I clearly remember an episode back in the third grade. I had checked a book called Flying Origami by Eiji Nakamura out from the library. The book was great, filled with really cool Japanese paper airplanes to make, but there was just one problem -- I had no idea how to pronounce the word origami, which was just too difficult for my nine-year-old brain to handle. Little did I know I'd end up living in Origami Central one day, which goes to show that you never know where your life will take you. Anyway, I've decided to present a "quickie pronunciation guide" for Japanese, in case it will help anyone.
First, understand that Japanese is a syllabic language, meaning that sounds always come in consonant + vowel syllable pairs (e.g. ka, ki, ku, ke, or ko, never just a "k" sound by itself), or as a single vowel syllable. The exception is the letter "n," the only consonant that can appear by itself, without which we wouldn't have the word ramen (and that would be a travesty). Vowels are easy as pie in Japanese -- there are only five, identical to the ones in Spanish. They are:
A - "ah" rhyming with "fall"
I - "ee" rhyming with "feel"
U - "oo" rhyming with "fool"
E - "eh" rhyming with "let"
O - "oh" rhyming with "go"
When you see a word like origami, just break it into syllable-sized chunks, pronouncing all the letters and squeezing it into the "Japanese phoenetic grid": oh-ree-GAH-mee. There are no diphthongs in Japanese -- a vowel all by itself is treated as a syllable separate from what it's next to, so a name like Miura would be three syllables, mee-OO-ra. When you see a Japanese name or word, try not to let the pronunciation rules of English get in your way. We had a friend named Tomoe (toh-moh-EH), but English-speakers always called her "Tomo," thinking that the "silent e" on the end of her name should be ignored. Other things to keep in mind: a g sound like ge or "gi" is always hard (as in go), never soft (as in giraffe), hence the third sound in Evangelion is indeed a hard "g," in case you were wondering. The sound u is always oo, never "you." And the ra-ri-ru-re-ro sounds are closer to an "L" sound than "R" in English, hence the word "ramen" is about 80% of the way to "lamen," pronunciation-wise. Of course, the best way to learn to pronounce Japanese is while learning the hiragana and katakana writing systems. Remember that J-List has many cool products to help you start studying the language, if you want to give it a try.
A somewhat unique aspect of Japanese is the "small tsu" (小さい「つ」) a special kana character the indicates a brief pause between syllables, not unlike the short stop you can hear when saying words like "button" or "kitten." Linguistically it's called a glottal stop, and while many languages have them, you usually don't have a way to express them in writing. Usually expressed in the Roman alphabet with double consonants, some words that have this brief pause include gakkou (gah-[small pause]-KOH, school), nattou (nah-[small pause]-TOH, fermented soybeans) and matcha (mat-[small pause]-CHA, green tea powder).
The Japanese love onomatopoeia, and there are many odd sound words used in Japan. One of the strangest is mokkori (there's that "small tsu" again), which is the sound of something rising suddenly (e.g. the sound of a tent being pitched), a word made famous among anime fans by the classic City Hunter anime series of the 1980s. This wacky linguistic concept is embodied in here, a loveable character on our latest T-shirt. This upstanding little guy is a mushroom (what did you think he was?) who is a real straight-shooter. One of our wackiest Japanese T-shirts ever, it's guaranteed to get you lots of attention from cute Japanese coeds who see you walking across campus.
At J-List, we sell lots of DVDs, including many high-end indies JAV or anime titles from Japan, such as the excellent films of Hayao Miyazaki, which are zoned for region 2 (Japan and Europe). For customers who want to enjoy DVDs from all parts of the world including Japan, we humbly recommend the three region-free DVD players we sell, which are fully compatible with North American television systems and have full 1-year warranties. We've discovered a cool new feature in the AMW M-280, the portable 7" DVD player we sell for just $148. In addition to its many innovative features, this player will play MP3 music burned onto a DVD-R disc, allowing you to burn 4+ GB worth of tunes anywhere you want to play them (in your car, at home, etc.). Really cool!
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Friday, January 27, 2006
Japan and its paper doors, young people who imitate James Dean, and bilingualism tricks with kids
Japan's come a long way from the classic image of "paper houses," but paper is still commonly used in modern Japanese homes. Shoji are sliding wooden doors with paper glued to them, allowing you to separate rooms and provide privacy and insulation. The doors slide sideways, so they don't take up any room in cramped houses, and they bring a healthy Japanese touch to any room, even western-style ones. Shoji have a tendency to turn yellow when they get old, so every few years you should replace the paper. Tearing the paper off the doors is just about the funniest thing in the world, and our kids are all too happy to help us do this when called upon. The shoji paper market is quite large, with many different companies competing to sell you the best paper for your shoji doors. Variations include shoji that are hard to tear (they've got cotton fibers in them), shoji you can hang by just running an iron over the paper, and shoji with various interesting patterns woven into the paper.
When I first got to Japan, I had an interesting experience: while sampling the local "Kentucky" I saw two high school girls standing around smoking and trying to look tough. They noticed me, and one boasted, "We are furyo!" I didn't know the word at the time, but the joy of kanji is that you can often understand concepts by working out what the characters would mean when put together. Fu is "not" and ryo is "good," and the combination (pronounced foo-RYOH, in kanji, 不良) means "bad" in a juvenile delinquint sort of way. From the rockabilly boom of the last decade to the more ominous boso-zoku street gangs who drive down the street on motorcycles modified to be extra loud and annoying, a lot of Japanese young people seem to be dedicated to this James Dean-esque idea of acting tough, of rebelling against mainstream Japanese society by smoking, cutting school uniform skirts very high, and (gasp!) dying their hair brown. Another word for these mostly-harmless street punk types is yankii (YAHN-kee), which is often thought to be related to the word "yankee" (because of their "American" colored hair), but it actually comes from a word in Osaka dialect. Whenever there's a Japanese festival you'll see these tough-looking kids out in force, standing around in their funny baggy clothes and looking vaguely scary. I used to make a point of approaching them and starting improptu English conversation classes with them, since their shy reactions when asked to speak English were priceless.
It's funny, the way children pick up language. As my kids were growing up, I spoke English to them, although they'd usually speak Japanese back to me despite my efforts to pretend I didn't understand. When we'd go to the U.S., my kids would get a real dose of English from the other family members, and (being kids) would double their vocabularies every day. One day when my son was about four, I asked him, "Would you mind if I went to dinner with your Mom tonight?" I intentionally used a phrase using "mind," which is the bane of Japanese people since you have to answer "no" if you mean "yes" and vice-versa, to see if he understood the question. To my surprise, he knew about this and answered me correctly ("No, I don't mind, you can go"). Somehow the kid had internalized a difficult grammatical structure that still torments his mother from time to time.
We've got a new treat for people who'd like to learn how to draw anime or manga-style art: the here book, a really well-done book with lots of articles on how to improve your art, use tools like Photoshop to color, and really build your own style as an artist. We've got it on the site as a downloadable item -- it's really great!
When I first got to Japan, I had an interesting experience: while sampling the local "Kentucky" I saw two high school girls standing around smoking and trying to look tough. They noticed me, and one boasted, "We are furyo!" I didn't know the word at the time, but the joy of kanji is that you can often understand concepts by working out what the characters would mean when put together. Fu is "not" and ryo is "good," and the combination (pronounced foo-RYOH, in kanji, 不良) means "bad" in a juvenile delinquint sort of way. From the rockabilly boom of the last decade to the more ominous boso-zoku street gangs who drive down the street on motorcycles modified to be extra loud and annoying, a lot of Japanese young people seem to be dedicated to this James Dean-esque idea of acting tough, of rebelling against mainstream Japanese society by smoking, cutting school uniform skirts very high, and (gasp!) dying their hair brown. Another word for these mostly-harmless street punk types is yankii (YAHN-kee), which is often thought to be related to the word "yankee" (because of their "American" colored hair), but it actually comes from a word in Osaka dialect. Whenever there's a Japanese festival you'll see these tough-looking kids out in force, standing around in their funny baggy clothes and looking vaguely scary. I used to make a point of approaching them and starting improptu English conversation classes with them, since their shy reactions when asked to speak English were priceless.
It's funny, the way children pick up language. As my kids were growing up, I spoke English to them, although they'd usually speak Japanese back to me despite my efforts to pretend I didn't understand. When we'd go to the U.S., my kids would get a real dose of English from the other family members, and (being kids) would double their vocabularies every day. One day when my son was about four, I asked him, "Would you mind if I went to dinner with your Mom tonight?" I intentionally used a phrase using "mind," which is the bane of Japanese people since you have to answer "no" if you mean "yes" and vice-versa, to see if he understood the question. To my surprise, he knew about this and answered me correctly ("No, I don't mind, you can go"). Somehow the kid had internalized a difficult grammatical structure that still torments his mother from time to time.
