid-1990's, it was unheard of for a convenience store to close its doors,
but now with the economy bad for so many years, convenience stores closing
and turning into laundromats, used book stores or even used car dealerships
are very common.

Announcing lower prices on calendars! We've got loads of 2003 calendars in
stock for you, with many incredibly beautiful and rare items ready for you
to order -- no waiting! Because we want you to enjoy these great items,
we've lowered prices on almost all of our great calendars. You'll be
helping us, too -- the calendars have taken over the J-List kitchen, and no
one can get near the refrigerator until we sell the calendars. You will
love spending your year with the really cool character, idol, anime, JPOP
and other calendars available from J-List.

We're all hooked on a bizarre TV show in Japan, a "mannequin drama" OH!
Mikey, which is filmed with outrageous looking fashion mannequins in place
of actors. It's the story of the Fuccon family, father James, mother
Barbara and son Mikey, who came from America to start their new life in
Japan. In each episode of the show, the Fuccon family undergoes new trials
and tribulations as they learn about Japan. It's a kind of parody of
foreigners living in Japan, and the fact that expressions on the faces of
the mannequins never change adds to the bizarreness of the story. We're
happy to report that we have the box set of OH! Mikey in stock, and it
comes complete with English subtitles and many extras.

For the new update, we've an extra large selection of cool things from
Japan for you, including:

• First, we've got the fun and bizarre boxed sets of Oh Mikey! in
  stock for you, containing all episodes of this bizarre and fun series --
  and it's fully subtitled in English (region 2)
  
• We love Japan's cute JPOP idols, and have restocked several
  excellent photobooks of Morning Musume members, including Kaori Ida, Risa
  Ishikawa and more!
  
• For fans of delicious snacks from Japan, we've got a bunch of
  new items, including Cafe Latte flavored "Crunky" (we just love that name),
  Glico's delicious Chocolate Mousse Macadamia nuts, a cream and delicious
  Almond Pocky, and a new flavor of Mill Make, a tasty milk flavoring that's
  enjoyed by all Japanese kids
  
• Also, fresh stock of various snack items, miso and other soups,
  salmon furikake, and more
  
• We carry all the excellent anime films of Studio Ghibli, and
  we've restocked several popular titles, including Laputa, Princess
  Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away (all are region 2)
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we've got some nice new items, including
  another Kitty and Daniel "Wedding Plush" that is the perfect gift for
  soon-to-be-newlyweds
  
• In time for winter, we've stocked up on Japan's amazing "Kairo"
  heating pads, cloth pads which get very warm when exposed to air, great for
  those who hate being cold (like me!)
  
• Also, a fun item for your bath: Japanese "Bub" onsen tablets,
  which turn an ordinary bath into a Japanese hot springs
  
• We have a super cool plush "Neko Bus" (cat bus) mascot for your
  car, who comes with suction cups on his feet, and is, ah, anatomically
  correct
  
• For Disney fans, two rare items sold only in Japan: soft vinyl
  keychain figures of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, both very cool and
  licensed only for the Japanese market
  
• For fans of the super-cute Hamtaro, we've got a new deluxe
  keychain set that's incredibly fun to collect
  
• For Star Wars fans, we've got a positively incredibly "Marmit"
  figure, a highly-poseable high-end figure that's great for real collectors
  
• Finally, look for other great items, like a soft plush cover
  for your folding-type cellular phone, a happy all-purpose "smile ball,"
  more wacky Japanese signs you can stick anywhere, and more!
  

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

• First, for fans of Japan's excellent adult magazines, we have
  the sassy new Urecco Gal, filled with beautiful fashionable kogals and some
  of the best erotic photography found in Japan
  
• We've got some excellent erotic photobooks, too, including new
  hardcover works by Kaori Shimamura, Jun Kusanagi and many more (stock is
  limited on some items)
  
• Also for photobook fans, we have an exhausting restock of
  popular items, including sexy and erotic photobooks by Suzuki Fumika, fresh
  stock of Megumi Osawa's dynamite Last Dance photobook, and more
  
• We love Japan's fetish for legs, stockings, mini-skirts and
  panties, and have some nice items for leg fetish fans, as well
  
• For hentai manga fans, we've got several all-new volumes of
  great erotic comics, including a superb "virgin special" anthology manga,
  and a DVD that comes with a hentai DVD inside!
  
