Greetings from J-List September 8, 2004

Hello from Japan, where a cleft chin is known as "ketsu-ago" (KEH-tsoo AH-go), literally meaning "butt-chin."

Japan is the home of manga, the uniquely detailed comics that are famous all over the world. The term manga literally means "whimsical pictures" and was coined by ukiyoe artist Hokusai to describe a book of wookblock art he'd done (he's the artist of the famous Red Fuji and The Wave you may have seen). Early forms of manga had existed since before World War II, but the father of manga in its present form is Tezuka Osamu, creator of virtually all of the popular early works. His stories, often laced with challenging philosophical themes, set the bar high for the generations of manga artists that would follow. Today Japanese buy a staggering 2.2 billion manga books annually, 40% of all printed books sold here, and manga is generally read by people of all ages. At our liquor shop, we sell the weekly manga magazines like Shonen Jump and Shonen Magazine, and it's not uncommon to see a businessman get out of a BMW to buy this week's issue of his favorite comic. While Westerners use the term manga to refer to Japanese printed comics, most Japanese over the age of 25 use the word to refer to animation as well; only the younger generation uses the term anime.

Currently Japan is having a "manga revival," with many of the classic golden age comics back in print for fans to enjoy again. Fist of the North Star, Golgo 13, Lupin III, The Rose of Versailles, Ashita no Joe -- they're all being reprinted and sold in convenience stores for the next generation of Japanese. I'm currently re-reading Touch, the 80s high school baseball manga by Mitsuru Adachi, which I used to study Japanese with back in college. It's very "natsukashii" (nats-ka-SHII, meaning nostalgic)

The most profitable Disney theme park in the world is Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983 and has broken all records for money-making in the history of theme parks. The Japanese penchant for spending money on souvenirs for family members, called omiyage (oh-mee-YAH-geh), helps make this profitability possible -- the average guest spends around $300. Disney's second Japanese park opened a couple years ago: DisneySea, centered around themes of the ocean. The park features a volcano, a recreation of the Arabian town of Agrabah from Aladdin, a fun under-the-sea area for younger kids, a cruise ship, a "jet coaster" (as they say in Japan) based on Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even a hotel where you can get married, right inside the park. We had fun when we went, but my son said it was "kakko warui" (uncool) for Mickey Mouse to speak Japanese when he should be speaking English. The biggest problem with theme parks in Japan are all the people: no matter what day you go, it seems they're brimming with guests, and waiting 3-4 hours for popular rides can really suck.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, including updated and restocked toys, manga, DVDs, snacks, wacky things from Japan, and much more. J-List has over 2000 cool things from Japan -- you can view items updated in the last 3 days with the handy 3-day link, http://www.jlist.com/UPDATES/3/

For anime fans in Germany, there's a cool convention starting September 10-12 in Kassel, and many of our game and T-shirt products will be at the show (although we won't be, unfortunately). For more information on the show, see the Connichi website at http://www.connichi.de/

Remember that J-List stocks the incredibly detailed classic food replica items from Re-Ment and other companies, which recreate famous foods of the world -- sushi, Japanese traditional dishes, classic American food, Asian treats and more -- in such detail you won't believe they're not edible (you even get little silverware/chopsticks). Although Japanese have to buy these individually, we go out of our way for you, making full sets available so you can avoid buying duplicates and throwing them away. These amazing toys are perfect for doll collectors, too -- and they make thoughtful gifts, too.

Greetings from J-List September 1, 2004

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Greetings from J-List August 30, 2004

Hello from Japan, where you order french fries in restaurants by asking for "potato."

Japan's electronics industry is a very competitive place, and companies are always trying to come up with new products to capture market share away from their competitors. Every few months, it seems some company comes up with a new twist on an existing product -- like a refrigerator that emits "minus ions" (negatively charged ions) to make your room feel fresh and clean, rice cookers with revolutionary cooking features, or combination washer/dryers that wash, then dry, your clothes -- a great item to have during Japan's rainy season, when it's too humid to hang clothes up to dry. Companies are always trying to create a new category of product that they can lead in -- Sharp has done this with their new "water oven," which cooks food with steam, removing fat and oils to make food healthier. The area where competition is fiercest is probably the digital camera arena, where all the major electronics companies are constantly releasing new models to keep from getting left behind. The battle for market share is so fierce that sales of a new camera drop off after just 1-2 months, since consumers know a newer model is right around the corner.

Some things in Japan just defy explanation. The green lights on traffic signals are "blue" in Japanese ("ao" not "midori") -- although they're the same color as every other country, the Japanese look at a green light and say it's blue. When you stop at a convenience store, it's common to leave your keys in the car with the engine running -- even if you're driving a tricked-out Nissan Fairlady Z. Confusion can arise from names, too. For some reason, most of the people who live near our house in Japan have the same last name as us -- Yanai -- despite the fact that they're not related to us in any way. Once, in the "kairanban" (a kind of circular newsletter that goes to everyone in our immediate neighborhood; when one family reads it, the put a check by their name and take it to the next house on the list), I noticed that 11 out of 19 families around us were named Yanai, all of them apparently unrelated to each other. We happen to live next door to the mayor of our city, whose last name is also Yanai. About a kilometer away, there's a patch of houses with families whose last names are all Hosoi, but they, too, are not related to each other. Japan can be a mysterious place...

There are a lot of words that the Japanese invent that are fun to learn, and one word in particular most fans of anime learn pretty quickly is "H" (the letter H), which when said with a Japanese accent sounds like "ecchi" (also written "etchi"). Probably created by taking the first letter of a word that means "perverted," the word "H" is basically used as an all-purpose euphemism to describe anything to do with sex. If a person thinks about sex too much, he is "H" (ecchi), and a common euphemism for the sexual act is "ecchi suru" (literally "to do H"). Whatever its origin, the unique letter "H" is a part of Japanese culture and language, be it in anime, manga, television dramas and so on. We've got a wacky new Japanese T-shirt for you today, too: a "Rated H" shirt that is perfect for anyone who is just a little too "H."

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

• First, we've got delicious new snacks from Japan for you, including traditional "Hakka" peppermint candy, great spicy rice crackers, and traditional Japanese coffee candy
  
• Want something wacky from Japan? We've got several maps for you, including a map of Japan and a nice map of Kyoto
  
• For your bathroom, some gorgeous kanji messages that will add a touch of Japan
  
• We have some cool traditional "Kinchaku" bags, which are traditionally carried when women wear kimonos (but you can put anything you like in them)
  
• Then enjoy some delicious "furi-furi" shakes, strawberry and melon Hello Kitty drinks that are fun to make
  
• Sanrio fans, we've got a wacky item for you: Bad Batz Maru chopsticks, so cute!
  
