Friday, April 25, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 25, 2003
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Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 23, 2003
Hello from Japan, the home of embarrassing car names like Mazda Bongo Friendee and Toyota ED.
It's said in Japan that the U.S. is a "horizontal society" and Japan is a "vertical society," supposedly due to the fact that life in the U.S. is merit-based (people get ahead in life through hard work) whereas progression up the social ladder in Japan is supposedly based on age and seniority. It's certainly true that relationships here are very up-down, with a clear idea that the older you are (or the longer you've been in a certain organization), the more "erai" (high-level) you are. This concept is all around you when you're in Japan, you can't get away from it -- it's even built into the language. When a younger person speaks to an older person, even if he's just one year older, he must use "keigo," or polite Japanese, which effectively organizes everyone in the room according to level in a way that is impossible to express in English. To not use the "right" language for your level (say, speaking informally to your boss) is disconcerting to others, especially in business or school settings, and makes you sound cheeky. The whole system of vertical relationships may sound odd, but it actually makes interaction work more smoothly, because everyone knows what to expect from everyone else -- it's almost like TCP/IP for humans.
One interesting concept in Japan is that of senpai and kouhai, which could be translated into English as senior or junior or upperclassman/underclassman. Basically, higher-level individuals (either because of age or seniority in that group) in a school or organization are senpai, and those who entered the school or organization after are kouhai. Senpai have various responsibilities to their kouhai, to teach and guide them, and pick up the tab in restaurants -- in return, the kouhai shows respect to the senpai and elevates his status. Senpai/kouhai works for gaijin, too: when I got to Japan, my foreign friends showed me the ropes, making it easier for me to get used living here. Later, I returned the favor when I met other gaijin who had newly arrived in Japan. One reason we like to promote the Japanese love-sim games that we sell is that they allow you to enter a very unique Japanese story complete with concepts like senpai/kouhai, Japanese name suffixes (-san, -chan), and more, all accurately translated into English with no changing of cultural elements or writing down of the story for English-speaking fans. One game that's especially full of these themes is the upcoming X-Change 2 (which ships very soon).
One thing I can say about Japan: I really love the food here. It would be quite difficult to live here for eleven years if I didn't. Just as Japan has taken elements from various other countries as it modernized itself over the past century, the Japanese palette has been influenced by many parts of the world. Some of the most common Japanese dishes, such as ramen and one of my favorite foods of all time, gyoza ("pot stickers"), are really from China. If the Japanese have a single staple food, it has to be "curry rice," a mild, thick curry based on British versions of Indian curries. Spaghetti from Italy is eaten regularly, of course, and yakiniku (Korean Barbecue) is another popular food. The Japanese also imported many dishes from Europe (since the Japanese secretly wish they were a part of that continent, that's why Europe and Japan have the same DVD region code), including doria, gratin, and hamburg steak (which we'd call Salisbury steak in the U.S.). Other foods, such as udon, sushi and sashimi, are completely "made in Japan."
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that at J-List, we carry the whole line of unique Japanese chewing gum from companies like Lotte and Glico. Some of our most popular items are Lotte's "Black Black" (Japan's unique black gum, it will keep you awake!), delicious Sweetie (grapefruit) gum, and don't forget honeydew melon flavored gum. Check out all these items on our Japanese snack and gum pages!
Are you a Mac user trying to learn Japanese? We found a pretty cool freeware game that combines reading with Space Invaders. Check it out here (OS 8 or above supported, works in Classic mode in OS X)ÅF
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/JapanProj/KanjiInvader/KanjiInvader.html
It's said in Japan that the U.S. is a "horizontal society" and Japan is a "vertical society," supposedly due to the fact that life in the U.S. is merit-based (people get ahead in life through hard work) whereas progression up the social ladder in Japan is supposedly based on age and seniority. It's certainly true that relationships here are very up-down, with a clear idea that the older you are (or the longer you've been in a certain organization), the more "erai" (high-level) you are. This concept is all around you when you're in Japan, you can't get away from it -- it's even built into the language. When a younger person speaks to an older person, even if he's just one year older, he must use "keigo," or polite Japanese, which effectively organizes everyone in the room according to level in a way that is impossible to express in English. To not use the "right" language for your level (say, speaking informally to your boss) is disconcerting to others, especially in business or school settings, and makes you sound cheeky. The whole system of vertical relationships may sound odd, but it actually makes interaction work more smoothly, because everyone knows what to expect from everyone else -- it's almost like TCP/IP for humans.
One interesting concept in Japan is that of senpai and kouhai, which could be translated into English as senior or junior or upperclassman/underclassman. Basically, higher-level individuals (either because of age or seniority in that group) in a school or organization are senpai, and those who entered the school or organization after are kouhai. Senpai have various responsibilities to their kouhai, to teach and guide them, and pick up the tab in restaurants -- in return, the kouhai shows respect to the senpai and elevates his status. Senpai/kouhai works for gaijin, too: when I got to Japan, my foreign friends showed me the ropes, making it easier for me to get used living here. Later, I returned the favor when I met other gaijin who had newly arrived in Japan. One reason we like to promote the Japanese love-sim games that we sell is that they allow you to enter a very unique Japanese story complete with concepts like senpai/kouhai, Japanese name suffixes (-san, -chan), and more, all accurately translated into English with no changing of cultural elements or writing down of the story for English-speaking fans. One game that's especially full of these themes is the upcoming X-Change 2 (which ships very soon).
One thing I can say about Japan: I really love the food here. It would be quite difficult to live here for eleven years if I didn't. Just as Japan has taken elements from various other countries as it modernized itself over the past century, the Japanese palette has been influenced by many parts of the world. Some of the most common Japanese dishes, such as ramen and one of my favorite foods of all time, gyoza ("pot stickers"), are really from China. If the Japanese have a single staple food, it has to be "curry rice," a mild, thick curry based on British versions of Indian curries. Spaghetti from Italy is eaten regularly, of course, and yakiniku (Korean Barbecue) is another popular food. The Japanese also imported many dishes from Europe (since the Japanese secretly wish they were a part of that continent, that's why Europe and Japan have the same DVD region code), including doria, gratin, and hamburg steak (which we'd call Salisbury steak in the U.S.). Other foods, such as udon, sushi and sashimi, are completely "made in Japan."
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we've got a very cool item for Star Wars fans -- the superb Star Wars Kubrick toys that just released by Medicom Toy. We've got the first series, the Bounty Hunters, all of which are extremely detailed and very, very cool. Full and partial sets available!
- For customers interested in a great region-free DVD player that won't take up a lot of room, we've added the Lasonic DVB-8092 to our site, a great player that will fill all your DVD viewing needs
- Also, we've restocked the popular and full-featured Cyberhome DVD CH-500 that has proved to be a very popular and reliable unit
- For fans of Totoro and Studio Ghibli toys, we've got some super cute Mei "kigirumi" plush toys by Sun Arrow, as well as fresh stock of several large and small plush items
- For fans of Japanese snacks, we've got some nice items for you, including cute PostPet strawberry snacks, tasty dried ika on a stick (don't ask what ika is if you don't already know), and delicious fresh miso soup with wakame (seaweed) in it
- Also, new flavors of healthy Japanese teas that lower blood pressure and are good for dieting
- For fans of parody goods, another fun toilet paper item, with fun pictures in which you must find the differences
- We love cute things from Japan, and have some cute erasers for you which let you play cake shop or hamburger stand -- so cool and unique
- We love to find cute Hello Kitty and other Sanrio products that you can't find outside of Japan -- we've got some cute Kitty prism stickers and really nice printed paper bags that are so cute to look at
- For customers who want to eat with traditional Japanese bowls, we've got another large bowl and tray set in stock for you
- For Japan Hot Wheels fans, we've got a great vehicle from Thunderbirds -- very cool
- Also fun, we've got a set of Pepsi Choro-Q toys that are fun to play with and collect
- Look for fresh stock of notebooks with funny English on them, a J-List best-seller
- For fans of Japanese bullet trains, we've restocked the very popular full sets of Star Train, featuring six excellent replicas of famous trains from Japan
- Finally, look for more wacky Japanese signs for your personal space, ukiyoe chopsticks, cute Hello Kitty bottles to hold any liquid, fresh stock of cute "Pop Animal" items for your kitchen, sushi makers, 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 ones in stock for you, starting with the new issues of Video Boy and Best Video, two great general adult video magazines that let you see all the popular actresses in Japan at once
- Then for fans of amateurs in love hotels, we've got the very nice SP Evolution, featuring lovely authentic Japanese girls with their boy friends in private places
- Also, up and coming AV stars perform real hardcore for the camera in a new magazine, Project H -- very nice
- Enjoy the excellent hardcover photobooks we've got for you, including the pure and lovely photographs of Sayaka Numajiri, age 18
- Also, we've got the sweet first nude of cutie Arimi Mizusaki, a "nude idol who sells dreams of Spring" according to the cover
- Harumi Nemoto is one of the top swimsuit idols (also known as "gravure idols," from the French word for "engraving"), and she really shines in her latest sexy hardcover photobook
- For manga fans, we've got more great hardcore hentai comics, including a great parody on Sailor Moon and sentai shows (Saint Sex) and a man for those who are curious about how women are curious about sex in Japan (My Sweet Plum) -- freshly restocked manga, too
- Also, a rare treat: a small book of very erotic "shunga" (spring-drawing) showing sex from the Edo Period in Japan, a great example of the very first hentai manga of Japan
- For fans of amateur comic art, we've got some great hentai doujinshi in stock for you, including some cool and rare Dragonball items
- We've got a great new brand of cute Japanese condoms, for all who are interested in the thinner, closer-fitting Japanese condoms -- and the box is really cute
- Also, we've gotten a new version of the vibrating "Rabbit Rotor" that's one of the most popular adult toy products we sell
- For DVD collectors, we've got more top-quality Japanese adult DVDs for you, starting with a super bukkake offering from the super cute Monbu Ran by Million (region free)
- Then enjoy a whopping 4 hours of lesbian sex with a new DVD from Yellow Box (region free)
- For fans of "penis study" fetish, we've got a new DVD in which naive and innocent girls study the male phallus for the first time -- it's great to watch their shy reactions (region free)
- See the first anal sex of Kokoro Amano in a new work from Soft on Demand -- great for fans of anal themes (region free)
- From the bold Indies maker Waap Entertainment, a sexual desire novel on DVD media about two women who discover a bizarre penis one day, and how it changes them (region 2)
- Then, enjoy a very satisfying large breast bukkake DVD, with the beautiful breasts of 10 stars and lots of bukkake action (region 2)
- Finally, look for fresh stock of various other items including the extremely popular Testicles Kick of Amateur Girls and more!
