Cool Products Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Dengeki G's Festival vol. 20 The newest issue of Dengeki G's Festival is here! The quarterly magazine packed with epic extras for you focuses this month on the new August epic game, Aiyoku no Eustia. Get a great dakimakura hug pillowcase of the heroine Eustia Astraea along with the magazine, plus other extras! View products »
	GeMaga ~ Game Magazine Mar 2011 This month's magazine dedicated to all things console gaming in Japan is here, packed with the latest scoops and exclusive info.
	Gorgeous Artbooks Restocked We've got a bunch of great artbooks back in stock today, including the epic Oxide 2x from Korean master Kim Hyung-Tae, and more.
	My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute 3 ~ Blu-ray Disc Next, see the latest installment of the epic Blu-ray release of Oreimo, packed with great extras in a sleek high quality presentation.
	Nanoha, Little Busters Figures A super cute version of Noumi Kudryavka from Little Busters!, and a great trading figures set from the Nanoha movie now in stock!
	Monster Hunter Figures Monster Hunter Portable 3rd brought with it tons of great new beasts to conquer, and now you can add them to your figure collection in these boldly designed great new figures! Official Capcom products. View products »
	Nekomimi Parka Onepiece with Pink Ribbon and Tail Another super kawaii parka is ready for the taking. This time featuring neko mimi (cat ears), and we're sure it will be very popular.
	Kawaii Long Sleeve Rabbit Dress Restocked Those super kawaii bunny-eared hoodie and pants sets are back, for fans of kawaii Japanese fashion. We love selling cute things like this.
	Queen's Blade Nendoroid Figure, More Check out the great Nendoroid action figures from everyone's favorite combat heroine series, including Leina, Airi, Tomoe, Aldora, more!
	2011 Anime, Idol and Other Calendars Our customers liked the new Yotsubato 2011-2012 calendar so much it was about to sell out. Happily we got another 10 copies in.
	Let's Make Erasers, Other Items Restocked Japan loves to make cute things, and we've restocked the Fragrant Eraser crafts sets, with molds that can be used again and again.
	Mini Magic Sakura Tree You can recreate your own hanami flower viewing at home with this amazing mini 'magic sakura' tree! Unfold the branches and add the special water (included) to watch the flowers bloom within hours. Enjoy Japan-style flower viewing with this cool item! View products »
	Kyoto SAKURA CHA Gift Set A great gift with the authentic taste of Japan, enjoy the delicate sakura flavor of spring in traditional tea and treats, incl. sakura cookies & konpeito.
	Geta Style Tabi, aka 'Ninja Socks' Tabi are the famous split-toe footwear worn by ninjas, or with traditional Japanese kimonos. Enjoy these awesome restocked socks!
	Bathtub Hair Catcher, Other Household Products Bring this piece of Japanese bath culture to your home, a net that captures foreign objects for removal from your bath water like hair.
	Fun One Piece Products Japan will always be Japan, and that means wacky products like the One Piece "Oppai" mouse pads and other fun One Piece products, in stock now.
	New Snacks from Japan Japan always has amazing new snacks for you. Today see Meiji Chelsea Strawberry Mix candy, Koeda Coffee chocolate, and a bold Jagarico flavor!
	Restocked Sakuma Drops, Other J-Snacks Classic Sakuma Drops (as seen in "Grave of the Fireflies"), Neri Ame traditional liquid candy, Royal Milk Tea, Mix Fruit Mentos, plus new Hi-Chew flavors.
	Great Bento From Japan, Restocked Also for fans of traditional bento boxes, we've restocked the awesome "hiragana man," know as "HENOHENOMOHEJI" to the Japanese, plus other awesome traditional bento restocked. As long as Japan is here, J-List will sell awesome bento boxes! View products »
	Awesome 'Onigiri' Style Bento Boxes We have also restocked some onigiri bento boxes which hold rice balls in a very cute way. Click to see the restocked items.
	Kawaii Bento Boxes See fresh stock of our English-language bento book which will have you making awesome kawaii bento lunches in no time.
	Basic Kanji Drill Books Restocked The books packed with all the materials you need to sharpen your kanji skills are here, built for penmanship practice to reinforce your knowledge.
	Popular Traditional Items From Japan Our classic Yokobue (yoko-boo-eh) flute is restocked, plus traditional Daruma Otoshi game, the classic Ken-dama, our famous Soba Dish and more.
	J-List T-Shirts from San Diego Our popular Japanese shirts are all in stock and shipping from San Diego with no delay to customers -- check out our tribute to the feisty tsundere characters of anime, as well as our new Panty & Stocking / Men in Black parody, plus "Property of Highschool of the Dead." View products »
	Marisa, Reimu Nendoroid Figures *Preorder* We've got 3 new Nendoroid figures from the Touhou Project that we're sure you'll jump for joy over! Now available for preorder!
	Puella Magi Madoka Magica Mug Cup *Preorder* Enjoy the company of your favorite mahou shoujo magical girl initiate in these great new mugs from Broccoli. Preorder open today!
	Kirino Kousaka PVC Figure *Preorder* We absolutely love Oreimo and are excited about this Kirino Kousaka PVC figure by COSPA!
	Other Awesome Preorder Products Enjoy Rei Ayanmi in "Beach Queen" mode, cute Dancer Marryan from ToHeart2, kawaii maids Airi and Kuroko, plus new Kenshin figures (!).
	HiToZuMa EROS 15/X This erotic photobook focuses on your average hitozuma or wife. A specially selected group of women for you to drool over.
	Realistic Stress Toys from Japan And of course J-List has more amazing stress relieving toys for you, featuring this 1/1 scale onahole based off the details of this mystery cybergirl, down to every possible detail. Lord knows we could all use a little less stress now. View products »
	Amazing Stress Toys, Lotion Stress is a commodity not in short supply in the world these days, and Japan is here to help with its full industry of relief novelty items for you.
	BAND GAL! Parody Stress Toys Especially winning are these K-On! parody toys, modeled after your favorite characters from the hit anime series. More stock came in yesterday.
	Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo ~ UMD PSP Game Enjoy the famous Sharin no Kuni, now on your PSP! See region restrictions for info, and play your 18+ eroge portable!
	Large Oppai Slave Class President Next, enjoy the sensation of turning your large-chested class president into a sex slave in this super ecchi new import game from Erect Lip.

