Job Interviews in Japan

Running a business in Japan naturally means I have to interview Japanese job applicants who want to work for J-List, and I often wonder if they're not freaked out by having a foreigner sit down across from them at the interview. Job interviews work somewhat differently in Japan compared to the rest of the world. Here, in lieu of a western resume or C.V. applicants write out a form called a rirekisho or "personal history form" which shows all school, work and other related information. (We had to learn to fill these out as part of my Japanese class.) A reserved, humble attitude is extremely important during a Japanese-style job interview, too, and successful applicants will actually talk down their own past work achievements in ways that would be incomprehensible in the U.S., where resume-padding and a bit of exaggeration are all part of getting a job. When my wife was learning English in the U.S. they would do mock interviews and she was unable to talk about any of her achievements, so used to being humble at job interviews was she.


Of course, a lot of these odd rules are thrown out the window in the case of foreigners, so if you ever find yourself in a job interview here, don't worry too much about it. They can't very well expect foreigners interviewing for, say, a cheerful ESL teacher to act as if they have no personality as Japanese must do.

Job interviews are a unique (and strange) process in Japan.

More on "Kata" and Japan

I've written before about how one interesting way to make sense of Japan is through the concept of kata, a word which can be translated in many ways, including "mold" (to shape things with), "model" (as in the model number of a computer or other product), "type" (for classification, also being used for blood type), or the customary postures taken in martial arts. It's the word's meaning of "customary form" that I'm mostly concerned with here, and the way it describes the patterns of thinking that become accepted practices in Japan, which no one ever then thinks very deeply about. I saw a news item the other day about popular AKB48 idol Atsuko Maeda being named "Police Chief For a Day" in Tokyo to help kick off this year's Spring Traffic Safety Week, and this seemed to me like a good example of kata in action. To have a pop star appear in fluffy media stories wearing a police uniform is silly on the surface, but viewed as a part of a pre-defined idea that famous stars will lend their names to certain projects for the public good, it's easier to understand. (If you are a fan of AKB48, their music is available through the iTunes Japan store with the prepaid cards we stock. You may need log out and select the iTunes Japan store to access the songs.)

AKB48 star Atsuko Maeda was Police Chief for a Day.

Love Letter in the Shoes Box

When you become a fan of Japanese animation, you expose yourself to a world of cultural concepts that are strange and unfamiliar at first, but which are always fun to learn about. Like the nuances between senpai and kohai, or senior and junior in a school or organization, something that doesn't generally exist in America. (The high school I went to went from 8th through 12th grade, and Japanese are always amazed to hear that many classes were taught with students of different grades learning together, which would be unthinkable here.) Another meme you see in anime a lot is a girl or boy who gets a love letter from an admirer wanting to confess their love. In Japanese schools, there are racks of geta-bako or "shoes boxes" where you put your dirty outdoor shoes and change into soft shoes that are worn inside the school. The popularity of a given anime character is often communicated to the audience by how many love letters fall out of his or her shoes box when they open it, a cultural message that would likely be difficult for Westerners to understand at first

"Love letter in the shoes box" is a popular anime meme.

The Top Products at J-List Ranking

J-List carries a lot of unique and interesting products, and it can be fun to see what the top 50 products are, which you can view using this link. Many customers have come to rely on our iTunes Japan prepaid cards to access great music and other content through iTMS Japan, which pushes those cards way up to the to spot. People are rushing to get the last Sakura Green Tea Kit Kat before warm weather arrives, forcing us to remove all chocolate products from the site. We sell traditional dagashi products like the Neri Ame liquid candy you knead with chopsticks, which is all very inexpensive, making it popular with customers. Finally our selection of bento boxes is second to none, and we love to see them move up in the ranking.

