Greetings from J-List June 18, 2003

Hello again from all of us in Japan!

One of the engines that drives Japanese society and makes Japanese people the way they are is called "hito no me" (HEE-toh noh meh), which translates as "the eyes of others." In all that you do in Japan, there is the sense that you're being watched by everyone around you, and that if you stray too far outside the invisible lines of what is acceptable you'll be judged harshly. This tendency to be concerned with how you appear in the eyes of people is a big part of Japanese daily life, and it's part of the reason why Japan can seem a very homogenous place when viewed from the outside. In Japan, you throw your garbage out on set days, and knowing what kind of trash is okay to put out on any given day can require a Master's Degree in Trashology. But if you don't follow the rules and put exactly the right trash out that morning (not, by the way, the night before), you'll suffer the ire of the ever-watching people around you, which subtly causes you to conform in ways that no threat of punishment could. Since most people in Japan are considerably thinner than they are in the States (at 100 kg, I am gargantuan for Japan, and have been asked by Japanese if I was a K-1 fighter), there is always that pressure to conform to the others around me and lose weight--which is a good thing of course. In the U.S., we try to value adversity and individuality, and if we saw someone walking under an umbrella even though it wasn't raining outside, we might chuckle and say that he dances to his own tune. But in Japan there's less chance that doing something that no one else is doing will be viewed in a favorable light.

Related to "hito no me" is the idea of "joshiki," a word which translates to "common sense" but means much more. The Japanese all seem to have a built-in common sense, ideas about the way things work, and they are very much in harmony with each other. It is "joshiki" that all kids will go to school to be taught and brought up as happy citizens of the society, and so there is homeschooling in Japan. Similarly, it is common sense that babies be born in hospitals, and so there is very little in the way of alternate birthing here. An American friend of mine who was pregnant planned on having her baby and going back to work a few months later, but unfortunately, this goes against the "joshiki" rule that mothers should spend the first few years at home with their children before coming back to work, and she found herself blocked at every pass. This "all powerful common sense" that the Japanese seem to possess is always at work in Japan.

There's an unfortunate phenomenon that affects all Japanese who use computers or "waapro" (word processors) at work: they lost almost all ability to write Kanji, or Chinese characters. With the steady acceptance of computers into Japanese life, many people use keyboards all day long, and as a result, almost never actually write characters by hand. Because kanji is a very structured system, not writing it for long periods of time really makes you forget how to write (although reading ability is retained). I imagine this happens not only with Japanese, but with all cultures that use kanji. Sadly, I am affected by this as well, as I almost never hand-write Japanese anymore, and it's shocking when I go to write an elementary character but can't bring it up in my mind.

We'll be making a server move to a much faster machine sometime over the next week. We're letting you know just in case anything fails to work right during the changeover. We think it will go smoothly but if you should notice anything that doesn't seem right, please email us about it and we'll check it right away. Thanks!

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

• First, for fans of Japanese snacks, we've got some unique and rare tastes for you, including green tea flavored caramel chips, pineapple pie snacks new onigiri mix and fresh, shredded ika (if you don't know what ika is, don't ask)
  
• Also if you love the popular anime Naruto, we've got some cool gummi Naruto figures that are fun to eat
  
• For fans of beautiful CG girls, enjoy the N.U.D.E.@ digital art book, featuring a robotic princess that you teach and bring up
  
• For those fascinated with Japanese high school uniforms, either because they want to make replicas for cosplay at anime conventions or they just like how cute they are, we've got two new pocket photobooks featuring the cutest sailor uniforms in all Japan
  
• For fans of sexy swimsuit idols like Miho Yoshioka and Yoko Matsugane, enjoy the Kira Kira Sexy Idol Magazine
  
• Want to see cool Japanese late-night TV? Check out the new Grasshoppa, featuring some of the boldest and funniest Japanese TV and skits, and all subtitled in English for your enjoyment
  
• Also, we've gotten in a great photobook for Japanese Race Queen fans, the lovely Pit Queen
  
• Kubrick block figures are incredibly popular all over the world -- we've got a brand new series of these great toys for you, three different Shrek sets from Medicom Toy. Sold only in Japan!
  
• If you think the cool Japanese cars of the 1960s and 70s were cool, we've got a rare set of die-cast vehicles from Tomy for you, including the original Honda Civic, the Toyota Corolla II, and the Nissan Bluebird
  
• Happy faces are everywhere in Japan, and we've got two parody "happy face picnic sheets" that are plastic sheets for you to sit on while at the park -- they're wacky and loaded with funny English
  
• Just in time for summer, we've got some great Japanese sandals, which are called "beach-san" in Japanese, from "beach sandals" -- they have the Japanese character for "shave ice" printed on them
  
• Also great for summer, some beautiful Japanese wind chimes that gentle ring in the breeze
  
• If you love Hello Kitty, we've got some cool Kitty nail polish bottles that come in great colors and are really cute for collectors, too
  
• We've got a great item: a Japanese hanko case that features a funny parody of a Japanese salaryman on top, who dances when you use it
  
• Studying Japanese? We carry many items to help you including a fun item, a dictionary of four-character Japanese phrases
  
• For your kitchen, we have food separators for bento, delicious wasabi, sushi makers, and more!
  
• Finally, look for a great way to protect your food from flies, a fun Kitty brush for little ones or big, a handy case for remembering your medicine,
  

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

• For fans of great Japanese adult magazines, we've got the new Urecco for you, filled with jaw-dropping beautiful women including both kogal amateurs and top-name AV stars
  
• Then enjoy a great amateur magazine, Bjam, which features real Japanese girls doing real hardcore in love hotels
  
• Nao Oikawa looks lovely in her new hardcover photobook, "Naked Heart" which we have for you
  
• Also, we've gotten fresh stock of the popular Make Lovers, a beautiful hardcore magazine featuring the sex of couples in love
  
• Then enjoy the super sexy body of top Japanese swimsuit idol Harumi Namoto, an amazing and sexy idol for you
  
• If you love Japan's fascination with "dick girls" and hermaphrodites, we've got a new issue of New Half DX for you
  
• If you love hentai manga, enjoy several great new books, including the erotic "Prisoner of Sodom" by Fujimi Comics and AV Comic's "The Secret Date Club"
  
• Also, we've got great newly restocked manga including Slap Me With Your Breasts, Aero and a major restocking of the Paradise Lost Evangelion hentai manga series -- new yaoi manga too!
  
• Be sure to order the excellent vol. 6 of Tohru Nishimaki's Blue Eyes, too -- it's up for preorder now
  
• For doujinshi fans, another treat: new Please Teacher manga from Behind Moon, although they will sell out fast if recent history is a guide
  
• For our DVD collecting customers, we've got some great new titles for you, starting with a new "The Idol" release featuring 180 minutes of Ami Sakurai's delightful pure sex (region free)
  
• Dogma brings you the erotic kissing and sex of Kurumi Morishita as directed by Hitoshi Nimura -- an incredibly erotic performance, and she looks damned good in that cowboy hat (region free)
  
• Then from Soft on Demand, see Hikaru Inoue as the bukkake nurse, an erotic lady who swallows semen most happily (region free)
  
• Also from SOD, Ayami Sakurai is an elegant and experienced high-class soap lady who uses her fabulous body to clean you and make you happy (region free)
  
• A great "adult gravure movie" from Wanz Factory features an erotic "image DVD" of Mai Satoh, with many great erotic images of her incredibly sexy body for you (and at a great price too) (region 2)
  
• Then see the super erotic Ria Nanami and her fetish mania, with many fun fetishes explored (including ashi-koki, foot masturbation, and much more (region 2)
  
• For hentai DVD fans, we've gotten in fresh stock of a half dozen or more popular titles, too (region 1)
  
• Finally, even more freshly restocked DVDs, including the excellent Lesbian Heaven 4 Hours Special, Ran Asakawa's "Masterpiece Concentration" offering, 4 hours of the best of Momo Aida (one of my personal favorite AV idols from the 90's), and Let's Do Sex with Ai Nagase.
  

Bewildered at Bishoujo? Confused about Kogal? Head hurting over Hentai? If you're confused at some of the terms used on the J-List site and this updates list (which can be quite out there, we admit), be sure to check out our online J-List Glossary of Terms -- the link is on our site, right below the product category listing on the left side of your browser window. We explain all confusing terms from Anime to Tekoki and more. We've recently updated the list, too, so check it out.

If you've got friends who may be interested in the wacky brand of Japanese pop culture J-List provides, why don't you tell them about us? We'd love to have you share J-List with your friends, family and coworkers -- please let them know about us! Thanks in advance from your friends in Japan.

Greetings from J-List June 16, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where it's good manners to turn your car's headlights off while waiting at a red light (to avoid blinding the person across the intersection from you).

We're in the middle of June now, and that is dreary news for everyone in Japan: the month-long rainy season will be starting any day now, transforming the Japanese islands into the Pacific Northwest for four weeks of drizzle, rain and general grayness. Coming from bright, sunny San Diego as I do, it's sometimes hard to fight off the blues during all that rain. The only thing worse than the long gray of the rainy season is what comes after: Japan's sweltering real summer with its 100% humidity is always difficult to bear.

