Golden Week 2013 Report

Japan has started Golden Week, a semi-accidental grouping of holidays which gives everyone a nice break from their normal school or work lives. The name Golden Week was coined in 1951 when an executive at the Daiei Movie Company noticed a spike in ticket sales around these holidays, so his company started a campaign to advertise the holiday week as a great time to go see a movie, in the same way that "golden time" ("prime time" to most of us) is the best time to watch television. While the Golden Week name has become universal today, Japan's public broadcasting network NHK stoically refuses to use it, preferring the term 連休 renkyuu ("period of consecutive holidays") to avoid using a label created to advertise a private industry. Golden Week is a major economic boon for leisure-oriented businesses, including tourist spots like Hawaii, Guam and California, so if you happen to notice more Japanese people in your city than normal this week, you'll know why. In the Tokyo area, a popular destination is Karuizawa, the pleasant mountain town featured in several anime series including Waiting in the Summer, and for me, nothing defines Golden Week better then spending a couple hours riding a rented bicycle under the canopy of trees there.

Golden Week is a time for leisure for the Japanese.

Japanese Stuff for Mother's Day?

May is almost here, and that means that Mother's Day isn't far off, so here's a reminder to check the site for any cool mom-friendly products from Japan she might like. My own mother had a great love of Japan, and was always happy to receive gifts from me, from Totoro ceramic music boxes to random interior products to decorate her home with like Japanese Kokeshi dolls. If your mother is interested in Japan, too, why not browse the site to find cool possible gifts for her?

Excellent Service in Japan

Without a doubt, one of the best things about living in Japan is the excellent service you receive on a daily basis here, and if I were in the restaurant business I'd look to Japan for ideas about how I could improve the customer experience at my restaurants. One thing I love is the custom of handing out hot towels (called oshibori) to customers who've just sat down to order -- nothing feels better than cleaning your hands (and face, which is bad manners but everyone does it) with a steaming hot towel, and it'd be great if restaurant chains in the U.S. adopted this practice. Another innovation I'm a fan of are electronic buttons on your table which you press when you're ready to order. The staff sees your table number light up on a board and instantly appears to take your order, avoiding stress about how to get your server's attention. While I'm making recommendations to the U.S. restaurant industry, why hasn't any chain latched onto yakitori (Japanese teriyaki chicken on a stick), or flamboyant drinks like "grapefruit sour" (a shochu-based drink that comes with half a fresh grapefruit that you wring out yourself, adding the juice to your drink)? I'm sure there are a ton of potential ideas from Japan, just waiting to be popularized.

Here's a hot towel for you, sir. Have you decided what you want to order?

TV in Japan

The Japanese are big fans of television, and watch 2-6 hours of TV per day on average, depending on their age group. There are three categories of TV in Japan: public broadcasting by NHK, Japan's clone of the BBC, which has no commercials; minkan or "civilian" broadcasts made by for-profit companies like Fuji TV or TBS; and pay channels like WOWOW or Fox Japan, viewed through "BS" (broadcast satellite) antennas or cable TV. Popular categories of programs include modern TV dramas from Japan and Korea, samurai period dramas, reality programs that follow the lives of families with an unusually high number of children (since there's so rare here), and anime of course, which is usually shown at 2 am for some reason. There are also many variety programs that do random things like seeing how fast a go-cart can go propelled by PET bottles filled with pressurized carbonated water, and a fun show in which contestants who can't answer trivia questions fast enough are dropped into a (CG-enhanced) abyss. As in most countries, the Japanese are experiencing テレビ離れ terebi-banare or the trend of moving away from watching so much television. My wife's elderly parents leave the TV on all day in their liquor shop, while my son prefers the Internet and watches much less TV.

TV in Japan is random and entertaining.

Japan, Kanji and Perception: We Have to Go Deeper

Are French people Buddhists? Are the Germans lonely? Are the British particularly heroic, and do Americans eat lots of rice? These are impressions the Japanese might conceivably have about people from around the world, thanks to the way certain kanji were arbitrarily assigned to different countries back during the Meiji Period, before katakana started being used for expressing foreign-derived words and place names as it is today. The kanji phonetically assigned to France, Germany, Britain and the U.S. are 仏, 独, 英 and 米, which happen to mean Buddha/Buddhism, alone/lonely, heroic, and rice, and while these are largely archaic today, they're still convenient for writing compact newspaper headlines like 日米韓首脳会談 ("a summit between heads of state from Japan, the U.S. and South Korea"). The kanji for Australia is 豪 goh which means "gorgeous" or "of high quality," and this character is used by the shabu shabu restaurant near my house to promote their imported Australian beef. The kanji for Russia (露) might make Japanese think of an outdoor onsen bath (露天風呂 roten buro)...or possibly a person who exposes themselves indecently in public places (露出 roshutsu). Random word associations can come from anywhere, of course, like the linguistic accident that causes the English word "fillet" to have the same pronunciation as a shark's fin (ひれ), which must cause some bizarre misunderstandings when eating a steak and shark fin soup (the fin is definitely not the "fillet" part of a fish).

(If you're as fascinated by kanji as we are, J-List has a lot of cool kanji-related products for you to get lost browsing.)

Analyzing how language affects our perception.

Are You Ready for the Summer Anime Conventions?

Summer convention season isn't far, and J-List is ready to help you make this year's cons extra special. In addition to selling authentic shikishi sign boards for getting autographs from Japanese artists this summer, we've got great cosplay products like anime glasses and those Japanese eye patches as seen in dozens of anime series, plus our world-famous anime T-shirts and more. Why not browse J-List and make your pre-con order now?

