Greetings from J-List May 9, 2003

Hello from Japan, where the restaurant chain Coco's bills itself as "The California Restaurant."

There's a famous face game that Japanese kids play, making Japanese foods with their faces. They foods are gyoza (which you may know by its American name "pot stickers"), made by bending the ear downwards; tako-yaki ("octopus balls," a ball of batter with a piece of octopus meat inside), made by pinching your cheek into a round ball; ume-boshi (dried, tart plum), made by making bumps on your chin stand up; and tarako (codfish roe), made by shaping your tongue like a slab of fish eggs. These are interesting faces that all Japanese know and recognize instantly. To see what they look like in action, we got unwilling J-List staff members to show us the faces. You can see them here: http://www.jlist.com/c3/faces.jpg

The Japanese do love tests. In addition to their world-famous college entrance exams, the Japanese have standardized tests for just about everything, with levels that are similar to the belt colors in karate and judo. Just about every subject, from abacus to waapro (word processing) to accounting have national tests that students and adults are encouraged to study for and take. The most famous standardized test in Japan is Eiken, also known as the Step Test, a series of tests that Japanese students take over the course of their lives -- level 3 while in junior high school, level 2 while in high school, and level 1 if they really want to try a challenging test after college. There are standardized tests for Japanese brush writing, penmanship, and even a test for calculating rapidly and accurately with a calculator. All sports have their own various standardized tests, including skiing -- my son, who started skiing this past winter, will be taking his first tests next year. For gaijin like you or me, there's a test for learning Japanese called the Nihongo Noryoku Shiken or the Japanese Ability Test, taken each December at various cities around the world. Level 4 tests basic kana and kanji, levels 3 and 2 are progressively harder, and level 1 is a really difficult test required for all students who want to enter a Japanese university. Japan's test mania may seem odd, but it is a good way to motivate people to study and better themselves.

Summer is fast approaching, and that means it's time for delicious suika bar ice cream, a fun to eat watermelon-shaped stick of ice cream sold in Japan by Lotte. It's a very realistic looking triangle of watermelon-flavored ice cream, with an edible green rine at the bottom, and "seeds" made out of chocolate. My own pet project is to get the company to make "ice tako-yaki" which would be balls of vanilla ice cream covered with chocolate -- they'd contain a piece of gummi "octopus" inside to complete the illusion of eating the real thing. It would be so cool...

We love to find rare things that you can only find in Japan and make them available to people all over the world. For anyone with a computer -- that is, anyone reading this -- we've got a great new series of plush pets sold in Japan, called Groomy. Not only are they really cute, their undersides are made of soft chamois, which you can use to clean your computer monitor when it gets dirty. Innovative and fun to pet and hold, these are a huge hit in Japan, and we're happy to gotten some for you!

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, the zori sandals we posted on Wednesday were a big hit -- and we've got more cool traditional footwear from Japan for you, this time a series of wooden sandals for women, really well made and carved out of a single block of wood -- check them out
  
• We carry many nice Japanese swimsuit idol and Race Queen items at J-List, and have the charming new photobook of Yui Ichikawa for you now
  
• Fans of Blythe and highly collectible dolls of the 1970's, we have a treat -- Dolly Bird, featuring fabulous collectible doll culture from Japan, the U.S. and the U.K.
  
• Enjoy great snacks from Japan, including more Calpis gummi treats, creamy milk butterscotch candies, an odd snack named Collon and traditional Japanese sweets called youkan
  
• Plus, fresh stock of the popular chocolate covered sunflower seeds, shredded ika for you to eat (if you don't know what ika is, don't ask), miso soup and more
  
• We've got some cool Hello Kitty goods for you, for fans of Sanrio goods you can't get out of Japan -- included are a rubber "kigurumi" Kitty mask that you wear on your head, a fun Kitty notepad, Kitty cake mix, and more
  
• For fans of the traditional, enjoy a deluxe set you can eat Japanese soba noodles with, including dish, cup, chopsticks and more
  
• For those with kids, how about a wacky "Kids on board" sign in Japanese? We've got some for you
  
• If you ever loved Micronauts (as I did), we've got a special treat: a Takara SF collection of miniature toys based on the original Micronauts -- so cool, but we've only got a dozen in stock
  
• We've restocked many of the popular "shokugan" (lit. "food and toy") items, miniature toys that come with ramune candy for you to eat -- we've restocked the popular sushi miniatures, Chinese food, and more
  
• Also, we've been able to get one more batch of the really cool *full sets* of the Star Wars Kubrick bounty hunter series, including all the cool bounty hunters from the Empire Strikes Back -- please don't miss out on them!
  