• Also, a set of three stacking Hello Kitty cups for little ones -- these are really great
  
• Next, we've got some great gashapon (capsule toys) based on Steam Boy, the excellent animated film by Katsuhiro Otomo
  
• We've added stock of the popular Character Design Bible, an art book filled with fantastic Japanese character illustrations and artwork
  
• Ah My Goddess fans, we have a gorgeous vinyl figure of Belldandy in swimsuit bikini, a fabulous pre-painted figure, ready for you to display in your room
  
• Next, for Kubrick fans, we've got the new Be@rbrick series, an incredibly beautiful series of Kubrick bears that must be seen to be believed (full sets are in stock)
  
• The Japanese are fans of many things -- including erasers. We've got a wacky new chocolate eraser in stock, as well as a handy non-PVC eraser that's great for study
  
• DVD customers, we've restocked several popular items, including OH! Mikey vol. 1, the excellent Lupin III movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and more
  
• Want to make Japanese onigiri (rice balls)? We've got some onigiri molds for you that make it easy
  
• Finally, look for freshly restocked snack and gum products, including Blueberry Gum, Crispy Pizza Pretz (mmm), Okinawan Black Candy Caramels, Sushi Gummi and more!
  

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

• For fans of beautiful women from around the world, we have the new Bachelor in stock -- features superb new photos of Yulia Nova, too
  
• Then, we've got a new issue of the Very Best of Sabra Girls, featuring Japan's most gorgeous swimsuit idols (including Yuko Ogura!) -- comes with a DVD as well!
  
• Beautiful photography meets art in the new issue of Hip & Lip, the oddly-named magazine that combines the best of two worlds
  
• Photobook fans, enjoy the lovely hardcover offering of Aoi Sora, the beautiful angel of Japan's professional AV world
  
• Then enjoy Rio Natsume's delicious hardcover photobook, which comes with a glossy photograph of the sexy model
  
• Also, look for various restocked photobooks, including Pocket Kaoru and Kaoru Private Collection by Aida Garo
  
• H manga fans, enjoy several great new items, including an exploration of morality by AV Comics, a dynamite "Excellent" series manga featuring sexy sisters, and a truly excellent compilation manga featuring the works of bold new artists
  
• Yaoi fans, we've got a new work for you too, a beautiful story from Lily Hoshino
  
• We've got more great doujinshi for everyone, including some excellent books -- a great Zeta Gundam parody, a new "new half" doujin by the famous Amano-Jack and more
  
• For our DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with a Super Bible of Bunko Kanazawa, featuring some of her great new performances (region free)
  
• Next, the lovely new Noa shows you her first performance in her debut release from SOD -- an amazing, fresh idol! (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy a massive treat, a 4-in-1 capturing the best moments of the Highest Class Soap Girl series from SOD (region free)
  
• Next, see girls who perform together for the for the first time ever on camera -- a fascinating concept from U&K (region free)
  
• From Moodyz, enjoy a 2-disc set, featuring the collaboration between Alice Hoshi and Ayami Sakurai, two dynamite JAV starlets with achingly beautiful bodies (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for some great restocked DVDs, including Tokyo Girls Kiss, Anna Ohura's dynamite "Super Angle" title, and more!
  

Remember that J-List carries dozens of interesting PC dating-sim games for Windows computers, a unique category of software from Japan. Also known as H games, these story-based love-sims allow to you experience a unique form of Japanese entertainment in its original form, but with the Japanese text translated faithfully into English. Because there are so many amazing games to choose from, there's sure to be something for you. Feel free to email us for recommendations, too!

Greetings from J-List August 25, 2004

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Greetings from J-List August 16, 2004

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Greetings from J-List August 13, 2004

Japan can be a superstitious place, with many beliefs that people in the West would have trouble understanding. Some of these seem to have to do with water. For example, after a woman gives birth, it's bad luck for her to touch water for three days, so her mother will generally do all the dishwashing and laundry during that period. It's no big deal to remodel your house, but if you relocate anything to do with water, like your kitchen or bathrooms, it might bring bad luck to the family. My policy on these beliefs is, since I have no evidence that they're wrong, they might be correct, so I never dismiss them outright. Japanese kids have a cute superstition they do here, called "shoe weather forecasting": they take off a shoe and throw it as hard as they can. If the shoe lands upright, it will be a nice day tomorrow; if it lands on its side, look for clouds; and if it lands upside down, it will rain.

At J-List, we're able to act as a kind of "ambassador of pop culture" between Japan and the West, something we really like doing. I get a lot of email from young people who really love Japan, asking me for advice on how they can live here someday. By and large, the time-honored way for English speakers to work in Japan is by teaching English as a Second Language, and before I started J-List, I taught ESL to Japanese kids, high school students and adults. ESL isn't for everyone, but if you'd like to know more about it, I've got a (recently updated) article on my personal homepage (http://www.peterpayne.net) for you. Of course, when I get mail from young people interested in Japan, I always make sure to tell them to think about university first and foremost. When I look back at my life, virtually everything good that I've been able to achieve was made possible by my four very interesting years at SDSU. If you're a young person wondering how you can come to Japan some day, by all means plan on going to a challenging 4-year university first -- everything else will probably click into place after that.

Native English speakers don't think about it very much, but English can be really convoluted and confusing, with grammar and vocabulary borrowed from almost every other language on Earth. During my time as a teacher, I was often hard pressed to explain the "why" of grammar and word usage to my students, who wanted to understand the structure of English, not just hear what the correct answer was. Language is ultimately based on grammatical rules -- for example, there's a rule governing the intonation of words that can be both nouns and verbs (e.g. record a record, present a present to someone, subject the subject to a test). Even slang and dialects like eubonics are based on their own sets of rules. During my time as a teacher, I really got to learn my own language.

J-List carries three different DVD players that allow you to enjoy DVDs from any country, including the region 2 anime and special DVDs which we sell at J-List. We offer three units by Lasonic, made for the U.S. market with one year warranties and manuals in English. We sell the low-priced DVD-7890, the ultra-compact DVD-800, and the full-featured player with karaoke, the DVD-7880K. All players are in stock in our San Diego office right now, ready for you to order.

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

• First, we're big fans of the miniature food toys by Re-Ment which include traditional Japanese meals, sushi and extremely detailed miniature cakes. Their newest series captures the "Dream of American Life" with such replicas as steak, airline food, Halloween candy, snack at a movie theatre and more! (full sets are in stock)
  
• For fans of traditional footwear from Japan, we have some beautiful Japanese "geta" (wooden shoes) that are fabulous -- great for wearing or displaying in your home
  
• A super item for summer: we've got beautiful Japanese wind chimes that sound great in the breeze, and feature a uniquely Japanese look with the kanji for "ice"
  
• Also for the hot months, we've got a great fan that will keep you cool no matter what you're doing this summer, as well as pleasant "cool" bath powder that makes you feel minty fresh even when it's hot out
  
• For Eva fans and collectors, we've got the "Real Model" of the Eva-01 Test Type, a super toy from Sega
  
• Want to learn to draw manga? We've restocked several of the popular How to Draw Manga books for you
  
• Also: a super new toy from Japan, the die-cast metal bike from Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira is in stock, complete with stand, many accessories and a figure of Kaneda to ride it -- this is a cool item!
  