We've got a new treat for people who'd like to learn how to draw anime or manga-style art: the here book, a really well-done book with lots of articles on how to improve your art, use tools like Photoshop to color, and really build your own style as an artist. We've got it on the site as a downloadable item -- it's really great!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
The buzz around Horie's arrest, Horie as a "standing nail," and info on Japanese names
Japan is all abuzz about the arrest of entrepreneur Takafumi Horie and his staff on investor fraud charges. A highly visible public figure, Horie (pronounced ho-ree-EH) is the Michael Dell-esque Japanese businessman who dropped out of the prestigious Tokyo University to start a website-creation company that would grow into Livedoor, a sprawling Yahoo clone with more than 50 businesses. In open emulation of American business practices, Horie grew his empire by acquiring other companies, and even launched an almost unheard-of hostile takeover bid for control of Fuji TV. Clearly a member of Donald Trump's "brand yourself and toot your horn" business philosophy, he was a regular fixture on television, and wrote books that were very influential with the younger generation.
A core concept that any pop Japanologist needs to know is the often-quoted- by-gaijin-who-are-experts-on-Japan phrase deru kui wa utareru (DE-ru KOO-ee wa oo-TAH-reh-ru), which translates as "the standing nail is driven." This describes the tendency of Japanese society to react unfavorably to those who don't conform as they should, and force them back in line -- individuals who stick out too far are "hammered down" and put in their place. The term certainly applies to Horie, who would meet high-ranking Sony executives while wearing jeans and T-shirt and who openly showed his lack of respect for established "old Japan" media companies. Horie-shacho was arrested under suspicion of various degrees of book-cooking, including announcing the purchase of companies whose shares he'd already bought secretly, to profit when the stocks then rose in value. While certainly no Enron-grade scandal, it's enough for Japan's Big Media to give him the smack-down they've been saving for him for some time. Unfortunately the scandal has caused a big drop in the market here (which has been termed "Livedoor Shock").
You may be familiar with the fact that, in Japan, family names are used before first names -- therefore the famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is known as Kurosawa Akira here. It can get confusing when you're switching from English to Japanese and back again, and once you get used to names being said one way, it feels very odd to go and reverse the order. The whole name order thing is all made even more confusing because of the fact that Westerners don't usually get their names reversed, so that I am Peter Payne even in Japanese (not Payne Peter). Even some Japanese use the English order for names, if they want to go out of their way to emulate stars in the West and sound kakko ii (cool): there's an action star in Japan who grew up in the U.S., and he goes by the name of Kane Kosugi just to sound like a gaijin.
Some bugs crept into our RSS feed, which allows you to track the newest products on J-List or JBOX.com using any RSS-reading application. We've gotten the problem fixed though, and both feeds are back up. The link for the feeds can be found along the left side of our website main page.
A core concept that any pop Japanologist needs to know is the often-quoted- by-gaijin-who-are-experts-on-Japan phrase deru kui wa utareru (DE-ru KOO-ee wa oo-TAH-reh-ru), which translates as "the standing nail is driven." This describes the tendency of Japanese society to react unfavorably to those who don't conform as they should, and force them back in line -- individuals who stick out too far are "hammered down" and put in their place. The term certainly applies to Horie, who would meet high-ranking Sony executives while wearing jeans and T-shirt and who openly showed his lack of respect for established "old Japan" media companies. Horie-shacho was arrested under suspicion of various degrees of book-cooking, including announcing the purchase of companies whose shares he'd already bought secretly, to profit when the stocks then rose in value. While certainly no Enron-grade scandal, it's enough for Japan's Big Media to give him the smack-down they've been saving for him for some time. Unfortunately the scandal has caused a big drop in the market here (which has been termed "Livedoor Shock").
You may be familiar with the fact that, in Japan, family names are used before first names -- therefore the famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is known as Kurosawa Akira here. It can get confusing when you're switching from English to Japanese and back again, and once you get used to names being said one way, it feels very odd to go and reverse the order. The whole name order thing is all made even more confusing because of the fact that Westerners don't usually get their names reversed, so that I am Peter Payne even in Japanese (not Payne Peter). Even some Japanese use the English order for names, if they want to go out of their way to emulate stars in the West and sound kakko ii (cool): there's an action star in Japan who grew up in the U.S., and he goes by the name of Kane Kosugi just to sound like a gaijin.
Some bugs crept into our RSS feed, which allows you to track the newest products on J-List or JBOX.com using any RSS-reading application. We've gotten the problem fixed though, and both feeds are back up. The link for the feeds can be found along the left side of our website main page.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Gramatical challenges in learning Japanese, a Lone Wolf in Japan, and how Kit Kat brings hope to millions
Some languages are similar to each other, such as the Romance Languages that share features like genders for nouns, or English and French, which intermingled in the years after the Norman Conquest. Other languages are quite different, with linguistic features that can be difficult for learners to wrap their brains around at first. While I believe that no language is intrinsically "harder" than all the others -- each language is unique with its own features -- there are some aspects of Japanese grammar that were quite alien for a native English speaker like me.
One of the biggest challenges for learners of Japanese is dealing with what isn't stated in a sentence. My sister, who is fluent in German and lives near Luxembourg, once told me that the purpose of German grammar was to get the subject and the verb as far from each other as possible (to confuse people trying to learn the language, I guess). In Japanese, the goal seems to be removing as much information from a sentence as you can, and one of the first things a student learns is that the formal sentences in the textbook like Watashi wa anata ni tegami wo kakimasu (私はあなたに手紙を書きます, "I will write you a letter") are nearly always reduced to almost nothing by Japanese speakers (Tegami kaku ne, 手紙書くね), since everything else can be implied. There are other linguistic concepts that take some getting used to, too. One are "giving" words like ageru and yaru, which mean "to give" and are for use with people above your level (your boss, your senpai) and below your level (a child, a dog), respectively. When connected with other verbs, the recipient of an action can be inferred without it being openly stated. There are two versions of the verb "to be (in a place)" depending on whether the subject is animate (a person or animal) or inanimate (a car, a mountain), which can throw gaijin learners a curve from time to time. Finally, while we have "here" and "there" in Japanese, there are three in Japan -- "here" (koko) "there" (soko) and "way over there" (asoko), and the interplay of these concepts and how they shift when speaking can take some getting used to.
When a gaijin comes to Japan, it's common for certain words or kanji characters to insinuate themselves into his mind as kakko ii (which means "cool"). One word I distinctly remember liking was ippiki okami (ee-PEE-KEE OH-kah-mee, 一匹狼), which means "lone wolf" and describes people who are very individual-minded, happy to do things outside of a larger group. People who are ippiki okami live life without worrying about what others think, something the Japanese describe with the English words "going my way." Now we've got a cool new T-shirt, featuring the ultimate Lone Wolf ever, Golgo 13. See it on the site now!
At J-List, we go out of our way to find items you can't find anywhere else, and one of our favorite products are the Japan-only flavors of Nestle Kit Kat, which is the "real" Kit Kat since the stuff sold in the U.S. is made by Hershey's under license. Kit Kat has become a hugely successful product in Japan in part because its name sounds like kitto katsu ("you shall surely be victorious"), and parents buy it for their kids to show their support while they prepare for the all-important college entrance exams, which is going on right now. To help Japan's thousands of entrance-exam students, Nestle has brought out new Sakura Kit Kat, a delicious cherry flavored treat with breathtaking images of cherry blossoms on the box. The new Kit Kat TV commercial shows a worried girl about to start her college entrance exam, who is touched when she discoveres a box of Kit Kat her mother had slipped into her bag. The tag line is "Don't worry, the cherry blossoms will bloom for you." See the commercial here (Windows Media required). We also have a cool "sampler set" of all new varieties of Kit Kat for the 2005/2006 season for you.
In addition to our amazing lineup of English-translated dating-sim games, J-List also brings you amazing collections of doujin CG collections. Many of Japan's doujinshi artists create comic-book style books, while others turn to Photoshop instead, making beautiful computer-based CG art. We've licenced several of these CG works directly from the artists, so we can bring you great works in their original, mosaic-free form. Look for convenient sets of these cool CG collections, at special prices!
