Mino Monta Teaches Us About "Responsibility"

One concept you encounter quite a lot in Japan is 責任 sekinin, meaning responsibility or duty. Whether it's a clipboard in a restaurant bathroom an employee has signed signifying that he's checked and cleaned the bathroom each hour, or the time Kusanagi of the band SMAP was arrested for being naked in public (he'd had a bit too much to drink) and was banned from working for several months to atone for his error. Last week the famous TV announcer Mino Monta -- who's listed in the Guinness Book as the TV presenter with the most live TV appearance in a week, 22 hours -- appeared in a press conference with his head held low. It seems his son Yuto had happened upon a drunk civil servant sleeping in the street and thought it'd be a good idea to steal the guy's bank card and try to withdraw money. He was caught on camera and arrested, which caused a huge scandal for one of the most famous faces on Japanese TV, which brought on his heartfelt apology. Incidentally if you're wondering why the son's hands are mosaiced out in the picture above, it's illegal to show handcuffs on suspects as it creates an expectation of guilt in society that hasn't yet been proved by a court of law.

Mino Monta takes responsibility for his son.

Kantai Collection: the New King of Japanese Pop Culture?

You never know when the next boom in the anime subculture will show up. One year the hottest thing might be products related to the indies shooting game Touhou, and the next, everyone at Comiket will be clamoring for Hatsune Miku and her Vocaloid friends. The Next Big Thing for otaku culture seems to be 艦隊これくしょん Kantai Collection ("Fleet Girls Collection"), abbreviated as KanColle by fandom, a Japanese online game in which players fight battles and collect cards featuring "moe" versions of famous Japanese battleships, destroyers and aircraft carriers from World War II. That's right, the characters are cute anthropomorphized versions of the such famous ships as the destroyer Shimakaze, the carrier Akagi, and of course the great battleship Yamato. There's even a moe version of the carrier-battleship Ise, which my wife's uncle served on. The game is currently so popular it's nearly impossible to get an account, and fanart based on the game's characters have taken over Pixiv, Japan's online artist community -- I've been posting some to the J-List Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr feeds if you want to follow along. We're starting to see some great KanColle products showing up on the site including a 2014 calendar, and we can certainly hope to see an anime someday, preferably by the creators of Strike Witches.

Kantai Collection is the Next Big Thing in otaku culture.

A Ton of 2014 Calendars In Stock

The really big list of 2014 calendars finally came in, featuring more than 100 gorgeous anime, Japanese music and fashion idol, and even naughty JAV calendars, and we've posted a ton to the site. Japanese calendars are printed on huge glossy poster-sized pages and are a really excellent way to spend 2014 with your favorite obsession, whether it's Attack on Titan or Pokemon or something less famous but equally cool like Ultraman or beautiful gardens of Kyoto. Japanese calendars also make great Christmas gifts. Browse the newly posted 2014 Japanese calendars now!

Thoughts on Korea and Discrimination

In a post I made to J-List's Facebook page about Tokyo winning the 2020 Olympics, one reader from South Korea posted a comment saying that he hoped Japan would not show discrimination to Koreans during the games. I was surprised at his comment -- while there's no such thing as a country totally free from discrimination, the Japan I see every day is certainly not that kind of country. The second largest ethnic group in Japan are zainichi ("residing in Japan") Koreans, who were born in Japan and often don't speak more than a few words of Korean but who for historical and cultural reasons choose to maintain South or North Korean citizenship and passports. The Japan I see is very sensitive to criticism about how this group is treated and has tackled issues important to them, such as removing the old rule that anyone taking Japanese citizenship also adopt a Japanese name (which would be unacceptable to Koreans) and removing fingerprints from the foreign registration cards all foreigners carry. Our prefecture of Gunma even provides funding to two North Korean private schools which display pictures of Kim Jong-un in classrooms and indoctrinate their students against Japan, though some other prefectures decline to extend this funding to similar schools. If there's a discrimination problem between Japan and Korea, maybe Koreans -- the ones in Korea, I mean, since zainichi living here are essentially Japanese with a heightened appreciation for kimchee -- should look in a mirror. They've created a culture of hatred for Japan that goes beyond what may have once been appropriate based on history, obsessing over every misdeed done to them in TV dramas and encouraging their children to create terrible anti-Japan art. (Amazingly, South Korea has convinced itself that it hates Japan more it hates North Korea, a country that randomly kidnaps and/or kills its citizens.) Maybe for the sake of peace and commerce, South Korea could lighten up a little, and realize that nothing good can come from poisioning future generations.

Hoping for Happier Times between Japan and Korea

The Use of "Hanko" Kanji Name Stamps in Japan

While Japan generally imitates the legal framework of the West, one big difference is the use of 判子 hanko, or name stamps, when indicating approval on a contract, filling out forms at the bank, and so on. A custom imported from China ages ago, virtually every Japanese carries one of these unique name stamps with them. When a couple decides to get married, they head to their city office and fill out a marriage form, then both get out their hanko stamps and, in an iconic gesture, stamp the document...and then they're married. One of the joys of being a gaijin in Japan is getting one of these name stamps made, which involves choosing official kanji for your name (though it's perfectly okay to have one made using katakana, too). There are various ways to go about assigning kanji characters to a foreigner's name, including basing it on the pronunciation or assigning your name as an unofficial reading for the kanji that represents your name, called ateji. Incidentally, J-List has a great custom name stamp service, which includes free assigning of a kanji name to you based on your preferences, and because our staff are native Japanese, you don't need to worry about the characters meaning something embarrassing. These hanko stamps are legal for use in Japan.