• Also, see fresh stock of some very popular hentai manga works,
  including Irodori (one of the most popular hentai parody comics in J-List
  history), Total Bio Chemical Laboratory, and more
  
• For fans of the English-language Blue Eyes comics, we've
  restocked the entire series in our San Diego office -- they're all in
  stock, waiting for you to order
  
• Remember that J-List stocks dozens of volumes of yaoi comics,
  the very beautiful male/male love manga, and we've added stock today
  
• Also recently restocked: Japanese condoms, which are great for
  anyone who wants to try the thinner, slightly smaller Japanese products
  
• For DVD lovers, we have some great new erotic products for you,
  starting with another popular volume of "Blue," which features the beauty
  and grace of Yukiko Misawa -- "You make me air bubble." (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy the erotic and lusty "oneesan" (a word which means
  older sister, but in this case implies an experienced, older woman) Ran
  Asakawa, in a superb offering from Dogma (region free)
  
• There's a new The Idol series with 150 minutes of prime AV,
  starring Megu Anrai (region free)
  
• For bukkake fans, see Reika Midou in Deep's great new offering
  -- and it's dubbed over with a professional voice actress for an extra
  bizarre feel (region free)
  
• Yuna Akimoto tries her hand at lesbian sex and pretending to be
  a man, with some great "lesbian fucking" with a fake male members (region
  free)
  
• Then, from Aroma Planning, enjoy the super indies presentation
  of "Everyday life of Breast Fondling" as women have their breasts touched
  while doing their normal daily activities (region 2)
  
• Finally, see fresh stock of many new items, like Madoka Ozawa's
  classic DVD works, fresh stock of "Japanese girls vs. Black men" DVDs by
  Moodyz, more copies of the very detailed Russian Girls Manko 2002, the
  best-selling Very Best of Million, and more!
  

J-List carries three excellent region-free DVD players that allow you to
watch DVDs from around the world, regardless of their region code. We have
three in stock: the Sampo DVE612 and small sized Lasonic DVB090, both
priced as just $109; and the ultra-cool high-end Sampo DVE681P, which
features many pro features. Please note that Sampo has discontinued the
681P, so our currently stock is all we'll be able to carry. If you're
looking for a great region free DVD player that's got high-end features and
quality, hurry and grab one.

Greetings from J-List November 13, 2002

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Greetings from J-List November 11, 2002

Hello again from Japan, where basic drip coffee served in coffee shops is known as "American coffee."

For a country that eats as much rice as Japan, they have some pretty interesting bread, too. I remember being happy to see how many kinds of delicious bread was sold in Japan, all very soft and usually baked in sold in small bakeries operated inside supermarkets rather than mass produced. You can buy bread sliced into eight, six or four slices, too, depending on how thick you like your bread to be -- the thick kind is great for making French Toast. There are many kinds of "bread" sold in Japan that would be called doughnuts by an American. Anpan is bread with Japanese sweet beans (anko) inside, which is something that foreigners usually can't stand. Melon Pan (melon bread) is a round, delicious sweetened bread that doesn't really taste like melon, no matter the name. Curry Pan is a delicious ball of bread with curry baked inside it. Japanese bread is so popular here, there's an anime show called Anpan Man, populated with characters that all happen to be Japanese bread products. Unfortunately, bagels are really difficult to find in Japan -- there's just no demand for them by consumers, so no one sells them. Mexican tortillas are similarly impossible to find in Japan.

Japanese companies are very good at coming up with special events to promote their products. The meat industry pushes February 9th as "meat day" because 2 and 9 ("ni" and "ku" in Japanese) make up the word for meat in Japanese ("niku"). On February 14th, women show their feelings for men by giving them chocolate. White Day, March 14, is the designated day for men to return the favor, giving white chocolate or other doilies back to women. Japan's optometrists designate October 10 as "Eye Day" (Me no Hi) because "10 10" looks like two eyes with eyebrows if you look sideways. Today is November 11, or 11.11, and the Glico Confectionery Company has proclaimed that this is "Pocky Day" because the numbers look like little Pocky sticks. In commemoration of Pocky Day, we've stocked lots of different flavors of Japan's delicious chocolate covered pretzels for you!

Time marches on and more and more calendars are selling out. We've gone through and added interior pictures from some more idol, anime, and other calendars, and we hope that you'll find something you like. We have over 250 calendars in stock for you, a huge selection, ready to go out to you with no waiting!

For the new update, we've got some great items for you, including:

• First, we have some great plush toy items, including a fantastic plush Catbus and Jiji the cat from Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service -- they are fabulous!
  