One of the biggest challenges for learners of Japanese is dealing with what isn't stated in a sentence. My sister, who is fluent in German and lives near Luxembourg, once told me that the purpose of German grammar was to get the subject and the verb as far from each other as possible (to confuse people trying to learn the language, I guess). In Japanese, the goal seems to be removing as much information from a sentence as you can, and one of the first things a student learns is that the formal sentences in the textbook like Watashi wa anata ni tegami wo kakimasu (私はあなたに手紙を書きます, "I will write you a letter") are nearly always reduced to almost nothing by Japanese speakers (Tegami kaku ne, 手紙書くね), since everything else can be implied. There are other linguistic concepts that take some getting used to, too. One are "giving" words like ageru and yaru, which mean "to give" and are for use with people above your level (your boss, your senpai) and below your level (a child, a dog), respectively. When connected with other verbs, the recipient of an action can be inferred without it being openly stated. There are two versions of the verb "to be (in a place)" depending on whether the subject is animate (a person or animal) or inanimate (a car, a mountain), which can throw gaijin learners a curve from time to time. Finally, while we have "here" and "there" in Japanese, there are three in Japan -- "here" (koko) "there" (soko) and "way over there" (asoko), and the interplay of these concepts and how they shift when speaking can take some getting used to.
When a gaijin comes to Japan, it's common for certain words or kanji characters to insinuate themselves into his mind as kakko ii (which means "cool"). One word I distinctly remember liking was ippiki okami (ee-PEE-KEE OH-kah-mee, 一匹狼), which means "lone wolf" and describes people who are very individual-minded, happy to do things outside of a larger group. People who are ippiki okami live life without worrying about what others think, something the Japanese describe with the English words "going my way." Now we've got a cool new T-shirt, featuring the ultimate Lone Wolf ever, Golgo 13. See it on the site now!
At J-List, we go out of our way to find items you can't find anywhere else, and one of our favorite products are the Japan-only flavors of Nestle Kit Kat, which is the "real" Kit Kat since the stuff sold in the U.S. is made by Hershey's under license. Kit Kat has become a hugely successful product in Japan in part because its name sounds like kitto katsu ("you shall surely be victorious"), and parents buy it for their kids to show their support while they prepare for the all-important college entrance exams, which is going on right now. To help Japan's thousands of entrance-exam students, Nestle has brought out new Sakura Kit Kat, a delicious cherry flavored treat with breathtaking images of cherry blossoms on the box. The new Kit Kat TV commercial shows a worried girl about to start her college entrance exam, who is touched when she discoveres a box of Kit Kat her mother had slipped into her bag. The tag line is "Don't worry, the cherry blossoms will bloom for you." See the commercial here (Windows Media required). We also have a cool "sampler set" of all new varieties of Kit Kat for the 2005/2006 season for you.
In addition to our amazing lineup of English-translated dating-sim games, J-List also brings you amazing collections of doujin CG collections. Many of Japan's doujinshi artists create comic-book style books, while others turn to Photoshop instead, making beautiful computer-based CG art. We've licenced several of these CG works directly from the artists, so we can bring you great works in their original, mosaic-free form. Look for convenient sets of these cool CG collections, at special prices!
Now back to more pictures from the AVN show. This is some girl riding on a vibration machine. It was quite a thing to watch.
Normally you only get to take pictures like this in Japan.
The famous Ron Jeremy.
I didn't expect to see a Dorothy dress at the show. I thought that was a Japanese thing.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Japanese Buddhist attitudes about land, and ruminations on when I first arrived in Japan
One big difference between Japan and America is the attitude people have towards land and personal mobility. In the U.S. it's quite common for a person to move several times over the course of his life, to go to a region where jobs are better, move into a larger house as he moves up the ladder of life, or just make a new start in a new part of the country. Since houses are bought and sold regularly, it's common for people with similar income levels to accumulate near each other, a mechanism that's at work in every American community to some extent. The Japanese, however, are more likely to stay in the same place for their entire lives. The reason, it turns out, is related to Japan's Buddhist culture: since families generally have an established ohaka (grave) where all family members will eventually be interred, the idea of permanently leaving that area is almost unthinkable -- at the very least, when you died you'd be far from loved ones who wouldn't come to visit your grave very often. Because of this desire to stay on the same land forever, differences in wealth naturally develop, and it's not uncommon to see beautiful, newly constructed homes located next to shabby old buildings built decades ago.
A gaijin's first visit to Japan is a giddy time, and I remember my first days here very well. I woke up at the crack of dawn -- jet lag will do that to you when going from East to West -- and went out for a walk to see what I could see. After greeting an elderly woman, I bought some UCC canned coffee from a vending machine (which bowed to me, via a small screen), and marveled at a sign letting me know I was entering the village of Fujimi, which means "View of Fuji." In the old days, supposedly, you could see Mt. Fuji from that village when the conditions were right, despite the fact that Fuji-san is 150 km to the south of us. I distinctly remember being amazed at the design of everyday objects here, such as the toilets with hand faucets on top (allowing you to wash your hands with the clean water that flows into the tank after you flush), or with the little slit in butter containers that allows you to keep a butter knife inside but still get the lid on. I was unlike most foreigners in Japan because I'd studied the language for four years at SDSU before coming here, so I could basically get around town and talk to people (and put my foot in my mouth really, really well). Still, I remember being extremely frustrated at not knowing vocabulary words for the things I wanted to say, so I attacked the language ravenously, reading manga and studying until I could express myself the way I wanted.
Our big news today is that Enzai - Falsely Accused, the very first yaoi game to be released in English, is in stock and shipping now. For years we've been attending anime conventions and yaoi fans have been begging us to bring out BL games in English. Their passion won us over, and now we have the first PC dating-sim for yaoi fans in stock and ready for immediate order. The game is great, too, an innovative story based in Napoleonic France in which you assume the role of Guys, a youth accused of a murder he didn't commit. In prison for life, he must accumulate various forms of evidence to clear his name, aided and hindered by the various characters in the game. If you like Japan's unique yaoi themes, we hope you'll support us and get the game!
Since J-List is physically based in Japan, we're able to bring you amazing toys and other items unavailable anywhere else. One of the most popular products we've ever sold were the Furuta Star Trek ship collection, incredibly detailed ships from the Star Trek series made for the Japanese market. We're happy to report the newest Furuta Trek series is in stock: Star Trek Federation & Alien Ships Collection Beta (meaning set 2; Alpha was set 1). The series features the original refit Enterprise from Star Trek: the Motion Picture, the U.S.S. Pasteur and Rio Grande, a Kazon Raider, and the long-awaited Borg Cube. We usually buy these toys by the truckload, but this time we were only able to get our hands on a few cartons, so we recommend serious Trek fans to snap these up ASAP. We also have the Alpha series in stock.
Congratulations to our own Jun, the guy who handles all J-List snacks, gum and traditional products, whose baby girl was born yesterday. Little Renka was 3144 grams. Mother and daughter are doing fine.
A gaijin's first visit to Japan is a giddy time, and I remember my first days here very well. I woke up at the crack of dawn -- jet lag will do that to you when going from East to West -- and went out for a walk to see what I could see. After greeting an elderly woman, I bought some UCC canned coffee from a vending machine (which bowed to me, via a small screen), and marveled at a sign letting me know I was entering the village of Fujimi, which means "View of Fuji." In the old days, supposedly, you could see Mt. Fuji from that village when the conditions were right, despite the fact that Fuji-san is 150 km to the south of us. I distinctly remember being amazed at the design of everyday objects here, such as the toilets with hand faucets on top (allowing you to wash your hands with the clean water that flows into the tank after you flush), or with the little slit in butter containers that allows you to keep a butter knife inside but still get the lid on. I was unlike most foreigners in Japan because I'd studied the language for four years at SDSU before coming here, so I could basically get around town and talk to people (and put my foot in my mouth really, really well). Still, I remember being extremely frustrated at not knowing vocabulary words for the things I wanted to say, so I attacked the language ravenously, reading manga and studying until I could express myself the way I wanted.
Our big news today is that Enzai - Falsely Accused, the very first yaoi game to be released in English, is in stock and shipping now. For years we've been attending anime conventions and yaoi fans have been begging us to bring out BL games in English. Their passion won us over, and now we have the first PC dating-sim for yaoi fans in stock and ready for immediate order. The game is great, too, an innovative story based in Napoleonic France in which you assume the role of Guys, a youth accused of a murder he didn't commit. In prison for life, he must accumulate various forms of evidence to clear his name, aided and hindered by the various characters in the game. If you like Japan's unique yaoi themes, we hope you'll support us and get the game!
Since J-List is physically based in Japan, we're able to bring you amazing toys and other items unavailable anywhere else. One of the most popular products we've ever sold were the Furuta Star Trek ship collection, incredibly detailed ships from the Star Trek series made for the Japanese market. We're happy to report the newest Furuta Trek series is in stock: Star Trek Federation & Alien Ships Collection Beta (meaning set 2; Alpha was set 1). The series features the original refit Enterprise from Star Trek: the Motion Picture, the U.S.S. Pasteur and Rio Grande, a Kazon Raider, and the long-awaited Borg Cube. We usually buy these toys by the truckload, but this time we were only able to get our hands on a few cartons, so we recommend serious Trek fans to snap these up ASAP. We also have the Alpha series in stock.