Japanese use hanko stamps in lieu of signatures.

Typhoon Season in Japan

Japan is certainly a country with plenty of potential for natural disasters -- my mother once visited us for two weeks, and managed to experience a huge typhoon, an earthquake and a volcanic eruption all during the time she was here. September in Japan is storm season, and every week we watch them form in the Pacific, hoping they won't hit Japan, Okinawa or some other populated area. Today a large tropical storm named Man-yi (or just good old "typhoon no. 18" in Japan, which doesn't have the tradition of naming storms) hit Japan's main island of Honshu dead-on, making landfall near Osaka and heading north to drench Tokyo and Northern Japan. The winds and rain caused 380 flights to be canceled, halted Japan's bullet train network and caused massive flooding around Tokyo and Kyoto. Happily J-List's home prefecture of Gunma is as far from the sea as you can get in Japan, so we're usually spared most of the damage from incoming typhoons.

September is typhoon season in Asia.

Amazing Anime Figures In Stock

J-List is loaded with thousands of fun products from Japan, including prepainted anime figured. We've got the super-deformed Nendoroid series and super detailed Figma and Revoltech figures. cute girls for fans of Sailor Moon or Sword Art Online, and even Tony Taka figures that can give you quite a nosebleed. Browse our anime figures now, ranked according to awesomeness courtesy of our customers.

Peter's Advice for Students of Japan

I received a request in my Twitter feed from a customer who was studying Japanese in preparation for a visit here, but having problem with her language study. Since I'm sure there are others who would like to read my comments, I thought I'd make a general Japanese Study Advice post here.

• First, consider your goals, whether it be to learn the basics of the language in order to gain a deeper appreciation for Japan, to travel and make friends, or to become fluent someday.
• While Japanese isn't really any harder than French or Spanish, learning the writing systems can bog you down, but learn to embrace it. Make sure to only use study tools that force you to learn using proper hiragana and katakana, as reading Romanized Japanese (Japanese written in the English alphabet) will harm your progress and give you a bad speaking accent. The Moekana/Moekanji, Genki and White Rabbit series are all excellent.
• If you've studied a foreign language before, learning Japanese will be easier because your brain "knows" it's possible to do, but if this is your first time learning a foreign language you'll have to get to that point.
• Everyone learns differently, and you should try to see what methods work for you. I had success with writing out sentences in my textbook multiple times, transcribing and translating JPOP songs for friends, and using mnemonic connections to "trick" my brain into learning, but your brain may work differently.
• Another approach I discovered was to treat Japanese sentences and grammar like mathematical equations that I could manipulate. Once I'd memorized a basic sentence like 私はアメリカ人ですが、彼女はアメリカ人ではありません Watashi wa America-jin desu ga, kanojo wa America-jin de wa arimasen ("I'm an American, but she isn't an American") I could substitute other words, making new sentences. This helps your brain interalize the information more smoothly.
• Reading manga is good because almost all the words you see are verbally spoken by the characters, and thus can be used by you in the same way. Don't go overboard with this though, and balance this type of studying a formal approach at the same time.
• There are study methods that didn't exist when I was learning back in the late 80s, from online teaching services to software programs to innovative approaches like using Twitter to practice your new language. That said, I still think a formal program, either at a university or language school, is the best route for most.
• I found studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December to be an excellent motivator, and have fond memories of obsessing over each year's test as it approached, which made me study harder. See info on how you can take the JLPT outside Japan here.

And remember, if you're trying to learn a little Japanese or a lot, J-List can help.

Poor Tomoko from WataMote can't catch a break; Japanese are masters at the art of gift-giving.

The Japanese Art of "Omiyage" Souvenirs

If there's one thing the Japanese are good at, it's gift-giving, and one of the most enjoyable kinds of gifts to give and receive are おみやげ omiyage (pronounced oh-me-yah-geh), or souvenirs given to friends, family and coworkers after returning from a journey. The other day I caught one of Japan's popular "ranking" shows on TV, which introduced the most popular omiyage gifts from each region of Japan. These included the top brand of "castella" cake from Nagasaki, those oddly named but delicious "chinsuko" cookies from Okinawa, and a delicious eclair sold only in Tokyo's Haneda Airport with the odd name of "Samantha Tabitha." (J-List's home prefecture of Gunma is much less famous, but we do have Initial D cookies.) Japan is experiencing a huge boom in yuru-chara or anime-style mascots who promote tourism in Japan's rural cities. One of the most popular is Kumamon, the official mascot of Kumamoto, Kyushu, and there are plenty of products bearing his cute face for sale these days.

Japanese are masters at the art of gift-giving.

Watamote, aka Breakfast Club for the Current Generation

I continue to enjoy Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!, aka No Matter How I Look At It, It's Your Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, shortened to WataMote to make it easier to remember. It's the story of poor Tomoko, a socially awkward fujoshi (female otaku) who's so into manga and romance-simulation games that has trouble making friends at school...and for Tomoko, there's no Light Music Club or Genshiken to help her find lifelong soulmates to connect with. She tries everything she can to turn her social situation around, hatching one crazy plot after another in order to become popular, but her plans always seem to backfire. Though the cruel situations she finds herself in make the show physically painful to watch at times, both as a former high school nerd from the days when the concept of "nerd pride" didn't exist and also as the father of an otaku daughter today, it's definitely a fun show. What I like best about it is how it might possibly affect some viewers in a positive way. Though Tomoko would love to blame her unpopularity on others, for example the "bitches" in her class who have boyfriends, in reality she has to take a large part of the blame for her social problems herself. Perhaps the show can be therapeutic to girls (and guys) who are battling the same kinds of social issues, if nothing else then by showing them they're not alone.