• For Astro Boy collectors, we have a great soft pillow that will brighten any room -- trust us, it's cool
  
• The cold cast and model magazine All That Figure sold out in record time, but we've got fresh stock for you now
  
• For fans of Japanese Race Queens, we've got new items for you, including a super new issue of Cool Girls, loaded with beautiful gals including Toko Ushikawa!
  
• Also, a very special magazine featuring Taiwanese Race Queen and super model Yinling, not to be missed
  
• For lovely Japanese swimsuit idol fans, we've got Dream Goes On, a photobook featuring some of the top models and idols in Japan
  
• For fans of our super-wacky Japanese T-shirts, we've added a new color for our popular "I want to be Japanese" shirt, attractive pink -- great for girls or guys
  
• J-List carries Japanese film on DVD that are subtitled in English, for the enjoyment and appreciation of fans outside of Japan -- we've posted Turn, a new Japanese film featuring the lovely Riho Makise as a woman who must relive a bizarre day over and over again in a very thought-provoking performance
  
• For lovers of our Japanese snacks, we've got Mousse Caplico (delicious ice cream cones that contain chocolate instead of ice cream), more healthy miso soup, and of course, a big restocking of famous Pocky!
  
• We love cute Sanrio goods from Japan, and we've got some nice items for you including new Shinkansen (bullet train) character goods, Hello Kitty snacks and candy, cute Hello Kitty toy cars and more -- check out our items
  
• Also, we've stocked the popular and stylish Hello Kitty cappuccino and coffee cups, beautiful items that are great for serving drinks to guests
  
• If you dislike sitting on hard benches, we've got a handy portable seat cushion from Japan that allows you to sit in comfort anywhere, in your garden, in the park, at a baseball game
  
• We have a neat item, a handy wooden tray for displaying your treasures, or you can use it for serving sushi, we don't mind
  
• For Inu Yasha fans, we've got a dynamite character strap -- use it as a strap for your camera or phone, or as a keychain
  
• Another wacky item: cute "parody erasers" of Japanese snack foods, which must be seen to be believed
  
• Finally, enjoy useful items for your kitchen including bento related items, cool "rocket pencils" with individual pre-sharpened pencil "stages" that you can easily replace, a handy set of all-purpose pouches, fun Japanese play money, and more!
  

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

• We love the high-quality English-translated love-sim games from G-Collections, and since we're having a "free shipping sale" on them this month, they're selling very well. We've also posted their newest game, Private Nurse, for preorder on the site -- preorder it now for free shipping when it's ready!
  
• For magazine fans, some nice items in stock for you, including Oh! Pai (large breast fetish magazine), the new issue of Do-Up (featuring very, ah, detailed amateur couples in love hotels), and more
  o Also for fans of Japanese amateur sex, we've got "I want you to Look at Me," a nice perfect bound magazine featuring some lovely kogals age 18-22
  o We've got new "sampler" items too, magazines which feature video CDs or DVDs inside, a great bargain
  o We've got some nice photobooks for you, including a beautiful hardcover offering featuring six lovely nudes from Korea, a fantastic item featuring Ami Ayukawa, and more
  o If you love hentai manga, we've got some excellent items for you, including a super all-game girl hentai parody comic, great hardcore comics and fetish comics from Japan's top studios, and more, fresh stock of the popular Pururun Seminar and more
  
• For DVD fans, we've got another volley of excellent products, starting with a great "three in one" value pack with hardcore performances from Ami Ayukawa, Mako Takeda and Eri Imai, 3 full hours! (region free)
  
• Enjoy a great indies "premium fuck" with Yuna Akimoto in a new offering from Janes Co. Ltd. (region free)
  
• We love the exciting and erotic "Adult Video Wrestling" DVD releases from Obtain Future because they're very authentic and enjoyable to watch -- and we've got another great men vs' women sex fest for you now (region free)
  
• For fans of lesbian kissing, a major Japanese fetish, enjoy more "obscene kisses of amateur girls" featuring close female friends who explore their first lesbian experience on camera (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand, enjoy a great "cosplay jukujo" (mature woman) performance by Hitomi Yuki in which she tries on her old Gilgamesh Night costume -- so cool! (region free)
  
• Enjoy the lovely erotica of Moodyz Musume, the first adult video pop group, featuring excellent erotic sex and more (region 2)
  
• Finally, another restocking or reduced prices on some popular DVDs, including Mirai Hoshizaki's "Delivery Fuck," Madoka Ozawa's "Document Private Sex" and more!
  