Remember that at J-List, we carry the whole line of unique Japanese chewing gum from companies like Lotte and Glico. Some of our most popular items are Lotte's "Black Black" (Japan's unique black gum, it will keep you awake!), delicious Sweetie (grapefruit) gum, and don't forget honeydew melon flavored gum. Check out all these items on our Japanese snack and gum pages!
Are you a Mac user trying to learn Japanese? We found a pretty cool freeware game that combines reading with Space Invaders. Check it out here (OS 8 or above supported, works in Classic mode in OS X)ÅF
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/JapanProj/KanjiInvader/KanjiInvader.html
Monday, April 21, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 21, 2003
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Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 16, 2003
Hello from Japan, the home of such famous restaurants as MOS Burger and Freshness Burger.
My favorite English newspaper in Japan is the Daily Yomiuri, the English paper put out by the Yomiuri Shimbun. I especially like it because every day they insert pages from internationally famous newspapers such as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Independent, a U.K. newspaper. It's always interesting reading about the various goings-on in each corner of the world, from local politics and letters to the editor to discussions of recent world events.
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, back at SDSU in the 80's, and wondering why the Japanese always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, 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 what others think, 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 imaginary 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 make good leaders. Finally, AB have "two faces," one that they use in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. I've met a lot of foreigners who didn't know what their own blood type is, and this usually surprised Japanese people -- here, a person's blood type is a part of what they are, like height or hair color. 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...
The J-List office expansion is coming along nicely. Today was the official raising of the roof in the new section being added to our current office, and in Japan you have a Shinto ceremony on that day to bless the building and pray for good luck for those who will occupy it. Sake, salt and rice were sprinkled in each corner of the addition, and a prayer was said by the foreman overseeing the construction. We look forward to using this new space to bring you even more wonderful things from Japan in the months to come.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that J-List stocks over 100 kinds of Japanese snack items, with such popular products as Pocky, Black Black caffeine gum (recently mentioned in Wired), and one of our favorite items, Sushi Gummi, little gummi sushi pieces (fruit-flavored, not fish-flavored) sitting on marshmallow "rice." Another cool item we've been happy to make available are small keychain mascots of famous Japanese traditional icons, like the bright red Daruma, the Maneki-neko (Inviting Cat, who invites money into your house), and more. There's always something fun for you at J-List. Order 10 or more of most items and get 15% off automatically.
Also, don't forget that our $1 shipping sale on T-shirts is going on right now. We've got a 18 different bizarre and fun Japanese T-shirts, all 100% cotton and printed in the U.S. J-List goes out of its way to make sure all customers can wear our wacky original T-shirts, and we stock men's small all the way up to 3XL (many other T-shirt are only available in size M-XL). Check out our cool selection of wacky shirts today!
--
My favorite English newspaper in Japan is the Daily Yomiuri, the English paper put out by the Yomiuri Shimbun. I especially like it because every day they insert pages from internationally famous newspapers such as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Independent, a U.K. newspaper. It's always interesting reading about the various goings-on in each corner of the world, from local politics and letters to the editor to discussions of recent world events.
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, back at SDSU in the 80's, and wondering why the Japanese always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, 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 what others think, 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 imaginary 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 make good leaders. Finally, AB have "two faces," one that they use in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. I've met a lot of foreigners who didn't know what their own blood type is, and this usually surprised Japanese people -- here, a person's blood type is a part of what they are, like height or hair color. 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...
The J-List office expansion is coming along nicely. Today was the official raising of the roof in the new section being added to our current office, and in Japan you have a Shinto ceremony on that day to bless the building and pray for good luck for those who will occupy it. Sake, salt and rice were sprinkled in each corner of the addition, and a prayer was said by the foreman overseeing the construction. We look forward to using this new space to bring you even more wonderful things from Japan in the months to come.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Japanese snack lovers, we've got another volley of cool items, including Crunk White Chocolate, Japanese vitamin C candy and delicious blueberry cheesecake pretzels -- yum
- Also, traditional Japanese ochazuke, tasty seaweed, green tea and other things you put on white rice, then pour boiling water over the whole thing and eat like a wholesome soup
- For lovers of famous Japanese swimsuit idols like Chinatsu Wakatsuki, Harumi Nemoto, Yoko Matsugane and Megumi, we've got a superb issue of Jelly-B!
- Also, we've restocked the excellent Hyper Product Revolution, featuring a great sampling of beautiful swimsuit idols from Japan including Yuko Ogura (!)
- We've got a great item for fans of The Dog, the cute big-nosed dog characters from Japan -- Kubrick The Dog figures from Medicom! They're so cute won't be able to resist them, and we've got them all in stock now!
- For Hello Kitty fans, a great "save the goldfish" game that's very Japanese, and other cool Sanrio items including the excellent Hello Kitty mayonnaise containers
- Also, fresh stock of the popular Hello Kitty USB hub -- plug your keyboard in and Kitty types along on her keyboard, copying you!
- For fans of Hamtaro, we've got some super cute hamster erasers for your little ones (or you)
- Blythe fans will love the Blythe anniversary phone straps, which can be used as camera straps or as key holders as well
- For fans of Totoro, we've restocked several plush toys, soft dolls, and the popular Totoro magnet set
- Also, look for fresh stock of the super cute Nyanko Restaurant plush toys that are so cool
- For fans of rare toys, we've got an original Milk-chan super figure, great for fans of this cult character
- We love handy things from Japan, and we've got a handy pill case for anyone taking medication that's just perfect
- At J-List, we carry many items to help you study Japanese, and we've got a great new item in: kanji quiz toilet paper, a very cool item that lets you study Japanese in the most unlikely of places
- The sets of Japanese toy Shinkansen (bullet trains) we had sold out in record time, so we've gotten more in stock for you
- We've restocked the Cup Noodle coffee cups, a very popular item that makes a great gift, too
- Also, a really cool item from Japan, the Mi-ke Neko (three colored cat) clocks that feature a beautiful traditional Japanese image and a great clock for your room
- Finally, look for a great Korean bath mit, more funny Japanese signs, Japanese Buddhist incense, and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- First, we're proud to announce a new game from G-Collections, Come See Me Tonight ~ Watashini Konya Ainikite, a superb English-translated hentai game for fans of Japan's dating-sim adventure games
- For fans of Japanese amateurs and kogals, we've got a great new magazine for you, Purin-Tai (Pudding Army) that's filled with lovely Japanese girls for you
- Japan's fascination with beautiful women of America and Europe is well known, and there are several magazines published here that cater to gaijin women -- we've got the new issue of Dick, guaranteed to feature lovely girls who will blow you away
- We love Japan's excellent hardcover photobooks and have gotten several great ones in stock, including Nao Oikawa Portraits (photographed by the famous Seiichi Nomura) and the delicious first photobook of Yumi Kurisu
- For fans of full-figured ladies, see the photobook of Minagi Usagi, now in stock
- Also, fresh stock of several popular photobook and other items, including Ryoko Mitake's "Love Love" and the beautiful "Moon Flower" photobook by Nao Oikawa
- For hentai manga collectors, we've got a great update for you with many new works in stock, including female hentai artists's romantic take on sex (Raspberry Love), an all "naughty tentacle" anthology comic, and the superb Capricious of You by Yukio Yukimino
- We love Japan's famous bishoujo ("pretty girl") games, and have a great hentai art book from Utagoe Revolution
- Also, enjoy fresh stock of the excellent "Girl's Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall" illustration photobook, which is just great
- For DVD collectors, we've got some great items for you today, starting with Riho Nanase's 4 hour special -- 240 minutes of her erotic hardcore sex (region free)
- Enjoy a super combination of Maria Yumeno and Anna Ohura in an erotic 200 minute disc from V&R Planning, great for breast fetish fans! (region free)
- From SOD, a 2-in-1 DVD featuring "bukkake cat fight" and much more (region free)
- A major fetish in Japan is shiofuki, or making women "spout" (have a wet orgasm). See a great Best Shiofuki DVD by Deep's (region free)
- Moodyz brings us a new Dream Woman series in which a "gorgeous actress meets semen shower" -- see the stylish and elegant An Namba in this great title (region 2)
- Then enjoy a superb 2-DVD release which brings you the very best of Nao Oikawa, 240 minutes of her most erotic works ever, not to be missed! (region 2)
- Finally, look for several restocked DVD titles, including Hitomi Hayasaka's popular Ultra Mix, the erotic Campaign Girl Party, and Sakura Sena's best-selling DVD titles.
Remember that J-List stocks over 100 kinds of Japanese snack items, with such popular products as Pocky, Black Black caffeine gum (recently mentioned in Wired), and one of our favorite items, Sushi Gummi, little gummi sushi pieces (fruit-flavored, not fish-flavored) sitting on marshmallow "rice." Another cool item we've been happy to make available are small keychain mascots of famous Japanese traditional icons, like the bright red Daruma, the Maneki-neko (Inviting Cat, who invites money into your house), and more. There's always something fun for you at J-List. Order 10 or more of most items and get 15% off automatically.