Poor Tomoko from WataMote can't catch a break.

Kawaii Fashion Products In Stock at J-List

J-List stocks fun Japanese apparel and cosplay products from Japan, with hundreds of products for you to browse. We've got kawaii Japanese "over knee socks," T-shirts for Totoro fans, anime cosplay glasses that will make you look like an anime character and authentic shimapan. Why not browse all our Japanese apparel and cosplay products now?

Yakuza and Saunas in Kyoto

One of the best things about Japan is the way a foreign visitor will generally never have to feel fear about anything, as you'll generally be safe no matter where you find yourself, though I did manage to find an exception to this rule. I'm a big fan of public baths and hot springs, and I learned early on that you can travel around Japan cheaply by staying at "saunas," which are 24-hour public baths that also offer traditional saunas as well as a communal room for customers to sleep in. They're cheap, costing around $35 to stay in the heart of a large city, and it can be fun to strike up conversations with the other patrons, who are often so surprised to see a gaijin in a place like that that they'll buy you a beer. The first time I went to Kyoto, I thought it'd be fun to stay in a sauna, but I hadn't realized at the time that Kyoto is a hotbed of yakuza, and the sauna I'd decided to stay at was filled to the brim with scary-looking gangsters with full-body tattoos and various scars. I tried to make the best of the situation, pretending not to notice the sideways looks I was getting while I enjoyed the baths. It was easy to pick out which man was the oyabun (yakuza boss), since he was the one getting his back washed vigorously by his underlings (kobun), who fell over themselves to do anything he wanted.

Note, the yakuza you see in saunas almost never look like this.

Unique Speech Patterns in (Super) Anime Characters

I've written before that, while anime and manga can be useful tools for studying Japanese, it's important to avoid relying on them too much. When anime creators go to design a new character, they work hard to differentiate them in various ways, adding visual features like the iconic yellow hair ribbon Haruhi wears, or Yotsuba's prehensile pigtails, which move in response her mood. Increasingly, animators use language to make their characters stand out, giving their creations unique speech patterns that can be as separate from natural Japanese as Yoda's speech is from Galactic Standard English. Nowhere is this more common than in A Certain Scientific Railgun, a series in which virtually every character has a unique way of talking, for example "rich girl" Mitsuko, who speaks in a parody of how aristocrats talk, often using the phrase ごきげんよう go-kigen-yoh, an archaic way of saying "good luck." Then there's the "super" girl Saiai, a level 4 esper who has to show you how "super" her powers are by inserting the word 超 cho (meaning "super") into every "super" sentence. Another show that uses language that's quite far removed from "real" Japanese is Bakemonogatari, in which characters speak in a way that's overly formal yet very elegant-sounding to the ear. So while using anime and manga to study Japanese is okay, you should balance things with a more formal study program at the same time.

Some (super) Railgun side characters.

The Japanese Love "Peace"

One of my first impressions of the Japanese people as I was growing up was that they love photography and always make the "peace" sign when getting their picture taken, which was one of those rare times when a stereotype turned out to be completely true. The origin of the ubiquitous Japanese pose is not 100% clear. It could have come from the Winston Churchill's famous "V for victory," or (according to another theory) from a 1972 TV commercial for a Konica camera in which an actor ad-libbed a peace sign at the end, which happened to resonate with viewers. Supposedly, there are different variations on how Japanese (specifically females) will perform the gesture, depending on what era they come from. Women in their 40s will make a fairly orthodox peace sign, while ones in their 30s grew up being told the gesture was stupid by their parents, and thus tend to make shy "V" gestures that are less noticeable. Japanese women in their late 20s make "double peace" signs near their chin in a compact but cute gesture born from the popularity of "Purikura" photo booths in the 1990s, while the trend among the youngest Japanese females is "reverse peace," done with the palm facing towards the person making the gesture. Which happens to be a rude gesture in much of the U.K., Australia and New Zealand...oops.

Japanese girls do "peace" differently according to age.

Sword Art Online Products from Japan

J-List loves the popular anime Sword Art Online, and we're loaded with fun SAO products you might want to browse, from figures to parody T-shirts and the new 2014 calendar, with gorgeous glossy pages and totally original art. We also have parody "dolphin polishers" for solo players who need to replenish their personal mana level.

Japan's Kawaii Automobile Market

Japan's automobile market is quite different from what you may be used to in your own home country. For starters, every car is sold through factory-owned dealerships rather than through third-party dealers, a model famously copied by GM's Saturn division, and when you buy a new car you generally wait 2-3 months for the factory to build it rather than driving it off the lot that day. There's a cycle of "lucky" and "unlucky" Buddhist days in Japan, and it's important to make sure you take delivery of a new vehicle on one of the lucky ones lest some tragedy befall you and your family. In addition to car models you may be familiar with -- the Honda Odyssey, the Toyota Prius, the Mazda CX-5 -- there are many models sold only in Japan, with names like Nissan Elgrand Homy, Honda That's, Mazda Bongo Friendee and Daihatsu Naked. One of my favorite categories of automobile is the subcategory of extremely kawaii cars marketed to females, with cute names like Nissan Moko, Suzuki Chocolat and the Daihatsu Mira Cocoa and Move Latte. They sound delicious.