Flower Viewing, Summer Wars Style

Over the weekend I wanted to take the family someplace special to enjoy the beautiful sakura that were in full bloom. We opted to go to Ueda (oo-EH-da), a Japanese city in Nagano Prefecture with an old castle that saw a couple of important battles between Ieyasu Tokugawa and the Sanada clan in its heydey. An amazing 1000 sakura trees had been planted throughout the castle grounds, and they were just wonderful to see. Ueda Castle is an especially popular tourist destination this year since it was used as the inspiration for several locations in the animated film Summer Wars. The city has gone all-out to welcome anime fans, publishing an official Summer Wars guide to the areas used in the film in PDF format (links here and here) and selling limited edition Summer Wars products at the castle.

As we walked around the castle grounds contemplating the beauty of the cherry blossoms, I was happy to see stalls selling various foods. They were yatai, small open-air food stands that are always found at Japanese festivals or outside Shinto shrines during cultural events. There's always something good to find at a yatai, from Takoyaki and Taiyaki to Chocolate Banana Crepes and roasted corn and soy sauce, and of course Jyaga Butter baked potatoes, a favorite of mine. It was great to roam around while eating a little of this and a little of that then take a nap under the cherry blossoms. Of course, you can enjoy some of these tastes in the form of the traditional Food Drops candies that J-List sells, which taste remarkably faithful to the original foods.

(You can see pictures from my flower viewing in a Flickr slideshow a few posts down)

Tthe sakura were beautiful at Ueda Castle, and the Chocolate Banana Crepes were good too.

International Marriage in Japan and "My Darling is a Foreigner"

Japanese marrying partners from other countries is called kokusai kekkon, and it's viewed by many here as an alternative choice for those who want something different than what a Japanese spouse offers. Currently about 6% of registered marriages are between Japanese and foreigners (8.4% in Tokyo), a high number considering we account for just 1.5% of the population here. Japanese females often have a rose-colored view of what it must be like to be married to an American, expecting that we hold doors and chairs like perfect gentlemen, do the dishes every night and sometimes cook up a romantic dinner for two. We also say "I love you" often, unlike Japanese men who supposedly don't communicate with their wives as well, in some cases saying nothing more to them than than Meshi! Furo! Neru! (Food! Bath! Sleep!) after getting home from work. Children produced by international marriages must surely be kawaii, just like having your own living Licca-chan doll. (Licca is a popular fashion doll who is half-Japanese, half-French.) When Japanese women think of marrying a foreigner, they probably imagine something like Darling wa Gaikokujin, or My Darling is a Foreigner, a popular manga about a Japanese woman who marries an American man and all the funny misunderstandings they have together. The series has been made into a major Japanese film now, which explores the challenges people from different cultures face when trying to make a life together.

"My Darling is a Foreigner" is now a major film release in Japan.

Anime Cosplay Season is Coming

The summer anime conventions will be here before you know it, and we're busy beefing up our stock of great complete anime costumes and other accessories. Whether you're looking for cosplay outfits for guys to wear or costumes for girls, we've got a great selection for you. We also have those awesome authentic school uniforms from Matsukameya of Nagoya, for making the ultimate otaku statement, as well as great costume accessories like our Ninja Masks, anime Eye Patch and authentic "skirt type" school swimsuit.

Flower Viewing 2010, Summer Wars Style

I took the kids to Ueda, a town in Nagano Prefecture famous for its "1000 sakura trees" park inside the old Ueda Castle, which is where a lot of the scenes from Summer Wars were set. Here is a Flickr slidedshow of the pictures if you'd like to see them.

 

Counting Things in Japanese and English

It's funny how human language seems to follow certain patterns. The other day I was talking with the Japanese staff of J-List about how groupings of animals have unique and sometimes obscure names, such as a herd of cows or horses, a flock of birds or sheep, a pride of lions, or a school of fish. This is apparently something Japanese never study, and everyone was fascinated by this bit of linguistic trivia. Having unique names for groups of animals seems like something that would be rare as far as languages go, and yet it's not so very different from the complex (but fun) system of counters used in Japanese. When counting thin, flat objects like sheets of paper you count them with mai, e.g. ichi-mai, ni-mai, san-mai. If the objects are long and narrow you use hon, which becomes ippon, nihon, sanbon for one, two or three tube-shaped objects. (Random trivia: Roppongi means "six trees.") Learning to count obscure objects properly can become an obsession with foreigners: I always make a point of counting pairs of chopsticks using the correct ichi-zen, ni-zen, san-zen because Japanese expect foreigners to get them wrong.