Also, don't forget that our $1 shipping sale on T-shirts is going on right now. We've got a 18 different bizarre and fun Japanese T-shirts, all 100% cotton and printed in the U.S. J-List goes out of its way to make sure all customers can wear our wacky original T-shirts, and we stock men's small all the way up to 3XL (many other T-shirt are only available in size M-XL). Check out our cool selection of wacky shirts today!
--
Monday, April 14, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 14, 2003
Hello again from Japan, where going to Kentucky means eating chicken and everyone thinks IT stands for "Internet technology."
When a Westerner comes to Japan to live, certain aspects of life here always stand out to them for the first few weeks. In my case, I kept noticing the roofs on Japanese houses, which featured ornate porcelain tiles that looked beautiful and exotic to my eye, as well as the green and white emergency exit signs which are everywhere here (and which we have immortalized in an original J-List T-shirt). The abundance of vending machines amazed me, as did Japanese toilets with flush handles that let out different amounts of water depending on if you'd just gone No. 1 or No. 2. Something that most every foreigner in Japan notices is the tendency for Japanese to wrap things more than necessary. Do you want some cookies? Country Ma'am, a popular brand of cookies here, comes in an airtight package that contains cookies that are also individually wrapped. Want to buy some bread in a bakery? Each item you buy will be wrapped in several layers of plastic or paper. Nestle Kit-Kat candy bars are also wrapped a total of three layers of paper, foil and wax paper, making it quite a chore to open one. Japanese say that the extra secure wrapping makes them feel that the food inside is more delicious, and they are sometimes mistrustful of American import foods which come with wrapping that seems too thin.
Soy sauce is a popular flavoring in Japan, and is used more often than salt and pepper to improve the flavor of food. Another popular sauce used by the Japanese goes by the descriptive name of "sauce" (sou-su, although it's officially known as Tonkatsu Sauce). It's a delicious thick sauce that compliments many kinds of foods, especially fried food. Both soy sauce and tonkatsu sauce are also poured over eggs in Japan, but a debate has raged for years at J-List as to which tastes better. Personally, I think nothing improves fried eggs than a dabble of Kikkoman soy sauce, but apparently I am in the minority, as most of the other J-List staff favor the thicker tonkatsu sauce on their eggs. In case you're interested in making the same comparison, we've gotten two varieties of Japanese sauce in stock for you to try.
One of the basic rules of business in the West is that companies should generally "stick to their knitting" and avoid doing things that confuse customers and damage their brands -- Dell makes computers, but if they started selling running shoes tomorrow, you would probably wonder what they were thinking. But in Japan, companies tend to enter any business they think they can compete in. All the major beer makers also have beverage bottling businesses, and sell various varieties of bottled Japanese and Chinese teas. JT, aka Japan Tobacco, also sells beverages, although drinking a refreshing drink that was bottled by a tobacco company would give me pause. Do you want to remodel your home? Panahome, the construction company operated by Panasonic/National, will be happy to help you. Panasonic bicycles are also very well-known in the marketplace here. Hitachi is famous for televisions in the U.S., but they also make Japan's speedy bullet trains. Sony has a popular line of high-end make-up products, and a life insurance business -- and their online-only Sony Bank is growing fast with young Tokyoites who like to bank online. When we built the J-List office, one of the companies we considered using was Toyota Home, a division of Toyota that will build you a home in chunks in their factory, and truck it out to your land for later assembly. Americans know that Yamaha makes both pianos and motorcycles, but in Japan they also remodel kitchens and manufacture semiconductors and precision golf clubs. I never cease to be amazed at what an amazing place Japan can be.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
J-List carries videos magazines and other items featuring the lovely Yulia Nova, the famous Russian nude model who has become a sensation in Japan and outside of Japan as well. While we've been asked to remove interior scans of magazines featuring Yulia by the photographer, Mr. Kizu, who objects to unauthorized posting of Yulia's images by fans, we do have many of excellent Yulia items in stock, including several issues of Bachelor with her prominently featured. Also, we do have both of the Yulia limited edition post card sets in stock, although they don't appear on the website. If you're interested in buying them, please email us.
Remember that J-List's DVD sale is going on now -- buy any 4 or more DVDs and get 15% off. Since this applies to of the over 700 DVD titles we stock for you, we know you'll be able to find some great titles to buy. Check through our extensive selection now! Also, don't forget our $1 shipping sale on T-shirts -- but the month of April is almost half over, so hurry!
When a Westerner comes to Japan to live, certain aspects of life here always stand out to them for the first few weeks. In my case, I kept noticing the roofs on Japanese houses, which featured ornate porcelain tiles that looked beautiful and exotic to my eye, as well as the green and white emergency exit signs which are everywhere here (and which we have immortalized in an original J-List T-shirt). The abundance of vending machines amazed me, as did Japanese toilets with flush handles that let out different amounts of water depending on if you'd just gone No. 1 or No. 2. Something that most every foreigner in Japan notices is the tendency for Japanese to wrap things more than necessary. Do you want some cookies? Country Ma'am, a popular brand of cookies here, comes in an airtight package that contains cookies that are also individually wrapped. Want to buy some bread in a bakery? Each item you buy will be wrapped in several layers of plastic or paper. Nestle Kit-Kat candy bars are also wrapped a total of three layers of paper, foil and wax paper, making it quite a chore to open one. Japanese say that the extra secure wrapping makes them feel that the food inside is more delicious, and they are sometimes mistrustful of American import foods which come with wrapping that seems too thin.
Soy sauce is a popular flavoring in Japan, and is used more often than salt and pepper to improve the flavor of food. Another popular sauce used by the Japanese goes by the descriptive name of "sauce" (sou-su, although it's officially known as Tonkatsu Sauce). It's a delicious thick sauce that compliments many kinds of foods, especially fried food. Both soy sauce and tonkatsu sauce are also poured over eggs in Japan, but a debate has raged for years at J-List as to which tastes better. Personally, I think nothing improves fried eggs than a dabble of Kikkoman soy sauce, but apparently I am in the minority, as most of the other J-List staff favor the thicker tonkatsu sauce on their eggs. In case you're interested in making the same comparison, we've gotten two varieties of Japanese sauce in stock for you to try.
One of the basic rules of business in the West is that companies should generally "stick to their knitting" and avoid doing things that confuse customers and damage their brands -- Dell makes computers, but if they started selling running shoes tomorrow, you would probably wonder what they were thinking. But in Japan, companies tend to enter any business they think they can compete in. All the major beer makers also have beverage bottling businesses, and sell various varieties of bottled Japanese and Chinese teas. JT, aka Japan Tobacco, also sells beverages, although drinking a refreshing drink that was bottled by a tobacco company would give me pause. Do you want to remodel your home? Panahome, the construction company operated by Panasonic/National, will be happy to help you. Panasonic bicycles are also very well-known in the marketplace here. Hitachi is famous for televisions in the U.S., but they also make Japan's speedy bullet trains. Sony has a popular line of high-end make-up products, and a life insurance business -- and their online-only Sony Bank is growing fast with young Tokyoites who like to bank online. When we built the J-List office, one of the companies we considered using was Toyota Home, a division of Toyota that will build you a home in chunks in their factory, and truck it out to your land for later assembly. Americans know that Yamaha makes both pianos and motorcycles, but in Japan they also remodel kitchens and manufacture semiconductors and precision golf clubs. I never cease to be amazed at what an amazing place Japan can be.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we've gotten fresh stock of the cute "Flavor Mini Vacuum cleaners" from Japan, which are great ways to keep your computer area free of dust and dirt
- For fans of Japanese snacks, we've got some great items for you, including a new flavor of Pocky (choco banana, yum), delicious candies of famous Japanese soft drinks, and great rice crackers for babies and kids
- Also, for those who want to try delicious Japanese "sauce," we've got two varieties in stock for you
- Enjoy the sweet charm and beauty of Japanese swimsuit idol Yuko Ogura, who stars in a new DVD (region free) -- her photobooks have been restocked, too
- For fans of Morning Musume, the definitive JPOP idol group, we've got a limited stock of the cool Hello! Project 2000 photobook
- For fans of Japan's unique film culture, a great new Japanese film with English subtitles: Hush!, a touching story of three misfits living in Japan, trying to find their way (region 2)
- For fans of ultimately cute things from Japan, we've got Tofu Oyako (Tofu Family) figures that are incredibly cute and fun to see -- and they come in little packages of tofu, too!
- For Hello Kitty fans, we've always got lots of cool only-old-in-Japan items for you, including a new ceramic Kitty cup and rice bowl set that are just amazing
- For fans of Astro Boy, who is really popular in Japan these days, we've got a great Mighty Atom plush toy for you
- Also, from Sun Arrow, we've got a great new plush Bou from Spirited Away, very high quality
- Evangelion continues to be one of the most popular anime series of all time, and we've got a wonderful cold cast statue of Rei Ayanami for collectors of high-quality anime statues
- Hamsters a super-popular in Japan, and we've got a cute set of Hamster erasers in stock today
- Also, for fans of wacky English, we've got some "Sure & Simple" notebooks in stock, with funny English on them
- If you love dinosaurs, there's a new series of dinosaur bottle caps that look great in a collection
- Japanese essays or school reports are always done on a special kind of paper called genko yoshi. We've got fresh stock of this Japanese writing paper in stock for you today
- Chopsticks aren't always easy to eat with, but the best chopsticks are made of bamboo, which makes them both easy to hold and easy to grip food -- by happy coincidence, we have some in stock for you
- For fans of Space Cruiser Yamato, e.g. Star Blazers, we've got reprints of the original Japanese manga from the first two series -- a very cool item for collectors!
- Finally, find a great way to store business cards, more wacky Japanese signs and signplates, delicious melon-flavored milk mix, tasty tofu miso soup, and more!