Congratulations to our own Jun, the guy who handles all J-List snacks, gum and traditional products, whose baby girl was born yesterday. Little Renka was 3144 grams. Mother and daughter are doing fine.
Time to buy the omikuji, the little paper that tells your fortune for the coming year. This one is pretty cool -- you get a little gold talisman to keep with you, all for just 100 yen.
I got the little rake, which supposedly means I'll do well in business this year.
My wife's omikuji. I distinctly remember these things being hellishly hard to read before, with very hard kanji, but the ones they had this year were easy to read, with furigana (the little hiragana they write next to kanji to show you how to read them). Nice of them to think of poor gaijin like that.
When you're done with the fortune paper, you tie it to this tree.
Next we selected our daruma for the new year. They had pink and green ones but that was kind of too newfangled for us.
Although my wife is not from the Osaka area, she loves takoyaki, which are little balls of batter with a bit of octopus meat inside. We got some to take home with us.
Monday, January 16, 2006
The concept of honesty in Japan, our New Year's Day prayer, and winter snow report
I've always believed that people will be what you expect them to be, and if you assume that people are honest, they generally won't let you down. This principle seems to be at work in Japan, a country that certainly has more than its share of honest, upstanding people. One of my first experiences in culture shock here was going to my local Seven Eleven and seeing a brand-new car in the parking lot with the key in the ignition, idling away while their owner ran in to pick up some milk or eggs. I can't say that I've seen too many cars sitting unlocked with the engines running in the U.S., but here no one thinks much about it here, since no one would be so rude as to actually steal your car. An American friend of mine recently went to test-drive a new car, and the dealer handed him the key without even getting a copy of his license, which surprised him too -- the dealer just forked over the key and told him to have fun with the test-drive. Another friend managed to lose his wallet no less than four times in different parts of the country, once as far away as Kyoto, and all four times the wallets were delivered to the police with cash intact. There is crime in Japan, to be sure, and bad people here just like everywhere else, but by and large I've been happy with the honesty I've encountered during my time here.
Yesterday was New Year's Day for us, as we did our Hatsu-moude (ha-tsu MOH-day) or first prayer of the New Year, which is usually done on Jan. 1st. We pulled out all the stops, visiting our local Shinto Shrine to throw money in the offering box, then made our wishes for health and happiness in 2006. We got our omikuji, a kind of extended fortune cookie without the cookie, that gives advice about the coming year and what you should be cautious of. Finally, we bought a new Daruma for our house, a New Year's custom. Our not-quite-New Year's Day continued, as we went to visit my wife's uncle, the one who fought in World War II and would have gone off to die with the Yamato if his ship hadn't developed a convenient mechanical problem at the last minute (he's got a killer scar on his face from a piece of shrapnel from an American bomb). At his house, we played a traditional card game called Karuta, in which players must listen to segments of Japanese history and find the the same text in cards laid out on the table, a fun way to teach kids history they wouldn't otherwise be able to learn.
It's been a rough winter in Japan so far, with parts of the country receiving record snowfall, even places along the Sea of Japan that are used to a lot every year. The problem has been so bad that huge amounts of snow piling up on older houses have been causing them to collapse, killing the usually-elderly inhabitants -- a staggering 90 people have died since the heavy snows began. Warm weather after the heavy snowfall has added to fear of avalanches in parts of the country, and in some places the Self-Defence Forces have been dispatched to help people deal with the snow.
We have some good news for fans of Yulia Nova, the lovely Russian goddess whose DVDs J-List carries exclusively: we've gotten her newest DVD titles in stock for you today! The three new Yulia DVDs feature all-new footage shot over the past year, and let you enjoy Yulia's beauty and Moscow in the Spring, Summer and Winter.
We're declaring war on our remaining stock of 2006 calendars, slashing the prices on almost everything while we close it all out. We've still got an amazing selection of traditional calendars (Famous Castles of Japan, soba noodles), anime calendars (Tsubasa Chronicle, Pokemon, more), JPOP (Morning Musume, BoA), lovely bikini idols (Yu Yamada, Nana Katase), Japanese pro wrestler calendars, classic Japanese cars, and more. Once these calendars are gone they'll be gone for good, never to come back again. Why not browse our calendar selection and find something special to hang up in your home, office, dorm or wherever. The large poster-sized calendars J-List sells are printed exclusively for the Japanese domestic market and aren't available outside of Japan.
Yesterday was New Year's Day for us, as we did our Hatsu-moude (ha-tsu MOH-day) or first prayer of the New Year, which is usually done on Jan. 1st. We pulled out all the stops, visiting our local Shinto Shrine to throw money in the offering box, then made our wishes for health and happiness in 2006. We got our omikuji, a kind of extended fortune cookie without the cookie, that gives advice about the coming year and what you should be cautious of. Finally, we bought a new Daruma for our house, a New Year's custom. Our not-quite-New Year's Day continued, as we went to visit my wife's uncle, the one who fought in World War II and would have gone off to die with the Yamato if his ship hadn't developed a convenient mechanical problem at the last minute (he's got a killer scar on his face from a piece of shrapnel from an American bomb). At his house, we played a traditional card game called Karuta, in which players must listen to segments of Japanese history and find the the same text in cards laid out on the table, a fun way to teach kids history they wouldn't otherwise be able to learn.
It's been a rough winter in Japan so far, with parts of the country receiving record snowfall, even places along the Sea of Japan that are used to a lot every year. The problem has been so bad that huge amounts of snow piling up on older houses have been causing them to collapse, killing the usually-elderly inhabitants -- a staggering 90 people have died since the heavy snows began. Warm weather after the heavy snowfall has added to fear of avalanches in parts of the country, and in some places the Self-Defence Forces have been dispatched to help people deal with the snow.
We have some good news for fans of Yulia Nova, the lovely Russian goddess whose DVDs J-List carries exclusively: we've gotten her newest DVD titles in stock for you today! The three new Yulia DVDs feature all-new footage shot over the past year, and let you enjoy Yulia's beauty and Moscow in the Spring, Summer and Winter.
We're declaring war on our remaining stock of 2006 calendars, slashing the prices on almost everything while we close it all out. We've still got an amazing selection of traditional calendars (Famous Castles of Japan, soba noodles), anime calendars (Tsubasa Chronicle, Pokemon, more), JPOP (Morning Musume, BoA), lovely bikini idols (Yu Yamada, Nana Katase), Japanese pro wrestler calendars, classic Japanese cars, and more. Once these calendars are gone they'll be gone for good, never to come back again. Why not browse our calendar selection and find something special to hang up in your home, office, dorm or wherever. The large poster-sized calendars J-List sells are printed exclusively for the Japanese domestic market and aren't available outside of Japan.
We interrupt the adult video show for...Peter's Hatsu-Moude trip. This is our family's Shinto Shrine, which has a huge tunnel of torii arches for you to pass through.
My son Kazuki.
The actual praying. There's something about times when you clap three times before praying (to get the God's attention) and other times when you don't. This was a "don't clap" time.
This is "Red Fox" (Akai Kitsune, no relation to Samson & Son) that means...something. At this shrine, you put abura-age or fried tofu as an offering. This is somehow related to a popular udon-in-a-bowl you can buy, Akai Kitsune, which has fried tofu inside.
We also bought our omamori for the year, which must be replaced on an annual basis. We bought kotsu anzen (traffic safety) charms for the kids, a health one for me, and a "success in business" one for our company.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
The music scene in Japan, ways to stay cheaply in Japan, and all about Valentine's Day
The music scene in Japan is rich and varied, with its own unique ebbs and flows of visual rock, hip hop, R&B, indies and even enka, the traditional music that fills the same role for the Japanese as country music does in the U.S. The flagship of Japan's music scene is JPOP, and just as anime and manga have found a place in the hearts of fans all over the world, there is no aspect of Japan's pop world that isn't followed by aficionados in other countries. It's interesting to live in Japan and watch the march of progress in the pop scene here, the rise and inevitable fall of influential producers like Tetsuya Komuro (whose "Komuro Family" ruled the 1990s), Morning Musume creator Tsunk, and boy-band kingmaker Johnny Kitagawa of Johnny's Entertainment Group. Every year there are various music-related fashion trends, like when Amuro Namie created a generation of "Amullers" that imitated her slinky style, or the effect on fashion of the chic Kumi Kouda now. The past is often prelude, too: when we started J-List in 1996, there was no hotter JPOP team than Ami and Yumi of Puffy. Now, a decade later, they've made a name for themselves outside of Japan and even have their own cartoon series. Currently a bubblegum pop song by mock Pro Wrestler and comedian Koriki and his stylish backup singers is one of the most popular songs in Japan -- see the music video right here.