Recreating Hawaii in Northern Japan

The Japanese certainly do like to dream big and build even bigger, and some of the projects they've come up with over the years are really amazing. Like Ssaws, a giant indoor ski resort built to allow busy Tokyo residents to enjoy skiing all year round without driving for hours to get to the mountains. Or the Seagaia Ocean Dome, a giant indoor beach constructed in Miyazaki Prefecture so vacationers could experience the summer sun even in the heart of winter, since everything was enclosed. (They even had a volcano that erupted every hour.) Last week J-List's Yasu, who keeps our site well stocked with manga, artbooks and Japanese study supplies, took his wife and three daughters to northern Japan to visit Spa Resort Hawaiians, an interesting complex of hotels and pools designed to recreate exotic Hawaii without leaving Japan.

Spa Resort Hawaiians is just like being in Hawaii, er, maybe.

Running Into Sumo Wrestlers in Tokyo

Since Tokyo is just a 45 minute Shinkansen ride from J-List's home prefecture of Gunma, it's quite convenient for us to go down for shopping, concerts or just to hang around for a few hours. Whenever I'm in the city I like walking through its immaculate streets, visiting random shops or perhaps hitting my favorite toy store, Yamashiroya in Ueno. In Tokyo you never know when you'll come across a "guerilla live," which is when a band sets up its instruments and gives an impromptu performance at random locations, or encounter some unique Japanese marketing, like the time I ran into a column of about fifty attractive Japanese girls all wearing Swatch T-shirts and fashionable watches as they marched military-style through Shinjuku, saying nothing but making everyone aware of the company's brand. I like it when I turn a corner and suddenly find myself face-to-face with a sumo wrestler, which happens with surprisingly regularity depending on what part of Tokyo you're in. There's nothing that makes me say, "Woah, I'm in Japan!" more than that.

Running into real live sumo wrestlers in Tokyo is fun.

New at J-List: Erect 81's JAV T-Shirts

J-List is happy to announce a new partnership with Erect81, a famous private-label T-shirt maker based in Tokyo that makes some of the most unique T-shirts you are going to find. The shirts we're posting to the site are especially awesome if you're a fan of Japan's sexy JAV world, because you can now wear official T-shirts featuring all your favorite Japanese adult stars. The shirts are beautifully printed on thick cotton, with large designs that will last for years. Browse our new selection of shirts on the Japan T-shirts Page now.

Japanese are Creative with Language

The Japanese strike me as a very creative people, and I'm often amused by the things they bother to come up with names for. Having your significant other sleep while using your arm as a pillow is known as ude-makura (oo-day mah-koo-rah) or "arm pillow," and the word for "waking up and doing stuff then going back to bed afterwards" is nidone (ni-doh-neh), or "second sleep." This creativity extends into the realm of English, too, for example the beer I had last night called Asahi Strong Off, a name which perfectly reflected the strong taste and lower calorie content. Some businesses with interesting (if odd-sounding) names include Heartful Life (a home renovation company) and a "used fishing tool shop" called Tackle Berry, which shows a picture of Huckleberry Finn pulling in a fish with his fishing rod as its corporate logo. Very weird, but very creative, too.

There's nothing like a Strong Off at the end of a hard day's work.