In preparation for that heat, we've purchased some new electric fans to help keep cool. There's a real "electric fan gap" between Japan and the States, with Japanese companies producing some wonderfully high-tech gadgets, from tricked-out units that have remote controls, timers so they turn off after a set number of hours, selectable rotation settings, and more. I bought some fans that feature what the Japanese call "minus ion" (negative ions, like the fresh air after a thunderstorm has passed), although I can't say for sure if my ions are being negatively charged or not. Another feature I like is "natural wind" -- the fan alters its speed randomly to simulate the wind blowing in from outside. One thing the Japanese haven't invented, however, is the slim, square fan that sits on a windowsill and blows air in directly from outside, which are quite common in the U.S. Fans with many features cost between $40 to $90 each. The windowsill fan I got at Walmart and brought back with me was around $7.

The Japanese use a lot of English in their daily lives, but it's often impossible to identify it sometimes after the Japanese get through with it. If you ask your boss for a raise, but he says no, it's "NG" (which stands for "no good") -- a TV "blooper" is also called an NG. The letter "W" stands for "double" to the Japanese, thus a washing machine might be advertised as "W (double) Power." If you want to check your weight, you'd better ask for a health meter -- the English term "scale" is used in Japanese, but only meaning something's size in relation to something else. Sometimes Americans are confused by alien terms that are British English -- I didn't know that the hood of a car was a "bonnet" in British English until I came to Japan. If you want to tell someone to not worry about something, you can say "Donmai!" which comes from "Don't mind!" Similarly, when someone is backing their car up, you can tell them it's okay to come back further by saying "Orai!" which comes from "Alright!" Many English words have been imported into Japanese, but with different pronunciations -- "energy" is pronounced with a hard "G," and "vitamin" comes out like "bitamin" (bee-TA-min). Finally, many of the foreign words used in Japan, like "anket" (a questionnaire) and "arubaito" (a part-time job) don't come from English at all, but that doesn't stop the Japanese from trying to use them during English conversation class.

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

• First, for fans of the super cool Ghost in the Shell figures from Shirow Masamune, we've got a great new limited edition all-black metal version of the figures, with full sets available to buy (no need to buy dozens of duplicates to complete your set)
  
• Also for fans of "shokugan" (small toys that come with ramune candy inside), we've got a single full set of Heidi, Girl of the Alps, a unique and rare item
  
• For Totoro/Miyazaki fans, a huge volley of newly restocked items, including several Totoro and Neko Bus plush toys, the popular Totoro magnet set, sitting Bou plush and the Fox Squirrel from Laputa/Nausica, more music boxes, and moer
  
• If you love cute Japanese swimsuit idols, check out Yui Ichikawa's lovely new photobook, shot on location in beauty Italy
  
• For fans of Japanese film on DVD (with subtitles in English), we've got the popular Water Boys, a very entertaining movie about an unlikely topic, men's synchronized swimming (region 2)
  
• For fans of Japanese pro wrestlers, we've got two cool rare figures, Kenta Obashi and Kokushimusou, in stock now
  
• Also, we've got a cool oversized version of the American kick boxer who has taken Japan by storm, Bob Sapp
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, we've got delicious miso soup and "tuna mayonnaise" fried rice mix, a new flavor of the delicious Poifull, and sweet Momo Choco (Peach Chocolate)
  
• Also, Chip Star, the famous knock-off of Pringles by Nabisco sold in the Japanese market for years -- try new salad dressing flavor!
  
• Like Japanese baseball? We've got a great series of baseball cards featuring all of Japan's top stars, including Hideki Matsui
  
• Also, look for a new series of great Yu-Gi-Oh card game from Konami, very cool and in Japanese
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, some cool and rare items from Japan, including a "car puzzle," a handy plastic holder for important documents, a great Kitty "floating tumbler" for your bathroom, Kitty stickers that show your mood, and a fantastic high-quality Kitty "Charm Watch" that you will love
  
• Also, for those learning Japanese, a great Hello Kitty wall chart showing the hiragana and katakana syllabaries, as well as a cute ABC chart for little ones
  
• For your car, a handy Japanese holder that allows you to take even large bottles with you
  
• Finally, look for more funny Japanese signs, Hello Kitty giftwrapping paper, freshly restocked Canon Wordtank electronic dictionaries, and more!
  

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

• For, we've got some great adult magazines for you, starting with the new Gal's Dee, which is loaded with super busty Japanese women who will blow you away
  
• Also, we've got the new Bachelor, an oversized magazine for fans of lovely busty women all over the world -- this issue features a great opening series with Russian bombshell Yulia Nova and much more
  
• For fans of hardcore sex, enjoy the new issue of Aishite Ageru ("I'll Love You") featuring a virtual date with Chika Kawamura
  
• The great "KARAMI" photo magazine is always a popular item because each issue is dedicated to a certain lovely star -- this issue features nothing but dynamite erotic photos of Asuka Sawaguchi
  
• Also, see fresh stock of several great photobooks including Mai Hagiwara's Alive and Ran Asakawa's erotic Reijo ("Love Slave")
  
• For our manga collecting fans, we've got some great new books for you, including a great new offering by Masaki Kamitou, the erotic Love Dolls of Ai Yuri and "Bad Girl Play" with sexy maid girls
  
• Also, fresh stock of many popular books including the popular hermaphrodite works of Amanojack, the popular Alice First and Alice Second, and the superb Private Teacher from Kenji Kisuzuki
  
• Also, for yaoi fans, a great new manga of love and sex by Yuuki Amow
  
• And for doujinshi fans of the popular "dick girl" themes of Behind the Moon, enjoy limited stock of two sold-out doujinshi -- but stock will not last long
  
• For DVD lovers, we've got some great items for you, starting with a super "Removal of the Ban" offering by the lovely Asuka Ozora, who performs some of her best sex ever for you (region free)
  
• In Japanese, the word OL means "office lady" (or female office worker), and there's quite a fetish for these sexy, gorgeous ladies in their lovely company uniforms -- explore this fetish with a new offering from Dogma starring four supremely erotic OLs (region free)
  
• Then enjoy a superb bukkake performance by the sweet but slutty Ran Asakawa in a new Endless Semen DVD, directed by master AV director Tohjiro himself (region free)
  
• Enjoy beautiful all-nude fetish and hoary sex in a new title by SOD's IEnergy label, featuring seven top AV stars including Nozomi Momoi, Ai Nagase and more (region free)
  
• The lovely Chiharu Moritaka stars in a great new work from Soft on Demand, assisting your masturbation with super-fine "digital mosaic" that's great to see (region free)
  
• From the bold and exciting Wanz Factory, see slender Rina Usui in a great new fetish, tickling -- Rina-chan is bound and teased and tickled, and made to do many fun and bizarre things
  
• Finally, we've got fresh stock of several popular DVDs, including Anna Ohura's "I Love H," more underwater "Aqua Set," Mirai Hoshizaki's bondage offerings, and the best-selling Mizuho Kano (aka Jun Kusanagi) Special.
  

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" (menthol gum with caffeine, it will keep you awake!), delicious Sweetie (grapefruit) gum, and tasty Ume, Japanse plum. Check out all these items on our Japanese snack pages!

World-famous animation creator Hayao Miyazaki has a new project: a series of TV commercials for House Foods, a company that makes curry and other household foods in Japan. The commercials capture the happy, simpler era of Japan in the 1950's, and are great to watch. We found them hosted on Nausica.net -- the URL is here: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/newspro/latest_news.shtml

Greetings from J-List June 13, 2003

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Greetings from J-List June 9, 2003

Hello again from all of us in Japan!

If you're going to travel to Japan, you'd better bring your suitscase, and make sure you wear a clean shirts and a nice suits. My favorite sports is soccer, and my favorite anime show is Fruits Basket. Sound odd? For some inexplicable reason of Japanese phonetics, some English words are imported into Japanese in their plural forms. The word for a suit in Japanese is "suits," even though you may only be talking about one suit, and a can of fruit juice is "fruits juice." Japanese don't mind these words, although the misuse of English grammar tends to give English natives the heebie jeebies at first. Then you get used to the strange words, and the next thing you know, you're accidentally using them in English while talking to your mother on the phone -- how embarrassing. Sometimes the words are used in their plural forms to make them easier for Japanese to pronounce or write, and other times because to keep two words from sounding the same in Japanese. Because "fruit" and "flute" would have the exact same pronunciation when written in katakana, the writing system used for expressing foreign loan words, the musical instrument became "furu-to" and the edible stuff became "furu-tsu."

When you learn a foreign language, especially one that's very different from your native language, you get used to words on one side not matching up perfectly with words on the other side. Take the word "heart," which has several possible translations in Japanese. One is "kokoro," a concept which encompasses the philosophical elements of the heart and mind, including the soul. I watched the Matrix in Japanese the other day, and "kokoro" was the word Morpheus used to describe the "minds still wired to the system." (Incidentally, the Japanese believe the soul is located in your chest, but Westerners would say it's located in your head.) Another word, "shinzou," describes the actual physical organ that pumps blood through your body. Finally, the English word "heart" (haato) is used the way it's often used in English, i.e. to express love and heartbreak, and also to describe the famous heart shape, which has no other name in Japanese. Learning foreign languages is fun because it makes you reflect on how your own language is structured.

We love the cult status our wacky Japanese T-shirts have attained, and we thank you for your kind support. Our "Proud of my Sexual Power" shirt is one of our most popular designs, with its cool dragon shape winding around the Japanese text. When we made the silver versions of these two shirts, we made a mistake with the mixing of the silver paint, with the result being that the silver flecks come off in the washing machine, leaving a solid grey color underneath. Unfortunately we'd printed a bunch of these shirts with the improperly mixed silver paint. The shirts still look great after they've been washed, but since they didn't come out quite as we intended, we decided to sell the shirts at a big discount. If you're interested in getting one of these discounted shirts, please see them on our site.