• For Totoro fans, we've restocked the really cool all-wood Totoro alarm clock, truly a god among alarm clocks if we ever saw one
  
• Also, we've got fresh stock of the very cute Nyanko Restaurant series, which are little plush cats baked into food, if you can believe that -- but they're darned cute
  
• We love things with funny English on them, and we've restocked the Japanese notebooks we've got that bear the enigmatic message "Times simply too very important to afford to be forgotten are true substance of our memories..."
  
• Finally, see authentic Japanese resume forms (only J-List would carry something as wacky as this), more "please take off your shoes" signs, chopsticks from Japan, and more!
  

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

• For fans of the talented erotic photography of Million Publishing, we've got the new Urecco Gal, which features fabulous erotic Japanese kogal and fun sexy idols
  
• Then enjoy the new MPEG World, featuring Ran Asakawa and many other lovely gals -- and a killer Video CD of sampler movies, as well
  
• J-List sells monthly magazines, including manga, hobby, fashion and adult magazines -- we've added a new "reserve subscription" magazine by customer request, the fantastic Young Hip!
  
• Enjoy the pure nude of Mimi Mizuhara in a beautiful photobook that combines beautiful photography and glossy printing with the sex of Mimi and her lover
  
• Also, Harumi Nemoto is an incredibly sexy swimsuit idol with a 103 cm bust -- trust us, that's a lot. Find her new photobook in stock, as well as fresh stock of her popular release from last month
  
• Our May Manga sale is going strong, and Yasu has been working hard to make sure lots of great manga are stocked for you -- see great new erotic comics today, including fourteen sexual stories of "one night stands" by Wani Comics and a wonderful boxed set of hentai manga by artist Hitoshi Kino
  
• We've also added fresh stock of several popular hentai manga, including dick girl manga, hentai works from Azuki Kurenai, and the bizarre comic "Tag"
  
• Also for yaoi fans, a collection of erotic stories by Kaoruko Mayu, as well as fresh stock of other yaoi works
  
• For doujinshi lovers, several new works have been posted to the site, including some really nice erotic amateur comics released recently in Japan
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got some great items for you -- starting with "super concentrated bukkake" by Ai Nagase, at a superb price, too (region free)
  
• Then enjoy a remix of erotic sex by Ayami Sakurai, the busty pretty girl who has made a name for herself in the Japanese adult video world -- a whopping 180 minutes on this DVD! (region free)
  
• We love the World Wide Fuck series from Idea Pocket, and now there's a new title -- enjoy the sex of girls from Hungary, performing with Japanese actors and filmed with Japanese AV standards and sensibilities (region free)
  
• Enjoy the best "Zenra Sports" (all-nude sports) from Japan with Deep's new Zenra Volleyball, featuring 24 positively beautiful Japanese girls who will spike your heart (region free)
  
• A popular fetish in Japan right now is "Tamakeri" (ball-kicking), the fetish of having a pretty girl kick you in the balls -- see a great new DVD from SOD (region free)
  
• From Moodyz, a great 2-DVD "Actress Collection" featuring the best sex of 20 top AV stars from Japan, a superb item for you to check out (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for fresh stock of popular items, including Akira Watase's erotic Wet Set, Ran Monbu's erotic parody of famous idol singer Ayaya, Hitomi Hayasaka's erotic Other Side, and the Lesbian Heaven 4 Hours Special!
  

J-List carries the extremely popular small toys with snacks in them, known as "shokugan" in Japanese ("food with toy"). From miniature sushi and school desk sets from the Showa era to the excellent Star Wars dioramas, these a very affordable toys that are great to display in your home or office. They're also only sold in Japan, so when you buy some you know you've got something unique. Also, J-List goes the extra distance for you, making full sets of most items available, so you can buy a complete set without wasting your money buying duplicates.

The J-Mate site has been updated with new reviews of great adult DVDs, including a great hardcore DVD by Ruri Ayase and "Innocent Girls Make a Study of Female Genital Organs" -- both with plenty of screenshots. You can always read cool English interviews with AV stars from Japan, too. The URL is http://www.jmate.com/

Greetings from J-List May 7, 2003

Hi again from Japan, where you bow to drivers when they give you the right of way (and I do it to).