- For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of beautiful erotica involving couples in love, performing their sex for you, we've got a new magazine called Make Lovers
- Also, another popular Diva series photobook featuring the erotic loveliness of Kaori Nakatani
- Also, enjoy the graceful beauty of Minami Kawahara, a popular newscaster who has taken off her clothes for the camera
- We've got a superb nude photobook featuring the delicious Race Queen Toko Ushikawa, which will really fry your bacon
- In addition, find a general restocking of nearly a dozen popular hardcover photobooks, including those by Yoko Matsugane, Marina Matsushima, and the beautiful Ayami Sakurai
- For fans of Japanese bondage, enjoy the wonderful and mature Natsumi Kawahama in a very erotic new gouka-bon format photobook
- We've got an excellent selection of new erotic hentai manga, including the new manga offering by Jubaori Marshmallow (creator of the Alice First series), a very detailed hentai manga from Angel Comics, and more!
- Yasu has restocked several hentai manga books, including Queen Bee, Michael Plan and several other popular items
- Also, fresh stock of the popular b-Boy Zips yaoi manga series, which feature anthologies of popular male/male comics for yaoi fans
- The lovely sex of Rin Nohara is waiting for you, in a new Blue File release featuring 3 hours of her super cute performance (region free)
- Then enjoy the extremely experienced sex of Ran Asakawa in a new "Oneesama fetish" release from SOD (region free)
- Mayura Hoshizaki stars in an erotic new bukkake offering from Soft on Demand, featuring some excellent bukkake sex for fans of Japanese semen fetish (region free)
- Super Indies adult video studio Waap has another Waap TV's Virtual Best, with the very best erotic performances by the top stars in Japan -- all on a great disc for you! (region 2)
- And from Moodyz, enjoy the beautiful lesbian sex of Ruri Ayase and Yuuka Kotono in "Beauty Lesbian" that is something you won't want to miss (region 2)
- Finally, we've added fresh stock of several of the popular uncensored hentai DVDs we stock in our San Diego office -- check these great titles out.
J-List carries videos magazines and other items featuring the lovely Yulia Nova, the famous Russian nude model who has become a sensation in Japan and outside of Japan as well. While we've been asked to remove interior scans of magazines featuring Yulia by the photographer, Mr. Kizu, who objects to unauthorized posting of Yulia's images by fans, we do have many of excellent Yulia items in stock, including several issues of Bachelor with her prominently featured. Also, we do have both of the Yulia limited edition post card sets in stock, although they don't appear on the website. If you're interested in buying them, please email us.
Remember that J-List's DVD sale is going on now -- buy any 4 or more DVDs and get 15% off. Since this applies to of the over 700 DVD titles we stock for you, we know you'll be able to find some great titles to buy. Check through our extensive selection now! Also, don't forget our $1 shipping sale on T-shirts -- but the month of April is almost half over, so hurry!
Friday, April 11, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 11, 2003
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Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 9, 2003
Hello again from Japan, where you can find "goma ice" -- that's sesame seed flavored ice cream to you and me.
It's been said that South Korea is "the nearest country and yet the farthest away" from Japan. Despite being extremely close to one another geographically and genetically, and despite billions of dollars of trade flowing across the Sea of Japan (the Koreans hate that name by the way), I'm often struck at how little understanding there is between the two countries. A couple of years ago, there was an interesting show on TV called "Japanese! This is wrong!" in which foreigners who speak Japanese talk about various aspects of life in Japan. On a special episode of this show, Koreans and Japanese openly discussed the issues between the two countries. Koreans object to Japan's unwillingness to show real reflection over past crimes committed. "They've apologized, but they don't know what they're apologizing for," said one South Korean living in Japan. Trips by the Japanese Prime Minister to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's wartime leaders are interred -- making it a sort of Iwo Jima memorial and birthplace of Adolf Hitler all rolled into one -- also cause anger between Japan and Korea. For Japan's part, they point out that they have abided by peace treaties signed at the end of the war, including those calling for reparations, and have on numerous occasions apologized for their past cruel acts. They feel that the events of World War II and before are far enough in the past that Koreans should stop dwelling so much on what happened -- although I have yet to hear the "it happened a long time ago" discussion ever applied to Hiroshima. Thanks to the co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup as well as recent cultural cross-pollination (Korean singer Boa is really popular in Japan now, and comedian Kusanagi of SMAP learned Korean and made a name for himself over there), I have a lot of hope for a brighter future between these two nations.
Japanese sports fans have a new idol: British soccer player David Beckham, who is the hottest thing on TV right now, appearing in commercials for everything from chocolates to Tokyo Beauty Clinic, a chain of hair salons in Tokyo. Cellular phone company J-Phone, owned by Vodaphone, implies that you should carry a phone with a built-in camera in case you should find yourself next to Beckham in the supermarket (so you can snap your picture with him). The bottle of Pepsi that I'm drinking as I type these words has a bottle cap with a little replica of Beckham's Adidas shoe on it. Even my wife, usually a fan of Japanese soccer player Nakata (who plays in Italy, and whose ratings always shoot up when he appears on Japanese TV speaking Italian), has gone quite ga-ga with Beckham-mania.
Do you have a cat's tongue? If so, it means that you can't eat hot food or drink hot drinks, just like a cat. The Japanese say that anyone who avoids hot food has a cat's tongue (neko jita). What is you have lazy eye? If so, then you are "rom-pari" which is Japanese for "Rome, Paris" -- i.e. one eye is looking at Rome and the other is looking at Paris. If you're thinning on top, you might have "bar code hair," as the Japanese say. And if you sneeze, the Japanese say that someone must be gossiping about you (this comes up in anime quite often).
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that J-List makes dozens of magazines available through our "reserve subscription" system. Basically, we'll pre-reserve the current issue of each month's magazine for you and have it in the mail to you by the time it's in bookstores here in Japan -- a few days earlier, actually, since we get our stock earlier than most bookstores. We've got many different anime, toy, JPOP/JROCK, idol, manga, toy and other magazines available, we just know there's something you'd love to get each month. See the magazine subscription pages on our site for more information.
We got several responses to our mention of TV Champion and their origami competition. If you'd like to see some really nice origami creations that were made by one of the participants in the episode of TV Champion that I had seen, his homepage is here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~qr7s-kmy/index.html (Japanese with English on the page)
It's been said that South Korea is "the nearest country and yet the farthest away" from Japan. Despite being extremely close to one another geographically and genetically, and despite billions of dollars of trade flowing across the Sea of Japan (the Koreans hate that name by the way), I'm often struck at how little understanding there is between the two countries. A couple of years ago, there was an interesting show on TV called "Japanese! This is wrong!" in which foreigners who speak Japanese talk about various aspects of life in Japan. On a special episode of this show, Koreans and Japanese openly discussed the issues between the two countries. Koreans object to Japan's unwillingness to show real reflection over past crimes committed. "They've apologized, but they don't know what they're apologizing for," said one South Korean living in Japan. Trips by the Japanese Prime Minister to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan's wartime leaders are interred -- making it a sort of Iwo Jima memorial and birthplace of Adolf Hitler all rolled into one -- also cause anger between Japan and Korea. For Japan's part, they point out that they have abided by peace treaties signed at the end of the war, including those calling for reparations, and have on numerous occasions apologized for their past cruel acts. They feel that the events of World War II and before are far enough in the past that Koreans should stop dwelling so much on what happened -- although I have yet to hear the "it happened a long time ago" discussion ever applied to Hiroshima. Thanks to the co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup as well as recent cultural cross-pollination (Korean singer Boa is really popular in Japan now, and comedian Kusanagi of SMAP learned Korean and made a name for himself over there), I have a lot of hope for a brighter future between these two nations.
Japanese sports fans have a new idol: British soccer player David Beckham, who is the hottest thing on TV right now, appearing in commercials for everything from chocolates to Tokyo Beauty Clinic, a chain of hair salons in Tokyo. Cellular phone company J-Phone, owned by Vodaphone, implies that you should carry a phone with a built-in camera in case you should find yourself next to Beckham in the supermarket (so you can snap your picture with him). The bottle of Pepsi that I'm drinking as I type these words has a bottle cap with a little replica of Beckham's Adidas shoe on it. Even my wife, usually a fan of Japanese soccer player Nakata (who plays in Italy, and whose ratings always shoot up when he appears on Japanese TV speaking Italian), has gone quite ga-ga with Beckham-mania.
Do you have a cat's tongue? If so, it means that you can't eat hot food or drink hot drinks, just like a cat. The Japanese say that anyone who avoids hot food has a cat's tongue (neko jita). What is you have lazy eye? If so, then you are "rom-pari" which is Japanese for "Rome, Paris" -- i.e. one eye is looking at Rome and the other is looking at Paris. If you're thinning on top, you might have "bar code hair," as the Japanese say. And if you sneeze, the Japanese say that someone must be gossiping about you (this comes up in anime quite often).
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for fans of our unique Japanese snack foods, we've got a delicious raspberry Pocky snack, a fun milk pudding snack and more furikake, which you eat by sprinkling over white rice
- We carry Japanese Pocky treats in the cooler months -- summer is approaching, but we've gotten in a few boxes of Coconut Pocky, one of my personal favorites
- Also, healthy Japanese "doki-dami" tea, used for dieting and eliminating poisons from the body
- For fans of Japanese toys, we've got some nice items, including a deluxe high-end figure of Polno Dianno from Bastard!!
