The Japanese Love Lists

Quick, do you know how many Great Lakes there are in North America? The answer is five. The reason I know this is, the official name of the Great Lakes in Japanese is 五大湖 go-daiko or the Five Great Lakes. The Japanese love to codify the things around them into little lists to make them easier to manage, not unlike the classic Seven Wonders of the World ranking. These "most famous" mini lists are positively legion in Japan, and no matter what subject you're interested in, there's probably a "best" list for you. Have you read Shakespeare's 四大悲劇 yondai higeki or Four Great Tragedies? I didn't know there were only four of them, but this is the term the Japanese use to describe Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear. How about the 世界三大珍味 sekai sandai chinmi or Three Rare Delicacies of the World? They're caviar, foie gras and truffles. How about 世界三大スープ sekai sandai soup, or the Three Great Soups of the world? They're Bouillabaisse, Shark's Fin and Tom Yan Kung. How about the Three Great Guitarists of the world? Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. If you're planning an extended trip to Japan you might want to hit the 日本三景 nihon sankei, the Three Most Beautiful Views of Japan, which are the gnarled Japan Pines of Matsushima near Sendai in the Tohoku area, the view from the top of Amano Hashidate Mountain in Kyoto and the famous "floating Japanese arch" at Miyajima, near Hiroshima.

The islands of Matsushima were beloved of Date Masamune, the samurai who inspired Darth Vader.

I Love Summer in Japan

For a country of such famous subtlety and nuance, in which the subjects of sentences are usually left off because everyone knows what is being discussed from the context, Japan's seasons are anything but subtle. Winter is fiercely cold, with a biting wind that comes down from the Japan Alps called kara-kaze; spring is alive with cherry blossoms and chirping uguisu (Japanese nightingale) outside my window; summer is unbearably hot and humid yet overflowing with unique Japanese flavor, and so on. Although summer in Japan is sticky and unpleasant, I find it's my favorite time of year in Japan -- you can always escape the unbearable heat by running your air-con (Japanese air conditioning is great), and no other time of year is as full of awesome Japanese festivals, from Tanabata in July to the big fireworks festival that signals the end of summer in our city. There are some famous images of summer in Japan, such as a glass of mugi-cha barley tea sweating beside a slice of suika (watermelon), or girls wearing colorful yukata cotton kimonos. Another famous image is 蚊取り線香 katori-senko, the spiral-shaped "mosquito-killing incense" that burns for 6-10 hours while emitting a pleasant smoke that keeps mosquitoes from tormenting you. We've got this incense in stock today, as well as the iconic katori-buta or "mosquito killing pig," a ceramic pig that holds a burning incense coil safely to keep the ash from falling into the floor, etc.

Summer is one of my favorite times of year in Japan.

Come to Akiba for the Shops!

If you ever visit the Tokyo area, you'll find many things to do: go shopping for fresh fish at the Tsukiji fish market, ride a "water taxi" boat designed by the creator of Space Battleship Yamato, catch a day of sumo wrestling if there's a tournament on while you're here, or take a day trip to Kamakura to see the beautiful temples and the Kamakura Daibutsu, the second largest statue of Buddha in Japan. Increasingly Akihabara has become a big attraction for tourists, and you know the train has arrived there because all the foreigners will suddenly get off. Originally a mild-mannered corner of Tokyo, it became a black market for electronics due to its closeness to Japan's first school of electrical engineering in neighboring Kanda, and as Japan's electronics industry took off in the 1970s, Akiba became the best place to find everything from PCs to amateur radios to vacuum tubes. Shops selling used Super Famicom games became popular in the 80s, and when 2D moe boom arrived a decade later, Akiba became forever associated with anime, doujinshi and eroge. Now if you go to Akihabara you'll see a large number of foreigners with cameras snapping pictures of whatever the latest variation of "Akiba maid" happens to be -- currently the trend is towards sengoku maids who dress in armor reminiscent of the "Warring States" period of Japanese history while they hand out tissues and ask you to visit their maid cafe.

Visiting shops in Akihabara is tons of fun.

Reduced Prices on Anime Games for PSP, PS3 and PSVita!

Remember, J-List carries awesome import anime games for the Sony PSP, PS3 and PSVita, which are all region free, so you can play games from any part of the world. We've got gorgeous visual novels, ecchi fighting games, even a game where the object is to collect pantsu. We've lowered our prices on all of these great games, so why not browse our selection now and see what you'd like to play? The Vita has especially started to shine as an excellent platform for otaku gaming, with its large, bright screen that's great for displaying Hatsune Miku dancing on your desk, and it just received a price drop, too, to $199 (in the U.S.).