Strange Fashions in Japan: Pair Look

It's funny, the way fashions can seem like the coolest thing to people one year yet be embarrassingly outdated a decade and a half later. Like the pictures of my mother from the 1960s with a hilarious hairdo held in a "U" shape by liberal amounts of hair spray, or any shot of George Cloony from his "Facts of Life" days. In the 80s there was a bizarre fashion trend in Japan called "pair look" in which couples would actually wear matching outfits on dates, and it's threatening to come back in style, if the Tokyo fashion blogs can be believed. (It's very popular in Korea, too, especially with couples on their honeymoon.) Supposedly the newest fashion trend in Tokyo is...guys wearing skirts. Called sukaato danshi or "skirt boys," the trend consists of men wearing long skirts (really more like aprons) over their clothes as they go about the day. If you want to follow what's new and cool in the Japanese fashion world, keep your eyes glued to our Fashion Magazines and More page.

Japan has many strange fashions, like "pair look" that's threatening to come back.

Out-of-the-way Tourist Spots in Japan

The Japanese government has rolled out a new logo and slogan designed to encourage more tourists to come and experience, "Japan. Endless Discovery." But what places should you visit once you're here? Everyone knows about great tourist destinations like Kyoto, Nara or the Ghibli Museum, but as long as you're in Japan, why not find some of the more out-of-the-way tourist spots to explore? Like a town in Chiba Prefecture that brands itself Japan's version of England's Dover Cliffs, for some reason. Or if you like bizarre museums, check out the Tobacco and Salt Museum, which tells you the history of, well, tobacco and salt in Japan. You could visit the "koto-playing sand" at Kotobikihama Beach, which sings as you walk on it, or find a "Melody Road" that plays music as your car drives over lines dug into the road surface. There's even a desert of sorts, the Tottori Sand Dune, a 16 km stretch of sand which looks like it could have come straight out of Tunisia -- the local tourist board has even imported a camel for you to ride. Or you could visit Gunkan-jima near Nagasaki, the eerily beautiful "Battleship Island" that was a miniature city housing coal miners and their families from 1887 to 1974. When the mines became unprofitable, everyone left overnight, leaving one of the most striking examples of haikyo (modern ruins) in the world.

What are some other unique places to visit in Japan? Post answers in the comments.

Did you know there was a desert in Japan? 

Spotlight on J-List's Kanji & Anime T-Shirts

Whether you're Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend, want to show the world your love of Bento Boxes or don Domo-kun for all to see, J-List has a great line of interesting original T-shirts and hoodies. We're really happy with the newly release anime T-shirts, like our tribute to Tsundere voice actress Rie Kugimiya, our great K-On! + Beatles parody, or our wonderful Toradora! parody shirts. All shirts are made in San Diego by our professional local staff (not mass-produced in Asia) and all shirts are full U.S. sizes. Click here to see all T-shirts and hoodies, or here to view the top 50 items this week.

Love Plus Comes to the iPhone (If You Have a Japan iTunes Prepaid Card)

You probably know you can get access to the awesome JPOP music and anime songs using the popular iTunes Japan prepaid cards that J-List sells, which are fully compatible with iPod/iPhone/iTunes all over the world. Happily, the cards also give you full access to software applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and new iPad not available outside Japan. Like the brand-new Love Plus games, which give you a virtual version of the three girls from the Nintendo DS dating-sim who interact with you, with full CG animation and voice. They'll do things like move and talk, tell you the time and if you have something coming up on your calendar, and react to on-screen touches with content that changes depending on the season. Each game costs just 600 yen, and they're available here if you have purchased a prepaid card from us. (If logged into to a non-Japanese account, please log out as they won't display).

Twitter, Anime Fandom and English Education

Like many, I've gotten into Twitter, posting my random thoughts on life, the universe and everything while passing along information on stuff we've posted to the J-List site. It's interesting to see the amazing variety of people who follow me -- Japanophiles from the U.S. and Europe of course, but also out-of-the-way places like Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and even an anime fan from Saudi Arabia. It's great to be able to have random conversations with people about various topics, and I often throw out questions as I'm blogging to get input and ideas from around the world. I've also gotten quite a few Japanese followers, which I think is great since Twitter is the perfect vehicle for Japanese to put the many years of English they've studied to use as a "living" language. The problem with Japan is that in the past, the only time knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary has really been needed is during university entrance exams, and there was almost no opportunity to actually use the language. So if you're on Twitter already or would like to give it a try, follow me and let's chat!