Some Questions About The Japanese

I've been a student of Japanese since that first day in 1987 when I started Higurashi-sensei's class at SDSU. (There were more students who wanted to take the course than would fit in the room, so the teacher gave us an ultimatum: learn hiragana within one week or we'd have to drop the class.) In addition to studying the language, I've spent many years observing the Japanese people, too. Today I decided to do an "Ask Me Anything" on J-List's Facebook page, and here are some of the questions I got.

How Westernized are the Japanese?

The Japanese definitely consider themselves a Western country, as indicated by their lumping both Europe and Japan in the same DVD area (region 2). When Japanese visit other countries in Asia they have culture shock that's similar to what Americans or Europeans might experience.

Are clubs in high school as important as they seem to be in anime?

It seems so. My son is in both the Light Music and English clubs and does a lot of stuff with both. Students who don't join a club in high school belong to the 帰宅部 kitaku-bu or "going home club."

Do most Japanese act in what would be considered a 'gentlemanly' manner here in the West? i.e. holding doors open for ladies etc.

In general not much, and one reason some Japanese women idealize Western men is the idea that we'll be perfect gentlemen at all times, though my wife would laugh herself silly at that. The word for a man who is polite and considerate of women is a "feminist."

How important is politeness to the Japanese?

Definitely an important thing, and there are subtle rules about politeness that people must follow based on your TPO ("time, place, occasion"). These rules are actually "baked" into the language, and you'll use different verb forms when addressing a senpai (which would require formal verbs) compared with a classmate or a kohai (which would call for informal verbs). I'm sure a lot of these politeness rules come from having 120 million people living in an area the size of Montana, in houses with paper doors.

Are they fascinated with the USA like we are with Japan?

Japan is the most pro-American country there is, as a rule, and nearly all Japanese have a positive image of the U.S. Older Japanese are especially thankful for the smart policies of the U.S. military during the Occupation, and of our positive "can-do" attitude, which helped Japan rebuild more quickly. When the U.S. military launched "Operation Tomodachi" after the 3.11 earthquake and tsunamis even the most cynical Japanese burst into thankful tears.

How are the British perceived in Japan?

Japan loves the U.K. and when the country was modernizing it took most of its ideas about the West from England, creating a Parliament-style legislature and government officials based on Her Majesty's Civil Service. You could argue that World War II was Japan taking its respect for and desire to emulate Great Britain and its Empire way too far.

Why is Japan so cool?

Haha, not sure, but it might be related to the country being shrouded in mystery during the Edo Period. Our collective fascination with Japan is not new. When I went to the Netherlands I was surprised to see that Vincent van Gogh had been fascinated with Japan, and had copied ukiyoe in his own style, right down to the kanji.

Can you really buy girls' pantsu in vending machines?

These existed, but in very small numbers 10-15 years ago, and anything you hear about today is pure urban legend. Remember, the "lens" of the Internet highlights only the strange parts of Japan, presenting a distorted image.

Why the Tentacles?

Good question. While the genre got its start with the famous shunga image Dream of the Fisherman's Wife [NSFW] nearly 200 years ago, the modern association with tentacles comes from the popularity of the Urotsukidoji / Legend of Overfiend hentai anime from the 1980s. Most Japanese don't realize their country is famous for tentacles.

Why do the Japanese like maids so much?

It's just a meme, really, like shimapan or the Anna Miller's waitress costume boom from the 1990s. Supposedly some of the earliest eroge from the PC 98 era hit on the idea of maid characters calling the player "master" and maid culture took off from there.

What are their views on sporks?

Yasu, J-List's artbook and manga buyer, says, "I never thought deeply about them, but they remind me of eating convenience store bento."

Your questions about the people of Japan answered.

The History of Anime Snacks

We like to think of our little company as a "wonderful toy box of things from Japan" where various products will pop up randomly, from traditional Lucky Cat statues to legendary cosplay products to your favorite anime figures. Another thing we enjoy is finding Japanese snacks or drinks featured in anime and selling them on the site. There's a long history of tying food products to anime series, going back to the Sakuma Drops from Grave of the Fireflies, the Yebisu beer Misato drinks in Evangelion and the Pocky and Pretz seen in Please Teacher! and Please Twins! The idea grew into full meme-hood soon after, and these days everything from Taiyaki fish-shaped cakes and takoyaki Osaka-style octopus-filled batter balls to star-shaped Kompeito candy and Dr. Pepper have become famous fixtures in anime. As the industry has evolved in a world where they can no longer sell $600 boxed sets of laser discs to fans, companies have turned to licensing their characters in new ways, and now you can buy everything from official Totoro milk caramels and Pokemon candies to otaku-friendly pizza from Domino's ("Have fun with Miku!!").

"It's dangerous to go alone. Take this!"

Horse Head Masks + More at J-List

Remember, we carry lots of fun random cosplay products that are fun to have on hand, like that Horse Head Mask that's great for creating your own Internet memes or getting on the local news broadcast. Click to see these fun items now!

How To Search for Information in Japanese

Like everyone, I'm a big fan of using Internet search to artificially raise my IQ, finding information or verifying it before putting it in these J-List posts. There are certainly some some limitations to search -- looking for how to repair or hack a popular personal electronic device always seems to send me to shops offering to sell me a new one instead, and there's a marked lack of attention paid to the classic Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side comics by search engines, in my opinion -- but by and large it works pretty well. Japanese users use Google, too, enough that ググる guguru has become a generic verb meaning "to search for via Google," though searching in Japanese is a little more involved. First, you generally need to know the kanji name of the person you're searching for, and using the wrong kanji for your favorite AKB48 idol will probably give you very different results. For this reason, many Japanese first search on Wikipedia, where they can grab the correct kanji from the article that pops up, and do a second search to find specific information. I often find myself searching for information in both English and Japanese, often in side-by-side-windows, since the results can often vary wildly.

Searching for information in Japanese can be a little involved.