Give to Japan

There are many ways you can help Japan. Donating to Red Cross Japan might be difficult from outside the country, so perhaps a donation to the U.S. Red Cross or Red Cross International would be good. In addition, J-List will be donating 5% of all orders to the Japanese Red Cross this month up to $10,000. Thanks for any and all support you can give!

J-List is open for business and is shipping products out more-or-less normally. Japan will need economic power to recover from this tragedy, and we're going to help them the best way we know how. We're mainly posting items that came in stock Friday and today rather than new products, but we'll return to our normal update schedule as soon as possible. Thanks and God Bless.

In other news, Spring is here, and we have a new theme for our site. How do you like it?

Japan Earthquake Update

Japan continues reeling from the aftermath of the massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake -- actually a series of concurrent quakes in several regions at once -- that hit just as we were preparing to send out Friday's J-List update. The shock from the earthquake was terrible enough, but the relentless tsunamis that came crashing over the shore did an unbelievable amount of damage to several regions facing the Pacific Ocean, and the loss of life is staggering. Having seen destruction in the past in Japan, mainly the Kobe earthquake of 1995 and the Niigata quake in 2004, I thought I knew what living in a seismically unstable country was like. But the sheer scale of this disaster has been a hard lesson for all of us. On top of all the horrors being visited on the country is the malfunction of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor, which has kept everyone on pins and needles constantly. And the aftershocks keep coming, several per hour at least...