• For fans of our Japanese snack foods, enjoy tasty Konnyaku Gummy treats with healthy fruit inside, delicious ramune candy, and a great item for fans of esoteric traditional snacks from Japan: a super value pack featuring a total of 39 items for you to taste and try inside
  
• Restocked snack items include more Pocky Reverse, delicious Tea Doc chocolate treats, Dice Caramel, Peko-chan Milky Candy and more
  
• Would you buy a washboard from Japan? We've got one, and they're very handy to have around
  
• We have a great color manga by Katsuya Terada, a horrific tale of a bizarre trip to the west
  
• Next, a parody of Young Magazine featuring gorgeous Mari Shimomura, nicknamed Young Marilyn
  
• For JPOP fans: a super photobook of Aya Matsuura, the incredible shining star of the JPOP world -- comes with a punch-out desktop display for her fans
  
• We have a great combination toothpick case and business card holder that is very traditional and cool
  
• Fans of Hello Kitty, known as Kitty-chan in Japan, we have a great all-purpose hand mirror in stock today, as well as fresh stock of the popular Kitty USB mascot
  
• Domo-kun fans -- we've got more great stuff for you, including restocked keychains, memo pads, the deluxe stuffed plush toy, and the Domo-kun business card holder
  
• For students of Japanese, we've restocked the inexpensive Canon Wordtank IDC-310, which is a very compact unit yet it features the "jump" feature that makes it useful to gaijin to look up kanji characters
  
• We've added stock of various wacky parody items too, including toilet paper that helps you go to the bathroom, fun Japanese headbands, and more
  
• Another unique item we sell is StitchLock, the incredible "staple-less staplers" from Japan that knit sheets of paper together for you -- we've restocked several items, including the deluxe StitchLock Zn
  
• Finally, look for some great traditional and wacky things from Japan, including Japanese notebooks paper, a great Buddhist money bank, more capsule-type marker pens, and other cool items!
  

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

• For fans of gorgeous Tokyo girls, we've got the new issue of Yo!, featuring beautiful bad girls and a giant pull-out poster
  
• Then, we have the new issue of Karami, a super photomagazine dedicated to a single JAV star -- this issue features Nana Natsume, the luscious top name in Japan's video world
  
• Then from Sabra, enjoy the gorgeous Spicy Girls issue featuring Sayuri An, a knock-you-off-your-feet gorgeous girl from Japan's pantheon of sexy idols
  
• Also for photobook fans, a great item featuring Race Queen Toshimi Horiguchi's "Body Heat"
  
• For fans of Japan's quality H manga, enjoy a tale of very enjoyable punishment, a fantasy teacher to make your dreams come true, the ultimate Amazon Princess, and more
  
• We've restocked many H manga too, including Cafe de Murata, Futanari Premium, Buttagiri Sisters, Illustrated Maya Miyazaki and more
  
• Also, we've got a dynamite item for yaoi lovers too: Touch Me On a Starry Night, by the talented artist Tori Maia
  
• For our DVD customers, enjoy some fantastic new releases for you, starting with Monbu Ran's Very Best vol. 2, featuring a staggering 4 hours of her best performances ever, by Million (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the "futanari" performance of Shuri Himesaki, who plays a girl who has sprouted something very surprising, and puts it to good use (region free)
  
• From SOD, a new project: Tokyo girls who are made to watch couples performing on an video set, who then become excited and want to join in on the action (region free)
  
• Then from Deep's, an exploration of female pleasure with the mouth, featuring 20 different beautiful actresses (region free)
  
• Senna Kurosaki is a dark and gorgeous JAV actress from Japan -- see her in a dynamite new release from the stylish Wanz Factory, featuring 3 hours for you (region 2)
  
• Tomo has added another volley of DVD titles to our free shipping sale -- these discs come with free SAL or airmail shipping so you can save lots on them!
  
• Finally, look for some great restocked DVD titles, including the Female Best Complete vol 1-3, Female Card Game and great works by Mai Sakashita
  

Remember that J-List carries cool Japanese shoes and footwear, including great "tatami sandals" (setta) that are made out of the material tatami mats are made from. We also carry an item I personally feel all parents of young children should buy, Japanese shoes for children with squeakers inside -- when children walk, their shoes make a fun squeaking noise. Kids like to wear shoes that make noise, and parents will appreciate being able know exactly where their kids are in a crowded store. It's a wacky but very useful thing from J-List.

Greetings from J-List August 11, 2004

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Greetings from J-List August 6, 2004

My wife and both children are in the U.S. now, enjoying their summer vacation in beautiful San Diego. This means I get the whole house to myself, which is truly the Holy Grail for any married man. For the next week, I can enjoy an extra can of beer, play video games all night long, and generally rattle around the house all I want -- life is good.

The Japanese can be somewhat superstitious compared to Americans. It's common in department stores to see people getting their palms read, and fortune tellers that develop a reputation for issuing accurate predictions become very popular, with lines of people eager to hear their advice. There is a cycle of six "lucky" and "unlucky" days based on an old Chinese system, and virtually everyone here goes out of their way to get married or take delivery of a new car on Taian, the luckiest day in the cycle. Salt is thought to purify (sumo wrestlers throw it in the ring before a bout), and after a person who has really bad luck has come for a visit, throwing some salt on the ground will get rid of their bad influence. The Japanese are also interested in Feng Shui, and usually take care to build a house in keeping with its rules (don't build a front door facing west or you'll get divorced, and so on). Similarly, when you break ground on a new home, you always call the local Shinto priest who comes to purify the ground with salt, fish and sake -- we did this when we built the J-List office. The Japanese have also imported some Western beliefs, such as fear of black cats and it being bad luck to break a mirror.

Japanese can have various beliefs about choosing names for their children, too, and there are books that list "lucky" kanji characters to choose for your baby's name. Often people will seek the advice of a Shinto priest when deciding a name, too. We had been planning to name our son Kazuma ("peace + horse") but were were told by the priest we talked to that animal kanji are not good for names, so we changed it to Kazuki ("peace + tree"). Often lucky names are determined numerogically -- for example, when we chose my daughter's name, we were advised to choose a name with the same number of strokes as my wife's name, since that was a lucky number of strokes. Which kanji you choose for the name can be important, too. My wife's name is Chiharu ("thousand + fine day"), but often this name is written with "spring" for the second character. Spring can have a bad connotation in Japanese, such as the word for prostitution ("selling spring"), so most parents would avoid choosing this character for the child's name.