Tatemae, Honne and the Hentai Prince

Two important concepts related to Japan are 建前 tatemae (tah-teh-mah-eh) and 本音 honne (hon-neh), which essentially mean "the facade or illusion that everyone pretends is real, the way we pretend things to be," and "the way things really are, or one's true intentions" There are many examples of how tatemae works in Japanese society: the little white lie you tell spare someone's feelings, the opinion you express only in front of others, the subtle pressure employees in companies feel to not use their vacation time (because it means more work for their coworkers), or the way gambling for money is illegal, so pachinko parlors let you win "prizes" which you can conveniently sell back to the company for cash. Of course, there's always a difference between what we say and really think -- every baby picture we're shown is automatically "cute" even if we secretly think the kid looks like the baby from Eraserhead -- but the Japanese have elevated this to an art form. In the popular anime and manga The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat, the main character Yoto is frustrated because his personality is such that he always utters tatemae (socially acceptable statements) rather than saying what he really thinks, so he makes an offering at the statue of an "un-smiling cat" that's said to grant wishes. His wish is granted, but now he can only say exactly what's in his heart, which gets him into lots of trouble.

There's plenty of subtlety in Japanese society

Would You Pay 120 Yen for a Hamburger?

It's been an eventful few months for Japan's economy, with the return to the conservative pro-business and oh-so-oddly-named Liberal Democratic Party to power last December. Now the task at hand is to jump-start Japan's economy to get it growing again, but to do that they need to conquer the problem of deflation which has dogged the country for nearly two decades and kept wages flat. As a result of the bursting of the Tokyo Asset Bubble in 1991, prices in Japan have essentially stayed the same or slightly declined in the 20+ years I've been here, and while it's nice to pay the same price for Teriyaki Chicken Bento in 2013 that I did in 1994, healthy economies are supposed to experience a small amount of inflation. The problem is, how can companies ever raise their prices after customers have been "trained" to expect stable or even falling prices after so long? McDonald's is going to find out, and has raised its hamburger prices for the first time in years, from 100 to 120 yen. This has resulted in a lot of criticism by Japan's snarky online users, who say things like, "Oh, are they going to start charging for the smile now?"

Raising prices is a challenge for companies in Japan.

J-List Loves Nyanpire

We're big fans of Nyanpire, the popular Gothic Lolita vampire cat character that's the star of his own anime show, and our customers love his incredible cuteness. Today we posted never Nyanpire plush toys, with the little guy wearing cute kigurumi full body costumes. Click to see our stock of these kawaii products.

Interesting Japanese History: Nakahama "John" Manjiro

Sometimes I like to pick random Japanese historical figures and write about them. Like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second of Japan's three "unifiers," who's interesting because he was a peasant farmer who rose to become the de facto ruler of Japan, or Chiune Sugiura, the "Japanese Schindler" who saved the lives of more than 6000 jews during World War II by issuing visas for them to travel to Japan. Another fascinating historical figure is Nakahama "John" Manjiro, the first Japanese to visit America and learn English. In 1841 the 14-year-old Manjiro was fishing when his boat was blown onto a deserted island. He was rescued by an American whaling ship and brought to the U.S. where he was educated in English and navigation in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Although it was death for Japanese who had left Japan to return, he resolved to do so anyway, and became one of the few people in the country with any current knowledge of the outside world. When Admiral Perry arrived in 1852, "John" Manjiro was raised to samurai status so he could serve as the official interpreter. His amazing life inspired later Japanese, including Sakamoto Ryoma, the "George Washington" of modern Japan.

Manjiro was also the first Japanese to ride a train.

25 Year of Totoro

I saw that yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the release of My Neighbor Totoro, one of my all-time favorite films. I was lucky to be one of the first people in the U.S. to see the film, as I happened to be hanging out in the anime room at the San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday morning back in 1988 when staff from Tokuma Shoten brought in a video so they could judge the likely reaction by American fans. I was instantly captivated by the magic of Totoro and the Catbus, so unlike anything I'd seen before, and resolved to create a Totoro cosplay the following year, though people thought I was a giant gerbil (I got my picture in Animage though). Totoro and Hayao Miyazaki's other films are very important to our family, and I've spent many evenings watching them with my kids over the years. (My wife once said, "Only children can see Totoro...but I think your father can see him too.") Yesterday was also the 25th anniversary of Grave of the Fireflies, which was released as a double feature with Totoro, with the latter film created almost as an afterthought to lighten up the heavy content of the first film.

Celebrating 25 years of Totoro.

"Shikishi" Writing Boards from Japan

When foreigners come to Japan, it's natural they'll encounter objects that are common and familiar to Japanese people yet strange and exotic to us. Like those bamboo mimikaki ear cleaners, which I thought were scoops for tea ceremony the first time I saw them, to the great amusement of my Japanese girlfriend at the time. Or those 'hanko' kanji name stamps, which are used on official documents and contracts in lieu of signatures in Japan, so mysterious to Westerners. Another example is shikishi, thick cardboard squares which are used for signing autographs, recording memories for posterity or capturing artwork you want to keep. As with most things in Japan, these writing boards have a long history, originally used to display haiku or waka poetry in Zen Buddhist tea rooms in the 12th century, though these days they're carried by fans at conventions hoping to get an autograph by their favorite artist, or as a way for people to record messages for a friend who's leaving, etc. Now J-List carries blank shikishi writing boards so you can bring them to the summer anime conventions and get proper autographs from Japanese guests you meet, or keep a few on hand for any time you want to send someone a really special message. In addition, we've brought back our custom kanji message writing service, allowing you to get any kanji character, name or message written in proper Japanese calligraphy by our native staff.

Shikishi writing boards are a great way to capture an emotion.