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

• First, for fans of the excellent Final Fantasy X-2, we've got the incredibly detailed new soft vinyl figures from Square Enix, and boy are they cool!
  
• For fans of our unique Japanese footwear, we've got some great new zori sandals for you, with several great designs of these cool "tatami shoes" including an extra-large deluxe pair with real leather bottoms
  
• Japanese erasers with funny shapes are popular in Japan these days, and you can get it on it with the sets of fun Japanese erasers we've got for you -- enjoy both fruit and vegetable and ice cream erasers!
  
• For fans of delicious Japanese snacks, enjoy tasty Bon Curry boil in bag curry that you can put on white rice, delicious Fruche gelatin dessert drink mix, and more delicious dried, shredded squid that goes great with beer!
  
• Also, we've got a super new ramune candy item, a delicious five-pack of ramune candy in five delicious flavors
  
• If you love JPOP idols, we recommend the ultracute new photobook of Aya Matsuura, the new super doll of the Japanese cute idol scene
  
• We love to carry Japanese films on DVD, complete with English subtitles for fans living outside of Japan -- see the great new film Phantom Light, starring the stylish and lovely Makiko Esumi (region 2)
  
• If you or your little one loves Hello Kitty, why not play "dart balls" with a great Kitty dart board set that comes with Velcro balls for you to throw -- it even keeps score!
  
• For Totoro lovers, we've got two absolutely fabulous Totoro watches that will really make others take notice -- both are very high quality and made by Seiko
  
• J-List stocks many fun items for your kitchen -- see fresh stock of onigiri makers as well as a fun egg shape ring, Sanrio Shinkansen chopsticks and more
  
• Want to clean your ears the way the Japanese do? We've got some great 100% cotton swabs that come with soft hooks at the ends, perfect for gently cleaning the insides of your ears
  
• Like cute things with funny English on them? We've got some all-purposes pouches (they make nice pencil cases) with super cute English printed on them
  
• Finally, look for other great items like a puzzle photo frame, more all-purpose handy cases for you to store things in, authentic chopsticks from Japan, and more!
  

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

• First, for fans of great Japanese adult magazines, we've got the new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, both featuring top Japanese gals like Yuko Ogura, Yinling and more!
  
• For fans of hardcore magazines, enjoy the new Shuffle, featuring couples in love hotels doing unspeakable things
  
• We also love great Japanese hardcover photobooks -- check out new offerings by super Japanese cutie Eri Sakai and the elegant and sexy Sayaka Tasuta
  
• We've also restocked several nice photobook items including Yuko Ogura's popular Rorinco, Eiko Koike's super sexy Candy Girl and more
  
• Japanese "dick girls" are a popular theme in erotic culture here, and we've got a new photobook for fans of hermaphroditism or chicks with dicks, known as New Half in Japan
  
• For hentai manga fans, our staff has been working hard for you, adding a half dozen or so great hentai books including a superb new work by Bijogi Junction, the erotic sex of Zero no Mono, and more!
  
• Also, we've got a huge update of great hentai manga with several books that had been out of stock for a long time -- check them all our now
  
• For DVD fans, we've got some great items for you, starting with the great Masterpiece Concentration DVD release of Aki Sawamiya, said to be the "second Aika Miura" because she'll perform any sexual act in front of the cameras (region free)
  
• Sola Aoi (aka Sora Aoi, aka Blue Sky) has gained many fans because of her girl next door beauty and sexy body -- see a great new DVD of her best sex just for you (region free)
  
• SOD, the company that brought you pretty girls kicking men in the balls, is looking for the next fun fetish to bring you, and this time it's "cat fighting" or the joy of watching two women slap each other silly and fight it out. Enjoy a new concept for fans of pretty girls slapping the shit out of each other! (region free)
  
• Enjoy a host of pretty amateur girls who use their highly developed tongues to bring pleasure to men in a new erotic release from Martian Devil and SOD (region free)
  
• Enjoy the erotic sex of AV porn star Kay in a great new release from Waap, featuring her excellent fellatio, bukkake and group sex (region 2)
  
• Then see the high quality bukkake sex of Momo Hoshino in a great work featuring many men blowing their wads on her face, in her hair, and more -- see it all in the new Dream Shower from Waap (region 2)
  
• Lesbian fans love the very erotic lesbian performances of the U&K company, a fantastic indies studio that specializes in all-lesbian indies releases -- you can now enjoy vol. 4, 5 and 6 of their popular titles in region free DVD format!
  
• Finally, see many newly restocked DVDs, including several lesbian kissing fetish items, more all-nude sports titles, and more!
  

Remember that J-List carries virtually every English translated love-sim game available out of our San Diego office. We carry all titles by Peach Princess, G-Collections, Hobibox Europe, and JAST USA. We positively love these unique story-based games which accurately give you a cultural snapshot of an important aspect of Japanese popular culture. The English hentai games we carry are translated faithfully into English with no "writing down" of cultural elements for non-Japanese, and they're also uncensored, too! Browse our great games or email us if you'd like us to give you an honest recommendation. And don't forget that you get 20% off for buying 4 or more games!

Also, remember that J-List is the only place you can get the excellent and authentic high school uniforms from Matsukameya of Nagoya. These are extremely well made girls' uniforms that are famous all over Japan, and they're just beautiful. These authentic Japanese school uniforms aren't cheap, but we know that you'll be totally happy with the unparalleled quality of these products. We humbly suggest that you might want to wear one of these school uniforms as cosplay at this summer's anime conventions -- it will get you noticed!

Greetings from J-List June 6, 2003

Hello again from your friends in Japan, where the phrase "Not by the hair of my Chinny Chin Chin" means something else entirely...

Well, I am back in Japan after a long but generally pleasant flight -- it was more pleasant than usual because I was playing with my new 17 inch Powerbook G4 the whole way. I've made the jump from one side of the world to the other so many times that I can slip from American to Japanese mode pretty easily. I was happy to see that the construction work on the J-List office had been completed while I was in the U.S. -- we now have nearly double the storage and working space than we had before, and we'll be putting the new area to good work, bringing more great products to you from Japan!

You probably know that Japan can be a very expensive place. I'll never forget taking my mother to Kyoto and finding a small fruit shop that had a honeydew melon for sale for $30. Now, this wasn't just any melon, it was a perfect melon, sold in a specially padded gift box and intended to be given as a gift during Japan's summer gift-giving season (Ochugen). Still, $30 is an awful lot to pay for a melon, no matter how perfect, and my mother couldn't resist snapping pictures of it for posterity. That was back during the mid-90's, when the Japanese economy was healthier than it is now. Over the past five years or so, Japan has seen the prices of many products, from long distance rates to some foods to land and rent, fall noticeably. I'm sure there are still places where you can buy top-of-the-line fruit at outrageous prices, but in general, things are a lot more reasonable -- for example, a Yoshinoya beef bowl that used to cost 480 yen can now be had for just 250 yen.

The Japanese language has got to be one of the most vague, nuance-filled languages that exist in the world. Japanese is an SOV language (the word order is subject/object/verb, not subject/verb/object as English is), and it's related to Korean, and possibly Turkish and Basque (go figure). When speaking the language, it's very common to omit the subject, since it's usually known to the speakers, and often other parts of the sentence are cut as well. When my wife says to me, "Iku?" at noon, I know that she is saying "Shall we go to lunch now?" even though all she actually said was "Go?" There are many words and phrases that communicate meaning in ways that are very subtle. For example, the word "chotto" means "a little bit" in Japanese, but if you ask someone if they liked the taste of some food and they said "Chotto..." the implication would be that the food didn't taste good, but that the person wanted to say this in a more subtle and polite way. A common area where Japanese is so vague even Japanese can get into trouble is the word "ii" (pronounced like the letter "E"), which means "good." If someone asks you if you want milk in your coffee, "ii" as a reply can mean either "yes, I'll take some" or "no, I don't need any." When telemarketers ask if they can sign you up for services they're selling, you have to tell them no in specific terms; using words with vague meanings is just asking for trouble.

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

• We're big fans of the small figure + candy sets that are so popular in Japan, and we're announcing preorders for a great new series: five PVC figures from the fabulous Macross series, and you can preorder yours right now!
  
• If you love Totoro and the works of Hayao Miyazaki, we've got some cute new items for you, including Totoro and Jiji mini knapsacks
  
• Also, we've restocked the cool Totoro toilet paper holder, which will make visiting the bathroom something special for your guests
  
• For fans of Japan's sexy idols, enjoy a super-supreme Miwa Ohshiro (Oshiro)
  
• We love realistic-looking anime figures made of soft vinyl and other quality materials -- see a great new figure from the G-on Riders series
  
• Did you miss the excellent Space: 1999 toys we carried last year? We've gotten in several full sets of the Premium Pack of space vehicles, so you have a second chance!
  
• Enjoy great snacks from Japan, including nori wasabi ochazuke (pour it over rice, yum), Baby Star's famous ramen that you eat right out of the can, and more
  
• Love Hello Kitty? We've got some great new Kitty items including Kitty shaped pasta, a Kitty coin purse, super cute reflective stickers, and more
  
• For fans of the Shinkansen, the famous high-speed Japanese trains, we've got fresh stock of the Star Train series, featuring some of the most famous trains in Japan
  
• For Yu-Gi-Oh fans, we've got a great new card series from Japan, great for collectors and fans
  
• For Evangelion fans, don't miss a great new soft vinyl deluxe figure that will look great on your desk!
  