Back when I was single, I did a fair bit of traveling around Japan, hitchhiking or riding trains on "Youth 18" tickets, which allow you to go anywhere in Japan for around $25 a day, as long as you don't mind taking 14 hours to get from Osaka to Tokyo. (Poor gaijin like me who live in Japan don't get to buy the spiffy Japan Rail tickets that tourists from overseas have access to.) I've been from Hokkaido to Hiroshima and have really enjoyed getting out and seeing the country. During my travels I've stayed at various places, including conventional "business" and less-conventional "love" hotels, western-style youth hostels, minshuku (a kind of Japanese bed & breakfast where everyone eats and sleeps in a big communal room), and "saunas" (a public bath with a sauna with a central room where you can sleep on the floor for free, trying to ignore the snores of everyone around you). But I've always been a fan of capsule hotels, the miniature honeycomb-like hotel rooms found in larger Japanese cities, a great way to sleep on the cheap. Inside your capsule you have everything you need: bed, blanket, pillow, a little TV, radio with alarm, and a curtain for privacy. Capsule hotels usually have large communal baths and saunas, too. They're cheap, too: you can stay in the heart of Tokyo's hip Shibuya district for around $40.
Valentine's Day is not far off, in case you wanted to do something special and Japan-related this year. Rather than being a day for couples to go on a special date together, "Valentine Day" has become a day for women to show their devotion to men by giving them chocolate. For casual giving there are hundreds of prepackaged chocolate gift boxes sold in stores, and often female office workers will give small boxes of giri choco or "obligation chocolate" to male co-workers to be nice to them, knowing that they will get a return gift on March 14, designated as White Day. Girlfriends, wives and daughters will often make hand-made chocolates for their special men to show their love and thank them for working hard. If you'd like to give this a try this year, we've got a selection of chocolate molds that you can pour melted chocolate or cake mix into, and J-List sells dozens of amazing chocolate treats from Japan, from Japan-only Kit Kat varieties to Pocky and much more.
Back when I was single, I did a fair bit of traveling around Japan, hitchhiking or riding trains on "Youth 18" tickets, which allow you to go anywhere in Japan for around $25 a day, as long as you don't mind taking 14 hours to get from Osaka to Tokyo. (Poor gaijin like me who live in Japan don't get to buy the spiffy Japan Rail tickets that tourists from overseas have access to.) I've been from Hokkaido to Hiroshima and have really enjoyed getting out and seeing the country. During my travels I've stayed at various places, including conventional "business" and less-conventional "love" hotels, western-style youth hostels, minshuku (a kind of Japanese bed & breakfast where everyone eats and sleeps in a big communal room), and "saunas" (a public bath with a sauna with a central room where you can sleep on the floor for free, trying to ignore the snores of everyone around you). But I've always been a fan of capsule hotels, the miniature honeycomb-like hotel rooms found in larger Japanese cities, a great way to sleep on the cheap. Inside your capsule you have everything you need: bed, blanket, pillow, a little TV, radio with alarm, and a curtain for privacy. Capsule hotels usually have large communal baths and saunas, too. They're cheap, too: you can stay in the heart of Tokyo's hip Shibuya district for around $40.
Valentine's Day is not far off, in case you wanted to do something special and Japan-related this year. Rather than being a day for couples to go on a special date together, "Valentine Day" has become a day for women to show their devotion to men by giving them chocolate. For casual giving there are hundreds of prepackaged chocolate gift boxes sold in stores, and often female office workers will give small boxes of giri choco or "obligation chocolate" to male co-workers to be nice to them, knowing that they will get a return gift on March 14, designated as White Day. Girlfriends, wives and daughters will often make hand-made chocolates for their special men to show their love and thank them for working hard. If you'd like to give this a try this year, we've got a selection of chocolate molds that you can pour melted chocolate or cake mix into, and J-List sells dozens of amazing chocolate treats from Japan, from Japan-only Kit Kat varieties to Pocky and much more.
This is Charlie and Helicopter Man.
Another beautiful girl, dressed as a Miko, or Shinto Shrine Maiden.
Giant penis. Getting it up every day was a big challenge.
We all really liked the tall girl, who towered above me.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Standing in the "Nihonjin Line" at Narita, Japan's truck gap, and Japanese tax-related civic spirit
"You know you've been in Japan too long when you think it's cool to stand in the 'Japanese only' line at Narita airport." The first time a foreigner comes to Japan, he stands in the line for gaijin with the other foreigners while his paperwork is processed. Visa-holders who leave Japan intending to return must get a special re-entry stamp in their passports, and if you have this you get to stand in the shorter line for Japanese -- and this is what I did yesterday, after my 10+ hour flight from LAX to Narita, which brought me back to my cold, windy adopted country. After clearing customs, I took advantage of one of the great conveniences of Japan, Yamato Delivery Service, who will take a person's heavy suitcase and deliver it to their door for around $15, saving me from lugging it onto the bus. Yearning for a taste of home, I bought a quick onigiri, a triangular ball of rice with nori seaweed on the outside and salmon on the inside, and some oolong tea, and got on the Azalea Bus (named after the official flower of our prefecture, Gunma) for home.
Whenever I flip between the U.S. and Japan I know I'm in for a little culture shock, whether it's being amazed at the giant size of a "small" drink at McDonald's in the States or the "short" capuchinos sold at Starbucks in Japan. This time I was struck by the cars I noticed on the road. For the most part, the cars in Japan are pretty much the same ones you see in any other country, although they often have funny names like Soarer, Town Bee, Bongo Friendee, Thanks Chariot and Super Saloon. But there's one category of auto that's almost totally missing from Japanese streets: the venerable pickup truck. While pickups by Ford, Toyota and other companies comprise a large percent of car sales in North America, the situation is quite different in Japan. Here, the very idea of a "truck" is a boxy, industrial thing, used by companies for hauling but never owned as an icon of convenience or style. Well, que sera, sera, or as the Japanese say, junin toiro, which literally means "ten people, ten colors" (e.g., everyone has their own unique preference).
In many ways Japan's tax system is similar to the U.S., since the two countries follow the GATT, which governs how accounting rules between countries work. Japan's version of the IRS is the Zeimusho (税務署）, the Ministry of Taxation, and every city has a Tax Office to organize the collecting of the various national, prefectural and city-level taxes. One difference I've noticed between the U.S. and Japan is that there's a lot more "community building" here, with mechanisms designed to bring about a feeling of happy, patriotic spirit when it comes to paying of taxes for the national good. My mother-in-law is a long-time member of the local Kanzeikai, a formal union of business-owners, accountants and other professionals whose stated goal is the "encouragement of honest and accurate paying of taxes." Last year the Kanzeikai members took a government-sponsored trip to Mongolia to see how taxes are collected in that country -- the 15% sales tax there made Japan's 5% consumption tax look very small by comparison. Another activity of the group is to stand on street corners and hand out pocket tissues (the kind you get with J-List orders) with slogans promoting the accurate declaration of income on tax forms as a person's civic duty. They also have seminars to educate members about how important taxes are to society. At one function, my wife was shown an educational movie about what kind of world we'd live in without taxes. For example, if your house was on fire, the fire department would give you a choice of "speedy" or "economy" dispatch services and then charge your credit card before sending out the trucks. The picture above is this year's feel-good "let's all pay our taxes" idol, Yukie Nakama (see her calendar here).
We've got good news for fans of our 2006 calendars: about 30 previously sold-out calendars are back on the site, as we go through and remove old orders in the system. This is a great second chance to get that excellent anime, JPOP, Japanese actress, traditional or other calendar that was sold out before. But our stock is severely limited, so we recommend that you browse our calendars right away before the calendars you want are gone again.
Whenever I flip between the U.S. and Japan I know I'm in for a little culture shock, whether it's being amazed at the giant size of a "small" drink at McDonald's in the States or the "short" capuchinos sold at Starbucks in Japan. This time I was struck by the cars I noticed on the road. For the most part, the cars in Japan are pretty much the same ones you see in any other country, although they often have funny names like Soarer, Town Bee, Bongo Friendee, Thanks Chariot and Super Saloon. But there's one category of auto that's almost totally missing from Japanese streets: the venerable pickup truck. While pickups by Ford, Toyota and other companies comprise a large percent of car sales in North America, the situation is quite different in Japan. Here, the very idea of a "truck" is a boxy, industrial thing, used by companies for hauling but never owned as an icon of convenience or style. Well, que sera, sera, or as the Japanese say, junin toiro, which literally means "ten people, ten colors" (e.g., everyone has their own unique preference).