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

• First, for all fans of the Micronauts toys, sold here as Microman, we have a unique treat: the entire 2004 lineup of new figures, with superb updated designs and deluxe attachments that are really fun to play with
  
• Speaking of cool toys, we have extra copies of the new Figure King, a special issue featuring the excellent toys of the Tunderbirds (along with thousands of other amazing toys)
  
• Also for Thunderbirds fans, a fun item for your bath: eggs that dissolve in the tub, creating pleasant Japanese hot springs water and revealing a fun random Thunderbirds toy
  
• Next we have a great item for the summer: fun wind-up "fortune telling goldfish" which give you good luck depending on what color fish you get -- fun to use as a keychain or hang up
  
• Next, a unique item: metal truncheons, or "jitte," which were used by samurai in combat, very cool
  
• For fans of Japan's beautiful Race Queens, who promote F-1 racing but are a unique world unto themselves, we have the deluxe new Endless Racing Team photobook
  
• Hello Kitty lovers, we've got cute doorknob messages for you so you can indicate when you're sleeping, studying and so on
  
• Also for Sanrio fans: fresh stock of classic Hello Kitty toilet paper, great for people who either love or hate Kitty
  
• Look for more Japanese Girl Nagomi items by artist Seiichi Hayashi, including a convenient tea holder for your kitchen
  
• Lovers of Japanese snacks, we've got more for you, including super fruit gummi candy, sweet Japanese "Karintou" snacks, and for all fans of the super cute character series Ochaken (Tea Dog), mascot characters with cookies in the box
  
• Next, we have some great chopsticks from Japan that are extra easy to use and come with chopstick holders for your table
  
• For fans of OH! Mikey, we've restocked the Color of Life Movie, a great DVD compiling wacky late-night Japanese television (including the original OH! Mikey pilot episodes) (region 2)
  
• Also, look for restocked films by Hayao Miyazaki (region 2) including one of my favorites, the minor story of growing up, Ocean Waves (region 2)
  
• For fans of cool things for their computers, we've restocked the Groomy plush pets with soft leather bottoms for cleaning your computer screen, as well as the Bit Grast silver mouse
  
• We've restocked our popular Japanese eyedrops, which are very refreshing
  
• Finally enjoy fresh stock of various Japanese study cards, more cream to make nipples pink again, a real wooden shogi playing board, delicious sauce called "sauce," and more!
  

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

• For fans of Urecco, the top selling magazine here at J-List, we've got a new issue in for you, filled with positively gorgeous girls including Mai Hagiwara (!)
  
• Then enjoy the premier issue of "Whitey," an interesting magazine featuring beautiful H girls with pure hearts
  
• Next, enjoy the delicious Deka Melon (Huge Melon), a very special magazine featuring a unique twist on Japan's Race Queens
  
• For lovers of beautiful women from Japan, we've got the hardcover glossy photobook offering of Rio Natsume, a delightful girl who will melt you into oozing paste with her beauty
  
• Then enjoy the lovely cosplay of Sakurako Kaoru, a dark and elegant beauty from Japan's AV world
  
• Also, a fabulous new "Chinkame" (pocket sized) photobook featuring dynamite girls photographed in the style we've come to refer to as "Japanese girls in underoos"
  
• For our H manga collectors, we've got some great items for you, including a dynamite "hitozuma," a manga rich girls learning about the world, and a wonderful OL comic
  
• Also, a great restocking A Married Woman as Mitsue, Pretty Soldier Wars, Delusion, Futanarikko and more
  
• Also: great restocked art books including Brave Soul Complete Data, Dead or Alive Best Shot and more
  
• For yaoi lovers, we've got the new work by Koujima Nazuki, with the odd title of "Forcibly but Sweety..."
  
• For fans of Japanese film, we've got the DVD release of the excellent film "Vibrator," exploring the nature of love and intimacy between strangers (region 2)
  
• From Million, enjoy the best scenes from their 4 Hours Super Ecstasy series, featuring incredibly beautiful top-name idols (region free)
  
• From SOD, enjoy a fun "massaging oppai for the first time" DVD featuring gorgeous Tokyo girls asked to feel each other up (region free)
  
• Then a crossover of many interesting themes: Wife's Body Conscious Bikini Leotard (region free)
  
• Next, a superb exploration of love between women featuring four beautiful actresses, brought to you by Moodyz (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've added fresh stock of many fantastic DVD titles including Make a Guess of your Friend's Body, Zenra Japanese Drums, Ran Monbu's AYAYA parody, luscious Dance Queens and more!
  

Remember that J-List has Pocky again! Although Japan's most famous chocolate-covered stick snack melts terribly in the hot summer months, the newest flavor of Pocky, Pocky Reverse, has the cookie part on the outside and the chocolate on the inside, so we can carry them in the summer. Enjoy this delicious treat on the J-List site now, and if you get 10 or more boxes, you get a great discount, too.

Greetings from J-List August 4, 2004

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Greetings from J-List July 30, 2004

You probably know that the Japanese eat whale, which is "kujira" in Japanese (some trivia for you: Godzilla got his name by combining this word with the word "gorilla"). While this practice is hard for liberal-minded Westerners to accept, the Japanese have traditionally eaten whale meat for hundreds of years -- my wife even remembers having it served as part of her school lunch when she was in elementary school, although they don't do this anymore. As an American, I've always been quite shocked at the Japanese ability to eat whale, but I believe that people should always strive to avoid hypocrisy wherever possible. That's why, when I noticed whale sushi on the menu at our favorite sushi restaurant, I decided to order some, so I could better understand the position of the Japanese before I argued against it. To tell the truth, whale meat tasted like an oil slick, and in the end I was even more confused about why anyone would go to such extremes to eat these creatures.

My home town of San Diego has just two seasons: sunny and slightly less sunny. In contrast, Japan is an extremely seasonal place, with hot, humid summers, freezing, windy winters, and two rainy periods during the year. There are some unique smells that are associated with seasons here. Right now it's hot, and mosquitoes are biting with a vengeance, so my wife burns Japanese mosquito coils at night, which make a pleasant incense smell that instantly reminds me of summer. Likewise, when winter rolls around, most people bring out portable kerosene heaters, which have a unique pungent smell to them when you first turn them on. That first smell of kerosene in December brings back a flood of fond memories of winters past.

One of our favorite places in Japan is Karuizawa, a small resort town in the mountains about 150 km from Tokyo. Originally a postal town during the Edo Period, it was adopted by missionary Alexander C. Shaw in 1886, who built a summer home there because it reminded him of his native Scotland. Now it's one of the most beautiful towns in Japan, frequented by tens of thousands of Tokyoites who want to enjoy the cool mountain air, ride rented bicycles beneath the trees, or shop in the small boutiques. It's a nice place, but a little too popular during certain times of the year, like Golden Week or the Obon Buddhist holidays, when an ungodly number of people flood the town. Since our son is in San Diego right now, we're taking our daughter to a nice onsen (hot springs) hotel in Karuizawa this weekend, to give her a special treat.

We're happy to announce that the Zenra Ballerina series from Soft on Demand has been nominated for Best Film at the 11th Charity Erotic Awards in London and is a finalist. We're very proud of the special recognition this excellent product has received, and SOD is equally happy. We hope it will win!

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

• First, for Macross fans, superb treat: the Macross Collection Series 2, featuring fabulous soft vinyl figures from the Macross series (full sets in stock!)
  