• Also, a really high quality Eva card game that features superbly printed cards and great card design
  
• Love Pixar's films? We've got a full set of 7 Monsters Inc. keychains in stock, but only one set is available so hurry if you want to get it
  
• For fans of authentic Japanese bento we recommend the Noble Homme extra-large bento box, which comes loaded with features -- we've got fresh stock of this item for you
  
• For Cardcaptor Sakura fans, a rare treat: figures from an long-past keychain series that we found
  
• For fans of cool die-cast metal cars from Japan, we have a series of six popular cars from Japan's past, including the Subaru 360 and Nissan Skyline -- very cool
  
• Finally, look for handy items for your car, more wacky Japanese signs, super reflectors for all purposes, great soft cases for your laptop computers, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japanese hardcore magazines, enjoy several new items, including the new issue of Yo! which shows kogals having sex in love hotels
  
• Look for many new items added to our low-priced adult magazines page, magazine page 3, from just $5, too
  
• The thrill of catching a glimpse up a pretty woman's skirt is always fun, and you can enjoy it in a new photobook in stock
  
• For photobook fans, enjoy the sweet nude of the sexy Ai Nanase and the beautiful and busty Yuko Moriyama
  
• The elegant and glamorous body of Noriko Aota comes alive in her new photobook, too, a great item for fans of Japanese women
  
• We've got lots of great hentai manga for you, including the new XTreme Beach Volleyball comic anthology, superb sex in "Tokyo Pop" and a great manga exploring what you'd do if you were invisible
  
• Also, for yaoi fans, enjoy a great new comic anthology of fantasy-themed yaoi artwork, a great item for you
  
• If you love the erotic "dick girl" doujinshi of Behind the Moon, be happy, because we've restocked all these popular books for you
  
• For DVD lovers, enjoy many great titles we've got for you, including sex from around the world as erotic amateurs from many different countries perform for you (region free)
  
• See the erotic sex of Japan's ninja women in "Shinobi II" (region free)
  
• We love the beautiful Asuka Sawaguchi because of her wonderfully fuckable body and clean sex -- see her in an erotic and playful new DVD from Natural High (region free)
  
• Explore the erotic and pure body of AV idol Momo Hoshino in a new 120-minute "The Idol" release from Kuki (region free)
  
• For fans of womens' asses, we've got a great new ass-fetish DVD that captures the best of beautiful bums (region free)
  
• We've restocked several of the incredibly popular Mai Hagiwara DVDs that had been out of stock for so long due to the incredible popularity of this fabulous woman
  
• Finally, look for some other restocked DVD titles including International Lesbian, Black Swap in LA, World Wide Fuck in Hungary, and more!
  

Remember that J-List offers great discounts for bulking up on our products. Order 4 or more manga volumes and get 15% off. Pick up 4 or more of the 750 different DVD titles we've currently got in stock and also get 15% off. Want some Japanese dating-sim games, which J-List stocks dozens of? Just choose any 4 or more titles and get a whopping 20% discount. All discounts are applied automatically at checkout!

Also 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 (imagine!). 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 a wonderful pop culture icon. Why not get a few, and give them out as gifts? (If you get 3 or more you get a 15% discount through the J-List shopping cart.)

Greetings from J-List May 23, 2003

Hello again from your friends at J-List. Pardon any typing mistakes I might make today -- the J-List office construction is nearly completed, and they've wrapped our building in plastic so they can paint the outside. Unfortunately, we're trapped inside the J-List office with all the fumes from the paint, and it's really giving us all a bad headache.

Every year the Japanese Tax Ministry releases a list of the Japanese who have paid the most income tax the previous year. The actual incomes of individuals is not released, but the amount of tax they pay is public record, and it's always fun to see who had a good year. For actors and "talents," the highlights were Nakai-kun and Takuya Kimura of SMAP (#1 and #10 on the list, respectively), along with all four members of the comedy teams "Tunnels" and "DownTown" -- you may be surprised to hear that Taka of Tunnels, who played the Japanese comic relief character in Major League 2, is one of the richest men in Japan's entertainment world. For singers, the #1 position went to Japanese superstar Ayumi Hamasaki (the J.Lo of Japan -- she was written up in a recent issue of Wired if you caught her), with Hikaru Utada close on her tail. In sports, Hideki Matsui got the top spot for 2002, helped along by his successful trade to the New York Yankees. Others who figured high in the rankings were JPOP producers Tetsuya Komuro and Tsunk and manga creator Rumiko Takahashi, who is paid around $4000 per page to draw for Shonen Sunday.

The stylish Roppongi area of Tokyo has gotten a posh new address, a massive skyscraper containing thousands of shops and "mansions" (what the Japanese call a high-class apartment) called Roppongi Hills. The new building also contains many thousand square feet of prime office space. But while Tokyo-ites are happy to have a fashionable new place to hang out, Tokyo is facing a crisis that's being called "the Problem of 2003." Years of a flagging economy has lowered demand for office space in the city, and most buildings are having problems attracting tenants. When a classy new building opens, tenants want to move into the new space, and that makes it difficult for the remaining buildings to stay competitive. The problem is no doubt exacerbated by the Japanese "key money" system. Under this system, if you wanted to get an apartment in Japan, you'd generally have to pay 6 months rent up front, which includes the first month's rent, two month's rent worth of deposit, a fee to a third party that found the apartment for you and two months "thank you" money that is paid to the landlord for no reason at all. If you think it would be a drag coming up with $3000 just to move into a $500 a month apartment, multiply these numbers by the high rents a large company would be paying for office space, since the "key money" system is the same no matter how much space you're renting. We hope that one by-product of the current Japanese recession is the emergence of a little common-sense in the business world in Japan.

Despite the fact that Japanese are the longest-lived race (or the 2nd longest lived, depending on the study you read), the Japanese are really big on smoking. 60% of men smoke, and quite a few women, too, which is a little strange to my liberal California way of thinking. Unlike the U.S., where smokers are urged to quit smoking to preserve their health, Japan doesn't have a problem allowing smoking and generating tax revenue from it. For many years the Japanese government operated Japan's largest tobacco company, Japan Tobacco (they also make a line of canned beverages), and although the company has been privatized, it still retains a semi-official status with the government. Because of the great revenues generated from smoking in Japan, there's not much pressure for it to go away at present. Even the "warning label" on cigarettes in Japan is a joke. It reads: "Because there is concern that it will damage your health, please be careful not to smoke too much." Sadly, as tobacco companies have run into more barriers selling their products in the U.S., they've increased their advertising and overall presence in Japan. All U.S. brands are very well known in Japan, from Camels to Marlboro to Kool. As in the U.S., they don't allow cigarette advertising on TV in Japan, however when you go to some movie theatres you should be prepared to see a huge in-your-face ad for some tobacco product or another before the show starts. It's bizarre.

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

• First, for collectors of cool Hello Kitty goods, we've got several items, including a super-cute Kitty bonnet that will make you the envy of all Kitty fans
  
• Show your otakuism with several new authentic Japanese hachimaki we've got in stock, featuring messages like "I will pass the test" and "Certain victory"
  
• For fans of unique Japanese toys, we've got a super cool large-size Blythe doll all decked out in 70's style
  
• Also, a rare item for Tokyo Mew Mew fans: the super cute Strawberry Bell Bell transforming toy with lights and sound
  
• For fans of popular Japanese swimsuit idols, we've got some nice new items in, including a superb all-Yuko Ogura photobook that you will love
  
• Shirow Masamune fans are having a great year so far, with tons of great new toy and art items being released (to say nothing of the Matrix sequels, inspired by his Ghost in the Shell) -- now take a trip back in time with a 2000 Shirow calendar, available on a very limited basis again
  
• Also for Shirow fans, find the new Ghost in the Shell DVD (vol. 6) is in stock, featuring the next two episodes in this fabulous series, as well as fresh stock of the Ghost in the Shell bilingual manga
  
• If you love Zelda but didn't catch the Zelda Box that we had in stock for so brief a time last week, we've gotten in another 50 copies in stock for you -- enjoy this really cool item before it sells out again!
  
• High on the "really cool" meter comes a cool line of bizarre Be@rbrick Pez-like toys, which are both fun to use as candy dispensers or to display. We've got full sets of these cool toys in stock, but only a couple...
  
• For fans of Japanese snack foods, enjoy Chocolate Pie from Lotte, delicious potato-flavored pretzels, and some great Hello Kitty hayashi rice mix (like curry rice) that you or your little one will love
  
• Also, J-List has gotten in fresh stock many great items regularly, including miso soup with clams, furikake, and just in time for the heat of summer, deluxe packages of mugi tea that will improve health as they refresh you this summer
  
• For those who want to try a Japanese "onsen" bath, we've got two varieties of bath salts in stock for you
  
• If you have a laptop, we've got a great item for you: an all-purpose case that's great for notebooks as well as many other things
  
• Our funny Japanese T-shirts have made us famous, but we've got another cool shirt for you -- a "tattoo shirt" that makes you look like a yakuza (we only have limited stock, but more are on order already in case you want to order one)
  
• For your kitchen, enjoy traditional Japanese bowls that look like they're made of polished wood (although ours are made out of more economical plastic) -- several new items in stock
  
• For fans of Japanese stickers and signs, we've got a reflective sticker that asks guests to remove their shoes at the door before entering
  
• For Totoro fans, we've got a major restocking of products for you, including the Totoro Diorama Musical Clock, Totoro magnets, and many high-quality Totoro plush items from Sun Arrow (including all the popular Spirited Away plush toys)
  
• For those who believe in the Chinese art of feng shui, we've restocked really cool Fortune Eggs, featuring ceramic "lucky cat" figures inside beautiful eggs, which will bring you good luck in love, life, career, and so on
  
• Finally, look for other wacky items from Japan, including Hello Kitty ear cleaners, more authentic chopsticks from Japan, a fun way to make sushi yourself, more traditional Japanese items for your room, a great clock for Ultraman fans, a sampling of rare toy items that had been sold out before, and more!
  