The Japanese automobile industry has been greatly affected by two social trends over the past decade or so. The first is 自動車離れ jidosha-banare or the trend of young people being less and less interested in owning a nice car, which began around the turn of the millennium. Whereas previous decades saw young people saving their money for that first set of wheels, the current generation of young Japanese places more emphasis in other areas of their life, such as keitai (cell phones) or social media, and don't see car ownership as the status symbol it once was. This has caused Japan's domestic car market to shrink, and forced car companies to get creative at making cool-looking "kei" (light) cars that can be purchased for the equivelent of $12,000 or so. A related trend is 草食化 soushoku-ka, the so-called "herbivorification" of males in Japanese society. In days of yore, a guy would be happy to work extra hours so he could save up for a really nice car that would impress girls, which is called a nampa-sha or "girl hunting car." Over the past decade or so, more men have mellowed and are less interested in dating and making sexual conquests, happy to sit at home watching YouTube or working on hobbies than in more "carnivorous" eras.

There's a complex ecosystem of cute cars for girls in Japan.

A Very Akira Olympics

All Japan is in rapture right now over the announcement that Tokyo has been selected to host the 2020 Olympics. While Madrid and Istanbul put up a great fight, the strong presentation by Tokyo coupled with the improving economic position of Japan and large number of facilities already in place enabled Tokyo to carry the day. While Prime Minister Abe won points with his speech about Japan wanting to "repay its debt to the world in full" for all the help the country received after the deadly earthquakes and tsunamis of March 11, 2011, a lot of the credit for the win went to Takigawa Christel, a half-French, half-Japanese TV announcer who was able to pitch the benefits of holding the Olympics in Tokyo to the IOC in French, which absolutely turned Japanese fans to jelly. The announcement was made a 5:20 am, Japan time, and many dedicated fans stayed up all night to be the first to hear the news. The selection of Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics is more than just a big win for Japan, it's the fulfillment of a destiny for otaku-dom. Fans of the classic anime Akira will remember that the film is set a few months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the final battle takes place in the newly constructed Olympic stadium.

Congratulations to Tokyo and Japan!

More Yumina the Ethereal Character Data

You can't have a good eroge without a meganekko, an extremely cute girl who wears glasses, and there's a really nice one in our new ero RPG Yumina the Ethereal. Her name is Honma Maino, and she's a shy, mild-mannered girl who loves to read books and take care of the school library. At Jinbu Academy, where athletics are king, culture clubs like the Library Committee occupy the bottom of the social pecking order, but she always works hard anyway. She's one of the super cute characters you can romance in the game, and one of my favorite girls. Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

2014 Calendars Posted to the Site!

We were happy that 2014 calendar season got off to an early start with the Kantoku, Tony Taka and other calendars we'd posted last month, and now we've got more good news: the main bulk of anime calendars has come in and are available for order now. This year looks like it'll be a great one, with large, glossy calendars for fans of Hatsune Miku, Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, Oreimo and more. Browse the newly posted Japanese calendars now and get your preorders in early!

"Wasei Eigo" (Made-in-Japan English) in Japan

One thing I like about the Japanese is how creative they are with language. The other day I was choosing bento lunches in a convenience store with my wife, and she described one as being very "volumey" (that is, having a large volume of food), which seemed like a cute word to me somehow. There's a grand tradition of twisting the grammar of English to make new words, called 和製英語 wasei eigo or "made in Japan English," and some examples include "nighter" (a baseball game at night), "career up" (getting a promotion at work) or "mayoler" (someone who loves mayonnaise). The Japanese also love to take English suffixes like the -tic ending in words like "dramatic" and mix them with Japanese in whimsical ways, creating words like 乙女チックotome-tic, girl + -tic, meaning feminine or girly, or 秋葉チック Akiba-tic, meaning "related to Akihabara subculture in some way." Anime has plenty of creative English words too, from Get Backers to U.N. Spacy to Shizuri from A Certain Scientific Railgun, who possess an esper power known as "Meltdowner."

Shizuri from Railgun is a "Meltdowner."

Things I Love About Japan: Kaiseki Ryuri

The Japanese love to make meals into something that's pleasing to the eye as well as the stomach, a tradition known as 食の美 shoku no bi or "the beauty of food." The ultimate embodiment of this concept is 懐石料理 kaiseki ryouri, the traditional cuisine of Kyoto in which a great deal of care is taken with the presentation of the food, including the design of the plates it's served on. Since the Japanese love their seasons so much, what you're served will depend on what time of year it is -- in the fall your meal with have a momiji (Japanese maple) motif, while sakura petals may adorn your food in the spring. Kaiseki meals are served in courses similar to fine French dining (which the Japanese also love, probably more than the French do), and courses include sashimi, tempura, grilled fish, rice, and a meat course. To be honest, it's not uncommon to have no idea what you're putting in your mouth when you eat kaiseki (at least one dish will contain a flower that you're free to eat, if you like), but don't worry, everything is good. If you're curious about Japan's amazing food culture, check the J-List site for some cool Japanese cookbooks.

Kaiseki ryouri and the "beauty of food."

The Optimism of Classic Anime

In the same way that the Doctor Who franchise tells stories about sweeping intergalactic events that always happen to center around Britain, anime is naturally focused on Japan. One of my favorite shows from the 80s is Aim for the Top!, a hardcore SF series by Evangelion creator Hideki Anno that's equal parts Ender's Game, The Forever War and the famous "Gainax bounce" (slightly NSFW), which tells the story of humanity's struggle against an alien race that spans 12,000 years. (The series is actually an extended homage to a tennis anime from the 70s called Aim for the Ace!, but that irony is lost on most fans.) Gunbuster is interesting because it shows the optimism Japan felt in the halcyon days of the 1980s, as its star kept rising and the land value of Tokyo was worth more than the entire U.S. on paper, before the bursting of the asset bubble changed all that forever. Another story with an exceedingly optimistic future for Japan is Space Battleship Yamato, which features a Japan-led world government that takes responsibility for saving the Earth from the evil Gamilas Empire and its radioactive planet bombs.