• Shirow Masamune fans, we have the new Intron Depot 4 art book, filled with his incredible artwork and original characters
  
• For Japanese snack lovers, enjoy "Neru Neru Nerune," a fun treat you make by adding water and mixing until the mixture turns into soft candy
  
• Also, delicious coffee roasted peanuts (?), authentic ramen noodles, tasty squid jerky, and other tasty snacks from Japan
  
• The Frog Style character series continues to take Japan by storm -- we've got super cute gashapon (capsule toys) featuring super cute frog wind chime keychains, so cute!
  
• Next, enjoy all-purpose "can cases" for Hello Kitty fans, which look great and securely hold anything you need to store inside
  
• We've got some great swimsuit idol photobooks too, including the lovely hardcover offering of Mayuko Iwase
  
• Also, the gorgeous new issue of Race Queen Fan, a great photomagazine featuring the lovely Endless Lady Miki Kobayashi
  
• Get a great massage with the "massage fish" rolling massager we've got in stock -- I've got one at home and love mine!
  
• If you have a cat, we've got a cute cat toy that he will love, a furry mouse on a stick that he'll want to chase and play with
  
• Summer is here and it's hot -- we've gotten in more stylish and cool wooden geta shoes for ladies, with beautiful kimono-fabric designs that look great
  
• Enjoy a Japanese onsen (hot springs bath) outside of Japan with foaming bath tablets, which we've got in stock for you
  
• Also, a great bamboo chopstick holder (also good for keeping pens handy)
  
• Studying Japanese? We've restocked the wonderful kanji workbooks for grades 1-4 for you
  
• We've reduced the prices on some of our popular Japanese T-shirts to make room for more designs -- enjoy a great close-out price on our "I will pass the test" good luck T-shirt!
  
• For fans of Kill Bill, we've restocked the Japanese release DVD, which features the scenes that were cutout of the U.S. release of the movie -- a great item for collectors! (region 2)
  
• Also: the last stock we'll ever get of the amazing photobook of Chiaki Kuriyama, aka GoGo Yubari from Kill Bill
  
• For your kids this summer, fresh stock of the affordable Japanese "happy" coats, very cheap because they're made of paper
  
• Daisuke has restocked the popular miniature food toys by Re-Ment, so perfectly detailed and fun to display (full sets are in stock so there's no need to buy duplicates and throw them away)
  
• Finally, delicious wasabi flavored rice crackers, a handy way to keep your tongue free of plaque, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japan's famous 18+ magazines, we've got the new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, both featuring all-Japanese girls who will knock your socks off
  
• Next, enjoy a new issue of More & More DVD + color magazine, this time featuring the sexy elegance of Kyoko Ayana (!)
  
• For fans of Japan's gorgeous hardcover glossy photobooks, we recommend the amazing photobook of Maiko Tohno, a gorgeous "Zero Woman" from Japan
  
• For fans of Japan's H manga, we have some dynamite books for you, including a new offering from the famous LINDA, a superb fantasy manga from Shinobu Hattori, and The Hot Water of Tsuyako
  
• We've restocked many manga titles too, including the Dark Crimson series by Urushihara, Buttagiri Sisters, Teacher Mirako's Huge Panic, and more
  
• We have a new yaoi comic too, for fans of Japan's famous shonen'ai dramatic comics, as well as fresh stock of the popular Muscle Man series
  
• For our new update, we've got lots of great DVDs for you, starting with 4 hours of the fabulous Marina Matsushima's best works with Total Media Agency (region free)
  
• Then from indies studio Dogma, a "Restrictive Chair Trance" offering starring Kurumi Morishita and Shoko Mikami together in a delightful performance (region free)
  
• Next, the lovely Haruna Harada takes on a park full of homeless men hanging out in a park -- an amazing performance by SOD's Martian Devil label (region free)
  
• From Deep's, a bold disc featuring two sexy actresses who are very tall (172 cm, or 5'7") (region free)
  
• Mai Sakashita is back with a superb 3 hour DVD from Wanz Factory -- the slender, velvet-smooth JAV starlet really shines in this disc! (region 2)
  
• Then from Moodyz, a selection of 14 all-natural Tokyo girls tasting the sweet kiss of other females (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've restocked some great DVDs for you, including Akira Watase's Complete Collection, Zenra Japanese Drums, recent titles by Sora Aoi and more!
  

J-List carries a unique item you'll never find anywhere: sushi clocks with wax sushi that's hand-made by Japanese wax food artists for perfect detail. Ever since I saw these detailed clocks in Japan I've been on a mission to obtain these fantastic items for J-List customers, and now we've got all the excellent sushi clocks in stock. Not only are the sushi pieces totally realistic, the hands of the clocks are chopsticks! To help you choose one of these amazing and unique items, we've lowered the price of all sushi clocks -- check out the new lower prices on these amazing items. (They make unforgettable gifts, too.)

Greetings from J-List July 28, 2004

Hello and Happy Monday from your friends in Japan!

It is interesting to observe the differences between Japan and the U.S. For one thing, it's an accepted concept that American companies usually "stick to their knitting" and only make products you'd expect them to make. Dell makes computers, and Ford makes cars, and if Ford started making computers we'd all wonder what they were smoking. But in Japan, it's quite common for companies to enter a wide range of businesses. You know Sony for their home electronics, but in Japan, Sony is also famous for life insurance, online banking and high-end make-up products. Building homes is big business in Japan, and companies like Panasonic and Toyota own companies that build homes under those brands -- there's even a builder called TBS Housing, operated by the Tokyo Broadcasting System, of all people. Mitsubishi is famous for their cars, but they're also busy making trains and home electronics and selling securities, and they are the leading manufacturer of pencils in Japan. All the big beer manufacturers have booming soft drink businesses on the side, so Coca Cola decided to try this process in reverse: they've introduced their first alcohol free beer, called Sky Malt, in the Japanese market.

As a man, living in Japan means being at peace with having women around you when you're in the buff. While some may have the impression that men and women bathe together regularly in Japan, kon'yoku or mixed bathing is actually very rare these days. However, there's an unwritten rule that female staff may enter the men's public bath to clean at any time, despite the natural state of all the men bathing inside. Usually the women are "obasans" (older women in their 50s or so), but every once in a while an attractive younger woman will come in to straighten the buckets or check the bath temperature, causing the occasional dash to hot water by gaijin who shall not be named. Bathing in public baths (sento) and hot springs (onsen) is a fun part of life in Japan, and something my family and I are big fans of. By and large, being in the buff in front of others is something you don't give a second thought to -- it's just part of the culture here.

Memorizing the names of the months in English must be difficult for Japanese, but it's easy going the other way -- the months in Japanese are all just numbers followed by the kanji for month (e.g. ichi-gatsu is January, ni-gatsu is February, etc.). They get their revenge, though: although the days of the month in Japanese are expressed with numbers, just like in English, there are special names for the first ten days of the month, which must be memorized, always a chore for gaijin learning Japanese. The days of the week are interesting, too -- each is associated with a kanji that represents the original European origin. The days of the week are Getsu-yobi (lit. "moon day"), Ka-yobi ("fire day" since the first character for Mars is "fire"), Sui-yobi ("water day," from the Japanese name for the planet Mercury), Moku-yobi ("wood day," from Jupiter), Kin-yobi ("gold day," from Venus), Do-yobi ("earth day," from Saturn), and Nichi-yobi ("sun day," from good old Sol).