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

• For lovers of beautiful Japanese kogals, those stylish young things that look so good when done up right, we have the newest issue of Urecco Gal in stock for you!
  
• Then enjoy the hardcore sex of "one-sans" (oh-NAY-sans, a word which means older sister, but in this case means older girls in their 20s with lots of sexual experience)
  
• We've got some great photobooks for you, including the hardcover nude offering of Eri Yukawa and the super sexy "Hot Zone" of Toshimi Sugawara as well as the "H" (sex) of Emi Hasegawa
  
• Also, enjoy the best "oppai" (breasts) of nine incredibly beautiful Japanese models, including many who are retired and whose photos are now very rare
  
• Strippers and exotic dancing are popular in Japan, and when AV idols retire they often become strippers -- see a great hardcover photobook with the erotic performances of 50 lovely strippers, in stock now
  
• Mai Hagiwara fans will enjoy the fresh stock we've got of her popular erotic photobooks, including Love and Peach and Mirukuru Love
  
• We love carrying a wide range of toys for adults, including vibrators and other unique items sold only in Japan -- we also carry thin, close-fitting Japanese condoms, and have two new joke condoms for you, parodying Titanic and Gundam
  
• For fans of our unparalleled lineup of hentai manga, we've got an excellent selection of six new books for you, including an erotic female ninja sex anthology comic, sex with lovely female teachers, and a sweet erotic comic from Akiko Sou about love and sex
  
• Also, to help you help us make our manga sale a success, we've added fresh stock of several other great comics, including popular "Equation of the Night" by Azuki Kurenai, Mercy Rabbit's popular "Love Vibration" and more
  
• If you love Japan's doujinshi underground comics, we've got a great CD-ROM full of "doujin CG" by the excellent Behind Moon circle
  
• For yaoi fans, enjoy the new issue of Muscle Man, a very hardcore anthology comic for fans of Japan's famous homosexual comics
  
• For our DVD collecting customers, we've got more great items for you starting with a new "Masterpiece Concentration" DVD with two full hours of the lovely sex of Kyoka Usami for you -- and at a great price (region free)
  
• Then enjoy a new "No Cut!!" release from Kuki, featuring three full hour-long AV productions of this pure, lovely AV star (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the super willing sex of Ru Hoshino, who never says no to you in her new release by SOD, "I Wanted to Have Such a Girlfriend as Her" (region free)
  
• For bukkake fans, enjoy a new erotic "Mydol Semen" with the lovely Miyuki Nakama, who accepts the sperm of dozens of men in an extremely cool DVD from Chujitsu-doh and Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• We've also got a great new Dream Shower DVD by Waap, the indies studio that invented the bukkake craze -- see the hardcore sex and bukkake sperm of the lovely Sumomo Yoshimura (region 2)
  
• Finally, find several restocked DVDs including Mai Hagiwara's "Back Mirukuru," Akira Watase's erotic DVDs, a general restocking of the erotic "Blue" underwater girl DVDs, and more!
  

Remember that J-List carries region free DVD players that allow you to watch DVDs from all over the world. We carry three great region free DVD players for you to choose from, the multi-featured Cyberhome DVD CH-500, the handy and small Lasonic DVB-8092, and the reliable and value-priced Sampo DVE-612. Each one is perfect for watching DVDs from around the world, including Japan (region 2) as well as Europe (PAL discs). Our excellent players are stocked in San Diego for your convenience and we ship daily. Why not see our unique code-free DVD players today?

Greetings from J-List May 21, 2003

Hello again from Japan!

This year is the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Edo (Tokyo) as the capital of Japan. In 1603, Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, the third of the three unifiers of Japan, established the city of Edo as the capital of the country, after centuries of the Kyoto-Osaka region being the center of politics in Japan (and the center of repeated wars). The line of Tokugawa rulers continued for 265 years, closing Japan to all outside influences and trade to protect it from colonization by Western powers. The Tokugawa clan ruled Japan through 15 generations, until the Shogunate was overthrown during the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when young Japanese rallied around the Emperor in a plan to create a modern nation. Residents of Tokyo are planning many special ceremonies this year to commemorate the birth of Tokyo, and we're taking part too: we've got great sets of historical action figures from Japan's past, which are great to collect and display.

Tokyo is an interesting place, although I tire of all that concrete when I'm there, and I'm usually happy to get back to Isesaki (pop. 140,000) at the end of the day. Here are some interesting places you might want to check out if you're ever in Tokyo, though. Ameyoko, an interesting collection of alley ways full of small street shops selling interesting clothes, food and accessories, is always fun to wander around. It grew out of a black market that flourished in the years after World War II. Another popular spot with tourists is Akasuka, a large shrine that has many interesting shops around it. If you like electronics -- and what gaijin visiting Japan doesn't? -- be sure and hit Akihabara, home of the "Electric Town" where there are hundreds of shops selling just about anything you can want. If you've got your passport with you, you can avoid paying the 5% consumption tax at these shops, too. To check out "kogal" culture, just take the Yama-no-te (the loop line that goes around Tokyo) to Shibuya and get off at the Hachiko exit (see below for more on Hachiko). There you'll find a vibrant area of street musicians and interesting shops, as well many Japanese girls, with guys trying to hit on them while standing around the famous "scramble intersection" (called this because you have to move your butt quickly to get across in time, or you'll get hit by a taxi). For night action, go to Kabukicho, although gaijin should watch themselves as it can be a little rough, and some establishments won't let foreigners in at all. Tokyo Tower and the massive Tokyo Municipal Government Office are also good to hit if you want a view of the city from above.

The most famous dog in the history of Tokyo is Hachiko, an Akita dog who was owned by a university professor in the 1920's. Every day, Hachiko accompanied the professor to Shibuya Station, and in the evenings, the man would come back to find the dog waiting faithfully for his return, a happy expression on his face. This continued for years, until one day, the man died suddenly. Loyal Hachiko waited for his master to return for ten years, wagging his tail in front of the station every day until he, too, died. Tokyo residents have erected a bronze statue in Hachiko's memory, which you can see at the Hachiko exit of the station if you're ever in Tokyo. It's so famous, it's very useful as a meeting point for friends -- "Meet me at Hachiko."

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

• First, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Tokyo becoming the capital of Japan, we've got a cool series of historic figures from Japan's unification wars, including Tokugawa himself (full sets are available too)
  
• For fans of Shirow Masamune, we've got full sets available for preorder of not one, but two different upcoming toy releases: the lovely characters of the Intron Depot universe, and a superb Ghost in the Shell figure series. Both sets of toys will be coming out in June, but you can preorder your full set now!
  
• For fans of our unique Japanese snacks, enjoy the 30th anniversary version of Kit Kat chocolate, chocolate covered rice crackers, lemon C candy and fresh stock of several cool items including miso soup
  
• Also, for fans of Japanese gum, we've got Lifeguard gum, a fresh taste that quenches your thirst
  
• We've got great Japanese swimsuit idols for you, including a new hardcover item with the lovely Sayaka Isoyama in it
  
• For manga fans curious about girls' comics, we've got a nice two-volume set for you, Lingerie Publicity by Mamito Ankara
  
• One of the most attractive men in Japan today is Gackt, a singer and male model -- see his asthetically worthy photobook in stock for you today
  
• We always stock lots of cool toys from Japan -- today, see limited stock of two cool Alien toys from the famous films Alien and Aliens -- very detailed, and very cool, by Japanese toy maker Skynet
  
• For fans of the super-cute Groomy plush dogs and cats that we carry, which feature chamois bottoms for wiping your computer monitor clean, we've got four new varieties: St. Bernard, Bull Terrier, Doberman Pinscer and a Yellow Labrador
  
• For bento fans, we've got a nice new double-decker bento box that's good for putting rice in one section and your "okazu" (that is, whatever main food you eat with your rice) in the other section
  
• For those whose lives need more organization, we've got a great "multi work case" that holds documents, phones, PDA, laptops, and just about anything else you can throw at it
  
• For Kitty fans, several new items including a really snazzy Hello Kitty mechanical lace pencil, fresh stock of the cute Kitty toy refrigerator and Rubick's Cube, and more
  
• Also, for fans of Totoro and the other films of Studio Ghibli, we've restocked several plush toys, keychains, and the very popular Jiji Pencil Case
  
• Also, we've restocked several wacky stickers for you, with "No Parking" "Emergency Exit" and "Do Not Enter" in reflective stickers, written in Japanese
  
• Finally, enjoy a great way to hang pictures or notes, a Hello Kitty photo stand, new wacky bento boxes for fans of Japanese boxed lunch, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japanese magazines, enjoy new "hitozuma" (married women) fetish items, showing young wives cheating on their husbands to pay their debts
  
• then find the new issue of DVD Wow! in stock, a full color magazine that comes with a 140 min. DVD full of great sample fucks for you to enjoy (region 2)
  
• We fell in love with busty Japanese AV star Alice Hoshi the first time we saw her, and you will too, in her super erotic hardcover photobook
  