Unbelievable destruction across Japan; an outpouring of support on Pixiv, and around the world.

It's moments like these when you really see the good in people, and Japan has been touched by the outpouring of help from other countries in their hour of need -- 91 countries so far. Everyone is thankful for the rescue teams coming from the U.K., South Korea, Germany, Mexico and yes, New Zealand (thank you everyone!). The U.S. brought the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and several destroyers in to airlift water, food and other needed supplies, a mission that's been named "Operation Tomodachi" (Operation Friendship), and I saw more than a few Japanese on Twitter saying things like, "I laughed at the silly-sounding name...then I cried and cried." There was a massive show of support on Pixiv, the Japanese artist community website, as artists from Japan and around the world created art of Miku Hatsune saying, Ganbatte, nihon! ("Do your best, Japan!"), which I've been posting to the J-List Facebook page with English translations. It's been really amazing to see.

(Incidentally, if you're trying to verify the safety of someone inside Japan and can't reach them, we'd be happy to try call them for you from a domestic landline. Please contact us via Twitter or Facebook.)

The character of the Japanese people is really visible at a time like this. While it's common for disasters to be followed by certain desperate actions by the citizenry, e.g. looting, this idea would be unthinkable in Japan. When the quake hit, my son was in a shopping mall, and everyone ran outside holding the items they had intended to purchase. Though they could have just kept on going to their cars, everyone waited for the shaking to stop then went back inside to make their purchases before rushing home. There were no reports of looting or other problems, though basic foodstuffs and gasoline disappeared pretty quickly. In general Japan has been extremely calm and collected considering what they've been up against.

And efficient! Amazingly, life is already returning to normal in Tokyo, although there's still confusion about how the rolling blackouts that are threatening to turn off power to portions of the country will unfold. (The power will be out for a portion of each day at J-List, though our server and website won't be affected.) When we asked the post office about shipping delays with J-List international packages, they replied, "There will be none." (The post office even came to collect the outgoing packages this morning, same as they always do.) We called the various distributors we deal with to make sure they were safe, and all of them were fine, operating normally and shipping products to us without delays. Our minds are quite blown by the speed with which most of the country is returning to work, though for the affected regions have years of rebuilding ahead of them. (We'll post updates if it appears there will be new delays in shipping products.)