Reminder: Lower Magazine Subscription Prices from Japan

J-List has a popular lineup of monthly and quarterly magazines available via revolving monthly subscription, with everything from moe magazines with free posters and figures to magazines with 1000+ pages of awesome manga to magazines that teach you Japanese and more. The subscriptions are popular because they're charged on a monthly basis and customers can cancel or change subscriptions at any time. We have some good news today: announcing lower prices on all magazines, both for existing and new customers (of course). Why not start some Japanese magazine subscriptions today?

Kanji Products @ J-List

Like many of of our customers, J-List loves the aesthetic beauty of kanji characters, and stocks many cool products for our customers, from kanji T-shirts to hachimaki kanji headbands and more. In addition to books to help you learn kanji (including the new Moekanji card series from Culture Japan), you can order a custom hanko kanji name stamp with your name in kanji, chosen by our native Japanese staff (so you don't have to worry that it actually says "Diarrhea" or anything). By customer request, we've brought back our popular custom kanji message service, so you can get any Japanese kanji character, quote, message or name written so you can display it in your room or office.

Funerals in Japan

A few days ago the father of a friend of ours passed away, so we had to go into "Japanese funeral mode," which I thought I'd write about today. First, men get out their reifuku, a standardized black suit that can be worn either to weddings (with a white tie) or to funerals (with a black tie, don't get these mixed up!), while praying that it still fits since the last time they wore it. You arrive at the funeral home and sign the register before making a cash gift of between $50-$500 depending on your relationship to the deceased, enclosing the money in a special envelope you can buy at 7-11. Depending on local customs you're supposed to use old, worn bills, since giving crisp, new bills implies you were actively preparing for the person to die. During the ceremony, the bozu (Buddhist priest, no relation to the stereo company) will utter incantations and read off a list of the deceased's lifetime accomplishments, then everyone lines up to bow to the bereaved family and make an offering of incense. Every gift in Japan must be countered with a "return gift" (お返し o-kaeshi), and as you leave you'll be handed a large bag containing sake, instant coffee and towels. There's also a packet of salt, which you open and throw all over your shoulders and legs before crossing the threshold into your home, which purifies your body and keeps out any dead spirits who might have followed you home.

A sudden funeral in Japan for a family friend.

Of Mexican Food and Foreigners

One thing you learn when living as an expat in Japan is how global the world can be. Recently my family sat down to have some Mexican fajitas, grilled beef and chicken with onions and bell peppers wrapped in flour tortillas I'd picked up at a nearby import food store. These weren't your garden variety tortillas, however: they were Old El Paso brand made in Melbourne, Australia for export to places like Japan, China and India, and they tasted perfectly authentic. (For extra strangeness we added cheese from Norway, which was all they had at the Japanese Costco near J-List.) Once I decided to have an American style Thanksgiving in Japan, and managed to find a frozen turkey to cook, not an easy task since the Japanese have almost no tradition of eating turkey, or of cooking in ovens for that matter. I was surprised to see that the bird (also from Australia) has been "killed in a single stroke with a sharp knife in accordance with the laws of Islam," which was done so they could export to countries in the Middle East. Yes, we definitely live in a very global world.

Another aspect of life in Japan is occasionally interacting with foreigners from countries you've never thought deeply about, or in some cases even heard of, like the time I met a guy from the Kingdom of Tonga and had to apologize for not even knowing where his country was located. In the same way that people in the U.S. tend to blend Japanese, Chinese and Korean cultural images together, especially the farther you get from either coast, Japanese aren't good at parsing the subtle differences between various gaijin, and it's not unheard of to find yourself grouped with foreigners from Scotland, Sri Lanka, Iran and Peru. One odd phenomenon is the "Three Stages of Gaijin Eye Aversion," where people who have recently arrived in Japan become overly aware of other foreigners they see in public and make sure to avert their eyes from them at all times. They then realize this is stupid, so they nod to the other foreigner or maybe go make conversation, perhaps using Japanese if the other person doesn't speak English...until they realize that this is stupid, too, so they just act normal in the future. There's a similar tension when I go to an Indian restaurant and order food from an Indian waiter, with both of us speaking Japanese. The guy almost certainly speaks English, so why don't we switch to that language? But we never do for some odd reason.

Mexican food can be a surprisingly global affair; interacting with foreigners in Japan is interesting.

Lower Prices on Magazine Subscriptions from Japan

J-List has a popular lineup of monthly and quarterly magazines available via revolving monthly subscription, with everything from moe magazines with free posters and figures to magazines with 1000+ pages of awesome manga to magazines that teach you Japanese and more. The subscriptions are popular because they're charged on a monthly basis and customers can cancel or change subscriptions at any time. We have some good news today: announcing lower prices on all magazines, both for existing and new customers (of course). Why not start some Japanese magazine subscriptions today?

A Brief History of Eroge

J-List has been involved with licensing and translating visual novels -- in their ecchi form they're known as bishoujo games, dating-sim games or eroge, though the genre encompasses all manner of games -- since we started out back in 1996, and we think they're a great way to connect with Japan. The basic concept, of course, is that you play a main character (usually male, but not always) and work through a game story, interacting with characters and making choices that cause you to reach different (sometimes sexy) endings, and the stories and characters can be incredibly well developed. The category got its start with Koei's "Nightlife" published in 1982, which was followed by the then-iconic Tenshi-tachi no Gogo published by the original JAST (our first licensing partner), then ToHeart, Graduation, Dokyusei, Alice Soft's Sengoku Rance and so on. Japan's visual novel culture is extremely popular, spawning popular mainstream anime series like Fate/stay night, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/When They Cry and Steins;Gate. It's quite common for the language of visual novels to leak into anime series. In Aria of the Scarlet Ammo there's a scene in which Riko tempts Kinji by saying, "Don't you understand? This is an 'event scene,'" (meaning an intimate scene from a game illustrated with full-screen graphics), and in the finale of Haganai Rika gets mad at Kodaka for "raising flags" with other girls (e.g. clearing parameters required to romance the girls, like characters in an eroge).