• Then enjoy the erotic "Imoto" series photobook of Yayoi, age 19, a lovely creature captured by the camera of Garo Aida
  
• Megumi is the name of one of Japan's top busty idols, and you will love her new photobook, dedicated entirely to the lovely idol
  
• For manga fans interested the best erotic comic artwork Japan has to offer, we've got some great new books for you, including the excellent Aigan (Appeal) from Mujin Comics, and the dreamy and erotic Stray Sheep by master illustrator "Benjamin"
  
• Also, great fresh stock of popular books for you, including the Chobits hentai anthologies, the super collection of anthology works ERO-GAINER, and many more (and all are part of our manga sale)
  
• We're also happy to announce stock of the excellent hentai doujinshi of Behind Moon, featuring superb "dick girl" themes and great artwork -- we've got two volumes in stock, as well as a
  
• For DVD loves, we've got a wild lineup for you today, starting with an erotic "Blue File" release with three hours of AV sex by Asuka, the sweet and erotic AV star who will melt your heart with her cuteness (region free)
  
• Sayaka Hijiri has been performing professional AV for two years, and has really made her mark on the Indies industry in Japan -- now enjoy the best sex from her career, collected onto a great disc that's an amazing 240 minutes long (region free)
  
• The Zenra Sports series continues, with a great new release by SOD's Deep's label -- this time enjoy erotic all-nude basketball with 24 naked Japanese girls! (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy the incredible sexual experience of Ran Asakawa as she fucks, sucks and does much more in a new "Female Teacher" release from Deep's (region free)
  
• SOD's "Holed Panty" series is great because it allows you to see beautiful girls getting serviced without any mosaic censorship -- now enjoy Ai Nagase as she gets the updated holed panty treatment (region free)
  
• There's bukkake galore in the new Gokkun Selection from Waap, featuring the best cum-eating of 13 different hot Japanese stars (region 2)
  
• Then, the lovely Bunko Kanazawa offers to tease your penis,
  
• Finally, see newly stocked items, including fresh stock of Zenra Volleyball, Let's Go Marine-Chan, and fresh stock of all the erotic videos of Russian star Yulia Nova!
  

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, adult, 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.

Also remember that the easiest way to see all the newly updated items on J-List is through the "three day link." Click the link, located on the main J-List page, and all items from the past three days will be displayed. You can also click the product picture that appears on the front page to see all updated items.

Greetings from J-List May 19, 2003

Hello again from all your friends at J-List!

My Japanese wife and I work hard to raise our children so that they'll be bilingual in both English and Japanese. We only buy DVDs from the U.S., so if the kids want to watch something in our DVD collection, they have to watch it in English. Getting them to actually speak English at home can be difficult though, especially since the kids know that I understand Japanese. Pretending not to understand and asking them to repeat what they just said in English doesn't work very well, so we try to come up with other ways to tackle English together. Sometimes when we play together, we play "American family" and speak only English. If they want anything from me, they know I won't give it to them unless they ask in English. Also, my kids need extra practice making some of the sounds native English speakers make, such as voiced and unvoiced "th" (as in "this" and "thing" -- these sounds are known as fricatives, in case anyone ever asks you). So we have a game: if they can pronounce the "th" in "Throw me!" properly, I will throw them onto the bed (a favorite game).

It's common for bilingual speakers to switch between languages when they know the person they're speaking to will understand either one; this is called "code switching." Sometimes kids do it accidentally, because they haven't learned which words go with which language. When my kids were younger, they often would use English words wth the teachers at their preschool, causing occasional confusion. I remember when my son Kazuki went to the local public bath with me, back when he was two years old or so. He told me that the cold-water bath was "cold-katta." I didn't understand what he meant, but then it hit me: he had mixed the English word cold with the past tense ending in Japanese (-katta). The Japanese for "it was cold" would have been "tsumeta-katta" (tsumetai meaning "cold to the touch"). With summer nearing, we're making plans for our kids to spend time in our home in San Diego, so they can spend time in an English environment and recover the English they learned last summer, but have since stopped using.

There are certain changes that happen to Americans who live in Japan for a long time. For one, you get quite comfortable with the metric system, and start annoying your friends and family back home by referring to everything in centimeters and kilometers. My shoe size is 26.5 cm, but I've long forgotten what it is in inches, just as I've forgotten how much I weigh in pounds. But the Japanese don't use the metric system for everything. When talking about the sizes of rooms in Japan, you never use square meters, but instead refer to the number of tatami mats the room contains (or would contain, if it were a tatami room). Tatami mats are standard-sized rectangular mats made of straw, that are supposed to be the correct space for one adult to sleep. A 6-jo room ("jo" is the Chinese pronunciation for the "tatami" character) is average sized; poor college students have to live in a 4-jo-han (or a small apartment that's just 4 1/2 tatami mats in size). When you buy land, you measure it in "tsubo," an area of measurement that's conveniently equal to two tatami mats. Thus if you have 20 "tsubo" of land you can picture it as 40 tatami mats in size. When you've been in Japan as long as I have, it becomes quite easy to do.

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

• First, for all fans of the Star Trek universe, we've got a very special series of Star Trek starships that will be released from Furuta June 23. The set includes ten different popular vehicles, including the Enterprise, the Reliant, Deep Space Nine, Kingon ships and more. Preorder yours today!
  
• Another great item from Japan is the limited edition Jelly Belly Bearbrick figures -- they're so limited, we've only got one full set in stock
  
• Japanese are fans of old things, and many people collect old tin toys -- we've got a great set of ten different classic toy replicas made by Japanese toy sculptor Teruhisa Kitahara
  
• We've got great Japanese snacks, including delicious Lotte "Ghana" chocolate crisps, peach flavored gummi, and real dried Japanese "ume" plums
  
• Also, some cute furikake for your little one (or you) that features little Snoopy shapes that are fun to eat
  
• We love to stock fun Sanrio items, and have several new things for you, including a new Hello Kitty Japanese fairy tale book, a great Kitty and Shinkansen cup set for your little one, and a super fun item -- Shinkansen Pachinko, a real pachinko machine that will amuse you for hours
  
• Also, enjoy wacky Japanese signs and stickers, like "Don't let your dog poop here" and "W.C."
  
• We love DVD from Japan, and have a new Japanese film in stock for you, TOYD, a fantastic horror film about toys that can be controlled through their portable phones, which can also be used for murder (region 2)
  
• J-List carries authentic Japanese geta shoes made of wood, with many variations for men and women -- because our Japanese shoes are so popular, we'd sold out of many styles, including nearly all our "zori" tatami shoes, but we've restocked them all now for you
  
• We always stock many useful Japanese items for your kitchen, including traditional Japanese bowls, disposable and printed chopsticks, bento boxes and more -- we've gotten in stock of a handy rice scoop for scooping rice out of your rice cooker
  
• For fans of Japanese Race Queens, look for many items in stock, including more copies of the popular Race Queen Hundred Catalog
  
• Finally find super cute Japanese fanny pouches, the last Pocky stock we'll get before summer, cute Japanese items with funny English on them, and more!
  

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

• For fans of lovely Japanese AV stars, we've got the new issue of Bejean, the flagship adult magazine of the Eichi Publishing Company, filled with lovely gals for you!
  
• For amateur fans, we've got the new issue of Sasotte Ageru ("I'm going to ask you out"), featuring many lovely girls in love hotels, as well as an erotic "Bud Girl" magazine
  
• Then enjoy a special treat, a magazine dedicated to the erotic and lovely Ran Asakawa, which comes with a 120 minute DVD full of her erotic movies (region 2)
  
• Maiko Kazano is one of the most lovely nude models in Japan, and you can enjoy her lovely nude body in a new issue of Karami, dedicated entirely to this lovely girl
  
• We love the really sexy swimsuit and busty idols that are popular in Japan -- enjoy a great hardcover photobook featuring Harumi Nemoto and four other lovely gals
  
• Also, look for freshly restocked photobooks, including Aoi Sora's great hardcover photobook and fresh stock of Yuko Ogura's dynamite "Loving Kindly"
  
• For fans of our hentai manga, which on sale this month during our "May Manga Sale," we've got some great new offerings for you, including an all "Woman Teacher" hentai manga, and the very erotic "Twins" manga by
  
• We've also restocked several popular manga items, including Blue Eyes, Shake, Insult! and also, Pose File 2, a great book of nude poses for anyone trying to learn to draw like the Japanese do
  
• The erotic artwork of hentai illustrator Makura-E Dukushi is truly amazing -- see his best illustrations in a new art book that should not be missed by any hentai fans
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got some great new products for you, starting with a wacky 4-hour DVD of late-night erotic TV from Japan, including many wacky scenes: nude English and Korean conversation segments, fishing with the female genitalia, car sex, nude newscasters, and more -- and the price is great! (region free)
  
• Hitomi Hayasaka is one of the loveliest AV stars in Japan, a fabulous girl with a great Asian body -- enjoy 4 hours of her best works in a new release from Million (region free)
  
• From Total Media Agency, enjoy another value-priced 4-hour DVD, featuring 4 hours of the very best lesbian sex in the company's history (region free)
  
• Ran Asakawa performs a valuable service for you, assisting your solo sex in the new SOD title "Ran Asakawa will Assist your Masturbation" (region free)
  
• For fans of anal sex themes, enjoy the new Anal de Fuck Deluxe, featuring the first anal experiences of three lovely girls, by Deep's (region free)
  
• In Japan, voice actresses, the girls who provide the voices in anime, are very popular -- now enjoy some "Immoral Voice Actress Training" in a new erotic offering from Audaz, featuring the erotic sex of three real voice actresses (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for many restocked DVDs, including the super lesbian title "Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell," Mirai Hoshizaki's complete works, more bukkake from the Dream Shower series, and Riho Nanase's great wet sex.
  