Saya no Uta Available by Download!

Remember: Song of Saya, the legendary eroge written by Urobuchi Gen, creator of Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass, is in stock and shipping now. You can order either the gorgeous shrinkwrapped CD-ROM edition that comes with a glossy manual with beautiful character art, or opt for the speedy Internet Download Edition, which is available right now. You can each get both for $5 more.

Buddhist Themes Present in Every Day Life in Japan

One of the more interesting paradoxes about Japan is the way around 70% of people here will insist they don't belong to any religion, yes nearly all households have a 仏壇 butsudan or Buddhist altar, essentially a miniature Ark of the Covenant for keeping in touch with one's dead ancestors. Yes, Buddhism does form the core of Japanese spirituality and culture, and many common elements of Japanese society have their origin in Buddhism, although it's not easy to see it today. Before eating, Japanese always say 頂きます itadakimasu, which is a very polite way of saying "I receive this," a Buddhist phrase which is essentially thanking the animal that died so you could eat its meat. In the final days of December Japanese will do 大掃除 oh-souji or "big cleaning," making sure their house is cleaned from top to bottom so they can enter the new year with a clean plate, and sure enough, this tradition evolved from the custom of cleaning the local Buddhist temple for New Year's. Finally, the Japanese word for a contrarian who doesn't like popular things or who goes out of his way to appear aloof around others is あまのじゃく amanojaku, and it turns out this name comes from a Buddhist deity who is basically a devil known for finding out what people are most interested in then tempting with it, for his own mischievous enjoyment.

An example of Amanojaku, waiting to temp passers-by with evil.

Driving in Japan

One thing about living in Japan: living here will make you a better driver. The combination of driving on narrow roads with many twists and turns, dodging pedestrians walking along the streets that are too narrow for sidewalks, and parking rear-end first into tiny parking spaces, will polish your driving skills so much that you'll get compliments when you go back home. There's one problem though -- living in Japan will also make you forget anything you ever knew about your car's engine. Because cars here must receive a special check-up called 車検 sha-ken every two years, which both makes automobiles safer to operate and provides an excuse for people to buy a new car instead of maintaining their old one, it's customary for drivers to leave every minor technical aspect of their car's performance up to their car dealer or mechanic. The only time I've even lifted the hood (which the Japanese call the "bonnet," borrowing the British term) is when a stray cat managed to climb into my car's engine compartment to sleep, only to be ripped to ribbons when I started my car, which was really bizarre and sad.

This is Touhou x Wacky Races fanart.

When Japanese Memes Attack

I've been a long-time student of Internet memes, and I enjoy posting them to J-List's Twitter and Facebook pages when I encounter some amusing ones. Memes, of course, are "units of culture" (ideas, beliefs, dancing CGI babies, what have you) that evolve and change as they move from person to person, and ever since the "All Your Base are Belong To Us" Internet event of 2000, they've been a big source of entertainment and occasional enlightenment for people online. I've always been intrigued by the barriers between different areas of the web, which keep most memes from crossing over freely between, say, the U.S. and Japan, ensuring that Japanese will know a lot about cute ASCII art but very little about LOLcats, for example. Often the barriers are linguistic in nature -- you're more likely to know the "over 9000" line from Dragonball Z than a Japanese person is because it's only in the English dub, while Japanese fans will quote famous Gundam lines like Kamille's, "You wouldn't have gotten shot down if you hadn't come out and tried to do battle with me!" that never entered our shared consciousness. But there are often "bridges" between the two worlds, for example the videos of box-loving Japanese cat Maru with English subtitles, and websites like 4chan that actively embrace Japanese memes involving Yukkuri or Yotsubato or Giga Pudding. It's still puzzling how some memes never make the jump from one side to the other -- most web users in the West aren't aware of Konata's "a flat chest is a status symbol" meme -- while others, such as the legendary "Yaranaika?" man, or those silly "celebrities with tiny faces" images, are able to make the crossing more easily. One cross-cultural meme I've always wondered about was Bob Ross, painter of so many "happy trees," who is quite a famous meme here in Japan. It turns his Bob's classic Joy of Painting lessons were broadcast by a late-night Osaka-based variety program called Tantei! Knight Scoop, and his current popularity in Pixiv fanart flows from that show.

It's fun to analyze how some memes flow easy through different cultures while others don't.