Kirino is the queen of eroge.

The Cuteness of "Haafu" Characters Who Can't Speak English

It's fun to analyze the way anime, game and manga companies go about creating characters that will win the hearts of fans. One common approach is to mix up an all-Japanese cast by adding in a character of mixed ancestry, called ハーフ haafu ("half") or クォーター kuo-ta- ("quarter"), who naturally speaks Japanese thanks to some convenient plot device, usually having been raised by a Japanese grandmother. There's a long list of these half-Japanese characters in anime, including Asuka and Mari in Evangelion, Yomiko Readman from R.O.D., L from Death Note and many more. One joke that comes up quite a lot is characters who are unable to speak English properly despite being haafu, as if language were something that was passed along to children via DNA. Some examples of this joke include Tina Foster from Aoi Yori Aoshi (a full American but raised in Hakata, Kyushu), Aisha from the Da Capo series, the half-British Kobato-chan from I Have Few Friends and Rebecca Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash!, a child savant who graduated from M.I.T. at the age of eleven yet can't pronounce the word "Massachusetts" without messing up in a ridiculously cute way.

Another example of this joke is the ridiculously kawaii Kudryavka Noumi from the Little Busters! anime and games, who is three-quarters Russian and one quarter Japanese yet cannot speak English. (Nevermind that English is not the native language of Russia, this is anime logic!) In one scene poor Kud is called on to read out loud from the textbook, but she can't even pronounce simple words correctly, making the class laugh. Her friends resolve to help her out by giving her a sentence to translate, which is displayed on the screen in English text which melts into kana syllables as Kud pronounces the words. This is a good example of what's wrong with the way Japanese learn English, allowing their brains to "think" in kana sounds that can only express syllables like ka, ki, ku, ke and ko but never the consonant "k" by itself. This is one big reason why Japanese often have thick accents when speaking English, since coming from katakana words like "warehouse" or "weekend" contain six syllables each instead of two as in English. The reverse version of this is when foreigners learn Japanese from a textbook that uses "Romanized" Japanese (e.g. written in the English alphabet) instead of proper hiragana, katakana and kanji. Study tools like Danny Choo's Moekanji , the Genki textbook series and those outstanding White Rabbit flashcards teach you using only proper Japanese characters, never Romanized Japanese, which is why we recommend them to our customers.

Haafu characters who can't speak English is a fairly common joke.

Get All Three Anime Posters When You Make an Order

J-List has worked hard to license and translate visual novels and eroge from Japan for fans around the world. We'll be printing new catalogs w/cool game posters in time for Anime Expo this year, but for fans who want to collect our current set of promotional game posters before they're retired, we've got a nice offer: order any shrinkwrapped dating-sim game or T-shirt/hoodie that ships from San Diego and get the full set of all three current game posters for free -- so make an order now! The posters are large and show art from School Days, Demonbane and Django. Offer valid while supplies last.

Good and Bad Design in Japan

There are many reasons to like a given anime series, including a truly fresh story approach, characters with endearing moe features, wanting to study the technical aspects of creating high-quality animation, or, well, fanservice and pantsu. I often find myself drawn to shows with a high level of design, in which creators have taken the extra time to create a unique and visually stunning world to place their characters in. There are quite a few outstanding series with excellent design, from Lain to Jigoku Shojo to Spice and Wolf to Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei and the new Sasami-san@Ganbaranai. One of my eternal favorites is the Bakemonogatari series, in which every frame of animation and every line spoken by the talented voice actors is designed to draw viewers into a unique world.

Sadly this dedication to excellent design doesn't extend to the web, and one of the things I dislike the most is using web forms on Japanese websites, which generally come from a very dark part of design hell. There's something about Japan that makes them especially bad at creating online forms that are easy to use, and every time I need to enter information into a form on a Japanese website I know it'll be an exercise in frustration. Sometimes the problems are needlessly technical, like requiring that users type some information in 半角 hankaku or 1-byte Japanese characters, and other information in 全角 zenkaku, full sized 2-byte Japanese characters. (What's really fun is that space characters also come in single and double widths, which look the same on the screen but are totally different as far as the form is concerned.) Other frustrations include forms that force you to enter your "kanji name" despite the fact that some users are foreigners without kanji, or forms that only work with the latest browser versions from 2004. When I made the post about the Hatsune Miku Domino's Pizza app I decided to register with the company to make sure I could help any J-List customers who might need help using the app…but getting the form to actually create an account for me was a Sisyphean effort that consumed more than an hour.

Japanese love good design...except web forms.

Foreigners See Japan Through Sakura Colored Lenses

Last time I talked about the way a country like Japan can appear quite different to "outsiders" who come here from some other place (like me) compared with Japanese people who grew up here, and in general I'm far more likely to get excited about things like onsen hot springs or images of Mt. Fuji than my Japanese wife, who can't understand what all the fuss is about. Whenever J-List hires a new Japanese employee, I always take extra time training them so they can understand how foreigners view Japan, to better enable them to find cool products for the site like this replica of an offering box from a Japanese Shinto shrine to save your coins in or this sakura-decorated coffee cup made with the 350-year-old Arita-yaki porcelain glazing method. When I decided to sell dagashi -- traditional Japanese candy and snacks from the Showa Period -- our snack buyer and modeler of strange hats said, "Who would want buy old Japanese candy from 40 years ago? It's so boring." It turns out a lot of people were interested in exploring unique treats like Kompeito and Neri-Ame liquid candy, and they're now among our most popular products. The same thing happened when I wanted to sell those iconic clear plastic umbrellas which are everywhere in Japan: the Japanese staff was sure no one would want to buy anything as mundane as an umbrella, yet we've sold hundreds of them over the years.