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, described below. To view all products updated in the past 3 days, click: http://www.jbox.com/UPDATES/3/

• First, a very special item for Evangelion fans: super sexy figures of Rei and Asuka featuring the most gorgeous plugsuits you've ever seen, and cat tails and ears
  
• For fans of super cute JPOP group Melon Kinenbi (Melon Anniversary), we have a special hardcover photobook in stock for you
  
• Naruto fans, we have a great treat for you: Naruto gashapon (capsule toys) with all the great characters from the series -- we have full sets so you don't need to worry about getting duplicates and throwing them away
  
• Add a touch of Japan to your home with "noren," special Japanese curtains which you hang in doorways
  
• For fans of our wacky Japanese message T-shirts, we have some cool new products for you: bizarre signs to hang in your car and bafflement to everyone
  
• For fans of our Japanese snack foods, we've got a sampling of tasty corn snacks with flavors like takoyaki (fried octopus balls), teriyaki burger, and the famous natto (fermented soybeans)
  
• Then enjoy classic shrimp-flavored rice crackers, yummy melon flavored candies for summer, and tasty chocolate er, cotton candy
  
• Restocked snack items include delicious Toppo and Pretz (which don't melt in the hot summer months, unlike Pocky), several varieties of gum including Black Black caffeine gum, and powdered Pocari Sweat drink mix
  
• We have some new wacky Japanese condoms for you, which parody the Japanese horror classic The Ring
  
• For people who want to have cool Japanese things around them when they study, we have a handy pencil sharpener that's incredibly advanced and cool to look at (it matches other "Flavor" items we sell too)
  
• Hello Kitty fans, we've got some really cute Kitty Frisbees that you can throw and catch -- three different colors to choose from
  
• Next, enjoy another elegant wing chime that uses pieces of charred wood to make a pleasant sound when the wind blocks
  
• To all fans of Japanese toys, we hope you've bought at least one Sun Arrow plush so you can see how great the quality of these amazing toys are -- we have a new "Sho Totoro" (the cute white one) plush that is so soft and well made, you'll want to hug it
  
• Among the 2000+ products we sell, some of the most popular are Japanese refreshing eyedrops -- we've got a new type of extra-refreshing eyedrops that are good for anyone with contact lenses (hard or soft)
  
• Are you studying Japanese? We've got fresh stock of the very popular Canon Wordtank G50, the dynamite new Wordtank with many fabulous features for serious students of Japanese -- we've got a great new price too
  
• Also for anyone studying Japanese: we have fresh stock of the Chobits bilingual manga by CLAMP and Princess Knight by the famous Tezuka Osamu -- enjoy these great works
  
• Finally, find more Domo-kun plush squares that are incredibly cute to display, more useful flashcards that help you learn Japanese words, tasty and fun "whistle ramune" candy, and more!
  

Remember that J-List offers dozens of amazing original T-shirts, printed in the USA on quality U.S. size T-shirts. Note that since we're always introducing new designs to the site, we have to close old designs out. We currently have several shirts designs that are being removed from the site, which you can buy at special prices. Check the site now before your sizes are sold out.

Also remember that you can browse the J-List/JBOX.com websites easily using our "text tree" browsing feature, which allows you to see all products in all categories easily, without images or descriptions. Click on a product you want to see more about and it will come up quickly. To access this feature, click the "text browsing" link on the left of each page, or the "text tree browsing" bar at the top of product categories.

Greetings from J-List July 19, 2004

Hello again from J-List! For the fourth time this year, I've made the jump from Japan back to the good old USA, this time with my son. I do genuinely love Japan, from its wacky snacks to its kind people, but in the end, I think everyone really loves their home country best. Part of what's great about living outside the U.S. is, I realize what parts of America are really great and can appreciate them all the more when I'm home.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say, and there's plenty of imitation of America going on in Japan. There's a Japanese version of the Academy Awards, where Japanese actors and directors receive awards for Japanese films. Japan's version of 401(k) system goes by the original name of Japan 401(k). Imitation rears its head in television and movies, too. Often, the Japanese will remake shows from the U.S. or Europe, such as the Japanese version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (shortened to Quiz: Millionaire? to make it easier for viewers to remember). TV dramas also steal ideas from American TV and movies, such as one drama in the early 90's (Ai to iu na no moto ni, "In the name of love") which was a near-perfect remake of St. Elmos Fire, or another, Emergency Ward, that was Japan's answer to E.R. One drama had an original story involving a woman who falls for a wealthy man, but the last scene was a "tribute" to An Officer and a Gentleman, lifting the entire last scene from that movie. A new drama that just started, Fugitive, promises to be a Japanese-style remake of the excellent Harrison Ford film.

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 to others 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 your community's 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/220 pounds, I am gargantuan for Japan, and have been asked by Japanese if I was a professional 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 as "common sense" but means much more. The Japanese all seem to have a built-in idea of how things should work, and they are very much in harmony with each other as a rule. 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, where they can receive the best care, 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 very soon after, 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, and sometimes hard for non-Japanese to pick up on.

We'll be rolling out some new features on the J-List website over the next week, improving the way our shopping cart system works and adding new checkout features. We expect things to go smoothly, but as always, if you experience a problem with the J-List website, please let us know right away. You can always make orders through the secure email form (the link is in the upper left hand corner of every page) if there are problems.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, with wonderful new DVDs, great new magazines and photobooks, many new manga, new anime and toy items (including more Totoro monster towels!), great snacks, and more. To see all the great items we have for you, please check the J-List website now. Remember you can check products added or updated in the past three days via this link: http://www.jlist.com/UPDATES/3

J-List carries many delicious snack items from Japan. One of our favorites are Shigekix (from shigeru "to stimulate" and the English word Kicks), which are extremely tart "hard gummi" candies that are really fun to eat. Put 1-2 in your mouth and they'll make you pucker, but they're chewy and satisfying to snack on, and a whole package has very few calories. Check out our stock of great snacks from Japan!

Greetings from J-List July 14, 2004

Hello again from Japan, where buildings have funny names like "Apartment Cream Soda." We apologize for the delay with the mail server -- this is yesterday's update, going out today. The server is fixed so all should be fine in the future.