One of our favorite magazines here at J-List is Giant Robot, a superbly put-together magazine of Asian pop culture, filled with interesting articles on just about anything you can think of. If you are interested in Japanese anime and Asian culture, why not support this great magazine by subscribing? Tell them J-List sent you. The URL to subscribe is here: http://secure.giantrobot.com/store.php?catid=G001 .

Greetings from J-List November 8, 2002

Hello again from all of us at J-List!

First of all, there was a slight problem with the site for a few hours after Wednesday's update was posted -- the J-List product pages and front page were not updating, although the "view products updated in the last three days" link and search worked. If you looked for newly added products but couldn't find them, we're very sorry. The problem was fixed a few hours after the update mails went out.

Being an expatriate American is always interesting, allowing me to observe events inside the U.S. through the eyes of an outsider. American politics is especially interesting to observe from the outside looking in, and I've had many discussions with Canadian, Australian and Japanese friends about the American political system and how silly it can be sometimes. It's also fun to observe the impressions Americans make on the Japanese, what stereotypes they come up with when they think of Americans. In Gunma, where we live, most gaijin ride mountain bikes, especially Mormon missionaries, so mountain bikes and foreigners go together in the minds of Japanese. Americans are famous for being optimistic in all things -- I once doodled a happy face on a piece of paper and was told "That's very American" by a Japanese friend. Americans are famous for being bad at math (something I am personally guilty of), and according to my wife, Americans are never on time, although she might be just talking about me. Most Japanese believe that American men are more endowed than Japanese, and Tomo told me he was curious about the size of Americans' members when he was a child. The Japanese know of the American fascination with firearms, and when I was teaching English conversation, the subject of whether or not I'd owned guns back home came up a lot. (My answer was always no.) Finally, it's sad to say to say, but a major impression of Americans is that they tend to be on the large side. Considering that most of the Japanese staff has to shop at Gap Kids when they go to the U.S. in order to find clothes that fit them (you think I'm kidding, don't you?), there may be something to this.

The hardworking J-List staff has added detailed digital pictures for another 30 or so of the Japanese calendars we currently stock, allowing you to see what the beautiful calendars look like on the inside. We hope the new pictures make it easy to see how nice these things are and make your buying decisions easier. Incidentally, we can still get calendars (as well as any items) to you in time for Christmas. Since the things J-List sells are so unique and interesting, we believe they'd make great gifts for your loved ones. If you have any questions on our calendars or anything else, please let us know!

For the new update, we've got a super lineup of cool things from Japan for you, starting with:

• We were very pleased with the response we received from the soft acrylic blankets we posted to the site, so we've restocked these blankets and added several larger sizes and cute designs -- see them on the Wacky Things from Japan pages
  
• Also for Hello Kitty fans, an extremely cute Kitty + piggy bank combo items, and a fun pack of Hello Kitty bubble gum, new Kitty stamps, and in our San Diego office, a really cute Hello Kitty wall clock
  
• If you love Japan's Race Queens, we've got a super issue of RQ Press, with 100 beautiful girls including all the top stars
  
• Japan's swimsuit idols are popular, and we've got some nice photobook items for you, including fresh stock of Yuko Ogura's "Future Girl"
  
• J-List stocks authentic Japanese Loose Socks, the bulky, baggy socks that Japanese high school girls wear, and we've got fresh stock for you -- we also stock Socks Glue, to help keep our stocks up
  
• For anime fans, we've got some great toy items for you, including a super set of Tottoko Hamtaro soft vinyl figures that are extremely cute and fun to play with
  
• Also, for Lupin III fans, we've gotten in stock of the superb high-end poseable figures of Lupin, Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata, made by Medicom Toy
  
• For fans of cute anime girls and bishoujo games, we've got several sets of cute soft vinyl models, figures that you put together and display -- they're very cute
  
• For fans of traditional Japanese things, a super cool Japanese noodle set, double bento boxes, chopsticks, and other fun items for your kitchen or bento life
  
• For Japanese snack items, we've gotten several nice items in, including "chocolate tree stumps" (we're not kidding), cool Japanese gum and candy items, more miso soup and wasabi, and more
  
• Finally, find wacky stickers ("It is forbidden to urinate here"), a handy case that can hold anything from a phone to an Apple iPod, more Pocky, cute pro wrestling items, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Eichi Publishing's high quality adult magazines, we have the new Gokuh, an oversized magazine featuring all the top AV idols -- Hitomi Hayasaka, Hikari Kisugi, Misa Nishida, and more!
  