Foreigners view Japan through sakura colored lense.

J-List is at Anime Conji This Weekend!

Remember, Anime Conji is a fun anime convention held in San Diego this weekend, and the J-List San Diego staff will be there with lots of awesome T-shirts, eroge, Japanese snacks, random products from Japan and our always-popular Fuku-bukuro grab bags. Hope to see you there!

Full Set of Game Posters with Each San Diego Order

J-List has worked hard to license and translate visual novels and eroge from Japan for fans around the world. We'll be printing new catalogs w/cool game posters in time for Anime Expo this year, but for fans who want to collect our current set of promotional game posters before they're retired, we've got a nice offer: order any shrinkwrapped dating-sim game or T-shirt/hoodie that ships from San Diego and get the full set of all three current game posters for free -- so make an order now! The posters are large and show art from School Days, Demonbane and Django. Offer valid while supplies last.

North Korea Update

I've written before about how one of the least enjoyable aspects of living in Japan is having to be so close to North Korea. Whether it's kidnapping at least 17 Japanese citizens to serve as language teachers for North Korean spies, engaging in state-sponsored programs to flood Japan with illegal drugs and counterfeit 10,000 yen bills or shooting "peaceful space satellites" over the Japanese islands, living this close to the world's craziest country is just no fun. Now things are getting tense again, with North Korea making noises about launching missile(s) again sometime after April 10, perhaps to mark the 1-year anniversary of Dear Leader Kim Jong-un's rule or the 101st birthday of his grandfather Kim Il-Sung, who Wikipedia informs me is the designated "Eternal President" of North Korea. The country does seem somewhat obsessed with dates. After Japanese singer and illusionist Princess Tenko traveled to North Korea to perform in a gesture of goodwill, then-president Kim Jong-Il (the really creepy one) reportedly became obsessed with her. He tried to entice her into staying in North Korea, and when she refused and returned to Tokyo she started getting harassed by North Korean agents who would call her and plead with her to return, always calling exactly at either 2:16 P.M. or 2:16 A.M. (Kim Jong-Il's birthday is Feb 16). Of course, we're not really that concerned with these latest threats, since we've been here before, but on the off chance that this is J-List's last update, thanks for all your support, and hope you enjoyed the shimapan!

Missiles from North Korea, another example of #GaijinWorldProbems

Why Doesn't My Wife Like Sakura?

I've learned a few things during my time in Japan, including dozens of ways to use mayonnaise as well as "never click on Hetalia fanart unless you know what the content is ahead of time." I've also come up with what I call Peter's Outsider Principle, which states that people from a certain country may tend to take that country for granted and feel less passionate about it than "outsiders" (which is what the term gaijin actually means) who came from some other place. Whenever the sakura bloom in Japan I bug my Japanese wife to do hanami flower viewing with me, but she whines about how cold it is outside, and who wants to sit on a blanket with drunk salarymen all around you, and what's so special about cherry blossoms anyway? I face a similar challenge whenever I get the urge to visit Kyoto and try to get her to come along -- while I'd gladly spend weeks exploring Japan's ancient capital city, she's not nearly as excited about the city and would be much happier visiting Los Angeles or New York. I've got an Italian friend from Rome who has never been to Venice even though it's just a few hours up the superstrada from his house. Instead of looking at the "old crap" (his word) that's surrounded him all his life, he's much happier eating Osaka-style kushi-katsu in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Shibuya and drinking in the energy of life in Tokyo. I've always thought that the extra passion for a country felt by those who have come from elsewhere to be analogous to the difference between someone raised in a given religion vs. those who have made the conscious choice to convert (the difference between Peter and Paul, if you will).

Outsiders can feel more passion for a place than natives at times.

Names in Japan

Names in Japan, of course, are pronounced family name first, so if you meet someone named Yamada Hanako you'll know that Yamada is her family name and Hanako is her first given name. While this is the rule for Japanese names, it's rare for foreigners to use this reverse name order. Instead we write our names in the normal given name/middle name/family name order, which is why anime characters with "Western" names like Arsene Lupin III or Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière always have their names in standard order. When you work as a teacher in Japan, though, there's a strange phenomenon that happens: everyone starts calling you by your first name, in my case either "Peter" or else "Mr. Peter" if they're feeling especially formal (never "Mr. Payne"). While Japanese are usually very strict about using the proper name for a given situation, adding name suffixes like -san or -sensei as needed, something about interacting with foreigners breaks down these barriers of politeness. I think it's because for almost all Japanese, the first foreigners they come into contact with are the English teachers they meet in elementary school, who happily played games like Uno while teaching lessons that were fun, and this sets up an expectation of casual interaction that's not present with Japanese teachers.

My students called me "Mr. Peter."

Today is Bento Day!

The Japanese love to designate different days for different reasons, for example June 26 is "Outdoor Bath Day" because the numbers 6-2-6 are phonetically close to 露天風呂 roten-buro or an outdoor hot springs bath, and April 22 is "Happy Married Couples' Day" for similarly confusing reasons. It turns out that today, April 10, is Bento Day, a day to celebrate the visual beauty of Japanese bento boxes. In addition to being a fun way to eat lunch Japanese-style, bringing your own bento is economical (far less expensive than eating out), and great for anyone trying to watch their calorie intake. Why not browse our bento boxes and related bento accessories now, since we're having a great sale this month!

Will You Be at Anime Conji This Weekend?

Remember, Anime Conji is a fun anime convention held in San Diego this weekend, and the J-List San Diego staff will be there with lots of awesome T-shirts, eroge, Japanese snacks, random products from Japan and our always-popular Fuku-bukuro grab bags. Hope to see you there!