Whenever you learn a language, you have to deal with the fact that words in one language don't always match up with words on a second one. A simple concept like "cold" in English is covered with two words in Japanese, samui for coldness of the air around you and tsumetai for something that's cold to the touch. Similarly, the word for cold water is mizu, but hot water (o-yu) is a totally different linguistic concept, just as "curb" and "curve" are separate ideas to us but the same to the Japanese. Some Japanese words have complex nuances that make them fun to learn. The English word "heart" has three words in Japanese: shinzo (the part of you that's beating now), haato (the English word heart, which describes the heart shape and is used in songs and advertising to signify affection and gentleness), and kokoro (a word encompassing the philosophical elements of the human heart, similar to "spirit" or "mind"). Another word that can't be translated easily is "love." There are two words for the concept in Japanese: koi, which is young, romantic love and ai, a word for the deeper love between family members, or a husband and wife who have been married many years. A third word for love, ren'ai, is the kanji for koi and ai used to form a compound word similar to the romantic koi. If you ever want to fluster a Japanese person, ask them to define the difference between words like koi and ai in English, then sit back and watch them flounder.

Although you may think of certain foods as sushi, sashimi, tempura and sukiyaki as popular Japanese dishes, the national food of Japan has got to be curry, or as the Japanese call it, curry rice. Curry spread to Britain during the 1700s and from there went all around the world, a gift from the British Empire. In Japan, curry is eaten on steamed white rice, and became popular at the start of the 20th century -- and now it's enjoyed more than any other kind of food. Japanese curry is thicker than the soup-like Indian curry, and many companies here compete to make the best blend of curry to appeal to consumers, making products with names like House The Curry, Vermont Curry, and Java Curry. Although Thai food is quite popular in America, it's not very common here in Japan outside of big cities -- but Indian restaurants are everywhere here.

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 with the Japanese teachers at their preschool, causing 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. My son is now nine, and is looking forward to spending three weeks in San Diego relearning the English he learned last summer but has since forgotten.

Of the 2000+ products J-List has for you, we offer hundreds of varieties of fun Japanese snacks, from traditional "bubble ball" fizzing candies that have been loved by Japanese for decades to super tart Shigekix gummi candies. Due to the extreme heat and humidity of Japan in the summer months, we remove chocolate products like Pocky temporarily to keep them from melting. Usually we have to go all summer without any Pocky on the site, however we're happy to announce a new Pocky, called Pocky Reverse, that features cookie on the outside and chocolate on the inside (so it won't melt). We've got this amazing new taste on the site right now -- order 5 or more boxes and get a 15% discount, too.

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

• First, we love the detailed miniature toys that are popular in Japan right now, called "candy toys" because you usually get candy inside the box -- newly in stock are replicas of miniature Japanese gardens, great for all gaijin
  
• Hello Kitty fans, we have a great set of Kitty glasses that are ultra cute and fun to drink out of
  
• Also for Kitty lovers, super cute plush Kitty plush chair protectors that keep your chairs from scratching the floor
  
• In addition to the new Pocky, we've got other great snacks for you, including whistling ramune candy that's been sold in Japan for decades, tasty chicken corn snacks, and more
  
• We've got a great restocking of snack items too, including Black Black Tablet caffeine candy and gum, Pretz Roast flavor (my own favorite), more Sushi Gummi, delicious sake candy and Okinawa Black Sugar caramels from Morinaga
  
• For fans of Japanese chewing gum, delicious new whitening gum from Lotte that has Xylitol in it (this is a famous sweetener from Norway that improves the strength of teeth)
  
• We love the aesthetic beauty of kanji, and have cool framed kanji messages in stock for you, very traditional and cool
  
• Delight your guests by giving them a clean, unopened toothbrush just for them -- we have packs of these convenient disposable toothbrushes in stock
  
• Next, are you learning how to use chopsticks? We recommend the beginners chopsticks we have, very easy to practice with
  
• From Jun Planning, a dynamite full-sized doll in their Pullip line, best described as "Blythe meets Gothic & Lolita Bible"
  
• Next, more items for Japanese Girl Nagomi fans -- beautiful station sets featuring the artwork of Seiichi Hayashi
  
• For fans of unique computer products from Japan, we've got new "Bit Grast" portable USB mice in stock, along with the excellent beige laptop case from Elecom
  
• Also, fresh stock of the popular Groomy line of computer plush pets -- they're soft and cute and have soft leather undersides which you can clean your computer monitor with
  
• Then we have some awesome Japanese headbands for you with messages like "I will Pass the Test"
  
• For smaller sized customers, we have the excellent Japanese tattoo shirts which will make you look like a real yakuza
  
• Fans of the very popular Go Go Pinky Street toy + photobook series, we've restocked this for you too
  
• Finally, cute characters in the "Usagi Collection" series, excellent sushi erasers, more funny signs for your car, and more!
  

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

• For fans of one of Japan's most famous video genres, we have the new Gal's Shower, a great new issue for you (but stock is limited)
  
• Fans of gorgeous women from Europe and North America, enjoy the new issue of Bachelor, filled with amazing photographs from around the world
  
• For photobook lovers, we have a dynamite offering by Sakura Shiratori, an amazing angel from Japan
  
• Then enjoy the superb bikini photos of Yoko Kumada, one of our favorite cute idols in Japan right now
  
• Also, we've got fresh stock of at least a dozen previously sold out magazines and photobooks on the site, including some $5 magazines and many rare photobooks that are out of print
  
• For H manga collectors, we have the long-awaited vol. 7 of Blue Eyes, filled with incredibly gorgeous artwork and stories by Tohru Nishimaki
  
• Also, other dynamite new manga works, including a new Female Panther series book and a great work from Winterlong, "I cannot shout love at the bottom in the world"
  
• We've got a bunch of restocked manga for you too, with a dozen or more excellent works like Michael Plan, Oshiri ni Oborete and Shining Musume, back in stock for you to order
  
• Yaoi lovers, we've also got a great item for you, with the new issue of b-Boy Luv, featuring works from nine different talented manga artists and 240+ pages
  
• For our DVD customers, we have some dynamite items for you, starting with 4 hours of the elegant and popular Karen Kisuragi's performance, by Million (region free)
  
• From Dogma, enjoy a great "triple manko" offering with three gorgeous JAV idols (region free)
  
• From SOD's Hibino label, the triumphant return of Miki Sawaguchi, a star who was famous when J-List was getting started back in 1996 -- she's back again and as gorgeous as ever (region free)
  
• Then enjoy a whopping 240 minutes of the best scenes of Kyoko Ayana, a bright and cheerful F cup angel from Japan (region free)
  
• Next, meet Rin. (another girl who always puts a period as part of her name, like Nao. and Morning Musume.), a bright and energetic girl who will delight you (region 2)
  
• Then from Moodyz, see the unbelievably cool Naughty Dancing Queens of Tokyo's top-name discos, a real treat to see (region 2)
  
• Finally, enjoy some great newly restocked DVDs, including Momo Iizawa's Gock'n Roll, Miki vs. Black Guys, Mirei as an "M" actress, and more low-cost Concentration DVD titles.
  

J-List customers tell us the #1 way they hear of us is through recommendations from friends. If you've got friend who may be interested in our unique brand of wacky Japanese pop culture, we hope you'll give them our URL or tell them about us. Thanks in advance!