Concepts such as what defines cleanliness can vary from country to country. In Japan, shoes are dirty, so they're always taken off before you enter a house, to keep the dirt on the shoes from making the house dirty. They're left in a special recessed area by the front door called a "genkan" (we built one of these into our house in San Diego). Americans might wash shoes in the washing machine when they get really dirty, but doing this would be unthinkable here -- it would contaminate all your clothes, and you'd have to buy a new washing machine. Americans tend to dislike the Japanese-style toilets they have here, which you must squat over to use, but the Japanese point out that with a seatless toilet, you avoid getting other people's germs on any delicate areas, which is more sanitary. Despite this, the Japanese seem to be fans of the concept of a "communal cup" -- there's usually a plastic cup in public restrooms, presumably for everyone to use to get a drink of water, something which doesn't seem very sanitary to me, at least.

Now that it's gotten warmer, the boso-zoku can be heard riding noisily around at night more and more. An odd bit of counter-culture in Japan, the boso-zoku (lit. "tribe of those who run wildly") are street gangs that dress in very right-wing clothes and ride on motorcycles modified to be extra loud. The motorcycle gangs from Katsuhiro Otomo film Akira are based on the boso-zoku, but the real bike gangs aren't nearly as interesting as in the movie: they're mostly bored kids who dropped out of high school because they fell in with the wrong crowd and thought it was cool to make a lot of noise on a bike. You could call them "yakuza scouts" because Japan's famous mafia usually use boso-zoku members to transport and sell drugs for them. While it's probably dangerous to get on the wrong side of these loud kids, they're usually nothing more than an annoyance, especially when you're driving somewhere and get caught in a traffic jam caused by a group riding slowly through the town, ignoring stoplights and honking their horns.

You may be familiar with the Japanese word "otaku." A formal word which really means "you" or "your family," it's come to describe people who go all-out in pursuit of their hobbies. The most famous otaku are the anime otaku, aficionados of Japanese animation, but there are many other kinds of otaku, from military otaku to perfume otaku to train otaku, and so on. There seems to be something about the Japanese psyche that opens them up becomming obsessive when it comes to their hobbies. Unfortunately, while foreigners are often happy to use the word otaku to describe themselves as a lover of Japan, I really have to advise against referring to yourself as an otaku front of Japanese people. In Japan, the concept of people getting carried away collecting doujinshi, Zippo lighters, and Disney plush toys is cute, but the idea of being an otaku is really not a positive one to the Japanese mind -- just as you might not know what to think about a person who boasted about what a "Trekkie" he was. If you're an otaku, my advice is to hide your otakuism from Japanese people until they know you better, and not show it right away.

We're always happy to see our wacky Japanese T-shirts selling well, and we thank you for your support. In order to make room for new designs, we're always closing out some of our current shirts. Shirts that we won't be making any more of include Hiragana Man (a famous Japanese doodle), Men Over Women, and Your Mother has a Protuding Belly Button. If you'd like to get one of these shirts before they're gone, we suggest you hurry while we have your size in stock. Invariably, we always get requests for shirts when they're sold out, so please plan ahead.

Mac users, we've got a treat for you. The cute shooting game that comes with the Viper Limited Edition CD-ROM is now Mac compatible, too, in both OS 9 and X, so you can get in on this great item, too. Viper LE is a compilation of uncensored artwork, wallpaper, screen savers and other goodies for fans of Sogna's Hyper Animation Viper series, a popular animated hentai game line from Japan.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, we're happy to announce a new category of product at J-List -- traditional Japanese shoes, including Japanese "zori" sandals that are made from the same material tatami mats are made of
  
• Show your love for your family with a cute heart-shaped pancake maker -- they'll know you love them
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, enjoy tasty Calpis orange gummi treats, Beyblade rice snacks, dried shiitake mushrooms, fresh stock of Sakura Drops (the "Grave of the Fireflies" candy), miso soup, and more
  
• Also, a treat I hope everyone will try: salmon ochazuke, which you pour on white rice and then pour boiling water over it all to make a hearty meal
  
• Ear cleaners in Japan are a little difference from what you may be used to -- we've got in stock of traditional ear cleaners made from bamboo which you use to remove ear wax just like the Japanese do
  
• For Kitty fans, we've got many cute items, like a Kitty "dental care set," gift bag set, the really cool Kitty Pachinko machine and Astro Ball, and the popular Kitty document shreader
  
• We love anything with outrageous English on it, and we've got a cool series of "fancy aroma sheets" for you that fit the bill
  
• Also, we've got a cool new Japanese sign for you -- don't let your dog poop here
  
• Cute stationary and erasers are something we sell a lot of here, and we've got some cool items: Japanese PET bottle erases that parody famous drinks, sushi erasers, and more
  
• Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) is a great anime about an alternate 19th century Japan, with steam-powered mecha walking around -- we've got a great figure + ramune candy set in stock, with full sets of these cool figures available for a limited time
  
• A favorite dessert in Japan is an upside-down caramel pudding called "purin" (aka caramel flan), and now you can put together an attractive 3D puzzle and display it in your room -- very Japanese
  
• For Evangelion fans, a fabulous new large-size Eva toy from Kaiyodo
  
• Also, if you love Totoro and the movies of Hayao Miyazaki, we've got a major restocking of high-quality Sun Arrow plushes for you, including the Fox Squirrel from Laputa/Nausica and Soot Sprite, Laputa music boxes, and more
  
• We love to stock unique gift ideas, and have a new page with suggestions for gift-giving -- one item we think would make a nice gift for someone is the Cup Noodle coffee cup, that looks like a real cup of ramen
  
• Finally, look for a cute way to drink loose tea including the Japanese teas we sell, a great way for women to avoid sweat stains on their clothes, cute magnets of fruits an vegetables, and more!
  

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

• For fans of lovely Japanese magazines from Japan, we've got the bold new issue of Gokuh, featuring the lovely nudes of Mai Hagiwara, Hikari Kisugi
  
• We've also got a treat for Race Queen fans -- a super photobook and 120 min. DVD for Race Queen fans, but the lovely idols in this photobook show you everything
  
• Back in print after many years, we've got the dynamite nude photobook of Vivian Hsu, Angel, a super item for collectors
  
• Enjoy the busty swimsuit loveliness of Yoko Matsugane in a new Million Mook that is not to be missed
  
• For photobook fans, enjoy the erotic nude of Miku Matsumoto, expertly photographed for you in her new hardcover photobook, as well as other great items
  
• To help you help us make our May Manga Sale a success, we've added another half dozen all-new hentai mangas for you to check out, including a new "Excellent" series anthology and an erotic tale of lust from AV Comics
  
• Also, look for a general restocking of several popular comics, posted near the top of the page if you're viewing the "three days update" link
  
• We've got some new doujinshi in stock for you, for fans of the popular underground comics -- stock is limited to one of each though, so hurry
  
• Also, another great "doujin" photobook featuring famous erotic girls on a rare CD-ROM
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got the third and final volume in the U&K Les Best Collection series, a must-own item for lesbian aficionados (region free)
  
• From Dogma and Tohjiro, enjoy a new "Trance" series DVD featuring the erotic "restraining chair" -- great for bondage fans (region free)
  
• Female teacher Reiko Mizuno becomes the erotic pet of Mai Tamura in a new fetish DVD release from Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• Japanese fans want to learn everything they can about their favorite idols -- see your favorite AV stars behind the scenes, talking and eating bento in between AV shoots, in an interesting new DVD (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy another great "Wild Replay" value-priced re-release, Yukari Kanou's super erotic Black Semen in LA, in which she takes on a huge number of large black men (region 2)
  
• Then, enjoy the light bondage sex of Chika Kawamura, the busty indies idol, in a new release from Wanz Factory (region 2)
  
• Finally, fresh stock of many popular DVDs, including the Magic Mirror Box Car special box set, the First Kisses of Nude Amateur Girls, the popular lesbian "My First Experience" and the ever-popular 108 Girls All-Nude Zenra Sports -- check them all out!
  

Remember that J-List carries that great symbol of Japanese wacky pop culture, the Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager, which is of course intended as massager for your neck and shoulders, although some would call it a Hello Kitty vibrator. A licensed Sanrio item sold only in Japan, the unit features high and low massage modes, and a beautiful image of Kitty and her rabbit friend. It looks just great, in or out of case -- display it as the objet d'art that it is. Why not get a few, and give them out as gifts? If you get 3 or more you get 15% off automatically. Production has totally stopped on this item, and we expect that they're going to start to get very rare in the near future.

Interested in JPOP and Japanese music? Please visit our friends at JPOP.com (http://www.jpop.com), a great site that's filled with information on Japanese pop music, cute swimsuit idols, and Japanese pop culture in general. They also have a great BBS for chatting about what's popular in Japan right now.

Greetings from J-List May 3, 2003

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Greetings from J-List May 1, 2003

Hello from Japan, where the turn signal on a car is called a "winker."

First of all, the J-List site was down for an hour or so in the morning, due to a MySQL process that had gone to sleep, which meant you could surf the pages but not search or add items to your cart. Sorry for the inconvenience if you were trying to view the site during that time. As always, you can use the secure email form in the upper left hand corner of the site to send a secure email to us, so you can send order information that way if you need to for some reason (problems with the site, etc.).