Sakura and Time Travel

Over the weekend I took a drive with Mrs. J-List up to the mountains above Karuizawa, the pleasant city in Nagano Prefecture that's a nice getaway for people in Tokyo. One of the problems with cherry blossom season in Japan is that it's so short, usually just 7-10 days, and strong winds or rain always threaten to make it even shorter. There's a solution to this problem, however: head for the hills, since you effectively roll back the season a few days for every 100 meters of elevation you gain. Down where J-List is located the cherry blossoms have sadly ended their fleeting beauty for the year, but during our pleasant drive over the mountains to we got to experience all stages of sakura again, from 桜名残 sakura-nagori or the "melancholy felt in the aftermath of the cherry blossoms' passing" to 桜雨 sakura-ame or a "rain of sakura petals" to 満開 mankai, with flowers in full glorious bloom, and so on. So if you ever plan a trip to Japan but find (as sometimes happens) that you've missed the cherry blossom season, remember you can head for the mountains and still find some.

You can travel back in time and enjoy sakura if you like.

Kawaii Culture in Japan

I took a trip to Tokyo last week to see some guys about an eroge, and while I was riding the train I noticed a ridiculously cute picture of a bear warning riders to be careful not to lean against the train door as it opened or close their fingers in the door as it closed. The message was made more emotionally appealing (and thus more effective) through the use of a kawaii character which was designed to be noticed by as many people as possible, especially young children who might otherwise be injured by the train door. There's really no limit to what can be made cute in Japan: guard rails for construction sites that look like rabbits, kitty litter that features a cat holding his nose, antibacterial sheets for your bento, and even surprisingly cute Rilakkuma products for the bedroom. No one knows for sure why Japan has such a highly developed tradition of embracing cute characters, but one theory is that it started in 1960 when an inflatable plastic doll called Dakko-chan was introduced by the Takara Vinyl Manufacturing Company (now Takara Tomy). The toy was a huge hit, and that summer everyone walked around with Dakko-chan dolls clinging to their arms. According to theory, the popularity of this character prepared Japan for the rise of later "character dynasties" like Hello Kitty in the same way the popularity of Planet of the Apes (the first film in which merchandising was more valuable than the film itself) helped pave the way for the success of Star Wars.

There's no limit to what can be made kawaii in Japan.

Japanese Driving Safety + Yakuza Awareness Week

People in J-List's home prefecture of Gunma are going to be extra careful driving this week, for two reasons. The first is that it's time for the Spring Driving Safety Week, when police will be especially vigilant watching for speeders and drunk drivers, and anyone driving is apt to be stopped by elderly people with Haruhi-style armbands and thanked for being mindful of others while behind the wheel. Pop groups like HKT48 (the offshoot idol group from Hakata, Kyushu) get into the spirit, too, becomming the official spokes-idols for traffic safety. The other reason we'll be a little more careful when driving is found in a fax we received by the Gunma Prefectural Police. Supposedly there's a big problem with 当たり屋 atariya right now, yakuza gangsters affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi mafia group from Osaka who get into accidents on purpose so they can extract money from innocent drivers and their insurance companies. (The word comes from 当たる ataru "to hit," which is the root of Atari by the way, and 屋 ya which means "roof" but in this context denotes a profession.) We're supposed to watch out for cars with license plates from Yamaguchi, Kobe and the Naniwa area of Osaka, among the shadiest parts of Japan. If you're ever in an accident with a yakuza you're supposed to refuse to give them any personal information but instead call the police, who have special experience dealing with these unsavory characters.

It's traffic safety and yakuza awareness week in Japan.

J-List Bento + Kitchen Sale Continues

Spring is here, and that means a new start and trying new things -- like making beautiful bento from Japan! We're having a big sale on all bento boxes and kawaii bento accessories, plus everything in your kitchen. Want to score a great traditional bento box from Hakoya? How about a cute Pokemon or Totoro themed bento box? Or a cooker for making Takoyaki or Taiyaki as seen in anime? We've got it all in stock.

Love Hotels in Japan: Q&A

One of the more exotic aspects of Japan are its "love hotels," private hotels that couples can go to in order to spend a few hours of quality time together if they don't have anywhere else to go. Based on "private inns" that were common in the Edo Period and official facilities set up during the Allied Occupation, love hotels are a huge industry in Japan. I decided to fire off an "ask me anything" question to the J-List Facebook page and see what questions people had. Here are some of them.

Q. What are they? How much do they cost?

A. Basically, hotels where couples can "rest" for 2-3 hours, or "stay" overnight. The cost is usually around $30-50 for a few hours or $80-130 for all night.

Q. Who uses them?

A. Everyone from couples in their 20s to married couples who live with their parents or children. Recently there's been a lot of use by "silver" couples who are still genki, and hotels are starting to embrace these customers by creating 'barrier free' hotel rooms. Though there's no doubt an occasional connection to "delivery health" and other thinly disguised prostitution-esque services, the hotels are surprisingly professional and legitimate.

Q. Can foreigners use them?

A. Sure, no one cares who uses them. If you're coming to Japan and want to give one a try, it would probably be a lot of fun. They're quite common in Tokyo, such as the Spain-zaka area of Shibuya or Uguisu-dani station. If you're outside a major city like Tokyo they can be harder to find, as they're usually placed on the edge of town, hard to get to if you don't have a car.

Q. What will I find there?

A. Competition has forced the hotels to become quite creative, and they offer different themes to couples, with everything from Disney and Hello Kitty themes to rooms with various costumes you can try on to at least one "Hotel California" style establishment. In addition to a vending machine selling ridiculously cute toys for couples, there's lotion and a condom, too, but the J-List staff tells me it's common sense to never use condoms from a love hotel as the previous person might have poked a hole in it as a joke. There are often exotic baths that can be as much fun to play in the main reason for going.