• Also enjoy amateur hardcore magazines like EX Gacha Ire featuring very erotic girls in love hotels, and a super double issue of Let's Do Good Things
  
• Enjoy some great hardcover Japanese photobooks including the lovely nude of Mai Asakura, back again after many years
  
• We have another volley of excellent hentai manga for you including the excellent Celamic (Ceramic) Garden by Fujimi Comics, a full set manga series, and more
  
• Also, a great update of restocked manga, including all volumes of the popular Paradise Lost and Lunatic Party parody comics, I Saw Her Standing There, and fresh stock of the long-selling anime parody Irodori!
  
• We've got some great new adult DVDs for fans, starting with the debut sex of the lovely Rei Itoh, in her very first on-camera performance (region free)
  
• The very erotic Rumiko Hasegawa, who looks suspiciously like Japanese actress Ryoko Hirosue, performs for you in an erotic new "Premium" hardcore offering (region free)
  
• We love the long-running Adult Video Wrestling series from Obtain Future, and we've got a new one for you -- very erotic and yet also a fantastic pro wrestling performance with authentic action (region free)
  
• Kokoro Amano is the "highest class of soap lady" and fulfills all your erotic dreams in a new offering from Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• A great new fetish offering from Deep's, enjoy "Lesbian Commando" with erotic "military lesbians" who have big guns and beautiful bodies (region free)
  
• From Moodyz, see the pure and innocent sex of three girls, aged 18 years old, filmed with classic Moodyz brash style
  
• Finally, see restocked erotic DVDs, including Obtain Future Memorial, superb 180 minute DVD offerings from Emily Yoshikawa and Hikari Kisugi, Mirai Hoshizaki's erotic Leg Fetish World, and more!
  

The top 5 lists for the past week have been update, so you can see what items are popular at J-List. Click the links to bring the items up in your web browser.

We've added a new link at the top of the J-List homepage, allowing you to translate it through Altavista's BabelFish links. The translation isn't always perfect (we amused ourselves viewing the site in Japanese), but we'll keep the links there in case they're of use to our international readers. Please note that you can't checkout using the BabelFish system (the cart file will come up empty), so switch back to English mode if you want to buy items through the site.

Greetings from J-List November 6, 2002

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Greetings from J-List November 4, 2002

Greetings from Japan, where a corndog is known as an "American dog."

I don't doubt that part of the reason I live in Japan today is all the Japanese TV and movies I enjoyed as a child -- Ultraman and Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot, Star Blazers, Kimba the White Lion, and so on. But while I was being influenced with a love of Japan, my wife was watching American TV shows that were being broadcast in Japan, shows like Charlie's Angels, Bewitched (brought over as "Okusama wa Majo" or My Wife is a Witch), I Dream of Genie, Knight Rider and so on. Just as I was first interested in Japan through monster movies and anime, she became intrested in America through American television. When we started dating, we knew we would end up married because we had so much in common, including a love of the 1980s show The Greatest American Hero. Fate can be very funny, can't it?

The Japanese are always pleased by foreigners taking an interest in their language and becoming fluent in Japanese, and many of the actors and comedians on Japanese TV are foreigners who have mastered Japanese enough to even be funny in the language. Dave Specter, an American who came to Japan as a TV producer, is universally despised by gaijin like me, usually because his Japanese is better than ours (but I hate him because he dyes his black hair blonde to appear more "American"). Daniel Carl is famous because he mastered Japan's Yamagata dialect, and it's funny to see an American speaking redneck Japanese. Thane Camus (prounced "Sane Kamyu" in Japanese) is a super-cute "gaijin talent" (and incidentally the grandson of famous French novelist Albert Camus) who does a show called World's Funniest English, in which Japanese who do not speak English are asked to tell stories in English while the exact translation of what they're saying appears on the TV. (If you want to see what he looks like, his homepage is here: http://www.thane.co.jp/thaneworld/info.html) And then there's Wickie-san, who came to Japan from Sri Lanka and passed the entrance exam to Tokyo University, Japan's top-ranked school. His primary goal is to get Japanese people to learn that Sri Lanka is not part of Africa.

Some customers have been reporting a problem with the J-List page, which causes individual categories to give a "page not found" error. If you should happen to experience problems with the J-List site, please let us know right away and we'll get on the problem.