Japan is a very different place from the U.S. in many ways. For one thing, it's still largely a cash-based society -- cash is used for everything, and there is no concept of a personal or business check for payment of funds. When we need to pay a supplier, it's done with a direct cash deposit (called "furikomi") rather than with any kind of paper, which is a little inconvenience since we have to physically go to the bank to pay, and we're charged a fee of around $6 by the bank. Although we recently switched to a direct-bank deposit system, for years the J-List staff was paid each month with a big envelope full of cash, still the norm in Japan. Credit card use among Japanese consumers is on the rise, especially ones that allow payments to be broken up over several months, but by and large, Japanese are in love with cash.

Part of the reason why Japan can look so strange to outsiders is its tendency for them to do things as a group, something that's rarely done in America, a country that places importance on individuality rather than everyone working in harmony. One example of Japan's moving as a group is "koromo-gae" (koh-roh-moGA-eh, lit. "changing clothes), when you put away your winter clothes and bring out the summer clothes you've got in storage. For Japanese school students, koromo-gae means the day you change from your winter uniform to the cooler summer uniform, or vice-versa in the autumn. For virtually every student in the country, the changeover takes place on June 1 and November 1 -- on those days and only those days, regardless of the actual weather or what part of Japan you live in. The prospect of millions of students changing from warm-weather to cooler-weather clothing on the exact same morning of the same day is vaguely unsettling to Westerners. Because Americans don't have a set day to switch from summer mode to winter mode, we tend to wear short-sleeve shirts fairly deep into autumn, and it's common for Japanese to ask "Aren't you cold?" to us even though it might still be a balmy October day outside.

When I came to Japan, one thing I was surprised to see were the cotton masks, which Japanese often wear when they feel a cold coming on -- they keep their germs from infecting others, and also protect themselves at the same time. I'd never seen anything like the masks before I came to Japan, and bought some to take home with me as interesting gifts. With SARS fears in many parts of the world right now, these masks are not uncommon at all, and you see them on TV reports from Hong Kong and other countries. If you're interested in these masks but don't know where to buy them, never fear -- J-List has a variety in stock for you today. And since Japanese are so into style, we've got some very colorful and stylish ones, too!

Announcing the May Manga sale! We love Japan's extremely talented artists and love to carry a variety of great hentai and other mangas direct from Japan. As a way of saying thanks for your support of J-List, we're offering a "buy 5 or more mangas, get 20% off" sale, and all the Japanese manga we carry are included. It's a great chance to really pick up some fantastic books for yourself from Japan's top artists and manga publishers. We're not sure how fast some of our more popular books will start to sell out, so we recommend you look at them soon.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, by popular demand, J-List now sells great "snack packs" (which we're naming "spacks") containing excellent sampler packs of famous Japanese snacks. These snack packs are a great way to try a variety of delicious Japanese snack foods, and they make great gifts as well!
  
• Master illustrator and manga-ka Shirow Masamune has outdone himself in his fantastic new Intron Depot book we've got for you, capturing all his great works from 1992-2002. This brand new art book is hot off the presses (it's still warm) and is such a beautiful collection of artwork we just can't believe it. And this book is fully bilingual, with all notes by the artist in English and Japanese!
  
• For fans of the undying Final Fantasy games, a treat: the Final Fantasy Heroines figure series from Bandai, and we've got full sets in stock so you don't have to waste your time buying duplicate figures!
  
• Also, we've gotten in stock of the very cool MyClone figures, super deformed parodies of the Micronauts (known as Micro Man in Japan)
  
• We've restocked the very cool Star Wars Kubrick figures from Medicom Toy -- don't miss out on these, though, as we won't be able to get any more
  
• Also on the very cool list, we've restocked the hugely popular miniature sushi toys, extremely realistic plastic such that come with plates, cups of tea and tiny little chopsticks
  
• For Totoro fans, we've added new varieties of the very cool Totoro picture frames with music boxes built into them -- a really special way to display photos of your loved ones!
  
• And one more Totoro item, the super deluxe Totoro cuckoo clock -- you have to see this thing to believe how great it is!
  