Q. How is privacy handled?

A. Since no one wants to see anyone else when visiting one of these places, hotels get creative here, too. You park your car in the space reserved for the room you want and go right into your room. Payment is handled by a machine that unlocks the door after you insert payment or else a pneumatic tube that delivers your payment to the front desk without you seeing anyone.

Q. How big is the industry?

A. At around $42 billion, the love hotel industry is around twice the size of the entire anime/manga industry. Being such a healthy area of the economy, it occasionally attracts interest by international hedge funds, but they usually can't get around the idea of investing money in a taboo industry. Incidentally, Nintendo famously operated a love hotel for a few years before settling on their current product line

Q. Any more information?

A. If you're curious about these love hotels, we've got a couple of cool photobooks on the site for you to check out.

Love hotels are one of the more mysterious aspects of Japan.

Catching Up with Anime: Kotoura-san

It happens every time: a new anime season is about to start, yet I'm still working through the last one. One show I've been plowing through lately is Kotoura-san, a fun series about a girl who's born with the ability to read people's 心 kokoro -- translatable as "hearts" or "minds" -- which leads to trouble (and more than a little slapstick comedy) since she can tell what everyone is thinking. (Warning, the first episode is quite laden with "feels" but the rest of the series is much lighter.) The word kokoro is one of my favorite Japanese words, representing the romantic and philosophical elements of a person's heart, essentially where one's mind is focused in the body. In Japan it's thought to be located in the chest, whereas most of us would consider the "mind" to be located in the head. The shows up in various places in the language, e.g. the eyes are thought to be the "mirrors of one's kokoro" (目は心の鏡 me wa kokoro no kagami), and someone with mental illness is said to have a 心の病 kokoro no yamai or "sickness of the kokoro." There's an insightful proverb on women which has served me well in my years of marriage: 女心と秋の空 onna-gokoro to aki no sora, which means "a woman's heart is like the sky in autumn, always changing and never the same" [so keep an umbrella handy].

I've been enjoying Kotoura-san, a fresh idea for an anime.

The J-List Spring Bento Sale is On Now

Spring is here, and that means a new start and trying new things -- like making beautiful bento from Japan! We're having a big sale on all bento boxes and kawaii bento accessories, plus everything in your kitchen. Want to score a great traditional bento box from Hakoya? How about a cute Pokemon or Totoro themed bento box? Or a cooker for making Takoyaki or Taiyaki as seen in anime? We've got it all in stock.

Fun With Japanese Companies

One unique aspect of companies in Japan is the way they do pretty much everything, without limiting themselves to one main area of business. Do you want to "reform" (remodel) your home? Panahome, the construction company operated by Panasonic, will be happy to help you, and you can get a Panasonic high-performance bicycle to go with it. When you think of Hitachi you think of consumer electronics, but they also make Japan's speedy bullet trains. Kawasaki makes trains too (the New York Subway cars are made by them) as well as ships, helicopters and of course motorcycles. Other companies to have surprising side-businesses include Toyota (they manufacture pre-fab homes under the Toyota Home brand), Mitsubushi (the 8th largest bank in the world is also a major supplier of military hardware), Sony (who sells life insurance) and Fuji Film (which used its chemical expertise to switch to from film to high-end make-up products). Japan's beer companies also manufacture a variety of beverages from Asian teas to health drinks, and Coca Cola even tried their hand at producing an alcohol-free beer for a short time.

Need a house? Have Toyota Home build one for you.

Learning to Mock Society with "Haganai"

I've been watching the second season of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, aka Haganai, aka I Have Few Friends, a surprisingly good show about a bunch of misfit high school students who don't have any friends, so they form a school "neighbor's club" in order to learn how to make some. (The joke is on them: they don't realize that they've already got great friends in each other.) One word that comes up a lot in the show is リア充 ria-juu, so I thought I'd talk about it a bit. Coined around 2005 on Japan's ubiquitous 2ch BBS, it's short for リアル充実組 riaru juujitsu-gumi or "those to live a satisfied, happy life in the real world." It's a catch-all (and somewhat mocking) term for anyone who leads a happy life with normal hobbies and healthy human relationships, especially those lucky enough to have a real girlfriend/boyfriend instead of having to make due with alternatives. The battle cry of Japan's hardcore otaku and Internet users is リア充は爆発しろ！ ria-juu wa bakuhatsu shiro! or "blow up all people who have happy sex lives."

Haganai is about high school kids who want to find friend.

Thoughts on Maids and Culture Shock

It's funny the way our "base culture" can shape the way we look at the world. The other day I came across a picture of a black couple from the U.S. posing ironically in front of what appeared to be scary guys in KKK hoods...but if course it was the cofradías (Brotherhood of Penitents) of Seville, Spain, whose unique costumes date back to the 14th century. It's similar to the minor shock Westerners get when they arrive in Japan and see swastikas printed on Japanese maps. The symbols (which are left-facing, the opposite of the ones we see on History Channel documentaries) are called manji and are an ancient symbol used in Buddhist and Hindu countries to denote the locations of temples. A few years ago my wife and children visited a friend in Kuala Lumpur, Malysia, staying at her house. The friend was quite wealthy and employed several maids to clean their house and cook, which caused some confusion with my daughter, who wondered why the women weren't wearing flamboyant uniforms modeled after 19th century French maids. To her, a maid is a kawaii female who serves coffee and cakes for her go-shujin-sama ("master"), maybe while wearing cat ears for extra cuteness. We all had a big laugh at this interesting example of culture shock.

Some thoughts on culture shock and maids.

See the J-List x Tamatoys Itasha at Anime Expo

We have great news for anyone who'll be attending Anime Expo this year. J-List and TamaToys have teamed up to make an awesome itasha anime car which we'll be displaying at our booth. TamaToys is the company that creates those awesome parody stress toys and innovative cosplay products, and we're happy to be their partners and creating this cool car. Come by and get your picture taken beside it!