We love the interactive love-simulation games from Japan, and work hard to bring these great games to you. This month, we're having a "free shipping sale" on some of our favorite games, the great English-language bishoujo releases from G-Collections! The four G-Collections games are I'm Gonna Nurse You (sexy goings-on in a school for nurses in training), Kana ~ Little Sister (heartfelt game about love between brother and sister with a story that will have you in tears), DOR (a classic bishoujo game from one of Japan's top game companies) and Chain ~ The Forgotten Footsteps, an excellent game loaded with sexual intrigue and more. Get free shipping on these games in the U.S. and Canada or half price shipping for international orders this month!

For the new update, we have some excellent products for you, including:

• For fans of beautiful anime art books, enjoy a great collection of Masahisa Suzuki artwork, loaded with color illustrations
  
• We've got reduced prices on the very nice bilingual comics we have, featuring Cardcaptor Sakura, Ah My Goddess and Love Hina with both English and Japanese, right in the book!
  
• For Japanese snack fans, we'v got some nice items for you, including tasty Cafe Chocolat Pretz, rare Babana Kit Kat from Nestle, and some delicious Hello Kitty "edible bubbles" that are fun to play with and eat
  
• Speaking of Hello Kitty, we've got some nice new items for you, including a great Hello Kitty USB hub (Kitty types on her keyboard when you do)
  
• For Gundam fans, see the great plush toy of Haro, the flying round robot from the first two Gundam series -- it's really just too cool!
  
• Also for anime and toys fans, enjoy fresh stock of many cool items, including the Japanese-only Hot Wheels, fresh stock of the Space Cruiser Yamato die-cast toy that is so cool, and more!
  
• We've got a killer item for Evangelion fans, too: a beautiful "master model production" of the third Angel Sachiel from Kaiyodo
  
• Also, for Star Wars fans, we've got fresh stock of the popular "Kiran Kiran" lighting necklaces, including Darth Vader and Yoda!
  
• Laputa fans will love the beautiful soft vinyl Laputian Robot keychain added to the site -- it's so cool!
  
• For fans of traditional items, we've got a beautiful set of "card wallets" that you can use as business card holders, or else carry anything from credit cards to cash in them -- they're made out of the same material as kimonos
  
• Finally, see a nifty train pass you can use, wacky Japanese stamps, a handy "pocket toilet" for times when you can't get to one, and more!
  

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

• For Japanese magazine fans, we've got the new Video Boy and Best Video, two excellent all-purpose adult video magazines that feature all pro AV idols from Japan's adult video world
  
• Also, we've got fresh stock of the popular backissues of magazines, stocked in our office in San Diego -- check them out on magazine page 3!
  
• For fans of Japan's hardcover glossy photobooks, we've got some nice new items, including Kyoko Ayana's beautiful nude photobook, and great items by Mihiro and Ayaka Bessho
  
• For adult manga fans, we've got some great new hentai comics, including Milk Lovers by Belle Comics, as well as other new works and restocked comic works including Huge Breast Mother and Daughter
  
• Also, we have the excellent vol. 5 of A-G, the English hentai magazine of "art, sex and CG culture"
  
• For DVD fans, we've got many nice items for you, starting with a 180 minute collection of the "first debut fuck" of sixteen famous AV idols (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand comes a very special item: to commemorate their reaching $70 million in annual sales, they've released a special DVD of their best works over the past 7 years -- 4 hours! (region free)
  
• Also from SOD, a great new "Rubbing the Breasts for the First Time" offering (region free)
  
• Maria Yumino and four AV gals go into the Magic Mirror Box Car for some excellent "fan thanks" in beautiful Shonan Beach, Yokohama (region free)
  
• For fans of Japanese Indies, enjoy a very detailed "digital mosaic" release with the lovely Nao Oikawa (region 2)
  
• If you're interested in Japanese films, especially in the story of Ai Iijima, one of the most famous AV actresses of the 1990's, don't miss the excellent Platonic Sex, in stock now and with English subtitles! (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've got a major restock of DVDs, including Minori Aoi's great Cosplay Mania, Ryoko Mitake's Parfum, hard- and softcore titles from Hitomi Hayasaka, more Mai Hagiwara DVDs and more!
  

The J-Mate site has been updated again, with new reviews of Aroma Planning's "International Lesbian" and also a review of the autobiographical movie based on Ai Iijima's life, "Platonic Sex." The URL for J-Mate is http://www.jmate.com/

Remember that J-List carries many cute items for your kitchen, including bento boxes and accessories, Japanese chopsticks (both basic ones for general use and cute chopsticks), sushi and onigiri molds, wacky Japanse kitchen containers, and more. Please check out the "Kitchen and Bento" section of the Wacky Things from Japan page!