In many ways Japan's tax system is similar to the U.S., since the two countries follow the GATT, which governs how accounting rules between countries work. Japan's version of the IRS is the Zeimusho (税務署）, the Ministry of Taxation, and every city has a Tax Office to organize the collecting of the various national, prefectural and city-level taxes. One difference I've noticed between the U.S. and Japan is that there's a lot more "community building" here, with mechanisms designed to bring about a feeling of happy, patriotic spirit when it comes to paying of taxes for the national good. My mother-in-law is a long-time member of the local Kanzeikai, a formal union of business-owners, accountants and other professionals whose stated goal is the "encouragement of honest and accurate paying of taxes." Last year the Kanzeikai members took a government-sponsored trip to Mongolia to see how taxes are collected in that country -- the 15% sales tax there made Japan's 5% consumption tax look very small by comparison. Another activity of the group is to stand on street corners and hand out pocket tissues (the kind you get with J-List orders) with slogans promoting the accurate declaration of income on tax forms as a person's civic duty. They also have seminars to educate members about how important taxes are to society. At one function, my wife was shown an educational movie about what kind of world we'd live in without taxes. For example, if your house was on fire, the fire department would give you a choice of "speedy" or "economy" dispatch services and then charge your credit card before sending out the trucks. The picture above is this year's feel-good "let's all pay our taxes" idol, Yukie Nakama (see her calendar here).
We've got good news for fans of our 2006 calendars: about 30 previously sold-out calendars are back on the site, as we go through and remove old orders in the system. This is a great second chance to get that excellent anime, JPOP, Japanese actress, traditional or other calendar that was sold out before. But our stock is severely limited, so we recommend that you browse our calendars right away before the calendars you want are gone again.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Japanese aesthetics not found in Vegas, how computers display Japanese, and bilingualism
We're on our way back from Las Vegas, tired but sated from our time here. The AVN show was good and we had a lot of fun, although at times I was somewhat overwhelmed by the scale of everything. I found myself thinking of one of the things I like about Japan: the tradition of wabi and sabi. Translatable as "sober refinement and elegant simplicity," the words basically boil down to "less is more," and serve to describe much of what I like about the products we sell at J-List. The girls and products on display at the show were certainly very flashy and nice to look at, but there was definitely something lacking because there was no restraint, nothing left to the imagination. The classic example of the Japanese aesthetic tradition of wabi and sabi says that a single rose in bloom is more beautiful than a whole rose garden. Another example I like to use is the American Godzilla film made back in the 1990s, which made sweeping changes to Toho's long-running series to add elements they thought would appeal to American viewers. Instead of a lone, legendary creature that is the focus of so much of our attention, the American film added hundreds of baby Godzillas for maximum thrill and action at every turn. It definitely lacked the wabi and sabi of the original films.
One of the major challenges for computers over the past two decades was getting to the point where something as complex as Japanese characters could be displayed and used easily, and thankfully, modern OSes like Mac OS X and Windows XP (Pro only) have support for Japanese built-in. Kanji is displayed using two bytes instead of one for English, which allows the 3000 or so complex kanji and kana characters used in Japanese to be expressed. Just as ASCII governs how characters will display on your computer monitor, there are encoding systems that convert bytes to actual Japanese characters. Unfortunately, there are several different codes out there, such as JIS, Shift-JIS and ISO 2022, and every once in a while an email message or web page will be made with the wrong encoding system from the one I've got set, resulting in the dreaded "moji-bake" (MOH-gee bah-KAY), in which text turns into meaningless goobledygook on-screen. Fonts in Japanese work pretty much the same as Western ones, with Postscript, Truetype etc., although since there are so many characters they have to describe, the fonts are huge, with some fonts in my Powerbook weighing in at 10 megs and up. Since Japanese fonts are more complex than western ones, they have room for cool characters, like hearts, pictures of telephones, icons for weather and the "onsen mark" that indicates where hot springs are in Japan. As far as the Japanese font is concerned, the special characters are just alternate kanji defined for words like "telephone" "music" and so on. The additional characters you can type using Japanese fonts helps make online ASCII art-style images like the Mona Neko from the 2ch BBS easier to create.
My Japanese wife and I work hard to raise our children so that they'll be bilingual in both English and Japanese. We do our best to encourage English, for example by buying only DVDs from the U.S., so if the kids want to watch a movie, they have to watch it in English. Getting them to actually speak English at home can be difficult though, since the kids know that I understand Japanese. Pretending not to understand and asking them to repeat what they just said in English doesn't work very well, so we try to come up with other ways to tackle English together. Sometimes we play "American family" and speak only English, but since we all know Japanese, it's hard. What works best is when we leave the kids in the U.S. and then disappear, which naturally forces them to speak English to everyone. There's nothing like immersion for language learning.
For the new update, the J-List staff has posted tons of new products, including new kawaii toys (Noma Neko straps!), Totoro items, anime trading cards, Hello Kitty items, snacks, restocked Domo-kun plush toys, and much more (more than I can write down, having just gotten in from Vegas anyway). For our 18 plus customers, we've got tons of new products too, including new DVDs, UMDs for all Sony PSPs, lovely "H" manga, doujinshi (including futanari), and a lot more. See all the new items on the site now -- see them all here.
Remember that J-List has extended our free shipping sale of CD-ROM dating-sim games through the end of January, which gives you a great excuse to order a bishoujo game or six and save a bundle. Our interactive dating-sims are a fantastic genre of entertainment from Japan, and we have interesting games for PCs for all tastes and interests. Why not browse our PC dating-sim games and find some you'd like to play?
One of the major challenges for computers over the past two decades was getting to the point where something as complex as Japanese characters could be displayed and used easily, and thankfully, modern OSes like Mac OS X and Windows XP (Pro only) have support for Japanese built-in. Kanji is displayed using two bytes instead of one for English, which allows the 3000 or so complex kanji and kana characters used in Japanese to be expressed. Just as ASCII governs how characters will display on your computer monitor, there are encoding systems that convert bytes to actual Japanese characters. Unfortunately, there are several different codes out there, such as JIS, Shift-JIS and ISO 2022, and every once in a while an email message or web page will be made with the wrong encoding system from the one I've got set, resulting in the dreaded "moji-bake" (MOH-gee bah-KAY), in which text turns into meaningless goobledygook on-screen. Fonts in Japanese work pretty much the same as Western ones, with Postscript, Truetype etc., although since there are so many characters they have to describe, the fonts are huge, with some fonts in my Powerbook weighing in at 10 megs and up. Since Japanese fonts are more complex than western ones, they have room for cool characters, like hearts, pictures of telephones, icons for weather and the "onsen mark" that indicates where hot springs are in Japan. As far as the Japanese font is concerned, the special characters are just alternate kanji defined for words like "telephone" "music" and so on. The additional characters you can type using Japanese fonts helps make online ASCII art-style images like the Mona Neko from the 2ch BBS easier to create.
My Japanese wife and I work hard to raise our children so that they'll be bilingual in both English and Japanese. We do our best to encourage English, for example by buying only DVDs from the U.S., so if the kids want to watch a movie, they have to watch it in English. Getting them to actually speak English at home can be difficult though, since the kids know that I understand Japanese. Pretending not to understand and asking them to repeat what they just said in English doesn't work very well, so we try to come up with other ways to tackle English together. Sometimes we play "American family" and speak only English, but since we all know Japanese, it's hard. What works best is when we leave the kids in the U.S. and then disappear, which naturally forces them to speak English to everyone. There's nothing like immersion for language learning.
For the new update, the J-List staff has posted tons of new products, including new kawaii toys (Noma Neko straps!), Totoro items, anime trading cards, Hello Kitty items, snacks, restocked Domo-kun plush toys, and much more (more than I can write down, having just gotten in from Vegas anyway). For our 18 plus customers, we've got tons of new products too, including new DVDs, UMDs for all Sony PSPs, lovely "H" manga, doujinshi (including futanari), and a lot more. See all the new items on the site now -- see them all here.
Remember that J-List has extended our free shipping sale of CD-ROM dating-sim games through the end of January, which gives you a great excuse to order a bishoujo game or six and save a bundle. Our interactive dating-sims are a fantastic genre of entertainment from Japan, and we have interesting games for PCs for all tastes and interests. Why not browse our PC dating-sim games and find some you'd like to play?
Friday, January 06, 2006
Las Vegas, the Japanese concept of "face," and the best sauce for your eggs
Hello from happenin' Las Vegas. We're here at the AVN Expo and having lots of fun talking with customers and flirting with the beautiful girls at the show. We were also graced with the presence of Helicopter Man, a very nimble JAV actor who has an amazing style. Remember, if you'll be at the Sands Expo Center this weekend, come by booth 1174 and say hi!