Gunbuster, a show about Japan's glorious future in space.

More Character Introduction from Yumina

The third character from the excellent English-translated ero RPG Yumina the Ethereal is Ai Okitsu, an eccentric girl who transfers to Jinbu Academy shortly after the Election War begins in the school. Despite her high grades, she surprises everyone by joining the underdogs of the Debate Club with you and Yumina -- could it be she's attracted to someone in the club? A quiet girl who doesn't talk much, she's surprisingly good at sports, and great at making dead-pan jokes, too. Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

2014 Anime Calendar Season Has Begun!

We were happy that 2014 calendar season got off to an early start with the Kantoku, Tony Taka and other calendars we'd posted last month, and now we've got more good news: the main bulk of anime calendars has come in and are available for order now. This year looks like it'll be a great one, with large, glossy calendars for fans of Hatsune Miku, Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, Oreimo and more. Browse the newly posted Japanese calendars now and get your preorders in early!

The History of Shimapan, Ahoge and Imouto Fetish

It can be fun to try and trace the origins of anime-related memes. For example, if you use the phrase mai waifu to describe your favorite female character, you're actually making an Azumanga Daioh reference. The term moe, which I translate as "the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when contemplating your favorite female anime character," is thought to have come from the name of Sailor Saturn (Tomoe Hotaru). The striped panties known as shimapan are considered a fundamental element of anime today, but where did they come from? According to my exhaustive research, they were popularized by an anime called Stellvia of the Universe and took off from there. How about the nosebleeds that male characters get when they get excited? It comes from a 1970 Shonen Jump manga called Yasuji's Life Lessons for Messed Up Kids, and has been with us ever since. If you watch old anime series from the 80s and early 90s, you'll notice something odd: a lack of throw-away fanservice episodes in which all the female characters take a bath together for no reason, which is a tradition started by shows like Love Hina and Ai Yori Aoshi. Recently anime has been filled with stories involving imouto (younger sister) characters, from Oreimo to Nakaimo to Oniai and various popular eroge titles, but did you ever wonder where Japan's fascination with this subject came from? I believe the origin lies in a 1983 anime called Miyuki by Adachi Mitsuru, who also created Touch and H2. It tells the story of Masato, whose younger sister Miyuki (not related by blood) returns to Japan after living abroad for six years. Meanwhile, Masato gets a cute girlfriend who's also named Miyuki, and a love triangle between him and the two girls is launched.

Of course it can be hard to pin down where these concepts actually originate from, and there are often multiple theories. One design element that's used in hundreds of anime characters today is called 阿呆毛 ahoge, lit. "idiot hair" in Osaka dialect, which describes the single disobedient strand of hair that sticks up from the heads of characters like Saber from Fate/stay night, Rikka from Chu2koi, and the entire Araragi family from the Bakemonogatari/Monogatari series. A normal slang word in use since the 1980s to describe unruly hair, it jumped to the 2D world around 1990 in a minor manga series by Yamada Nanpei, then was used in a 1996 eroge by Leaf called Kizuato, which caused ahoge to explode in popularity. On the other hand, grandfather Namihei from Sazae-san has been defined by his single strand of hair since the show started airing in 1969, and even Superman has that famous finger of unkempt hair on his forehead. So who gets credit for "creating" ahoge hair? Like where those amazing Absolute Zone socks came from and why main characters always sit in this part of the class, it's a question we may never know the answer to.

It's fun to trace the history of classic anime memes.

Shodo, the Way of Writing Kanji

When I decided to minor in Japanese back at SDSU, I had to choose one Japan-related elective class in addition to my language courses, so I picked one on Japanese calligraphy. Called 書道 shodo, lit. "the way of writing," it's a method for making beautiful kanji words and phrases on paper, an art form with a very long history. Although you can buy liquid ink that's ready to use, our teacher insisted we spend the extra time to mix a solid ink stick (sumi) with water in our ink wells instead, which (she said) would help us compose ourselves mentally to create beautiful characters on the page. While most Japanese study shodo for a few years as children and some get really good at it, there's a big trend away from all kind of manual writing of kanji these days, thanks to the ubiquity of pasokon and sumaho (personal computers and smartphones) in modern society. If you're interested in Japanese calligraphy, we stock authentic fude brush pens you can use right away, and we also have a popular Customize Japanese Calligraphy Board service, in which our native Japanese employee will write any character or phrase you want on a sturdy Japanese shikishi autograph board.

Learning about Japan through calligraphy.

More Character Info from Yumina the Ethereal

Remember, we recently shipped Yumina the Ethereal one of the best ero RPG titles ever translated to English. One character I like is Kurokawa Kirara, who is president of the Debate Club and the person responsible for helping Yumina in her goal of becoming student council president. Her diminutive figure belies a powerful ego, and she often uses cunning ploys and underhanded tricks to lead the Debate Club to victory. Why is she really helping Yumina win the election? Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

J-List Will Be at Anime Weekend Atlanta!