• Hello Kitty fans know that J-List loves to stock wacky and fun items that you can't outside of Japan -- now we've added a cute plush tissue box cover featuring lovely plush figures of Kitty and her cute rabbit friend
  
• Also, some cute Kitty ballpoint pens for your desk, more Kitty hotcake mix, and more
  
• In this era of fear of airborne germs, the high-quality masks used by the Japanese are just the ticket for staying healthy -- we've got several varieties in stock for you
  
• We've got a cool traditional Japanese items, including a "geta" wooden shoe that is a money bank for you to save your coins and decorate your room in Japanese style and a great miso soup bowl that's even microwavable
  
• Fans of Japanese tonkatsu sauce, the delicious food flavoring that the Japanese call "sauce," is back, in larger containers for you now
  
• Fans of other fun snack and food products can enjoy "red miso" soup mix, green apple candy, and fresh stock of authentic Japanese and Chinese teas for you
  
• We've got some handy kitchen items, including a non-stick rice scoop, a cute bento box with Japan's #1 anime character, and new Japanese chopsticks that are easy to hold and eat with
  
• For students of Japanese, we've restocked the popular Wordtank IDF-4100 and IDF-2100, both highly recommended for anyone trying to learn the language
  
• Finally, learn the Japanese prefectures with a fun map puzzle we've got in stock for you, pass your test with Japanese headbands, and amaze your friends with the Bonny Boy "peeing" drink dispenser based on the Japanese Dakara commercials!
  

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

• For fans of Japan's high-quality adult magazines, enjoy the new issue of Bejean, which we've got in stock for you -- features all the top stars in Japan, including the ultra-sexy Yuko Ogura
  
• We love Japan's beautiful, glossy photobooks, and have some nice ones in stock for you, including Kirari Koizumi's fresh nude and the charming and sexy photobook of Manami Fuku
  
• Also, for leg and stocking fetishists, we've got a new Leg Idol photobook featuring incredibly lovely "low angle" photography
  
• Also, check out some excellent amateur nudes in a new photobook that shows you "fuck mania"
  
• We've restocked several hardcover photobooks for you, including Kaoru Private Garden (the most popular Aida Garo photobook ever), the delightful European Fairy Tale, and Sora Aoi's wonderful nude photobook "Blue"
  
• If you love Shirow's incredibly detailed artwork, don't hesitate to pick up his new Intron Depot art book, described above
  
• For hentai manga fans we have some excellent new items for you, including the erotic and stylized "Noble Illusionist" from Angel Comics, an interesting bondage-themed comic from Mujin Comics and stories about cosplay love and sex by Young Comics
  
• We've also got a great Japanese parody fan that shows the 48 classic sexual positions -- a wacky and fun item
  
• For DVD enthusiasts, we've got some great new releases, starting with a Large Breast 4 Hours Special from Yellow Box, a great selection of busty sex with 9 AV idols (region free)
  
• Then, we've got a new series from Idea Pocket, World Wide Fuck, featuring sex with lovely girls from Hungary (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand, a great "Actress Directory of Special Choice" which gives you 4 hours of superb sex, with 30 lovely AV idol -- enjoy this great sample of excellent works from SOD! (region free)
  
• For stocking fans, a "Beautiful Leg Fetish" DVD from SOD's IEnergy label, very lovely to see (region free)
  
• U&K is famous for offering some of the best lesbian sex of any company in Japan -- now you can enjoy a great compilation DVD featuring 2 full hours of the best performances (region free)
  
• Then, for fans of the sly and sexy Mirai Hoshizaki, a great treat from Wanz Factory: 3 hours of her super best, featuring loads of bukkake, pussy-angle, car and outdoor sex, and more (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for fresh stock of many titles, including Hitomi Hasegawa's super-detailed "Digital Mosaic," Ami Hinata's erotic "Semen Club" and the excellent lesbian "Stairway to Heaven and Highway to Hell."
  

J-List carries every English-language bishoujo game made, so you can always find a great selection whatever your tastes are. We also are the only company to carry all the classic love-sim games by Himeya Soft (aka C's Ware). Since many of these titles have been in print for years, some of them are unfortunately going out of print soon. If you're interested in any of the great games by Himeya, we hope you'll get them before they're gone.

Remember that J-List carries three different region free DVD players, a great way to enjoy DVDs from around the world, including the region 2 discs that J-List carries. All three of the player we currently carry come with great features like international power supplies, the ability to view PAL discs from Europe, compatibility with DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, MP3 playback, and more. The players all come with manufacturers warranties, and the prices are great. We ship daily from our San Diego warehouse, so order one today and you can get it in a few days!

Greetings from J-List April 28, 2003

Hello from Japan, the home to the famous "cream powder" for your coffee called Creap.