Remember that J-List is fortunate to be able to carry the high-quality plush toys made by Sun Arrow, a Japanese toy company founded back in the Taisho era, with a hundred years of history to their name. For many years they've been the trusted partner and licensee of all Studio Ghibli toys including Totoro, Spirited Away and more. The plush toys they create are the best we've ever seen, soft to touch and furry to hold, far inferior to the anime plush toys you may have seen for sale in the U.S. (which are, alas, usually Taiwanese pirate products). We hope you'll browse our extensive selection of Studio Ghibli products!

Greetings from J-List July 10, 2004

Hello again from J-List -- it's time for another slice of life from Japan!

Each country in the world has what the Japanese call kokumin-sei, a kind of "national personality" or a list of traits that most people from that country tend to share. For example, Americans are optimistic almost to fault, believing that virtually any problem can be solved. The Japanese komumin-sei is quite unique, too. In general, Japanese tend to be very peaceful, and go out of their way to avoid conflict with others. They're concerned with the image Japan presents to the world, and some major construction projects such as Japan's first bullet trains were done partially to make foreigners oo and ah when they came for the 1968 Tokyo Olympics. Also, most Japanese tend to be extremely modest, and it can be surprising when Westerners compliment a Japanese on their English ability, only to have them vehemently deny the compliment. In my single days, I traveled all around Japan, hitchhiking or riding trains (there's a cool ticket called Seishun 18 which lets you ride as far as you want for $24, a bargain as long as you don't mind riding the slow local trains). Once, I encountered a boy and his mother while traveling near Hiroshima, and as we talked, the boy was going on and on about how "baka" (stupid) he was, so stupid that he'd never amount to anything. It surprised me to hear anyone talk like this about himself, much less an educated youth from one of the world's richest countries, but I realized later it was a kind of polite self-effacing that didn't mean much. Still, personal modesty is an amazing and sometimes surprising aspect of the Japanese.

The Japanese use quite a lot of English in their daily lives, but not usually for communication: it's more of a decoration, since English always sounds "kakko ii" (cool) to Japanese. Like the Sony Walkman and Swatch watches, English is used in cute ways to appeal to consumers; there are products with names like Charmy Green (a dishwashing soap), Melty Kiss (a delicious chocolate fudge sold in the Winter), Perky Bit (fried chicken nuggets), Cook-Do! (a line of boil-in-bag Chinese meals), and Supporty (support pantyhose). The English word "the" is thrown around quite a lot, too, added to products names and events (Ito Yokado, the largest department store chain here, has an annual sales event called "The Sale"). English can also be found in plentiful amounts on beer cans ("this beer is made with the most quality hops"), camera bags ("with you for the best scenes of your life") and sport utility vehicles ("the Earth is not only for a human").

We've added a new category to the J-List site: Traditional Japanese Items, where we'll be featuring many cool items from Japan with a traditional or cultural flare. We've moved several of the sub-categories out of the "Wacky things from Japan" section into the new Traditional category. From traditional Japanese "geta" shoes to bento boxes, chopsticks and much more, look for some really great items for you in this new category!

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

• First, for Shirow fans, we're happy to announce that volume 2 of Jashin Hunter (aka Beast Hunter), the amazing Japanese novel illustrated by Shirow, has been reprinted and is back in stock after many months
  
• We have some great new soft vinyl figures for you, incredibly detailed and fun to display in your room
  
• For manga fans all around the world, we have the new issue of Gekkan Dengeki Gao, a fabulous monthly manga with 500+ pages of top-notch stories and art in it
  
• Next, enjoy a great photobook offering with the CoComina Girls, super cute and charming
  
• Then we have a bargain edition of Seasonal S, featuring the most incredible artwork and imagery you've seen
  
• For fans of video games, a really cool full set of Capcom classic game figure gashapon (capsule toys)
  
• Gundam Seed fans, we've got some cool items for you too, great for collectors
  
• We're happy with the incredible popularity of our Furuta Star Trek ship sets -- we've got a new set in stock too, a set of 8 different incredibly detailed ships with display bases
  
• We love the super cute Panda Z -- enjoy a new "punching panda" figure in stock now, as well as fresh stock of other items
  
• For anyone studying Japanese, we've got fresh stock of the popular kanji toilet paper, with kanji to study while you squat -- makes a great gift too!
  
• Eva fans, we've got fresh stock of the dynamite Asuka Summer Version soft vinyl figure, guaranteed to brighten any room
  
• For fans of our delicious Japanese snacks, enjoy tasty bitter chocolate wafers, gun gummy candy with fruit juice inside, great melon gum, and more
  
• For jet-setters, we have a cool stainless steel pocket watch with protector that makes it easy to tell time around the world
  
• For your desk, a wacky and fun way to keep clean -- little "desk sweepers" that remove dust and eraser bits for you
  
• Enjoy a major restocking of many popular Totoro and Studio Ghibli items, including character magnets, cute stamps, soft character replicas, keychains and plush toys
  
• We've added stock of Japan Hot Wheels too, as well as additional sets of Re-Ment miniature food toys that had gone out of stock
  
• For anyone who'd love to try traditional Japanese soba this summer, we have a great deluxe summer soba set including tray, cup, ingredients holder and more
  
• Finally, look for cool colored glue sticks, more wonderful wedding gift envelopes that are just gorgeous, wacky "hachimaki" headbands, and more!
  
• For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
  

For fans of our 18+ magazines, enjoy the pure angels of Girl's Club, a double-thick magazine for you

• Next, we have the new issue of Deka Melon, featuring nothing but fabulous Race Queens being bag
  
• H manga fans, we have some great offerings for you, including an amazing new work by Sengoku-kun, the super Sinful Days of illustrator Ren, and more
  
• Also, an amazing large-size manga/art book by Drill Murata, featuring some of his most amazing artwork yet
  
• For our DVD customers, some nice new works too, including a treatment of the Japanese genre of "tekoki" as only Soft on Demand can do it (region free)
  
• Then enjoy a fantastic a bold "super angle" DVD of Mika Kitagawa, who performs for you, a great multi-angle DVD release from TMA (region free)
  
• Also, we have a bold new "study" genre DVD by Moodyz in which six beautiful Tokyo girls engage in some interesting studies for the camera (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for various restocked DVD for you, and more!
  

Remember that J-List carries a full line of Japanese snack foods, with many rare cult favorites in stock for you, like Japanese sushi gummi, Black Black caffeine gum, Toppo, and also the delicious and popular Felix the Cat bubble gum, which is famous all the world over. If you check the snack page you may notice that we don't have any Pocky in stock now. The reason for this is that Japan is extremely hot in the summer, and any Pocky we stocked would turn into a big melty block of chocolate. We'll have Pocky back in stock as soon as Japan cools down, and in the meantime, we hope you'll enjoy the 200+ items we still have for you now.

Also note that J-List carries a great item this summer: "towelkets," large blanket-sizes cotton towels that are a truly amazing Japanese invention. Useful as both a large, absorbent towel as well as a light blanket for the summer, the Hello Kitty towelkets we have in to stock right now are really excellent. Check them out!