If you'll be at the Baltimore Comic Con this weekend, be sure and stop by the "J-List East" booth (#111) and check out the excellent English visual novels, H-manga and T-shirts we'll have there for you. Also, J-List will be sending staff from Japan (including myself) to Anime Weekend Atlanta from Sept 27-29, so if you'll be at the show, please come and say hi, or come to our panel on Saturday night! We'll have limited stock of our dating-sim games in the dealers' room at AWA but no other stock, so if you were looking to get T-shirts, cosplay items and so on, grab them from the site instead.

Hayao Miyazaki is Retiring (Again)

Over the weekend the news broke that famed animation director Hayao Miyazaki will be officially retiring now that his newest release Kaze Tachinu (English title: The Wind Rises) is complete. I'll take this with a grain of salt, since the 72-year-old director has officially "retired" after every film since Princess Mononoke, but even if it's true this time, it's okay since no one has earned a long rest as much as Miyazaki-sensei. The Japanese love nothing better than to give honor and respect to any of their number who has raised the stature of Japan in the eyes of people around the world, and as creator of some of the most beloved animated films since Walt Disney, Japan is proud of Mr. Miyazaki indeed. Tonight I think I'll re-watch my Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Blu-ray and raise a glass to Mr. Miyazaki.

Thank you, Miyazaki-sensei, for 30 years of great films!

Still Loving Space Battleship Yamato 2199

I continue to enjoy Space Battleship Yamato 2199, the reboot of the classic 1974 anime that was responsible for calling so many old school fans into the genre, including me. Two centuries in the future, humanity is under attack by an alien race called the Gamilas, who are dropping radioactive planet bombs. Using technology sent by Starsha of Iscandar, the WWII battleship Yamato is rebuilt into a spaceship that can travel the 148,000 light years to Iscandar to retrieve a machine that can clean the radiation from the Earth and make it green again. The reboot is excellent, paying just the right amount of homage to old school fans like me while updating nearly everything else, including the Gamilas (they're much more complex than before, with a Zentraedi-like language and new political intrigue), the technology (Gundam-style plugsuits for the crew) and more. One of the biggest changes is the additional of several female characters, including a busty medical assistant, a cute twintail cadet and a strict meganekko on the bridge. Also, an arc involving a captured male Gamilas fighter pilot was tweaked to make the pilot female. These changes were made partially to acknowledge the realities of the moe era we live in -- no modern anime can be successful without an ecosystem of figures and doujinshi for fans to get excited over -- but also to enable new stories to be told. There's a new female fighter pilot named Yamamoto who has a rather interesting love triangle with Yuki and Kodai, which would have been impossible in the original series. Rememeber, we're carrying all the Yamato Blu-ray discs, which come complete with English subtitles!

The reboot of Yamato is an otaku dream come true.

Kawaii Japanese Idols and the Things They Do For Their Fans

Ever since idol culture took off in the early 1970s, Japan has had an affinity for pop idols, extremely cute singers who represent the pinnacle of kawaii in Japanese society at any given moment. These days Japan's musical landscape is dominated by groups of idols like Perfume, Momoiro Clover Z and AKB48 with its many spin-off groups, and no matter how a person might resist their siren song, the constant bombardment from the Japanese media guarantees you'll find yourself gravitating to one group or another subconsciously. The other night I was flipping through late-night TV and caught an episode of HKT48 no Odekake!, a late-night variety show featuring the popular AKB48 spin-off group based in Hakata, Kyushu. In the show, the girls played a game of dodge-ball, and whenever a girl got tagged "out" she was forced to do something embarrassing on camera. This included touching strange objects like cold pasta or insects that were hidden in a box and a competition in which the girls had to pull plastic wrap across their faces until it broke, which caused their faces to become twisted and ridiculous in an oddly endearingly way. If you're a fan of Japan's idol culture, we recommend our iTunes Japan prepaid cards, which give you access to all the latest releases by your favorite groups.

It can be hard to resist the lure of Japanese idols.

The Main Character of Yumina the Ethereal

Last Friday we shipped the excellent new ero RPG Yumina the Ethereal, and we've been moving hundreds of copies out the door in both shrinkwrapped package and download edition. The main heroine -- named Yumina, surprisingly enough -- is a student whose grades are so bad she's doomed to repeat the year... unless, that is, she can get voted student council president, which will enable her to change any school rule. Can you master the challenging battle system and help Yumina achieve her goal? She might make worth your while. Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

New Sale: Triple J-List Points on all Manga, Artbooks, Photobooks, Anime Magazines...

This month we're having a great new sale, offering 3x J-List Points on all manga, doujinshi, artbooks and anime magazines. Whether you're looking to complete your Yotsubato manga collection or start the new WataMote manga series, or score some ecchi manga and doujinshi or maybe those How to Draw Manga books. Enjoy the new sale all this month! Browse the most popular manga, doujinshi and artbooks now!

The Time to Register for the JLPT Japanese Test is Now

If you're studying Japanese or plan to, there's a good chance you'll need to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), the primary test for students of Japanese. Taken by 500,000 applicants each year, the test was begun in 1984 in response to the increase in interest in Japan by people all over the world, and is held each December. There are five levels to the test, starting with N5 (the easiest, covering hiragana, katakana and basic kanji) and goes all the way to N1 (the hardest, needed for entrance into a Japanese university), and it's set up so that someone studying the language could theoretically advance one level per year. The sign-up deadline is September 27, which means that you should register right away to avoid the agony of missing your registration. There are just 93 days before this year's test -- if you need study supplies, textbooks or other products to help you learn, J-List has you covered! Click here to visit the JLPT registration site, and good luck!

If you're studying Japanese, it's time to prepare for the JLPT!