When learning Japanese, it's always fun to learn the "gitaigo," a group of words similar to onomatopoeia in English, very descriptive words that describe the state of objects or actions. Because they consist of repetitions of words, they are very cute and fun to use. If you're really hungry, the Japanese would say that you're "peko peko," a word which describes the way you feel when your stomach is very empty. Alternately, "kara kara" describes your throat when you're thirsty. If you get soaking wet in the rain, you're "bisho bisho," and if you get indigestion, your stomach is "muka muka." If your skin is especially smooth and clean, someone might say it's "sube sube" (a word which comes from suberu "to glide"). And if you're a little on the plump side, you might be described as "puyo puyo," a word which sounds cute to the Japanese. Some other fun repeating words are "zaa zaa" (the sound of rain falling loudly, to denote the concept of "pouring with rain"), "paku paku" (the sound of someone eating quickly -- this is where Pac Man got his name from), and "shiiin" (the sound of no sound -- i.e., of perfect silence). Some other repeating words are "bishi bishi" (doing things quickly and efficiently, without delay), "dara dara" (doing things slowly, being lazy), "pika pika" (being sparking brand-new), "boro boro" (being old and dilapidated), "pera pera" (being fluent in a language) and "giri giri" (a word that means "barely" or "just in time," as in, "we made onto the train in the nick of time"). There is an endless supply of these highly descriptive words, and they're quite fun to use.

The Japanese are proud of having four distinctive seasons in Japan, and some seem to think that America isn't blessed in the same way just because it doesn't get really cold in Los Angeles in the winter. I enjoy all the seasons in Japan, but it seems to me that Spring and Fall, my two favorites, could be just a tad longer. We're just a few weeks into Spring, and already we've had several hot and humid days, giving us a taste of the unpleasantness to come this year. When it gets hot in Japan, virtually all Japanese drink cold, refreshing mugi cha, or barley tea, a delicious cold tea that's made from barley and has no caffeine. Like all the Asian teas that the Japanese drink (green tea, oolong tea, jasmine tea and many more), it's always drank as-is, without milk or sweetener. As part of our mission to bring you a little bit of Japan every day, we've got deluxe packages of these mugi cha tea bags that you can make easily -- just add one tea bag per liter of water and refrigerate for a few hours.

We're extremely proud to announce that X-Change 2, the long-awaited sequel to Peach Princess's very popular X-Change, has gone Golden Master and should be shipping out to preorder customers soon. This is a fabulous game of sex change comedy in which you play Takuya Aihara, an average Japanese boy, who gets changed into a girl through a bizarre chemistry experiment gone wrong. The game, which combines the depth of story and character of Tokimeki Check in! with the hilarious Ranma-like story, is one of the best we've ever seen, and has 23 unique game endings. We hope that everyone preorders it for free shipping when it's ready to go out.

You may have noticed that we've added links asking you to "vote for this T-shirt" to some of our wacky Japanese T-shirts. We wouldn't mind if you'd help us out and click the voting link if you have time. Oh, and don't forget -- the $1 shipping sale on all our world-famous Japanese T-shirts is coming to a close soon. Our shirts also make great gifts, so why not get several and save?

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for Shirow Masamune fans, we've got the very rare Ghost in the Shell continuity script, showing all storyboards for the classic anime film -- but stock is limited
  
• Also, we've got volume 5 of the incredibly popular Ghost in the Shell TV series, a great item for Shirow fans who want this cutting-edge series on DVD (region 2), and fresh stock of the Ghost in the Shell bilingual manga
  
• A special item for Totoro fans, Sun Arrow has released a great new series of ceramic picture frames with music boxes inside them -- display your favorite family photographs in these incredibly rare and lovely collectors frames!
  
• Also, we've got a really high-quality Totoro money purse (for coins or paper money) that is really just too cute, as well as a general restocking of several popular Miyazaki music boxes and tin toys
  
• If you love Dragonball, there's a great all-new trading card series featuring the best Dragonball Z art and characters, released for the Japanese market
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, enjoy many new treats from J-List, including tropical sour flavored Shige-Kix, an incredibly sour "hard gummi" that's really fun to eat, as well as famous Japanese "throat candy" and boil in bag curry
  
• Also, for those wanting to use miso in their cooking, including making delicious miso soup, we've got some great "white miso" (Tokyo style miso) for you to try
  
• For collectors of Ultraman and/or Japan Hot Wheels toys, we've got the really cool Machine Sherlock "Guts" car from Ultraman Tiga, a great item for you
  
• If you love authentic bento boxes from Japan, we've got some Shinkansen ones in stock for you, featuring one of the cutest characters for boys from Sanrio
  
• A fun parody item, we've got funny toilet paper with images printed on it that supposed to "encourage successful excrementing"
  