Of course there had to be Twitter fan art for me to post here, now nice.

The 65th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Yamato

Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the sinking of the Yamato, the most famous Japanese battleship of World War II. Growing desperation had caused the Japanese to organize the first kamikaze air units around October 1944 -- in Japanese they were called tokkou (toh-KOH), which means "special attack forces -- but despite an amazing 2,525 suicide attacks made by Japanese pilots, the Allied forces continued their advance. By the start of the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945, the Japanese fleet was only a shadow of its former self as war planners decided to send the Yamato and eight support ships on a "special attack" mission despite the lack of fuel or air support, which predictably ended with the sinking of the ship and loss of 90% of her crew. My wife has an uncle who fought in World War II, stationed on the battleship Ise, which would have been sent off with the Yamato's squadron if it hadn't been too damaged. Whenever I get the chance I take my son to hear the fascinating tales he can tell us.

Moe Yamato-tan says, "War is bad. Peace is good." 

Yakiniku, Awesome Korean BBQ in Japan

Yesterday was my son's birthday, and in our family that usually means going to our favorite Korean BBQ restaurant for a special meal. Called yakiniku, Korean BBQ is a popular dish with Japanese families, who eat it about as often as Americans will enjoy Chinese or Thai. At the restaurant you order what kind of meat you want -- kalbi beef, chicken, pork, plus vegetables -- and then everyone fries it up over the fire located in the center of the table, taking pieces off and eating them as they cook. It's a fun social way for everyone to eat together, but you have to be good with the chopsticks, or someone else will steal the piece of meat you had your eye on. Japanese believe you can tell a lot about a person from their blood type, and it's not rare for Korean BBQ meals to turn into conversations about this phenomenon, with my wife saying, "Look at the way Peter hoards the pieces of meat near him. That's standard behavior for a person with B-type blood." 

Of course, the Japanese adapt Korean BBQ to their own tastes somewhat, adding a delicious sauce for dipping the meat in that Koreans don't use, and when we ask "real" Korean establishments if they have any, they just yell at us about how Korea invented kimchee and not Japan. Also, in Korean BBQ establishments in Korea or the U.S., the meat is usually cooked by a restaurant employee rather than the customers themselves.

Japanese love to eat yakiniku, or Korean BBQ.

Bizarre Festival is Bizarre: the Kanamara Steel Phallus Festival

Unfortunately the announcement of the new J-List retail shop in Akihabara turned to be an April Fool's joke (heh, even our staff in San Diego fell for it) -- apologies to anyone who was planning on visiting the store. But if you're interested in a unique experience, you might try the Kanamara Matsuri, translated as Festival of the Steel Phallus, one of the most bizarre and interesting sights you can see in Japan. It's essentially a Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, and the crowds go wild as they celebrate the shape of the male member, even carrying a giant mikoshi shrine through the streets of the city. The festival is held the first Sunday of April (this Sunday), so if you happen to be in Japan and are looking for something really interesting to do, give it a try.

(Remind me to write a post on how Japan's lack of "uptight-ness" is such a wonderful thing.)

The Kanamara Festival is a celebration of, er, the human penis.