Do you love the anime films of Hayao Miyazaki? Remember that J-List stocks all the excellent region 2 DVD releases for Studio Ghibli movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky Laputa, Princess Mononoke and his Lupin III classic, The Castle of Caliostro. These DVDs are released in Japan directly by the studio and include many features that make them great for collectors. All discs feature English subtitles and/or dubbed tracks and are great for fans who want the definitive versions of these anime classics overseen by Mr. Miyazaki himself. The only catch is, you need a region free DVD player to watch them -- and J-List humbly recommends the three excellent units we currently sell.

Also, remember that J-List stocks many items for fans of "cosplay," the Japanese hobby of dressing up like your favorite anime or other character. From actual items you can buy and wear (including the line of excellent high school uniforms from Nagoya's Matsukameya, sold exclusively through J-List) to a full line of comics, DVDs and dating-sim games that cater to cosplay fans, we know we've got something for you. Just search for "cosplay" to see all the items we've got.

We found a great page for any anime fans who want to learn Japanese through their hobby. See the "100 most common word in anime" here: http://www.yale.edu/anime/glossary.html

Greetings from J-List May 14, 2003

First of all, we had some server problems for the past days, which made the product images fail to appear on the site for around eight minutes or so on several different occasions. The problem was caused by a bad router which is being replaced. Also, there was some confusion about the "three day link" posted last time, which caused the PG and R pages to not display properly. Everything is fixed now, though -- sorry for any inconvenience.

Japanese people do love to bathe, and bathing is a big part of Japanese culture. In Japanese homes, the actual bathroom is a bath and a separate tiled area outside the bath, with a drain for water to escape. You always wash your body thoroughly before getting into the bath, and never use soap or shampoo inside the bath itself, as the water will be reused by other family members, and saved for several days. All baths here have heaters to allow you to re-heat the old water, and ours has a one-touch computer that will fill the bath to the pre-set temperature and level. If you're a parent, you always take your kids in the bath with you and wash them. This warm concept of mother or father taking a bath with their children is known as "skinship" to the Japanese. Japanese are great fans of public baths (sento) and hot springs (onsen), too. Since the water at these public baths is "everyone's water," everyone must wash thoroughly before getting into the baths. Taking baths at a public facility like this obviously means getting naked in front of dozens of strangers, which can be troubling to Westerners; but Japanese do it from birth, and no one really thinks anything of it. Men and women bathing together (called "kon'yoku" or "mixed bathing") is famous all over the world, but it's actually very rare, although "family baths" that a family can reserve ahead of time are growing in popularity. For more information on the culture of bathing in Japan, we humbly recommend Peach Princess's excellent love-sim game Tokimeki Check in!, which is based in a traditional Japanese hot springs inn.

With all that's different between Japan and the West, you can bet that there are some toilet-related differences, too. When Japanese women use a public toilet, they're very nervous about others hearing the sound of their tinkling, so some Japanese public restrooms have machines to make white noise that drowns out the sound. My daughter went into one of these restrooms and was too afraid of the sound to do what she had gone in there to do. Similarly, Japanese women don't want others smelling the toilet after they've used it, so they often carry portable cans of air freshener to spray the area and make it fresh and clear. Conveniently, we happen to have gotten some of these in stock for you today...

J-List loves to bring you things you never knew existed, including the bizarre late-night TV shows that are being released on DVD with English subtitles. One of our favorite series is OH! Mikey, a "mannequin drama" about an American family that has moved to Japan. It's hilarious, as it's all acted out with fashion mannequins. For more information on OH! Mikey, see the unofficial homepage of the Fuccon family at http://www.fuccon.com/

We're happy to see many people preordering the upcoming Kango Shicyzuzo 2, the sequel to the popular game of sexy goings-on at a Catholic school for nurses. It will ship in June, so preorder now for free shipping when it comes in stock. We're happy to announce another great bishoujo game for preorders, a very bold SF-anime game entitled Gun Shield Warrior SAKIGAKE. A great game that combines the best SF anime themes with an super bishoujo story, you must command the battleship SAKIGAKE and the advanced mechs known as "Justice" to defeat the invading enemy from space, the Seekers. It's divided into 11 chapters, complete with "next episode" trailers and more, with both actual mecha combat and great bishoujo love scenes. Preorder it now for free shipping when it ships (US/Canada only; international orders receive half price on shipping).

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

• First, for Japanese snack lovers, we've got some great additions, including tea candies, tasty green tea chocolate cakes, fresh miso soup with wakame in it, from stock of my favorite brand of ochazuke, and more
  
• We carry delicious gum from Japan, too, and have a new flavor for you, delicious pineapple gum from Bourbon
  
• Also, look for fresh stock of one of the most popular items in J-List history, Lotte's Black Black spicy caffeine gum
  
• We've got a great die-cast toy bus with rubber tires and doors that open, featuring the McDonald's characters
  
• We love carrying Japanese swimsuit idol photobooks, and have great new offerings today, with Yuko Ogura's sweet new photobook and a hardcover release from Hiroko Anzai
  
• For Kitty fans, a really cute item: a Rubick's Cube puzzle that you can display anywhere, as well as various cute Kitty items for your kitchen
  
• Also, we've got some really cute "Usako and friends" character goods, complete with funny English. "Being seen makes us happy, and dressing up is fun!"
  
• Also for fans of the very cute, two new plush Japanese treats from the Nyanko Restaurant series, featuring food with cute plush cats baked right in -- wow!
  
• For Totoro lovers, we've got fresh stock of the Laputa robot and Totoro "gift in the rain" music boxes, popular items for collectors
  
• We've restocked several popular "shokugan" (food + toy) items, value-priced toys that feature ramune candy inside -- see fresh stock of the Japanese dessert and train station bento full sets, in stock
  
• We carry chopsticks from Japan, including adult-sized ones that have rough patches at the ends, to make it easier to grip your food
  
• For Hamtaro fans, a cute train pass case, which you can use to hold cards, money and other things
  
• The plush pet that feature soft chamois bottoms, perfect for wiping your computer monitor when it's dirty, have been restocked -- look for fresh stock of all the cute plush dogs and cats in the Groomy series from Elecom
  
• We've got some interesting and innovative covers for keys, which make it easy to see which key goes with which door -- some of the designs the Japanese have come up with a really out there though
  
• At Japanese stores, they have a little raffle machine that spits out a colored ball, and you get a prize based on the color of the ball -- we've got the raffle machines in stock, for anyone who wants to use them at a local event
  
• For DVD fans, we've got fresh stock of the popular Japanese film Versus, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
  
• For Chobits lovers, various Chobits related items including fresh stock of the excellent bilingual manga for those who want to read both the English and the Japanese
  
• Finally, find super stylish coin purses in different colors, a great way to shave your eyebrows into the shape you want them to be, items with funny English on them, portable toilet freshener, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japan's delightful AV stars, we've got a new issue of Karami, the magazine that's really a photobook, this time dedicated to the beautiful and erotic Hitomi Hayasaka
  
• If you love Japan's unique Race Queens, enjoy the erotic sex of Hikari Kisugi and many others as they perform great sex for you
  
• We love Japan's erotic photobooks, and have some great new ones for you, including a superb new Mai Hagiwara nude photobook that features some of the best-ever shots of this lovely girl -- comes in a protective box, too
  
• Also, Shino Isshiki's super erotic offering and a sweet and erotic photobook featuring Megumi Osawa
  
• Jun Matsuda is a lovely swimsuit idol who has been popular over the years -- see her new seminude photobook release featuring her most erotic photos yet
  
• For fans of erotic manga from Japan, we've got another great update for you, with several new books including a fabulous collection of erotic short stories by Musashimaru and Hinako Yui's erotic "Charm Juice," along with many restocked books -- don't forget our manga sale, too!
  
• Also, we've got fresh stock of the excellent collection of "shunga" (erotic ukiyoe illustrations), the first hentai manga of Japan
  
• For yaoi collectors, find a great new erotic yaoi comic by BBC comics, as well as a few restocked volumes of past yaoi comics
  
• We've gotten in a major restocking of the G-Taste erotic art books, beautiful books of erotic color illustrations by Hiroki Yagami
  
• For DVD lovers, we've got another great volley of titles for you, starting with the lovely 3-hour "No Cut!!" release of Yuri Kamome, which includes her debut into the world of JAV (region free)
  
• Japan's ninjas are famous all over the world -- now see erotic female ninjas having erotic sex in a new release from Fearest (region free)
  
• Two sisters experience lesbian sex and the joy of bukkake in a new release from SOD's Martian Devil label (region free)
  
• Then from IEnergy, explore a world of breast fetishism, with sex scenes featuring Japan's famous AV idols filmed so that their breasts are always in frame (region free)
  
• From Moodyz, a new CFNM ("clothed female, nude male") DVD featuring girls who love to see penises -- great for fans of the Japanese fetish known as "penis study" (region 2)
  
• Yinling's dynamite Russian film "VOPREKI" is a real treat to see -- we've got fresh stock of this popular item (region 2)
  
• Also from Moodyz, a great re-release of a popular Madoka Ozawa indies DVD featuring the "real sex" of the incredibly popular AV star (region 2)
  
• Finally, see some great newly restocked DVDs, including Ran Asakawa's Onanie Paranoia, Kurumi Morishita and Sayaka Hijiri in black funeral kimonos, fresh stock of Anna Ohura's "I love H" DVD, and more excellent sex by Akira Watase.
  