- For fans of Takara's Licca fashion doll collection, we've got some super-cute mini dolls based on popular dolls released 30 years ago
- Also, we stock the Japanese Hot Wheels, which are licensed Hot Wheels cars sold only in Japan -- look for the Kamen Rider Black RX Rideron in stock now
- Japan's Race Queens and Campaign Girls are super cute -- see dozens of beautiful gals in a new issue of Gal's Paradise, including coverage of the 2003 Tokyo Auto Show girls, too
- The works of Shirow Masamune are incredibly popular right now -- and we've got two excellent works in stock, the color animation comics for Ghost in the Shell, and the Illust & Data book for Appleseed, as well as fresh stock of his bilingual Ghost in the Shell comic
- For anyone studying Japanese, J-List is here to help you -- we've got a cool dictionary of four-character vocabulary words that's fun to read and study
- Also, look for reduced prices on the handy Canon Wordtank IDC-300
- For fans of Japanese soba, we've restocked our soba trays, very traditional and cool
- For Hello Kitty fans, a really beautiful "aromatic lamp" that carries a beautiful aroma throughout your room
- For fans of the wonderful miniature toys that are so popular right now, we've stocked individual boxes of the Family Restaurant and Famous Desserts series
- We've restocked several popular DVD titles, including the runaway hit Samurai Fiction, the Oh! Mikey first DVD, and more -- if you've got a region free player and want to enjoy bold and interesting DVDs from Japan, J-List has plenty of cool stuff for you
- We've got some cool "Japanese health sandals," indoor/outdoor slippers that message your feet from below while you walk on them
- For fans of our lineup of authentic Japanese bento boxes, we've got a new super i.Kotoba series bento set that comes with bento box, chopsticks, chopstick holder and a high-quality cloth bag with zipper to carry it all
- Finally, look for more handy Japanese accessories, Japanese origami paper, fresh stock of onigiri makers and Hello Kitty items for your kitchen, fresh stock of miso soup, 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 ones, including the new issue of Top Speed, featuring lovely and famous AV idols and also embarrassing pictures of famous stars before they were famous (including Yuka)
- Also, we've got the new issue of Shuffle, which features real Japanese amateurs in love hotels
- Also, see the hardcore sex of Akari Yamasaki in a new erotic photobook, which comes with a life-sized poster
- Also, a superb new issue of Minisuka Deluxe, the dynamite perfect-bound magazine dedicated to fans of stocking, panty and mini-skirt fetish from japan
- We've got some excellent glossy nude hardcover photobooks, including the next in Garo Aida's "Imoto" series, with the lovely Ai posing for the famous photographer
- Look for some great hentai manga in stock as well, including a new hentai comic by Sengoku-kun (creator of the Cambrion doujinshi series)
- Also, doujinshi and manga with "dick girl" themes are always a popular item, and we've restocked the popular Shemale Behavior doujinshi books for you to enjoy
- For fans of erotic DVDs from Japan, we've got some great new items for you, starting with a new The Idol series DVD from Kuki, featuring 200 minutes of the lovely sex of Ayaka Oishi (region free)
- For fans of Russian girls, we've got a super new offering featuring three beautiful girls from Moscow who will knock your socks off (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, a great new "Hand Job Clinic" series DVD for fans of tekoki fetish and nurse fetish (region free)
- Also, a deluxe DVD from SOD featuring 120 minutes of the best "gokkun" (swallowing) by four lovely AV actresses (region free)
- For fans of the high-end lesbian sex of Queer and U&K, we've got another great DVD, featuring the lovemaking of Chinatsu Nakano and Yuka Natsuki (region all)
- For fans of Akira Watase's pouting sexuality, we've got a great new work from Wanz Factory featuring her superb "wet sex" (region 2)
- We carry uncensored hentai DVDs in our San Diego office, and have posted several excellent new works, including the DVD boxed sets of Fragile Hearts (region 1)
- Finally, find fresh stock of several popular DVD titles, including Lesbian Fight, more lesbian kissing, and the fun "Touching Breasts for the First Time" DVD from Soft on Demand. And don't forget our Spring DVD sale!
Remember that J-List makes dozens of magazines available through our "reserve subscription" system. Basically, we'll pre-reserve the current issue of each month's magazine for you and have it in the mail to you by the time it's in bookstores here in Japan -- a few days earlier, actually, since we get our stock earlier than most bookstores. We've got many different anime, toy, JPOP/JROCK, idol, manga, toy and other magazines available, we just know there's something you'd love to get each month. See the magazine subscription pages on our site for more information.
We got several responses to our mention of TV Champion and their origami competition. If you'd like to see some really nice origami creations that were made by one of the participants in the episode of TV Champion that I had seen, his homepage is here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~qr7s-kmy/index.html (Japanese with English on the page)
Monday, April 07, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 7, 2003
Hello from Japan, the country with tartar sauce flavored corn chips!
First of all, the main J-List site was down for about 45 minutes. We caught the problem and put it back up again. Later in the evening, there was an unrelated problem with the J-List images server, which caused product images to not appear on the J-List site for 90 minutes or so. We're sorry for the inconvenience!
Today my daughter Rina entered the First Grade, a very proud day for my wife and I. Japan is a very education-oriented country, with a very strong sense of the need to educate children so that they can grow up and be happy and productive members of the Japanese society. At school, Japanese children start to learn all subjects, including shakai (social studies), sansuu (math), and kokugo ("national language," e.g. Japanese). Japan is a very ordered place, of course, and there is usually only one way to do a certain thing -- one way to put your school backpack in your cubbyhole, one way to sit at your desk, one route to go home after school -- some of which is frankly a little strange to my American individualistic sensibilities. This Japanese sameness doesn't just extend to the prefecture that we live in -- since almost all facets of education in Japan are specified by the Education Ministry in Tokyo, this "one way of doing things" system extends from Hokkaido to Okinawa. My daughter is something of unique girl, more American than Japanese, and she does things her own way, at her own pace -- something the Japanese call "Going My Way." There's more than a little anxiety in my wife and I that the various things that make our daughter so special will be damaged by the insistence on uniformity in the Japanese school system.
One of our favorite TV shows in Japan is TV Champion, a show that organizes interesting competitions and films the results. In one show teams of carpenters were given three days and a limited budget to remodel hundred year old houses. Cameras followed the two teams as they worked furiously, but with beautiful results in the end. In another show, artists created different works of art using origami paper, with the winner creating a fabulous "Planet of the Cranes" display with prehistoric origami cranes slowly evolving into super-intelligent space-faring cranes in four stages. Other shows feature sushi eating competitions, exotic cake decoration competitions, Disney trivia challenges and more -- every week is a new treat.
Well, the new wacky Japanese T-shirts we posted last Friday are sure selling well! It makes us very happy to see our bizarre and fun Japanese T-shirts proving so popular. Remember that we're having a $1 shipping sale on all our T-shirts, so you pay just $1 for shipping to the U.S. or Canada (international customers pay just $3). Don't forget that you get an extra 10% off if you buy 3 or more.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
Remember that J-List carries virtually all English-language Japanese dating-sim games available, so you can find all the best games in one place, and at great prices. Peach Princess, G-Collections, Hobibox Europe, Himeya Soft, JAST USA and Milky House, we've got them all and all are in stock in our warehouse in San Diego. If you're unsure which games you think you'd like, feel free to email us for a recommendation! Order 4 or more games and get 20% off, too!
Also, remember that J-List has a great assortment of interesting and bizarre gum from Japan, from the runaway best-selling gum Black Black (per number of units, the best-selling single product in J-List's hitory), delicious Xylitol Hyper Cool (a sugarless caffeine gum), delicious melon gum and "No Time" (gum which brushes your teeth for you). Check out the Japanese Gum page now!
First of all, the main J-List site was down for about 45 minutes. We caught the problem and put it back up again. Later in the evening, there was an unrelated problem with the J-List images server, which caused product images to not appear on the J-List site for 90 minutes or so. We're sorry for the inconvenience!
Today my daughter Rina entered the First Grade, a very proud day for my wife and I. Japan is a very education-oriented country, with a very strong sense of the need to educate children so that they can grow up and be happy and productive members of the Japanese society. At school, Japanese children start to learn all subjects, including shakai (social studies), sansuu (math), and kokugo ("national language," e.g. Japanese). Japan is a very ordered place, of course, and there is usually only one way to do a certain thing -- one way to put your school backpack in your cubbyhole, one way to sit at your desk, one route to go home after school -- some of which is frankly a little strange to my American individualistic sensibilities. This Japanese sameness doesn't just extend to the prefecture that we live in -- since almost all facets of education in Japan are specified by the Education Ministry in Tokyo, this "one way of doing things" system extends from Hokkaido to Okinawa. My daughter is something of unique girl, more American than Japanese, and she does things her own way, at her own pace -- something the Japanese call "Going My Way." There's more than a little anxiety in my wife and I that the various things that make our daughter so special will be damaged by the insistence on uniformity in the Japanese school system.
One of our favorite TV shows in Japan is TV Champion, a show that organizes interesting competitions and films the results. In one show teams of carpenters were given three days and a limited budget to remodel hundred year old houses. Cameras followed the two teams as they worked furiously, but with beautiful results in the end. In another show, artists created different works of art using origami paper, with the winner creating a fabulous "Planet of the Cranes" display with prehistoric origami cranes slowly evolving into super-intelligent space-faring cranes in four stages. Other shows feature sushi eating competitions, exotic cake decoration competitions, Disney trivia challenges and more -- every week is a new treat.
Well, the new wacky Japanese T-shirts we posted last Friday are sure selling well! It makes us very happy to see our bizarre and fun Japanese T-shirts proving so popular. Remember that we're having a $1 shipping sale on all our T-shirts, so you pay just $1 for shipping to the U.S. or Canada (international customers pay just $3). Don't forget that you get an extra 10% off if you buy 3 or more.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Dragonball fans, we've got vol. 1-4 of the deluxe re-releases of the original Dragonball manga, in a great wide format with many extras for fans -- get them all as a set!