Japanese Culture and "Hanami" (Flower Viewing)

It's hanami season in Japan, a period of approximately ten days when the millions of cherry trees located in Japanese cities bloom with beautiful colors. As with most aspects of Japanese daily life, it can be fun to observe what cultural bits of information you can discover. At parks with cherry trees, different groups will spread out blue tarps for their members to sit on, and instantly each tarp takes on the properties of a little house. Since the surface of the tarp is considered "indoors" (uchi), people remove their shoes before stepping onto it, and there is a clear sense that the top of the tarp is "clean" while the dirt just beyond is "dirty" (since it is soto or "outside"). Females might even say ojama-shimasu as they step onto the tarp, which literally means "I apologize for disrupting you in your home" and is said when you enter someone's house. Food and alcohol will be readied as the group prepares to contemplate the beauty of cherry blossoms, but they may need to engage in some ice-breaking first, as Japanese will usually show enryo, a kind of social hesitation at being the first to start eating and having fun.

A big blue tarp can teach you about Japanese culture.

Walking To School Together

Last time I talked about safety in Japan, including the way elementary school children walk to school in an organized group called a han, with a sixth-grade student as leader who keeps the kids in the group together and presumedly protects younger students from ijime (bullying). As with many things in Japan, this is part of a tradition that goes back for generations, and when my daughter went to school with the other kids in the neighborhood, she walked the exact path that her mother walked many years before...which was the same path used by her grandmother even earlier. I think the school han system is good because it keeps kids safe and gives them a structure to follow as they get accustomed to school life, and it's certainly preferential to the Lord of the Flies trauma that was riding the school bus in America. Still, not everyone agrees it's a good thing, like a friend of mine from the U.K. who had a Japanese wife and cute haafu son. My friend disliked the way the the kids were made to walk in a line wearing little yellow hats "like baby ducklings following their mother" because it seemed like a form of social programming which robbed them of their individuality. He eventually opted to take his family back to the U.K. rather than see his son assimilated into a really cute Borg collective. What do you think? Is preserving the tradition of kids walking to school together with neighborhood kids good, or should things be more flexible?

Japanese students walk to school in their assigned han; lead by the "head honcho."

Spring, the Time of Thinking About Cosplay + Sale Note

Ah, spring, the time when the hearts of otaku everywhere turn to the upcoming summer anime conventions and the costumes they want to wear, and happily, J-List has a huge selection of items for you. In addition to our extensive line of complete cosplay outfits for guys and girls, J-List is honored to represent the famous Matsukameya of Nagoya, a company which makes extremely high quality real school uniforms for fans all around the world, custom made to their size. The company's outstanding summer and winter school uniforms for girls and gakuran style uniforms for boys are so good, I can honestly say I've never received a negative word from our customers in the many years we've carried their products. Click here to browse all anime cosplay items, or here to view the top 50 cosplay items this week.

J-Lists's Spring Sale extended another week! The cherry blossoms are still in bloom, so we figured we'd extend the J-List Spring Sale another week. We'll send you a store credit worth $5 for every $100 you spend for your next purchase, which means you can add an extra T-shirt or box of Black Black Caffeine Gum to your order and save. But like the fleeting beauty of the cherry blossoms, this offer will blow away soon.

Some Big News for J-List: A Retail Shop in Akihabara!

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Japan is Safety Country

Japan is definitely a land of opposites, often presenting conflicting images to visitors from the outside world who are trying to make sense of the place. One of my first impressions about Japan was that it was a dangerous place for children, due to the steep hardwood stairs that every Japanese home seemed to have, and lack of safety features like baby gates and child safety seats for cars, which hadn't come into use yet. But on closer inspection, there are many ways that Japan is actually more safe, sometimes almost ridiculously so. There are no school busses in Japan, so for safetty kids are taught to walk to school in a tight group called a han which is lead by a sixth grade leader called hancho (where the English word "head honcho" comes from). All pools in Japan are shallow as a safety precaution, and when Japanese encounter swimming pools with deep water as in the United States it can often be dangerous, since they're so unfamiliar. Schools are completely enclosed in a strong net which serves to keep dangerous people from entering the school grounds or students from leaving, except through the main school gate. And I saw recently that the Yamanote (yama-no-teh) train line in Tokyo is installing safety gates that will keep people from falling, I mean jumping, onto the train tracks, an anti-suicide precaution.