One area that's not well understood about Japan is the concept of "face." If you've read too many James Clavell novels, as I did before heading for Japan, you might think that Japanese people are highly concerned with avoiding any loss of face. In reality, I have seldom even heard the concept mentioned, and in fact it took me a few years of living in Japan to even learn how to express the idea of "losing face" in Japanese (which is usually expressed as kao wo tsubusu, which literally means "to have one's face crushed"). Although the concept is not that common, I have managed to have my face crushed a few times. Once, I introduced a friend into an English teaching position at a nearby facility for people with disabilities, where a Japanese friend of mine worked. Because I'd made an official introduction -- shoukai in Japanese -- the person should have taken care to do an extra good job, since my reputation was on the line as the person who had gotten her the position. When she flaked and stopped teaching the lesson, it made me look very bad, and I had to apologize to the students. Another time I've observed the somewhat rare concept of "face" was at a school I taught at back in the mid 1990s. Over the course of 10 years or so, the school had managed to accumulate so much bad debt the bank itself would be in danger of going under if the school defaulted on their loans. This would be a huge embarrassment to the bank manager who had okayed all the bad debt, so the logical thing to do was to continue loaning money to the unprofitable school so it could continue to operate, losing even more money. It made it another six years then finally went under, presumably giving the bank manager in question time to retire and push the mess onto someone else, and avoid having his face crushed.
Soy sauce is a popular flavoring in Japan, and is used more often than salt and pepper to improve the flavor of food -- I realized one day that my wife doesn't even keep salt and pepper in our kitchen, since she never uses them. Another popular sauce used by the Japanese goes by the descriptive name of "sauce" (soh-su, although it's officially known as tonkatsu sauce). It's a delicious thick sauce that compliments many kinds of foods, especially fried food like potato croquettes. Both soy sauce and tonkatsu sauce are sometimes poured over eggs in Japan, and a debate has raged for years at J-List as to which tastes better. Personally, I think nothing improves fried eggs than a dabble of Kikkoman soy sauce, but apparently I am in the minority, as most of the other J-List staff favor the thicker tonkatsu sauce on their eggs. In case you're interested in making the same comparison, we've gotten Bulldog's delicious tonkatsu sauce in stock on the site for you.
How would you like to spend the year with a beautiful Japanese girl? We still have dozens of super 2006 calendars in stock, including some excellent swimsuit idols like Meguru Ishii, Hiroko Sato or half-Japanese half-British Becky. Maybe you like the grown-up Haruka Ayase? Or how about the talented and beautiful actress Yukie Nakama? We've still got tons of 2006 calendars in stock, ready to go out to you ASAP. And starting now, all calendars will get free shipping tubes!
One area that's not well understood about Japan is the concept of "face." If you've read too many James Clavell novels, as I did before heading for Japan, you might think that Japanese people are highly concerned with avoiding any loss of face. In reality, I have seldom even heard the concept mentioned, and in fact it took me a few years of living in Japan to even learn how to express the idea of "losing face" in Japanese (which is usually expressed as kao wo tsubusu, which literally means "to have one's face crushed"). Although the concept is not that common, I have managed to have my face crushed a few times. Once, I introduced a friend into an English teaching position at a nearby facility for people with disabilities, where a Japanese friend of mine worked. Because I'd made an official introduction -- shoukai in Japanese -- the person should have taken care to do an extra good job, since my reputation was on the line as the person who had gotten her the position. When she flaked and stopped teaching the lesson, it made me look very bad, and I had to apologize to the students. Another time I've observed the somewhat rare concept of "face" was at a school I taught at back in the mid 1990s. Over the course of 10 years or so, the school had managed to accumulate so much bad debt the bank itself would be in danger of going under if the school defaulted on their loans. This would be a huge embarrassment to the bank manager who had okayed all the bad debt, so the logical thing to do was to continue loaning money to the unprofitable school so it could continue to operate, losing even more money. It made it another six years then finally went under, presumably giving the bank manager in question time to retire and push the mess onto someone else, and avoid having his face crushed.
Soy sauce is a popular flavoring in Japan, and is used more often than salt and pepper to improve the flavor of food -- I realized one day that my wife doesn't even keep salt and pepper in our kitchen, since she never uses them. Another popular sauce used by the Japanese goes by the descriptive name of "sauce" (soh-su, although it's officially known as tonkatsu sauce). It's a delicious thick sauce that compliments many kinds of foods, especially fried food like potato croquettes. Both soy sauce and tonkatsu sauce are sometimes poured over eggs in Japan, and a debate has raged for years at J-List as to which tastes better. Personally, I think nothing improves fried eggs than a dabble of Kikkoman soy sauce, but apparently I am in the minority, as most of the other J-List staff favor the thicker tonkatsu sauce on their eggs. In case you're interested in making the same comparison, we've gotten Bulldog's delicious tonkatsu sauce in stock on the site for you.
How would you like to spend the year with a beautiful Japanese girl? We still have dozens of super 2006 calendars in stock, including some excellent swimsuit idols like Meguru Ishii, Hiroko Sato or half-Japanese half-British Becky. Maybe you like the grown-up Haruka Ayase? Or how about the talented and beautiful actress Yukie Nakama? We've still got tons of 2006 calendars in stock, ready to go out to you ASAP. And starting now, all calendars will get free shipping tubes!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
How Japanese buildings are incubated, about Japanese eye color, and an invitation to Vegas
"You've been in Japan too long when you believe that buildings are made by incubating the site in blue plastic sheeting for nine months." Japan is, as I've mentioned before, a "construction nation," and a huge segment of the economy is driven by various public and private construction projects -- kind of like military contractors in the U.S. Even in the dark days of the mid and late 1990s recessions, there was a steady stream of new roads, homes and buildings (especially pachinko parlors) being constructed. When the Japanese build a tall building, they do it right: as the framework is being built, the exterior or the building is completely enclosed in sheeting so that a hammer dropped from one of the upper floors won't cause a hazard to people below. Up goes a giant plastic cocoon that says ANZEN DAIICHI ("safety first") on the side, and a few months later a skyscraper is hatched. When you're not used to seeing buildings being constructed this way, it can look quite strange, almost as strange as the bamboo scaffolding that's used alongside buildings in Hong Kong -- bamboo is a strong, light material that's readily available, after all, although it's certainly not used this way in Japan.
What color are your eyes? All Japanese people have brown eyes, although if you ever ask them what color their eyes are, they'll tell you "black" (because the center of the eyes are indeed black). Japanese are often interested in the eyes of foreigners, since they come in different colors, something totally unknown in Japan (although they do have color contact lenses here). When I tell Japanese that my eyes change color depending on what I'm wearing, ranging from green to hazel to blue, they usually don't believe it's possible. Once, I was asked by my former Spanish teacher, a Japanese woman who grew up in Peru, if I saw the world through a blue or green tint because of the color of my eyes. This was just about the weirdest thing anyone has ever asked me in my life.
Now we're off to Sin City for a convention, the always-fun AVN Adult Entertainment Expo that runs January 5-8 at the Sand Expo Center, where we'll have our unique Japan-related products on display, in addition to cool freebees like our Japanese Pocket Tissue. If you're going to be at the show, we'd love for you to drop by and say hello! All customers who mention J-List will get a free gift just for coming by. For info on the show, see this page.
Since J-List is physically based in Japan, we're able to find hundreds of amazing products for our customers each month, including many bizarre and fun items that can't be found outside of Japan. We often find ourselves setting trends, from kanji T-shirts to the "strange ratio" cute canines known as The Dog and more. We've also been involved with the amazing OH! Mikey, the bizarre TV show acted with mannequins that tells the story of the Fuccons, a parody of an American family that has come to live in Japan. With great characters like Mikey (an average, er, American boy), Barbara and James (his outrageous parents), spoiled Laura (his cousin, who has a crush on him), and the hilarious Tony and Charles from England, OH! Mikey is non-stop hilarity at its best. Now the series is being released in the U.S. -- and you can get the first special sampler DVD for just $5.98 from J-List!
J-List is happy to make our popular PC dating-sim games available to fans all over the world, and we've got a mind-boggling lineup of English- translated titles from companies like Peach Princess, G-Collections, and JAST USA, with interactive "H" games for every taste. We've decided to extend the free shipping for all CD-ROM games through the end of January, allowing everyone to experience these long-playing multi-scenario PC games, which are fully translated to English and free of the pesky mosaic that's on the Japanese versions. January is a great time to deck out your game shelf with excellent dating-sims for your Windows computer!
What color are your eyes? All Japanese people have brown eyes, although if you ever ask them what color their eyes are, they'll tell you "black" (because the center of the eyes are indeed black). Japanese are often interested in the eyes of foreigners, since they come in different colors, something totally unknown in Japan (although they do have color contact lenses here). When I tell Japanese that my eyes change color depending on what I'm wearing, ranging from green to hazel to blue, they usually don't believe it's possible. Once, I was asked by my former Spanish teacher, a Japanese woman who grew up in Peru, if I saw the world through a blue or green tint because of the color of my eyes. This was just about the weirdest thing anyone has ever asked me in my life.