• For fans of Disney's Monsters, Inc there's a cool only-sold-in-Japan keychain figure series that's really well designed -- collect all the characters
  
• Also very cool, a Final Fantasy VIII "super real figure" of the lovely Riona
  
• And for Hello Kitty fans, a large robotic Kitty that plays a little Ukulele when you turn her on - great for collectors
  
• Also, look for other restocked Kitty items, including Kitty chopsticks, Kitty and Felix the Cat gum, and a cool Kitty business card holder
  
• If you love Japanese things, we've got a really unique air freshener for you -- it looks like a beautiful Japanese lantern
  
• We love to promote studying Japanese, and carry many helpful study items (mainly things I would have wanted back at college) -- see vocabulary word books, Japanese proverb dictionaries, and more
  
• Finally, find a fun Japanese pencil sharpener that's very different from those sold outside of Japan, a handy all-purpose canvas bag and wallet set, more funny Japanese signs and stickers, a very Japanese way to clean your ears, and more!
  

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

• For lovers of hardcore amateur magazines, we've got the double-thick Namadashi Acme Bijin, featuring all nakadashi-themed photographs
  
• Also, for fans of short girls, a big fetish in Japan, we've got the new issue of Micro Girls, featuring girls who are under 150 cm (4'10")
  
• We've also got the new issue of Young Hip, a great magazine that combines super hentai manga with lovely nude and sexy idol photography
  
• For photobook lovers, we've got the lovely last photobook of Noriko Hamada, an angelic nude model from Japan
  
• Japan's leg and stocking fetish photography is second to none, and we've restocked several popular leg fetish books for you today
  
• If you collect hentai manga, we've got some great items for you, starting with a great release by the busty illustrator Wataru Watanabe, a new "Excellent" series anthology manga, and the super-erotic "The Box of the Desire" by Mujin Comics
  
• Also, Yasu has updated the hentai manga pages, restocking many items, including the popular "What?" erotic manga by Fujimi Comics, the popular Pururun Princess, and Seduction ~ Yuwaku
  
• For yaoi fans, see several restocked b-Boy Zips anthology mangas, which give you 240+ pages of yaoi action in each book
  
• Also, fans know about doujinshi, the amateur comics that are incredibly popular in Japan -- we've got stock of two "doujin photobooks" featuring lovely photos of models in various costumes, released at the most recent Comic Market
  
• J-List carries many unique adult toys and other items for couples, that are sold only in Japan -- we've stocked a new variety of very-thin Japanese condoms that come in a box that looks like a pack of cigarettes, and has wacky English all over it
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got some excellent new offerings for you, starting with the incredibly lovely 4 hour sex special of Mai Haruna -- see her "keep on flesh pleasure for four hours" (region free)
  
• Hitomi Hasegawa is an elegant and erotic AV star from Japan, and you can enjoy 150 minutes of her great erotic work in a new release from Million (region free)
  
• Nanami Nanase is a red-hot AV star, and you can see her best works in Nanamix vol. 2, by Soft on Demand, a great sampler of her best performances (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy the lovely Megu Anrai and Miyoshino star in a new Waku Waku Chikan Land release from Deep's, portraying three dedicated police women who allow themselves to be groped on crowded trains so they can catch the perverts and bring them to justice (region free)
  
• Akira Watase is a sizzling lady with an incredibly sexual body -- see her super new "Bad Girl" release from Wanz Factory (region 2)
  
• From Moodyz, a chance to see the lovely Bunko Kanazawa like you've never seen her before, in a super release filmed from the viewpoint of her lovely lower half
  
• Finally, look for various restocked or overstocked DVDs on the site -- and of course, don't forget that you can get 15% off any 4 or more DVDs we sell (discount applied automatically at checkout).
  

Remember that J-List has a great offer -- get 20% off any four or more Japanese dating-sim games, also known as love-sim and hentai games. We pride ourselves on having the best selection on the planet, and we carry the games of every English love-sim game company in existence, with all items kept in stock so you can get your order right away. See the great items we've got for you!

Want to see many interesting sides of Japan? Drop by one of our favorite sites, Tokyo DV (http://www.tokyodv.com) and take in all that they have to see, including video of the insides of love hotels, highlights of the Tokyo robot show and a great interview series with hentai manga pioneer Toshi Maeda.

Oh, and a correction -- the suffix used for athletes is actually "senshu" -- I got it wrong. Sorry about that!

Greetings from J-List April 25, 2003

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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:

• 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

Greetings from J-List April 21, 2003

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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:

• 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!
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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:

• 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!