And yes, "safety country" is the kind of English your brain produces after you've lived here too long, as I have. ^_^

A group of children walk to school together, with the hancho taking charge to make sure everyone is accounted for.

How to Prepare for Coming to Japan

One thing I like about running J-List is being able to help people be closer to Japan. One of my Twitter followers told me he's coming here in a few months and asked if I could give him some advice on how to get ready. How you prepare for a visit to Japan depends on whether you'll be staying only a week or two or if you're planning on being here on a long-term basis, of course, but I'll do my best. Although Japan is a modern industrialized nation, it's amazing how often little cultural differences can cause problems for visitors from abroad. It can be difficult to find a bank you that accepts bank cards from overseas (hint: the ATMs at Seven Eleven are a good place to start checking), and there are arbitrary limitations on how much of your own money you can withdraw per week, so have a backup plan when it comes to money. If you have special medical or other issues, it's best to assume you won't be able to find what you need in Japan and bring extra medicines/whatever with you. Products like deodorants may be difficult to identify at first, so bring some extra from home lest you accidentally find you've been applying feminine products to your underarms. If you have especially large feet it can be good to bring an extra pair of shoes -- above 28 cm (American size 10/British size 9.5/European 44) can be hard to find. Of course everyone should study Japanese for several years before coming here, but if this isn't possible, we offer some useful Japanese study tools to help you get started. Finally, don't forget to bring an open mind with you: no matter what you expect to find in Japan, it will surprise you with strange customs like the way you're supposed to slurp your noodles rather than eating them quietly.

Any other advice I should send to my twitter follower? Put your personal advice for coming to Japan in the comments.

Coming to Japan? Bring some spare shoes if you have big feet.

This Man Would Like To Sell You Some Sakura Ramen

The Season of the Sakura has come to Japan, and all throughout the country cherry trees are exploding like beautiful fireworks. One of the best things about Japan is doing hanami or flower viewing, which usually involves spreading a tarp under the cherry trees and having a party with your friends, drinking lots of beer and sake while the petals fall all around you. Flower viewing has been popular in Japan since the beginning of written history, with the first hanami recorded in the Nara period (710-784), although the word initially applied to viewing of ume or plum flowers, which are also pretty. It's common for companies to seize on the coming of spring to sell new products, and if you turn on the TV you'll be bombarded by images of special beer brewed just for spring or the newest video camera perfect for recording your child's first day of school. The Maruchan noodle company has gotten into the spirit, too, hiring black enka singer Jero (iTunes Japan link) to advertise special spring-themed versions of their ramen noodles, with sakura-ebi or tiny freeze-dried little shrimp inside (yech).

Enka singer Jero, in a new campaign promoting ramen noodles for spring. Doesn't look that good though.

The Joy of Dagashi, Traditional Snacks from Showa Japan

J-List carries all the newest snacks from Japan, but we go one better by stocking the oldest, in the form of dagashi, which is the traditional snacks and candy eaten in Japan since the Showa Period, which are still popular. The most popular traditional snack has got to be Kompeito, which has been eaten in Japan for 400 years -- it's popular with anime fans since it shows up in the film Spirited Away. Another fun snack is Neri Ame, lit. "liquid candy" that you apply to the included chopsticks then "knead" it until it turns solid. I also love the mochi chewy soft traditional candies, and of course Bontan Ame is fun because it's soft candies that you can eat wrapper and all since it's made of rice. Best of all, these snacks are all ridiculously inexpensive, so you can sample a whole bunch. Click here to see all our traditional dagashi snacks, or here to see all snacks ranked by popularity.

ESL Teaching and "How are you? Fine, thanks, and you?"