- For fans of Japanese film on DVD, we've got a superb new work in stock for you, complete with English subtitles: Tokyo.Sora, an interesting collage of the lives of six girls living in Tokyo (region 2)
- For fans of the popular My Neighbor Totoro music boxes, enjoy a new offering, featuring Totoro holding a giant flower while Sho Totoro looks on
- For fans of Takara's superb Blythe fashion doll series, a deluxe pair of new dolls that come with many accessories and a magical pop-up backdrop -- they are so stylish and cool!
- For fans of Tomy's unique die-cast cars that are the same scale as Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars, we've got some new vehicles in stock, including a Japanese mail truck and more
- For fans of Japanese snack treats, we've got many great items, including delicious "raw type" miso soup with spinach, tasty dried squid to eat, and fresh stock of some popular traditional Japanese candies
- For those interested in exploring Japanese health related products, we recommend Japanese and Chinese teas, which we've added various stock of today (good for dieting too)
- For Hello Kitty fans, we've got some cute snack items in stock for you, including a new series of Kitty lollipops, and a fantastic Kitty strawberry mint that includes a refillable case and a little Kitty charm that actually hands you the mints -- it's so cute
- If you love Tokyo Mew Mew, the cute anime show from Japan, we've restocked our Tokyo Mew Mew "free notebooks" (notebooks that you can draw or write anything in)
- Also, we've got fresh stock of the very popular Tokyo Mew Mew pins that sold out in record time, and more Tokyo Mew Mew wafer cookies with stickers
- We love to carry the meticulously crafted miniature toys from Japan
- For bento fans, we've got several new bento items in stock for you, including a new double-decker bento box and a new Hamster Club bento set as well
- We've restocked our popular Paper Stitch Lock, a cool device that "stitches" sheets of paper together so you never need staples
- Finally, look for a cute money bank that looks like a Japanese mailbox, fresh stock of our popular portable ash trays (for smokers who want to practice what Japan Tobacco's TV commercials call "Smoking Clean"), fresh stock of onigiri seasoning and furikake for white rice, new Japanese signs and handy keychains, and more!
- For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- We've got a new issue of the wonderful KARAMI, which features a single lovely model on each page of a full magazine, in this case the lovely Megu Anrai
- For fans of Japanese hardcore magazines that show kogals and amateurs in love hotels, we've got some great items for you, including the new Sen Nin Giri and "I'll Love You"
- If you love Japan's gorgeous Race Queens, see the all-too-sexy Miki Munemasa (MOO-nay-MAH-sah) in a super new sexy hardcover photobook
- Also, the lovely 19 year old "Lost Virgin" of Tokyo Rich Girl Tokiwa Sakurako
- For fans of Japan's highly-developed erotic manga, we've got several great volumes, including Grifon's uncensored "Condensed Milky" and the super erotic "Space Nurse Peperon"
- Also, fresh stock of some great manga volumes including the Denno Butto Musume (Electronic Fighting Girls) doujinshi anthologies, which compile dozens of great game girl hentai doujinshi into perfect-bound
- Also, fresh stock of the beautiful "Girl's Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall" art book by Mamito Tayama
- For fans of adult DVDs, we've got some great new items for you, starting with a Kuki Special Remix with 240 minutes of prime AV for you (region free)
- Fans of Azumi Kawashima can enjoy a great new release of her best works, including a collection of "off shots" (funny and cute moments when she didn't know the camera was rolling) (region free)
- Chisaki Aihara performs lesbian sex for the first time in a new "Forbidden Private Garden" release -- great for fans of "yuri" lesbian themes (region free)
- In Japanese, "NG" is short for "no good" and refers to bloopers during filming -- enjoy a great DVD from SOD's IEnergy label featuring embarrassing and funny moments from Ai Nagase's long career (region free)
- Enjoy the erotic bukkake "Semen Fight Club" DVD series from Audaz, two separate DVDs for fans of bukkake fighting and the lovely Aoi Fubuki (region 2)
- Finally look for fresh stock of great DVDs like Aika Miura's 180-minute "Fantastic" DVD, Alice Japan's best of 2003 special, and the popular Euro Angels (for fans of East European and Russian AV, very popular in Japan right now).
Remember that J-List carries virtually all English-language Japanese dating-sim games available, so you can find all the best games in one place, and at great prices. Peach Princess, G-Collections, Hobibox Europe, Himeya Soft, JAST USA and Milky House, we've got them all and all are in stock in our warehouse in San Diego. If you're unsure which games you think you'd like, feel free to email us for a recommendation! Order 4 or more games and get 20% off, too!
Also, remember that J-List has a great assortment of interesting and bizarre gum from Japan, from the runaway best-selling gum Black Black (per number of units, the best-selling single product in J-List's hitory), delicious Xylitol Hyper Cool (a sugarless caffeine gum), delicious melon gum and "No Time" (gum which brushes your teeth for you). Check out the Japanese Gum page now!
Friday, April 04, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 4, 2003
Hello from Japan, where the Mazda Miyata is known as the Mazda Roadster, but through unlucky phonetic accident, 99% of Japanese think it's called "Road Star."
Japan is a great place to live, although it's very different from the U.S. Certain concepts that are taken for granted around the world don't really function here. One is the concept that the house you live in has value and the value goes up over time. In Japan, land has value, and if you buy land that has a house on it already, you nearly always tear it down a build a new one -- who would want to live in a "used" house? Getting my Japanese wife to believe that our house in San Diego would go up in value and was an investment for the future was a real challenge. The movement of prices is also quite different in Japan compared with in the U.S. Japan has always been a country that operated on the odd economical principal that "the inflation rate is low, but the prices are high to begin with." True enough, for most of the past twelve years, I haven't witnessed prices going up for anything at all -- and with the beginning of Japan's deflationary problems about three years ago, the prices from many items from Internet access to sushi to beef bowl are actually going down.
For one reason or another, some phrases in English have burned themselves on the collective consciousness of the Japanese, and are quite famous here. If you want to show your knowledge of Japan, pull out one of these phrases and watch the eyes of Japanese go wide with surprise. When an American named Dr. Clark (universally known as "Clark-hakase" HA-KA-say) went to Sapporo to help establish what would become Sapporo University, he left behind the following advice to his Japanese hosts: "Boys, be ambitious!" (i.e., strive to achieve excellence in all that you do). These three words are studied by all Japanese, and somehow manage to pop up all over the place in one form or another -- there's even a manga series called "Boys Be..." that is based on this phrase. When pop singer Momoe Yamaguchi retired from singing, she sang a tearful song to her fans that went "Thank you for your kindness...thank you for your tenderness" and as a result, virtually all Japanese over 30 know this famous phrase. Famous speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln ("Government for the people, by the people, and of the people") are studied in school the same way we study Shakespeare in the U.S., too.
At J-List we've enjoyed great success thanks to the support of our wonderful customers like you -- thank you! Sadly, not all the companies we do business with in Japan are so blessed, and sometimes distributors we buy products from go bankrupt. Mitsuboshi, a large toy distributor in Tokyo with over 100 employees, sent us a fax yesterday announcing that they were ceasing business operations. They'd fallen on hard times ever since Toys "R" Us entered Japan in the 1990's, turning the Japanese toy business on its ear, and were also hurt by their old-style business practices, which were fine for the 1970's but hardly suitable for the 21st century. We hope the employees of the company are successful at finding new jobs.
Our special $1 shipping sale on T-shirts is proving extremely popular with customers, and we've sold more T-shirts in a few days than we usually sell in a week. We've got two new designs for you -- a wacky shirt capturing the uniquely Japanese Emergency Exit sign, and another with a great slogan of "Baka Gaijin" (stupid foreigner). Also, a stylish new color is in stock for fans of our newly posted "Beware of Perverts" shirt, too. Don't forget, buy 3 or more and get 10% off too! We hope you love the fresh and wacky T-shirts we've got for you.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Don't forget that J-List has a super sale right now for fans of DVDs from Japan: buy 4 or more DVD titles, and get 15% off! Since J-List has hundreds of fabulous titles in stock -- would you believe we've got over 700 different DVDs? -- we know there are some great items waiting for you to find them. The 15% sale covers *all* the great DVDs we stock!
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.
Japan is a great place to live, although it's very different from the U.S. Certain concepts that are taken for granted around the world don't really function here. One is the concept that the house you live in has value and the value goes up over time. In Japan, land has value, and if you buy land that has a house on it already, you nearly always tear it down a build a new one -- who would want to live in a "used" house? Getting my Japanese wife to believe that our house in San Diego would go up in value and was an investment for the future was a real challenge. The movement of prices is also quite different in Japan compared with in the U.S. Japan has always been a country that operated on the odd economical principal that "the inflation rate is low, but the prices are high to begin with." True enough, for most of the past twelve years, I haven't witnessed prices going up for anything at all -- and with the beginning of Japan's deflationary problems about three years ago, the prices from many items from Internet access to sushi to beef bowl are actually going down.
For one reason or another, some phrases in English have burned themselves on the collective consciousness of the Japanese, and are quite famous here. If you want to show your knowledge of Japan, pull out one of these phrases and watch the eyes of Japanese go wide with surprise. When an American named Dr. Clark (universally known as "Clark-hakase" HA-KA-say) went to Sapporo to help establish what would become Sapporo University, he left behind the following advice to his Japanese hosts: "Boys, be ambitious!" (i.e., strive to achieve excellence in all that you do). These three words are studied by all Japanese, and somehow manage to pop up all over the place in one form or another -- there's even a manga series called "Boys Be..." that is based on this phrase. When pop singer Momoe Yamaguchi retired from singing, she sang a tearful song to her fans that went "Thank you for your kindness...thank you for your tenderness" and as a result, virtually all Japanese over 30 know this famous phrase. Famous speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln ("Government for the people, by the people, and of the people") are studied in school the same way we study Shakespeare in the U.S., too.