All DVDs & Blu-ray Disks are On Sale

It's a new month, and a new sale for you. This month we're giving 2x points on all DVD and Blu-ray media, with everything from the gorgeous Hatsune Miku "live" concert Blu-rays, the English subtitled Studio Ghibli films and Space Battleship Yamato series, plus all your favorite "naughty" offerings. Click to see the top-ranked DVD and Blu-rays from Japan now!

Saya no Uta is NOW SHIPPING

The day is finally here: Song of Saya, the legendary eroge written by Urobuchi Gen, creator of Madoka Magika, Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass, is in stock and shipping now. We'll be shipping the preorders out to customers from San Diego toda, and (in keeping with our no-delay policy for download versions of games), have been released . Order the game now -- you can choose from shrinkwrapped CD-ROM package with full-color glossy printing, the Internet Download Edition for speedy electronic delivery, or get both for just $5 more.

China...Pot...Kettle...Black

I happened to see that China had released a warning, advising the U.S. to "be concerned at the rising tide of nationalism in Japan," a statement I found to be great knee-slapping humor. China, of course, is involved with Japan in a dispute over some fairly worthless islands (Senkaku/Diaoyu), and last year China brought one of its most potent weapons to bear against Japan, giving its people permission to riot and burn Japanese car dealerships, department stores and a hapless "Japanese" Samsung factory. (The mobs also permanently crippled a Chinese man for daring to drive a Japanese car, though this was naturally not reported by the patriotic Chinese media.) If China doesn't like Japan's conservative, pro-business Liberal Democratic Party's return to power, they have no one to blame but themselves: no single factor guaranteed the return of Prime Minister Abe and the LDP than the conflict with China. While I don't see any reason to be concerned with Japanese "nationalism" -- which means "no longer willing to put up with crap from China" in this context -- I personally think the Japanese need a little more nationalism. Japan is unique among nations in that there's almost no patriotism here, no reasonable way to show love of one's country, no Japanese version of the various memorials and shrines that are such an important part of visiting Washington D.C. for Americans. The Japanese Prime Minister cannot even pay his respects to the spirits of Japan's war dead by visiting Yasukuni Shrine (the only thing remotely resembling Arlington National Cemetery for Japan) without setting relations with China and South Korea back months or years.

Look at all those rioting Japanese nationalists...oh wait.

Nombres de Automóviles en Japón

The science of Japanese car names is always interesting to study. Above all, they must sound 格好いい kakko ii (cool, stylish), and since nothing sounds cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life and Subaru Legend, or Daihatsu's Move Latte, or the Honda That's (yes, "That's" is the name of the car). Other car names, like Corolla or Tercel or Sylphy or Premacy, are designed to "sound" like English yet remain original so they can be trademarked. In recent years Japanese car companies have started mining Spanish as a source for car names, since Spanish and Japanese are very close phonetically -- both have the same five basic vowels, and speakers of one language can learn to speak the other with very little accent. This has resulted in a large number of Spanish-derived car names, like Daihatsu's little van Vamos (I love that name), Nissan's El Grand, Toyota's Carina and Familia, Mitsubishi's Diamante and Viento, and the Subaru Stella (fitting, since subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster). Every once in a while, of course, they come up with car names that have embarrassing meanings, like the Mitsubishi Pajero, which is Spanish for "wanker," or Mazda Laputa, Spanish for "the whore." Laputa, of course, is one of the four kingdoms visited in the satirical novel Gulliver's Travels, and writer Jonathan Swift was well aware of the meaning of the word in Spanish...so there's a good chance we're all being trolled from the year 1726.

Many Japanese car names are based on Spanish.

Mt. Fuji and UNESCO World Heritage Status

One of the most powerful symbols of Japan is, of course, Mt. Fuji, the beautiful volcano that sits astride Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures and is visible from Kamakura, Yokohama and (when the weather permits), Tokyo. Known as 富士山 Fuji-san in Japanese (remember, never call it "Fuji-yama," an error foreigners commonly make that has become an embarrassing cliche by now), the mountain has been a part of Japan's culture for millenia. Now Mt. Fuji is finally going to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, joining such iconic locations as the Kinkaku-ji temple in Kyoto, the historic village of Shirakawa-go (the setting of When the Higurashi Cry), the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, and Yakushima Island, whose lush vegetation served as the setting for Princess Mononoke. Japan had been pushing for its most famous mountain to gain World Heritage status for more than a decade, but had been thwarted by a shameful reality: trash. Though beautiful from afar, Mt. Fuji had been allowed to become an unsightly trash dump, used both by locals looking to discard an unwanted refrigerator as well as climbers who saw no problem with discarding their cup ramen containers when they were done with them. Well, Japanese climbers, I should say -- when I visited the mountain, all the foreigners were extremely careful to make sure we brought back down any trash we'd created. Over the past few years a massive cleanup effort by the local government has been carried out, coupled with much reflection by Japanese, and this has paved the way for Mt. Fuji to gain official UNESCO recognition at last.