Places to Stay in Japan: Ryokan, Minshuku, etc

There are many types of lodging available in Japan, from Western style "city hotels" to capsule hotels that let you stay in the heart of a bustling city for under $40. If you're looking for lodging while on a business trip choose one of the no-nonsense "business hotels" that can be found near any train station, and when it's sexy time, look for one of Japan's legendary love hotels, where you can rent privacy by the hour or night. One of the best experiences you can have in Japan is staying at a ryokan inn, which is a lot of fun. You're provided with a traditional tatami room and given a yukata (cotton kimono), fed a beautiful meal of foods you won't be able to identify (but no matter, it's all delicious), and shown to an elegant bath to relax in, as seen in anime series like Hanasaku Iroha and games like Tokimeki Check-in! Sometimes a person visiting Japan doesn't want a lot of foreigners around them disrupting their wa. If so, trade in the Western-style youth hostel you found in the Lonely Planet guide for a traditional Japanese minshuku, a kind of traditional budget ryokan or bed-and-breakfast that's extra cool because most foreigners don't know about them. You'll have a more authentic experience in Japan and will meet some really friendly people there, and lodgings are very affordable, usually around $50-60 including meals.

Staying in a Japanese ryokan inn is always a treat.

Strange Things You'll See In Asia

Japan, of course, is located in Asia -- though sometimes it seems the country would rather be part of Europe instead -- so naturally there are certain strange things you're going to encounter here. Like funny Engrish everywhere, from bizarre signs ("SPLUSH is not the problem of age") to meaningless messages on T-shirts ("I feel happiness when I eat a potato"). While visitors to Japan won't see a family of six riding precariously on a 50 cc Honda Cub motorcycle (these are everywhere in Bangkok), there are some interesting toilets which require some practice before you can use them with confidence. Westerners are a rarity is most of Asia, and it's not uncommon for us to find ourselves the center of attention, though to be honest I found I was stared at a lot more in Malaysia than in Tokyo or Gunma. Another thing you see in Asia is known as "pair look" fashion, when a couple wears matching clothing to show the world how happy and in love they are, quite a thing in South Korea and Japan. Don't they make the cutest couple? Or is it a little too much?

An example of "pair look" fashion in Asia.

Yumina the Ethereal Finally Ships!

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More Fun with Japanese Gestures

Living in a foreign country means more than just learning that country's language. It also means subtly taking the local culture inside you, something that can really sneak up on a person -- one day you're shunning natto and forgetting to take your shoes off when you enter a house, and the next you're serving "coffee jelly" to foreign guests for dessert. An interesting yardstick for how much of this culture a person has internalized are the gestures that we all use every day, since unlike spoken language, gestures are something we don't consciously think about. A big part of body language in Japan involves bowing, and Japanese are known to bow out of reflex even when talking on the phone -- and nothing is funnier than seeing a gaijin do this too. Another common gesture is 手刀 te-gatana, meaning hand-sword, made as you move through a crowd while simultaneously bowing and cutting an invisible path with your hand, karate-style. You can communicate some complex concepts using a simple gesture: for example, one salaryman might pantomime throwing back a sake cup to his friend ("Do you want to stop for drinks on the way home?"), while his friend might make little demon's horns with his forefingers and shake his head ("I can't, my wife would be really angry"). Perhaps the biggest litmus test to see if a gaijin has been in Japan too long is, whether he refers to himself by pointing as his chest (as is usually done in the West) or whether he points to his nose.

This gesture means, "I'm married to Lum from Urusei Yatsura, help!"

A Toyota for Gundam Fans

Otaku, of course, is a word that's come to describe aficionados of anime, manga, visual novels and cosplay, although it's possible to become an otaku for just about anything. I've got a Japanese friend who describes herself as "the queen of perfume otaku," and there are Japanese "tower otakus" who love visiting Tokyo Sky Tree, Tokyo Tower and Yokohama Marine Tower and collecting goods you can only buy there. While most things otakus love is usually considered subculture, not accepted by everyone, one exception is the Mobile Suit Gundam, the hugely popular SF franchise that tells the story of humans emigrating into space and developing "newtype" esper abilities while doing battle in mobile suits. As usual the villains of the Gundam universe are far more interesting than the whiny heroes, and the most popular is the Red Comet Char Aznable, famous for his flamboyant style and signature red mecha. Toyota decided to tap into the popularity of this character by releasing a limited edition version of its Auris hatchback. The car comes in red complete with Char's signature spike, plus a custom interior with GPS designed to track enemy mobile suits.

A limited edition Toyota for Newtypes.

Anime For Girls

One of the more welcome changes over the last two decades has been the Rise of the Fangirl, which has certainly made anime conventions more fun than they would otherwise be. The shift was helped along by hybrid shows like Sailor Moon with characters both girls and guys could get equally excited about, while innovations like "BL Gundam" (Gundam Wing) and Kaworu from Evangelion brought new girls into fandom by the truckload. As with most moe anime and games enjoyed by guys, content creators are good at coming up with fun stories for girls to get swept away by. The new anime Brothers Conflict centers around a girl named Ema whose father gets remarried...and suddenly she finds herself with no fewer than 13 incredibly handsome stepbrothers who all look like they could work at a "host club" in Kabukicho. Which handsome oniichan will she fall in love with? Another show I've been watching is Free!, Kyoto Animation's first attempt at bringing its expertise in creating strong moe characters to the fujoshi side of fandom, and I've been impressed with the story and drama so far. If you're a fan of awesome girl-centric anime and games, we've got some products you might like to see.

Free! is a popular anime starring these cute guys.