At J-List we've enjoyed great success thanks to the support of our wonderful customers like you -- thank you! Sadly, not all the companies we do business with in Japan are so blessed, and sometimes distributors we buy products from go bankrupt. Mitsuboshi, a large toy distributor in Tokyo with over 100 employees, sent us a fax yesterday announcing that they were ceasing business operations. They'd fallen on hard times ever since Toys "R" Us entered Japan in the 1990's, turning the Japanese toy business on its ear, and were also hurt by their old-style business practices, which were fine for the 1970's but hardly suitable for the 21st century. We hope the employees of the company are successful at finding new jobs.
Our special $1 shipping sale on T-shirts is proving extremely popular with customers, and we've sold more T-shirts in a few days than we usually sell in a week. We've got two new designs for you -- a wacky shirt capturing the uniquely Japanese Emergency Exit sign, and another with a great slogan of "Baka Gaijin" (stupid foreigner). Also, a stylish new color is in stock for fans of our newly posted "Beware of Perverts" shirt, too. Don't forget, buy 3 or more and get 10% off too! We hope you love the fresh and wacky T-shirts we've got for you.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- We love the miniature toys from Japan that are so popular -- and we've got a great set of six authentic Japanese trains rendered in great detail, and all pre-painted -- and full sets of this great series are in stock and available for you to buy!
- The sushi and Chinese food miniatures we posted on Wednesday proved very popular -- we've added stock of the Chinese food sets today, and more sushi are on their way (you can order the full set if you like and we'll send it to you when they come back in stock)
- Also, fresh stock of two popular items in the same series: delicious Japanese desserts and family restaurant dishes!
- For fans of Japanese snacks and food, we've got some great items, including ebisen shrimp crackers, Astro Boy boil-in-bag curry, and more
- Also, for fans of delicious and healthy miso soup, we've got miso in stock, both Tokyo and Osaka style
- For Hello Kitty and Sanrio fans, enjoy a fun package of character candy, almost too cute to eat, as well as a cool Kitty Photo Frame Magnet in stock
- We love Totoro and Sun Arrow's line of licensed high-quality Studio Ghibli toys -- see two new plushes in stock, from Totoro and Spirited Away
- Also, look for fresh stock of the popular Studio Ghibli music boxes, including the Kodama from Princess Mononoke
- We've got some cool anime cards sold only in Japan, too, including Tokyo Mew Mew and Inuyasha
- For fans of Shirow Masamune's new Ghost in the Shell anime series, we've got vol. 4 in stock with you, featuring the 7th and 8th episodes of this incredibly popular animation (region 2)
- Also, we've restocked the popular high-end designed computer mice by Shirow Masamune and Hajime Katoki -- check them out
- We've gotten in two nice bento boxes that are of large size and good for hungry eaters, and come complete with chopsticks
- Also, for fans of our traditional Japanese items, we've got a traditional tray and two miso bowls in stock for you
- We've got fresh stock of cool portable ashtrays for those who smoke but want to protect nature
- Finally, look for cute keychains for Paddington fans, delicious Mill Make chocolate milk mix that's a favorite of Japanese school children, authentic Japanese chopsticks, and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- First, we've got some great Japanese adult magazines for you including the new Gal's Dee, just loaded with beautiful and busty Japanese AV stars like Cocolo and Honey Morimura and Mai Haruna
- Also, the new issue of Bjam, a super amateur magazine featuring real kogals picked up off the street and taken to love hotels
- The new issue of Bachelor is in, for fans of really busty women from Russia, Eastern Europe, America and Japan -- this is a special Yulia Nova pin-up issue!
- Also, a new issue of Anal Shower, a great gouka-bon format photobook featuring some lovely anal girls
- For fans of Japanese photobooks, we've got some great items, including the sweet nude of Akiho Yoshizawa and a bizarre and fun leg fetish S&M photobook
- For hentai manga collectors, enjoy the new volumes we've got for you today, including Mamoru Hayakawa's "Lecherous Noble Lady" and the very erotic "Shake" by Mujin Comics
- Also look for fresh stock of many manga volumes, including the Pururun Seminar series!
- Also, we've stocked some new doujinshi for you, recently released volumes, although stock is very limited!
- For DVD fans, we've got some great items for you, starting with a great Azumi Kawashima re-release DVD at a "thanks price" (region free)
- For fans of the popular European Girls adult DVDs, we've got a super new one, Japanese men vs. beautiful Berlin Girls of Germany -- they will knock your socks off! (region free)
- For fans of the sultry Ran Asakawa, enjoy super erotic performances in authentic fuzoku (soaplands) in Tokyo (region free)
- There are thousands of beautiful girls dying to break into the professional AV world, and in a new SOD project, you can see how far they're willing to go in the SOD AV idol job interviews (region free)
- The Black Semen series from Moodyz, which pits beautiful Japanese girls against a room full of big black guys from Los Angeles, continues, this time featuring the lovely Kirari Koizumi as the lovely target (region 2)
- See the double lesbian kogals Reiko Kikuchi and Ria Nanase in an incredible slutty performance that shows some of the great innovation of Japan's indies studios (region 2)
- Finally, we've got a great restocking of popular DVDs for you, including Oshiri Factory, Let's Lesbian vol. 2, Kuru Milk 2003, the new Sperm Lesbian, and the oh-so-popular Testicles Kick of Amateur Girls, for fans of the Japanese ball-kicking fetish known as tamekeri!
Don't forget that J-List has a super sale right now for fans of DVDs from Japan: buy 4 or more DVD titles, and get 15% off! Since J-List has hundreds of fabulous titles in stock -- would you believe we've got over 700 different DVDs? -- we know there are some great items waiting for you to find them. The 15% sale covers *all* the great DVDs we stock!
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.
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Greetings from J-List April 2, 2003
Hello from Japan, where a corn dog is known universally as an "American Dog."
For a country that loves English enough to make cars named Mazda Bongo Friendy and Mitsubishi Bravo Exceed and Nissan Sunny, you'd think there'd be a lot of English in use here. Well, outside of people who happen to work alongside foreigners in special jobs (like the Japanese staff of J-List), there isn't any more English in daily use in Japan than there is French in the U.S. Although every can of beer and canned coffee has a decorative English description on it -- "Sapporo beer is made from the finest hops for a delicious taste and refinement" -- you'd be surprised how easy it is to find yourself standing on a train platform in rural Japan with not a single sign in English telling you which train to get on. Since I read Japanese, I tend not to notice it that much, but whenever I've got friends from the U.S. out for a visit, I realize how difficult little things like getting around the country can be. The Japanese do their best to promote "internationalization" but it can be a tall order for them, especially as you move away from cities like Tokyo.
To successfully study a language, one thing you need to do beyond learning the grammar and vocabulary is to craft overall strategies for communication, even if it means using hand gestures or drawing pictures to show meaning. One strategy for communication that's used by Japanese when speaking English (and by me at times, in Japanese), is the non sequitur, a reply that can be used as a response to just about any question, whether you understood it or not. Back in my bachelor days, I went to a live orchestra performance and was surprised to hear that the organizers had "randomly" chosen three people from the audience to get up and conduct the orchestra: a cute old woman, a little girl, and funny American, namely me. I got up on the conductors podium, trying to ignore the hundreds of people with their eyes focused on me, and lead the Maebashi Philharmonic Orchestra in the first few bars of Beethoven's 5th. I only got a little ways into the music, because my total lack of timing caused the musicians to ground to a halt soon after they started. When I was done, the MC asked me some questions about where I was from, how I liked my first time conducting an orchestra, and...something else, that I didn't happen to catch. Rather than embarrass myself in front of so many people by asking the MC to repeat herself, I gave her an answer that would fit just about anywhere in Japanese: "So desu ne" (literally "Yes, that's is so"). I hope I fooled her.
Cellular phones are ubiquitous in Japan, with people from all walks of life from elementary school students to the elderly carrying them. Japanese phones are quite advanced and cool to look at, and virtually all have full color screens. NTT DoCoMo and competing companies let you surf the web (or a subset of the web, at least) with your phone, and download Java-based applications like virtual idols and even dating-sim games to your phone. Phones can be programmed to replace your TV remote control, and phones with cameras and MP3 players built into them are quite common (some even record short MPEG-4 movies). Another up-and-coming application for phones is an alarm clock feature that gently wakes you up with natural sounds that crate alpha waves in your brain as you wake up. The 3G wars are heating up in Japan as well, with NTT's home-grown FOMA phone system going head to head against KDDI's system that's based on Qualcomm's CDMA. I personally prefer the CDMA phones, as they function as 3G phones near cities and as standard cellular phones when you're out of the 3G area.
We're proud and happy at the cult status our funny Japanese T-shirts, with messages like "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend," have attained. This month, we're offering a special $1 shipping sale, with shipping on all T-shirts to the U.S./Canada just $1 per shirt. (International customers pay just $3 per shirt.) This is a wonderful opportunity to get a whole bunch of our bizarre Japanese T-shirts and save a bunch of money on the shipping -- they make great gifts, too. All our shirts are 100% cotton quality T-shirts that are full U.S. sizes, and all are printed in the USA. If you're unsure about your size, you can click the "T-shirt sizes" link below each shirt description to see the measurements in inches and centimeters.
Also, announcing the Spring DVD sale! To say thanks for your past and current support of J-List, we're giving 15% off any four or more DVDs from Japan, with all the DVDs we sell included in the sale. To get the special discount, just add four or more DVDs to your shopping cart. The discount will be applied automatically at checkout. Thanks for helping to make J-List such a success!
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that J-List carries great region free DVD players, with three different models to choose from. Our lowest-priced model, the Sampo DVE-612, is a great buy and we recommend it for anyone wanting to play DVDs from different regions, as well as PAL discs from Europe. Unfortunately the 60 or so units of the DVE-612 we've got in stock are the last we'll be getting, so if you want one of these great players we recommend that you hurry. Also, we're backordered on the OITO small-footprint players and hope to get them in within 2 weeks or so. We've got plenty of the Cyberhome progressive scan player in stock.