Mt. Fuji is finally getting UNESCO registration.

New Sale: 2x Points on All DVDs & Blu-ray

It's a new month, and a new sale for you. This month we're giving 2x points on all DVD and Blu-ray media, with everything from the gorgeous Hatsune Miku "live" concert Blu-rays, the English subtitled Studio Ghibli films and Space Battleship Yamato series, plus all your favorite "naughty" offerings. Click to see the top-ranked DVD and Blu-rays from Japan now!

Last Change To Preorder Song of Saya (No, Really)

Remember, we're about to ship the awesome Song of Saya, one of the most legendary visual novels ever made. It's the story of Fuminori, a medical student who's been in a horrible car accident which forever altered his perceptions of the world into one of abject horror. But there is one bright spot in the hell that he constantly perceives, that of Saya, the only girl who appears beautiful to him. What dark secret is Saya hiding, and who will deliver the world to safety? Written by Urobuchi Gen, creator of Madoka Magika and Fate/Zero! The game should be shipping very soon -- last chance to preorder your copy!

Understanding Japan Through Inconvenience

One interesting social concept you see at work a lot in Japan is the concept of 我慢 gaman, which means to endure or tolerate something that's unpleasant to bear. The idea that is that if there's something that's inconveniencing you, it's better to endure it stoically in an act of self-sacrifice rather than take action to fix the problem, which is generally seen as being impatient or hasty. We see this all the time: my wife and I will go to a restaurant that's much too cold, yet no one speaks up to ask the staff to turn the air conditioning down, preferring instead to tolerate the unpleasant situation while they eat. The other day I visited an onsen hot springs bath on the weekend and was dozing on the tatami mats in the rest area when I was rudely awakened by a 3-year-old boy who felt the need to run at full speed back and forth over the wooden flooring, making a huge amount of noise. The other resting patrons would clearly have liked him to be more considerate of them but instead were silently enduring the situation as proper Japanese should, so I took the kid to task myself...giving him a big shock in the process, since he'd probably never seen a gaijin before. As with the phrase 仕方がない shikata ga nai (meaning "it can't be helped"), which allows Japan get along more harmoniously but also causes people to fail to take action when it's called for, gaman is both a social virtue as well as a potential source of problems.

If the kid had been as cute as Yotsaba, I wouldn't have gotten on his case.

The New Anime Season Should be Called "Attack on Peter's Free Time."

Every couple of years an anime season comes along that's overflowing with must-watch series, and the current batch of shows is a good example. There are quite a few second seasons of popular series to watch right now, including Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (aka Oreimo), A Certain Scientific Railgun and the moe-Cthulhu fan service vehicle Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, plus new shows like the well-executed hardcore sci-fi treat Suisei no Gargantia and Date A Live, which deconstructs eroge and visual novels in interesting ways. I'm too much a fan of master illustrator and creator of the "tartan check" fetish Kantoku to not watch The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat, and as a card-carrying fan of Amagami I couldn't miss Photo Kano, the newest innovative harem game-and-anime from Interbrain. Another show a lot of fans have been taken with is Shingeki no Kyojin (English title: Attack on Titan), a dark and awesome show about a world in which humans live inside walled cities to keep out giants called Titans, and the battle that ensues when the giants attack suddenly. I recommend it.

A dramatic scene from Attack on Titan (sort of).

Attitudes about Otaku Inside Japan

One question I'm asked sometimes is, how do Japanese feel about otaku? Originally a semi-formal way to say "you" or "your family" -- my Japanese mother-in-law might say to our neighbor, お宅の子はよく勉強しますね otaku no ko wa yoku benkyo shimasu ne, meaning "your child sure seems to study a lot, doesn't he?" -- the word has come to describe someone who obsesses over various forms of pop culture, usually anime, manga and games. In the same way our perception of the word "nerd" (coined by none other than Dr. Seuss, by the way) has changed over the decades, especially as we wouldn't have companies like Facebook or Google or J-List without us, attitudes towards otakus might be changing in Japan. According to a poll by the Sankei Shimbun Newspaper published this week, 77% of females replied that they would consider dating males who were of the otaku persuasion, and in another poll that asked Japanese if they thought of themselves as being "otaku" about at least one genre, 42% said yes. A lot of this comes from the general embracing of "pop otaku" culture in Japanese society, elevating stars like Shoko Nakagawa/Shokotan or Nana Mizuki to mainstream status on TV, plus the obvious realization that everyone finds enjoyment in obsessing over some hobby -- for example, I've got a friend who describes herself as the "queen of perfume otaku." 