"How are you?" If you've ever taught English as a Second Language in Japan then you know the correct answer to this question is, "Fine, thanks, and you?" One interesting aspect of the Japanese is how they treat language as if it were a science not unlike mathematics, and obsess over whether an answer is "correct" or not. Although there are many ways to answer an open-ended question like "How are you?" -- happy, tired, thirsty, looking forward to getting home -- it's usually expected that teachers will reinforce the phrases the students are learning without confusing them too much. When my son was studying for his "Eiken" English test, it got to the point where he'd ask his Japanese mother to help him rather than me since she had an innate sense of how to understand each question, whereas I would offer multiple answers to each problem, explaining various ways to go about each answer, which isn't what he wanted.

Teaching ESL in Japan means striking a balance between "real" and ESL English.

Korean Dramas on Prime Time in Japan

Ever since the official opening of cultural exchange between South Korea and Japan in 2001, there's been a lot of popular culture flowing across the Sea of Japan (although the Koreans hate that name). Although the big "Winter Sonata" boom has died down, Korean dramas have established a permanent place in the hearts of Japanese television viewers. Now for the first time, a Korean drama will be broadcast during "golden time" (what prime time is called in Japan), as TBS gets ready to show a new offering starring that handsome Lee Byung Hun in the 8:00 pm time slot. My wife has become quite a fan of all things Korean and watches the K-doramas just about every day. She's even taken my son over to Seoul for a couple days for shopping and sightseeing, since it's so close (the bus ride to the airport takes more time than the flight). They're staying at the Lotte Hotel, where I assume they give free Black Black caffeine gum to all guests, although I could be wrong about that. Koreans are getting more and more interested in Japan's popular culture, too and we sell a ton of our iTunes Japan prepaid cards to customers in Korea every day.

The "Yukkuri" joke below is because from the Japanese point of view, Koreans try to take credit for creating huge swaths of current Japanese and Korean shared culture, from Kendo swordfighting to enka music. It's all very silly, since there's been massive contact between the Korean peninsula and Japan since prehistoric times.

Japanese "Common Sense" is Hard for Gaijin

When I arrived in Japan, one of the concepts I had to get used to was joshiki (pronounced joe-sh'ki), a word meaning "common sense" which is quite important in a homogeneous country like this one. Joshiki is the list of things that every Japanese person knows unconsciously, but which are totally alien to foreigners since we didn't grow up here. In Japan it's joshiki that socks are never placed on the dining room table, even clean ones -- since they're associated with the feet they're "dirty" even if they've just been washed. Similarly, washing dirty shoes in the family washing machine would supposedly require buying a new one, so strong is the Japanese association with dirt and feet. People have been separating trash into complex categories for so long it's second nature to them, but I still screw up no matter how hard I try. Another example of this "universal common sense" that poor gaijin can't easily get in sync with is teikyubi, a set day of the week when restaurants or retail stores will be closed to enable the staff to have a day off. No matter how long I live in Japan, the day I make a special trip to my favorite ramen shop will be the day it's closed.

A sign informing customers that the store is closed on Monday.

Our Favorite Magazine Subscriptions & Spring Sale Reminder

J-List sells the most interesting anime, manga, hobby and ecchi magazines from Japan direct to you, and we're really proud of how popular our product lineup has become with customers. We sell some really special manga magazine like Dengeki Daioh or Shonen Ace which are loaded with your favorite manga stories. Then there are specialized books for zed books for aficionados of yuri or yaoi. If you want to learn about Japan, we recommend popular offerings like Hiragana Times or Kateigaho International. Magazines that give free stuff to readers are always appreciated, and we recommend Megami Magazine, NyanType, or the new Dengeki G's Festival we just got in stock. Click here to see all revolving magazine subscriptions, or here to browse the top 50 Japanese magazine subscription offerings.

Remember: J-List is having our 2010 Spring Sale! For the next week, we'll send you a store credit worth $5 for every $100 you spend for your next purchase. It gives you a good excuse to throw an extra few Kit Kats or a case of your favorite Japanese gum to your cart if you're only a few dollars under the next $100 amount. The gift codes never expire and can be used any time. Celebrating Spring with J-List!