New Ero RPG: Yumina the Ethereal Ships Friday

Yumina the Ethereal, an outstanding RPG with great graphics and gameplay, will be shipping Friday, but there's still time for you to preorder. This fully translated RPG has excellent gameplay players to enjoy, including "debate battles" in which Yumina must fight her way to being voted student body president, dungeon exploration, battles with monsters and more. We put up a great new official site at http://jastusa.com/yumina/ complete with demo you can download! All links are NSFW.

We Love Popin' Cookin' Snacks from Kracie

J-List carries the entire lineup of awesome "do it yourself" gummy products from Kracie which are so popular these days, from the legendary Popin' Cookin' Sushi Candy Making Set to those Happy Kitchen miniature doughnuts to the popular Neru Neru Nerune series. Not only are these candies delicious to eat, they're really fun to make, and you'll find measuring and mixing the proper amounts of water and gelatin powder is really awesome.

The Japanese Are Better at English Grammar Than You

There are many approaches to studying a foreign language, including the Communicative Method, stressing verbal communication with other students, the Natural Approach, which tries to imitate the way children acquire language, and the method I used, Read Lots of Manga and Translate JPOP Songs and Always Do Your Homework for University Japanese Class. When the Japanese study English, they do it with lots of grammar and translation, attempting to understand the mechanics of the language analytically, with functional use being less important than passing the all-important University Entrance Exam. While no one can accuse the Japanese of being the best linguists in the world, my old students were known to teach me a thing or two about English grammar back when I was a teacher. For example, they are consciously aware of when to use 'the' (rhyming with 'uh') and 'the' (rhyming with 'three'), and how words like record, present and suspect are always stressed on the first syllable if they're nouns, but on the second when used as verbs. And 'whom'? The Japanese have it down, even though I haven't used the word since the third grade. Since Japanese people always expect native speakers to know every vocabulary word and bit of grammar that exists, they're usually disappointed when they see that native speakers rarely know the rules of language as well as they do.

The Japanese often know more English grammar than you or me I.

The History of Eroge and Visual Novels in Anime

J-List has been involved with translating and selling visual novels, alternatively called VNs, bishoujo games, dating sims and "gal-games" since 1996. Visual novels have been a popular genre of games ever since the first computers with color displays arrived in the early 1980s, and they've become a huge part of Japanese popular culture, with games like Fate/stay night, Clannad and When the Higurashi Cry forming the cores of media empires. There was much less awareness of these games back when we first started, and I remember having long discussions with fans at conventions, explaining that, no, these are not anime DVDs but interactive games for Windows computers in which you could choose the girl (or guy) you wanted to pursue romantically and try to reach their game ending. Things are much better these days thanks to the long trend of visual novel elements being featured in mainstream anime such as Excel Saga, Welcome to the NHK and Genshiken, and today whole series are built around de-constructing the themes in eroge, including Date A Live, I Can't Believe My Sister Is This Cute, and The World God Only Knows. Another series I like is Watashi no Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!! (No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!!, conveniently shortened to WataMote). It's the story of fujoshi (a female otaku) who's spent 50 years in high school and dated more than 100 handsome guys...all inside otome games, girl-centric romantic games, and now she lacks the social skills to make any normal friends.

"Gal-games" have really gone mainstream in anime culture.

Finding Entrepreneurial Spirit in Japan

Over the weekend I went driving in the mountains of Gunma, and stopped at a P.A., which is a Japanese abbreviation for a "parking area" or rest stop inside the freeway system. These are pleasant little islands of convenience where you can stretch your legs, buy various foods that are famous in that area or just get some coffee. I was on my way to the canned coffee vending machines when I happened to pass by a lady running a small coffee stall with a unique business: for 300 yen she'd pour you a cup of coffee using the "manual pour-over drip method" with what appeared to be Starbucks coffee beans. It was an interesting business idea -- no fancy espresso machine yet better coffee than I'd get in the too-sweet Japanese canned coffee -- and I was happy to support her unique business model. Among the many challenges Japan faces, including its low birthrate, zero immigration and high national debt, is the lack of entrepreneurial spirit, with very few people being inspired to start a business. There are many reasons for this, including a general tendency towards risk aversion plus that old standby 出る杭はうたれる deru kui wa utareru or "the standing nail is driven," the tendency for Japanese society to react negatively to anyone attempting to do anything radical like, say, start a new company. I certainly encountered my share of that when I started J-List, including my mother-in-law who predicted disaster at the very mention of trying something new. I believe the number of people willing to work hard and create new businesses is an important factor in whether a nation will be successful in the future.

Finding entrepreneurial spirit at a Japanese "Parking Area."

2014 Japanese Calendars Posted to J-List

Announcing the start of 2014 Calendar Season! Every year about this time, J-List starts taking preorders for the outstanding calendars from Japan, which are printed exclusively for the Japanese market. While we already posted some excellent calendars by Japan's top moe artists, today we put up the popular traditional, cultural, art and photo calendars that bring out the beauty of Japan. (In a couple weeks there'll be another big volley of calendars as the main anime and idol calendars are announced, so stay tuned.) Browse the amazing calendars we've got on the site for you now!

English Eroge & Visual Novels In Stock!

Remember that J-List is dedicated to helping the Japanese visual novel genre grow in fun and interesting ways. There is a huge number of these games to choose from, from all-ages titles with uplifting stories, games that can affect you deeply, eroge with full animation, games with dark Cthulhu mythos themes, and even great titles for BL and yuri fans. Click to see the most popular English-translated visual novels and other games now!