The above polls apply to views on otakuism by Japanese only, of course; when it comes to foreigners with a passion for Japanese subculture, the Japanese have always been a bit more charitable, as seen by the number of TV shows which feature, say, gaijin with more knowledge about Mobile Suit Gundam than Japanese fans, a subject that makes Japanese TV viewers giggle with delight.

Could attitudes finally be changing about otaku in Japan?

Saya no Uta is Almost Here...

In the history of Japan's highly developed culture of visual novels, a few games really stand out as being absolutely fresh and unique, and one of these is Song of Saya. It's the story of Fuminori, a medical student who's been in a horrible car accident which forever altered his perceptions of the world into one of abject horror. But there is one bright spot in the hell that he constantly perceives, that of Saya, the only girl who appears beautiful to him. What dark secret is Saya hiding, and who will deliver the world to safety? Written by Urobuchi Gen, creator of Madoka Magika and Fate/Zero! The game should be shipping very soon -- last chance to preorder your copy!

Thoughts on Japan: Filial Piety and Seppuku

Over the years I've read several novels by James Clavell, which were loosely based on history and set in Hong Kong and Japan. While his stories were always interesting, I've always had a problem with his Japanese characters, who were finely attuned to such ideas as 義理 giri (duty, honor, obligation) and 人情 ninjo (lit. human feeling, e.g. the moral tradition of giving up something for others) and other flowery concepts that didn't seem to mesh with the modern Japan I encountered when I arrived here. I've never met a Japanese who was ready to commit 切腹 seppuku, or suicide through ritual disembowelment, although James Clavell's characters always seem ready to disembowel themselves at a moment's notice to defend their honor. I have observed, however, that most Japanese do practice filial piety, that is, showing respect to their parents and making decisions that take their parents' wishes into account. For example, while Americans usually leave home in their late teens or early twenties and never live with their parents again, in Japan it's customary for the oldest son or daughter to stay at home permanently, taking over the family business (if there is one) and maintaining the house as the central hub for the rest of the family. When that son or daughter gets married, their wife or husband will come live with them in their parents' house, in effect being legally adopted by that family. Another way children show respect for their parents is by studying extra hard to get into a good national university, which is much less expensive than private universities -- as a parent with an almost-university-aged son I'm 100% in favor of this tradition. Last time I was in Shibuya I noticed large posters advertising the final single of popular hip-hop group FUNKY MONKEY BABYS. It turns out that one of the members (DJ Chemical) had promised to follow in his father's footsteps by becoming a Buddhist priest and taking over the temple that his family ran, so he's cutting his fabulous musical career short in order to fulfill his father's wishes.

DJ Chemical (the one in the middle) is starting a new career as a Buddhist priest.

All About "Metabo" and Healthya Coffee

You may remember reading a few years ago that Japan had "outlawed" being overweight. Like much of what you read about Japan, this was completely mis-reported; in reality the government had only established guidelines defining "metabolic syndrome" (in Japanese, メタボ metabo) in an effort to put pressure on companies to encourage employees with waistlines above 85 cm/33.5 inches for men and 90 cm/35.4 inches for women to pay more attention to their health. Those who were above this waistline limit would be offered free counseling by a designated health professional when they get their annual check-up, which they can of course accept or decline as they like. While obesity is really a non-problem in Japan so far -- the country ranks #28 among developed nations as of 2010 -- there's concern that the allure of Western food like McDonald's could create issues later. (I've been told that the small intestine of the Japanese is several meters shorter than those of Westerners, which means they're not as efficient at digesting red meat, though this could easily be a local urban legend.). In practice, the new focus on metabo is a way to shame men -- and nearly always men, as Japanese women are presumably already uptight enough about their weight -- into being more concerned about their health, and even men who are generally slender and fit will be told that no, you actually have 内臓脂肪 naizo-shibo or fat around your internal organs, as if fat isn't everywhere in the body to some degree. The Japanese marketplace is overflowing with various diet products from Calorie Mate to fat-burning Pepsi Special. Now the makers of Healthya health-conscious bottled iced tea have a new product, Healthya Coffee, canned coffee that contains special polyphenols to aid fat burning.

Japan has many products to combat "metabo."

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.