J-List carries the excellent high-end computer mice by Elecom, designed by Shirow Masamune, creator of Ghost in the Shell, and Katoki Hajime, the mechanical designer for the Gundam universe. Both of these beautiful mice are extremely well made, and feel great in your hand. They're compatible with English-language Mac and PC computers right out of the box, and come in colors that will complement your computer and revolutionize your computing experience -- I love my silver Katoki mouse, which matches my Powerbook perfectly.

Want to see Japan, but can't afford the plane ticket? Visit our good friends at SushiCam.com, who document many aspects of life in Japan with vivid pictures. It's a great way to see Japan without leaving your computer. Tell them we sent you!

Greetings from J-List May 12, 2003

Hello again from all your friends in Japan!

The Japanese do love their alcohol, and in generally consume a large amount of it each year. Although Japanese rice wine, called sake (SAH-keh; remember to avoid saying "saki" since it's wrong), is famous all over the world, the national alcoholic beverage of choice is beer. Japan's big four beer companies -- Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory -- control nearly all distribution of beer and related products in Japan. The biggest two are Kirin and Asahi, and they keep slugging it out, trying to steal the coveted top spot from each other (Asahi's Super Dry brand currently holds it). The Japanese beer market is divided into two groups: "beer" and "happoshu," the latter being beer made with less malt, which allows beer makers to pay less tax, making for a low-priced product. If you read the labels on Japanese beer bottles, you'll notice something interesting: almost all of them contain rice as an ingredient, even the Budweiser sold here, which is bottled by Kirin.

There are some interesting rules about drinking in Japan. First of all, when beer in bottles (as opposed to mugs) with friends, you pour beer into each other's glasses, saying "sumimasen" (excuse me) when your own glass is filled. Never pour your own beer; doing this is called "tejaku," and it's bad manners. Since everyone is usually pouring everyone else's beer, you may have trouble politely declining another topping off, and in that case, you can just touch the full glass to your lips without drinking any, and they'll get the message that you don't want any more. Just for the record, you can get a cup of beer at most large movie theatres in Japan ("I'm talking about a glass of beer"), although they don't serve beer in McDonald like they do in Europe.

If you ever need to communicate with Japanese people but don't know any Japanese, just remember this word: "Domo." Domo basically means "very" and is found in such phrases as "Domo arigatou gozaimasu" (thank you very much), "Domo sumimasen" (excuse me), and even "Domo otsukaresama deshita" (thank you for working so hard), said at the end of the day when you leave work. If you can't memorize these phrases, just remember the word "Domo," since Japanese people use this word all the time, leaving the rest of the words unsaid (since they're picked up from the context anyway). So if you're ever greeting a Japanese person after a long time away, meeting someone for the first time, saying goodbye, etc. you can usually get along with just "Domo."

We're very happy with the success of the "Groomy" plush pets we posted on Friday. They are very soft, well-made beanbag toys that feature soft chamois bottoms, for wiping your computer monitor when it gets dirty. They've proved so popular, we've sold out of several of them already. Rest assured that more are on the way -- you can order them from the J-List site and we'll hold the Groomy plush toys until they come in again.

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

• First, we've been pleased with the response to our Japanese traditional footwear, and we've got more for you -- really cool wooden geta sandals that are super for summer
  
• For fans of Lupin III, now on TV in the U.S., we've got some cool "handcuff phone straps" that are real handcuffs, with a leather strap -- use them as a camera strap, phone strap or a keychain
  
• For fans of our Japanese snacks, we've got delicious items for you, including soy sauce and butter flavored popcorn (yum!), tasty Hayashi Rice, and a unique treat that goes well with beer
  
• Freshly restocked snacks include soybean pretz (Edamame), miso soup, Fujiya's delicious Milky Chocolate, and more
  
• From the "really fun" department, we've got a cute "Soft Cream Shop" where you or your little one can have fun making soft cream (that is, soft-serve ice cream) in little cones. Everything you need is included!
  
• Enjoy the cute cosplay of Moe Kirimura in a cute photobook that's filled with great costume photographs
  
• J-List carries Japanese films on DVD, complete with English subtitles -- enjoy Another Heaven, a fascinating story about grizzly murders in Tokyo, starring many famous faces
  
• For fans of collectible items from Japan, we've added various sets of the popular "Dinosaur Retro bottlecap collection," which are really cool to display
  
• For Macross lovers, we've gotten stock of the brand-new YF-21, a great toy that actually transforms -- really cool
  
• For those trying to combat airborne germs in style, we've got stock of the rumored Hello Kitty masks -- they're so cute!
  
• Also for Kitty lovers, we've also added stock of the cute Kitty fishing game, the Kitty message magnets, and an incredibly cute Usako Friends character eraser set that will really wow you
  
• Look for new onsen powder, so you can experience a Japanese hot springs bath at home (note: if these sell out we'll add more soon)
  
• Nintendo fans, we've posted fresh stock of the Zelda Box, containing a limited edition art book, full game soundtrack and figures, a really cool item for Zelda players -- but stock is limited to what we've got on hand
  
• The cute mouse character of Bou from Spirited Away has attained a cult following, and we've gotten in two different Bou plush toys for you -- they are really incredibly well made, by Sun Arrow
  
• Also for Hayao Miyazaki fans, enjoy fresh stock of the Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service music boxes, which are so nice to collect
  
• We've also added fresh stock of popular Japan Hot Wheels, sold only in the Japanese market, including the Delorean from Back to the Future and Airwolf helicopter
  
• Finally, see maps of Japan, more authentic chopsticks, more Japanese study aids including cool vocabulary notebooks from Japan, funny Japanese signs, a "bag in a bag," and more!
  

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

• First, we're happy to announce the opening of preorders for Kango Shicyauzo 2 ~ Is The Sorority House Burning?, the newest game from G-Collections. It will be shipping in about a week or so -- preorder it now for free shipping when it comes in! Also, J-List has the last stock of the great first release, Kango Shicyauzo - I'm Gonna Nurse You, which is out of print with the publisher -- order it before we run out too!
  
• For fans of quality adult magazines from Japan, we've got the new Celeb Girls, filled with fantastic famous Japanese stars and superb erotic photography
  
• Enjoy the sex of "young madams" (that is, sexually experienced girls aged 22-28) in a new amateur magazine we've got for you
  
• Go on a "Shorts Hunt" (an odd way of saying hunting for girls who will give you their panties) in a new magazine + DVD combination that gives you a 120 minute DVD and a full color magazine
  
• For hardcover photobook fans, see many nice items, including the lovely nude of Maria Takagi
  
• Also, the very sexy erotic photos of Sayuri Anzu, with some of the boldest and most amazing photography we've seen yet, followed by the super sexy low-angle photography of Moe Yoshizawa
  
• We've added fresh stock of some great photobooks, too, including Maiko Kazano's erotic "Love Come" and the busty Marina Matsushima's "Fetish" offerings
  
• We've got unique bondage photobooks from Japan, including very erotic works that capture the spirit of Japanese bondage photography
  
• Our "buy 5 or more, get 20% off" hentai manga sale is going strong, and many customers are taking advantage of the chance to save money -- to help you, we've added another great volley of all-new adult manga, including Rough and Ready by Toh Moriyaka, aka Naoki Yamamoto of "Dance Til Tomorrow" and a half-dozen other new books
  
• Also, look for a massive restocking of hentai manga, including the popular Paradise Lost (hentai Evangelion parody) and Blue Eyes books, as well as other popular books
  
• For DVD lovers, we've got a bunch of superb titles for you, starting with Wakana Itsuki's "Masterpiece Concentration" release, 120 minutes of her sweet sex for a great price! (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy super Adult Video Wrestling, as Ai Nagase joins the ranks of Japan's best erotic wrestlers -- it's really an amazing great for professional wrestling fans, and very well done! (region free)
  
• From Deep's, enjoy the beautiful face and sex of Asuka Sawaguchi, who is a super high-class lesbian soap girl who will fulfill all your fantasies (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand, a great new concept in which couples go into a studio together -- the girl must look at various penises pushed through a cloth and guess which one belongs to her boyfriend (region free)
  
• From Wanz, enjoy the supremely sexy Mirai Hoshizaki, in a new bondage-themed release that's innovative and erotic (region 2)
  
• Then enjoy the fellatio and sex of the sultry Ran Asakawa, delightful bad girl of the Japanese adult video world (region 2)
  
• Finally, look various restocked DVD titles, including Momo Sakura's sexy performance, the Holed Panty Best Selection, and more!
  

J-List carries AG, the excellent manga magazine of "art, sex and CG culture," bringing superb English-translated hentai manga and more to adult readers. We love the format of the excellent magazine, which comes out every 2-3 months, and we offer reserve subscriptions for fans who want to make sure they don't miss an issue. We hope you'll support this great magazine by picking up all the issues. For your ordering convenience, it's stocked in our San Diego warehouse.

Like Star Trek or the Lord of the Rings? Then logic dictates that you see the video of Mr. Spock singing the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins if you haven't yet. I found a link here: http://www.game-revolution.com/download/trickyl/goodies/Video/baggins.mov (not sure if it will stay up when everyone on the list accesses it, but search Google if it stops working). Quicktime required.