Also, we carry all the current varieties of Glico's delicious Pocky chocolate pretzel snack. Unfortunately, summer is a hot and humid time in Japan, and chocolate melts, so we're unable to carry Pocky after May 15 or so. If you want some delicious Japanese Pocky, order it now!
For a country that loves English enough to make cars named Mazda Bongo Friendy and Mitsubishi Bravo Exceed and Nissan Sunny, you'd think there'd be a lot of English in use here. Well, outside of people who happen to work alongside foreigners in special jobs (like the Japanese staff of J-List), there isn't any more English in daily use in Japan than there is French in the U.S. Although every can of beer and canned coffee has a decorative English description on it -- "Sapporo beer is made from the finest hops for a delicious taste and refinement" -- you'd be surprised how easy it is to find yourself standing on a train platform in rural Japan with not a single sign in English telling you which train to get on. Since I read Japanese, I tend not to notice it that much, but whenever I've got friends from the U.S. out for a visit, I realize how difficult little things like getting around the country can be. The Japanese do their best to promote "internationalization" but it can be a tall order for them, especially as you move away from cities like Tokyo.
To successfully study a language, one thing you need to do beyond learning the grammar and vocabulary is to craft overall strategies for communication, even if it means using hand gestures or drawing pictures to show meaning. One strategy for communication that's used by Japanese when speaking English (and by me at times, in Japanese), is the non sequitur, a reply that can be used as a response to just about any question, whether you understood it or not. Back in my bachelor days, I went to a live orchestra performance and was surprised to hear that the organizers had "randomly" chosen three people from the audience to get up and conduct the orchestra: a cute old woman, a little girl, and funny American, namely me. I got up on the conductors podium, trying to ignore the hundreds of people with their eyes focused on me, and lead the Maebashi Philharmonic Orchestra in the first few bars of Beethoven's 5th. I only got a little ways into the music, because my total lack of timing caused the musicians to ground to a halt soon after they started. When I was done, the MC asked me some questions about where I was from, how I liked my first time conducting an orchestra, and...something else, that I didn't happen to catch. Rather than embarrass myself in front of so many people by asking the MC to repeat herself, I gave her an answer that would fit just about anywhere in Japanese: "So desu ne" (literally "Yes, that's is so"). I hope I fooled her.
Cellular phones are ubiquitous in Japan, with people from all walks of life from elementary school students to the elderly carrying them. Japanese phones are quite advanced and cool to look at, and virtually all have full color screens. NTT DoCoMo and competing companies let you surf the web (or a subset of the web, at least) with your phone, and download Java-based applications like virtual idols and even dating-sim games to your phone. Phones can be programmed to replace your TV remote control, and phones with cameras and MP3 players built into them are quite common (some even record short MPEG-4 movies). Another up-and-coming application for phones is an alarm clock feature that gently wakes you up with natural sounds that crate alpha waves in your brain as you wake up. The 3G wars are heating up in Japan as well, with NTT's home-grown FOMA phone system going head to head against KDDI's system that's based on Qualcomm's CDMA. I personally prefer the CDMA phones, as they function as 3G phones near cities and as standard cellular phones when you're out of the 3G area.
We're proud and happy at the cult status our funny Japanese T-shirts, with messages like "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend," have attained. This month, we're offering a special $1 shipping sale, with shipping on all T-shirts to the U.S./Canada just $1 per shirt. (International customers pay just $3 per shirt.) This is a wonderful opportunity to get a whole bunch of our bizarre Japanese T-shirts and save a bunch of money on the shipping -- they make great gifts, too. All our shirts are 100% cotton quality T-shirts that are full U.S. sizes, and all are printed in the USA. If you're unsure about your size, you can click the "T-shirt sizes" link below each shirt description to see the measurements in inches and centimeters.
Also, announcing the Spring DVD sale! To say thanks for your past and current support of J-List, we're giving 15% off any four or more DVDs from Japan, with all the DVDs we sell included in the sale. To get the special discount, just add four or more DVDs to your shopping cart. The discount will be applied automatically at checkout. Thanks for helping to make J-List such a success!
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- We're big fans of cool things from Japan, and we love the authentic miniature food replicas from Re-Ment. We've gotten stock of two cool miniature food series, Kaiten Zushi (sushi) and the authentic Chinese food of Yokohama's Chinatown district, with full sets available for you!
- For fans of Hayao Miyazaki's Totoro, we've got another excellent ceramic music box, super for collectors and very cute, as well as a major restocking of Studio Ghibli plush toys
- Also, a really cool item, a deck of high-quality playing cards for fans of Spirited Away
- J-List carries various anime and idol trading cards, and we've got the cool new series of You're Under Arrest in stock for you
- For Tokyo Mew Mew fans, a new series of chrome gold cloisonne pins (e.g. "pin badge" as they're known in Japanese)
- Also, we're big fans of the large-scale pre-painted anime statues that are so popular in Japan -- enjoy a beautiful cold cast figure from Love Hina, in stock now
- We've got some great Japanese food and snack items for you, including a deluxe package of Pucca fish-shaped chocolate-filled cookies, and authentic salmon chazuke, delicious food made with green tea that you sprinkle over white rice then eat as a soup -- yum
- Also, we've got two great varieties of tea, including tasty oolong tea bags Tochu tea, which absorbs sugar in your system (great for dieting)
- We love Japanese swimsuit idols and Race Queens, and have a great photobook for fans of Yui Ichikawa featuring the lovely girl modeling many Japanese high school uniforms in fold-out posters
- Also, for fans of Japanese swimsuit idols who want to sample the most beautiful, we've got a superb Hyper Product Revolution, featuring the sexy works of 14 famous idols including Yuko Ogura, Chinatsu Wakatsuki, Megumi, Eiko Koike, Harumi Nemoto, and more (region free)
- Look for fresh stock of several popular items by master illustrator Shirow Masamune, including his bilingual Ghost in the Shell manga and Jashin Hunter illustrated Japanese novels
- For fans of anime DVD from Japan, we've got the 5th and final DVD for She, the Ultimate Weapon, the popular anime OAV series that's released with full English subtitles (region 2)
- We love items with funny English on them, and have some cool pencil cases and other items for you today
- We've got a deluxe super-size bento box with included chopsticks, a great item for bento fans with hungry appetites
- We carry uncensored hentai anime DVDs in our San Diego office, and have several cool ones in stock for you, including Kamyla, Pure Mail, DNA Hunter and more -- see them all today
- We've got fresh stock of several cool sushi and kitchen related items, including Japanese miso soup bowls, sushi making molds and more
- Finally, look for cute "Pop Animal" items, more of the three-colored cat Japanese mirrors, fresh stock of the red-hot Hello Kitty block figures, Japanese bento items including cutters that make a sausage into a cute octopus for bento, some great Japanese study items, and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japan's popular adult magazines, we've got several nice items for fans of authentic Japanese amateurs, including Magazine Junk and I Want You to Look At Me
- Also, for fans of Japan's street kogal erotica, a new issue of Sen Nin Giri
- We just love Japan's gorgeous hardcover photobooks, filled with high quality glossy photos -- enjoy yet another red-hot Yuko Ogura item in stock today!
- For fans of Japan's beautiful nude photography, we've got a "Chinkame" format pocket sized photobook featuring the lovely Nao Oikawa
- For hentai manga fans, we've got some great new books in stock, including a new Excellent series anthology work featuring waitress uniform fetish themes, a superb bondage manga from Apple Comics and the ultimate "Manual of Maid Training" by Hit Comics
- We've also got a new comic for Japan's yaoi comic fans, by the talented Kazuna Uchida
- Also, for doujinshi fans, we've got a selection of new items for you, including the incredibly talented Galaxy 999 erotica of Q-Bit and cat girl hentai doujinshi
- If you love the popular Viper hentai games from Sonya, we've got the new Viper RSR art book back in stock for you
- Also, don't miss out on getting Hana Fuda, a supremely illustrated erotic story told in glossy color pages
- We've also posted G-Taste Vol. 6 for preorder, for fans of Hiroki Yagami's popular hentai illustrations
- For our DVD fans, we've got many great new items for you, starting with the sweet sex of Sora Aoi (whose name means "blue sky"), one of our favorite Japanese "good girl" idols (region free)
- Enjoy the bukkake of the Japanese-style beauty Miki Amatsuka in a new release from Soft on Demand (region free)
- Also from SOD, the lovely Kokoro Amano experiences her first lesbian sex in a super release featuring man innovative concepts including plastic wrap and filming from below through plexiglass (region free)
- We're big fans of Sayaka Tsutsumi's cute face and erotic sexual performance style -- enjoy a super new "gorgeous actress meets semen shower" release from Moodyz, featuring some of her best bukkake work ever (region 2)
- From Audaz enjoy the lovely bukkake works of Ami Hinata featuring some of the incredible action that made this company so famous in Japan
- Finally, look for various newly restocked DVD titles from Japan's top indies and pro studios!
Remember that J-List carries great region free DVD players, with three different models to choose from. Our lowest-priced model, the Sampo DVE-612, is a great buy and we recommend it for anyone wanting to play DVDs from different regions, as well as PAL discs from Europe. Unfortunately the 60 or so units of the DVE-612 we've got in stock are the last we'll be getting, so if you want one of these great players we recommend that you hurry. Also, we're backordered on the OITO small-footprint players and hope to get them in within 2 weeks or so. We've got plenty of the Cyberhome progressive scan player in stock.
Also, we carry all the current varieties of Glico's delicious Pocky chocolate pretzel snack. Unfortunately, summer is a hot and humid time in Japan, and chocolate melts, so we're unable to carry Pocky after May 15 or so. If you want some delicious Japanese Pocky, order it now!
Monday, March 31, 2003
Greetings from J-List March 31, 2003
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