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Anime and Manga Magazines Japan will return to normal, and when it does we'll be carrying lots of great products. Click to see the top anime & manga magazines.
	2011 Anime, Idol and Other Calendars We still have stock of some amazing 2011 calendars, like the just-release Yotsubato! calendar that's likely to sell out soon.
	New Anime Figures In Stock This came in on Friday, so we're posting it now: the awesome villain of Black Rock Shooter in Nendoroid form is so cute.
	Samurai Girls Special Box Restocked Other items that came in on Friday, which we're pushing out now: the Samurai Girls Blu-ray (several), plus the Fate/stay night movie.
	Fashion Magazines & More We're proud of the excellent fashion and cosplay magazines and other products we've been able to find for our customers. Click to see some cool items.
	GATSBY ~ Men's Hair Wax / Spiky Edge One of the most popular products in our fashion lineup are the Gastby Hair Wax products, which make you look like Takuya Kimura or Arashi.
	Authentic 'Socks Glue' From Japan We love selling wacky things like "socks glue" which hold up high over-knee socks, and we'll continue this tradition in the future.
	Japanese T-Shirts - Property of Highschool of the Dead If you're a fan of zombies, we recommend our new "Property of Highschool of the Dead" T-shirts, which we recently posted to the site.
	iTunes Japan Prepaid Music Cards You can use the iTunes Japan cards J-List offers to get awesome anime songs and JPOP songs. Also cool apps from Japan -- we like this emergency app for quickly emailing, calling or Tweeting in an emergency. There's plenty of cool stuff for your new iPad on the iTunes Japan store, too. View products »
	Great Products for iPhone We carry fun iPhone products from Japan, which make your iPhone unique and special. Click to see the most popular items.
	Import Anime Games for PSP & PS3 We have many PSP and PS3 anime games, including The Reminiscence of Haruhi Suzumiya, for you to browse. Click to view now.
	Rilakkuma, Mamegoma Products Restocked We could all use a smile now, and the Rilakkuma and Mamegoma products we're restocking (which came in on Friday) will help a little.
	Hello Kitty Glasses Stand Restocked One item that makes us feel happy is the Hello Kitty Glasses Stand, which "wears" your glasses for you. Stock came in today.
	Some Restocked Hello Kitty Products Also restocked, the Hello Kitty Microwave Rice Cooker, Mayonnaise Cup for bento, push-style Onigiri maker and "face" bento box.
	Good Snacks from Japan Got restocked J-snacks, incl. Calorie Mate, Sweet Milk and Caramal Pocky, Country Ma'am soft cookies, Cool Berry Gum and more. Enjoy, if you are in a mood to.
	Wacky Drinks from Japan We also carry interesting drinks on the site, from the Chocolate Soda to Pancakes in a Can. We love you, Japan.
	Bento Boxes from Japan J-List will be here when you need us, with bento in hand. Click to see the most popular bento boxes on the site.
	Kawaii Hello Kitty Bento, Too Some of our most popular bento boxes are back! Whether it's the Hello Kitty "ball" style box, the Pokeball box or Frog Paws, we've got you covered!
	Takoyaki Set in the BOX See some rare and unique kitchen products which we've got on the site. A nice lineup of products for you to browse.
	Katameru Temple ~ Magic Eco Powder This is amazing: a magic powder you can use to get rid of oil after frying tempura. Just sprinkle the powder into the oil to harden it.
	Random Restocked Japanese Stuff We recommend Japanese ear cleaners, which are awesome. The little samurai sword version is perhaps the coolest.
	We Love Japanese Phone Straps Looking for a great way to distinguish your cell phone from the rest? Check out our selection of phone straps, including adapters for iPhone.
	Traditional Sandals, Other Cool Items We've got woven traditional sandals, omamori charms, bamboo flutes, wooden geta sandals, and much more as well!
	Hiragana Notebooks, Cool Pens & Mameshiba  Restocked stationery items today: the Signo Eraser Pen, Mild Liner in "smoky" colors, Kado-Keshi eraser and Cinnamoroll hiragana practice notebook.
	Japanese Study Tools, Stationery Don't forget our Japanese study products, since we love helping people learn more about Japan. Click to see the most popular items.
	Restocked Traditional Items from Japan More items that came in on Friday: DX Men's Yukata, Make a Wish temple bell strap, Natural Stone Magatama Strap and more.
	Items in San Diego While we expect minimal delays shipping and restocking products from Japan as the country recovers, there are no delays with San Diego based items.
	Survival Japanese, Other Books Restocked Also, we've got plenty of Japan-related books in stock in San Diego for all kinds of use, like a book on "sound words" in nihongo and this one!
	Photobooks from Japan J-List is here for you, whatever you need from Japan. Photobooks, magazines, and other items will remain available, when things return to normal.
	Restocked Eroge from Japan If you're interested in import eroge from Japan, some fresh stock came in: Real Kanojo (in 3D!), Love Desu 555, Zettai Maou and Manaka de Ikuno!
	English Eroge for Preorder Just a reminder: you can preorder upcoming popular games from us, including Da Capo, Demonbane, or My Girlfriend is the President.
	Great H-Games by Internet Download, Package J-List has tons of outstanding English-language eroge too. Download and packaged shipments from San Diego will not be delayed.
	'H' Products from Japan Finally, we have many other restocked NSFW items, including the HOTD Secret Box. Click to see them all, sorted by order of popularity.