Now we're off to Sin City for a convention, the always-fun AVN Adult Entertainment Expo that runs January 5-8 at the Sand Expo Center, where we'll have our unique Japan-related products on display, in addition to cool freebees like our Japanese Pocket Tissue. If you're going to be at the show, we'd love for you to drop by and say hello! All customers who mention J-List will get a free gift just for coming by. For info on the show, see this page.
Since J-List is physically based in Japan, we're able to find hundreds of amazing products for our customers each month, including many bizarre and fun items that can't be found outside of Japan. We often find ourselves setting trends, from kanji T-shirts to the "strange ratio" cute canines known as The Dog and more. We've also been involved with the amazing OH! Mikey, the bizarre TV show acted with mannequins that tells the story of the Fuccons, a parody of an American family that has come to live in Japan. With great characters like Mikey (an average, er, American boy), Barbara and James (his outrageous parents), spoiled Laura (his cousin, who has a crush on him), and the hilarious Tony and Charles from England, OH! Mikey is non-stop hilarity at its best. Now the series is being released in the U.S. -- and you can get the first special sampler DVD for just $5.98 from J-List!
J-List is happy to make our popular PC dating-sim games available to fans all over the world, and we've got a mind-boggling lineup of English- translated titles from companies like Peach Princess, G-Collections, and JAST USA, with interactive "H" games for every taste. We've decided to extend the free shipping for all CD-ROM games through the end of January, allowing everyone to experience these long-playing multi-scenario PC games, which are fully translated to English and free of the pesky mosaic that's on the Japanese versions. January is a great time to deck out your game shelf with excellent dating-sims for your Windows computer!
Monday, January 02, 2006
Akemashite Omedetou, all about Japanese banking, and forces at work on banks in Japan
Hello and Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu to everyone. We hope you had a really fun New Year's blast -- we certainly did, although it was a little bizarre. We're here in San Diego, so we had a pretty traditional (for America) celebration, with champagne, funny hats and the Times Square countdown on TV. But we didn't want to give up our Japanese-style Dec. 31st experience, so we ate traditional toshi-koshi ("crossing into the new year") noodles and mochi (the oddly named 'rice cakes' which is just white rice pressed into squares that are heavenly toasted and covered with soy sauce). For the first time in ten years we were unable to watch the big JPOP extravaganza Kohaku, the most-watched show of the year in Japan, but we've got it waiting for us on the DVR at home.
The subject of Japanese banks is an interesting one. There are two kinds of traditional Japanese banks, the so-called "city banks" like Sumitomo or Tokyo-Mitsubishi, which are well-known national institutions; and the hundreds of small and medium-sized provincial banks that serve the regions outside of Tokyo. The banks do pretty much what you'd expect them to do -- hold deposits, make loans and offer various financial services -- but there are some big differences. First of all, Japanese banks are the most conservative in the world, and they are terrified of new ideas; as a result Japan's online banking world is a decade behind the likes of Wells Fargo. While most businesses try to differentiate themselves from their competitors, Japanese banks nearly always compete by trying to be exactly like their peers, right down to the interest rates offered, which are so low you'd laugh (one of the best rates offered by our local bank is 0.1% on a 5 year CD). This seems to be related to the concept of shinrai, or trust -- if a bank acts exactly as you expect it to, it earns your trust more quickly.
There are two external forces at work on Japan's banking world right now. One is Japan Post, the soon-to-be-privatized post office. In addition to delivering the mail, Japan Post acts as the largest bank in the world, securing the deposits of millions of Japanese families with an unbelievable $3.5 trillion in cash -- about equal the annual GDP of Japan itself. Despite the reality that Japan has a perfectly healthy banking sector that could provide these services, the government-backed postal savings system plays the part of the proverbial 800 lb. gorilla and interferes with the normal functioning of banks -- and pays no taxes by the way. The other force Japan's banks have to contend with are the gaishi-kei, foreign and foreign-backed banks that are the principle source of actual competition in the banking world. Some, like the all-online Shinsei Bank, even have -- gasp! -- gaijin CEOs! From offering much higher returns on investments (a full 1.25% rate on a 5 year CD) to providing innovative products like dollar or euro accounts inside Japan, to slashing the outmoded fees that normal banks charge (such as $7 to transfer $50 to someone a few miles away), these young instutions are finding many new ways to entice consumers.
At J-List, we've always been fans of the unique PC dating-sim games, and you can choose from an incredible selection of interesting games (including many games by download). We're happy to announce that Enzai - Falsely Accused, the very first PC yaoi game ever, has gone "golden master" and will be shipping soon. If you haven't preordered this great game yet, we hope you'll do so soon, to show your support for this fascinating new genre of interactive adventure games from Japan. Set in Napoleanic Europe, Enzai is the tale of Guys, a young man in prison for a crime he didn't commit, a fascinating multi-scenario mystery that you have total control of.
J-List currently has an amazing lineup of 3000 products from Japan, a truly mind-boggling selection of items for every taste. Did you miss checking through our 2006 anime, JPOP and gorgeous idol/actress calendars, with newly reduced prices? Looking for something wacky but fun from Japan, like our authentic tabi "ninja boots" or Japanese headbands? How about our amazing selection of Japanese snacks or gum? Or a downloadable dating-sim game for your PC? You'll always see a new side of Japan every time you browse J-List's products. To browse all our products in order of last update, click here
Remember that J-List is having a great sale on our close-out T-shirt designs, which we're getting rid of older shirts to make room for new creations. In addition to the reduced prices, you also get free shipping in the U.S. and Canada (or half price shipping for international customers). It's the last chance to buy such wacky designs as It Is Forbidden to Commit Seppuku, so check out our selection now!
Every month we present a new JAV star as "this month's girl." The selection for this month is the delightful indies idol Izumi Hasegawa, a gorgeous starlet who acts on the Moodyz label mostly. Born on March 12, 1983 in Tokyo, her "three sizes" are 88 (bust), 59 (waist) and 85 cm (hip). She's acted in a wide range of works, playing the cute girl-type, then an elegant female teacher (complete with glasses, gotta have the glasses), then taking on a mass of big black men from the USA. Her blood type is O, and her interests are karaoke, shopping, and going to hot springs (onsen).
The subject of Japanese banks is an interesting one. There are two kinds of traditional Japanese banks, the so-called "city banks" like Sumitomo or Tokyo-Mitsubishi, which are well-known national institutions; and the hundreds of small and medium-sized provincial banks that serve the regions outside of Tokyo. The banks do pretty much what you'd expect them to do -- hold deposits, make loans and offer various financial services -- but there are some big differences. First of all, Japanese banks are the most conservative in the world, and they are terrified of new ideas; as a result Japan's online banking world is a decade behind the likes of Wells Fargo. While most businesses try to differentiate themselves from their competitors, Japanese banks nearly always compete by trying to be exactly like their peers, right down to the interest rates offered, which are so low you'd laugh (one of the best rates offered by our local bank is 0.1% on a 5 year CD). This seems to be related to the concept of shinrai, or trust -- if a bank acts exactly as you expect it to, it earns your trust more quickly.
There are two external forces at work on Japan's banking world right now. One is Japan Post, the soon-to-be-privatized post office. In addition to delivering the mail, Japan Post acts as the largest bank in the world, securing the deposits of millions of Japanese families with an unbelievable $3.5 trillion in cash -- about equal the annual GDP of Japan itself. Despite the reality that Japan has a perfectly healthy banking sector that could provide these services, the government-backed postal savings system plays the part of the proverbial 800 lb. gorilla and interferes with the normal functioning of banks -- and pays no taxes by the way. The other force Japan's banks have to contend with are the gaishi-kei, foreign and foreign-backed banks that are the principle source of actual competition in the banking world. Some, like the all-online Shinsei Bank, even have -- gasp! -- gaijin CEOs! From offering much higher returns on investments (a full 1.25% rate on a 5 year CD) to providing innovative products like dollar or euro accounts inside Japan, to slashing the outmoded fees that normal banks charge (such as $7 to transfer $50 to someone a few miles away), these young instutions are finding many new ways to entice consumers.
At J-List, we've always been fans of the unique PC dating-sim games, and you can choose from an incredible selection of interesting games (including many games by download). We're happy to announce that Enzai - Falsely Accused, the very first PC yaoi game ever, has gone "golden master" and will be shipping soon. If you haven't preordered this great game yet, we hope you'll do so soon, to show your support for this fascinating new genre of interactive adventure games from Japan. Set in Napoleanic Europe, Enzai is the tale of Guys, a young man in prison for a crime he didn't commit, a fascinating multi-scenario mystery that you have total control of.
J-List currently has an amazing lineup of 3000 products from Japan, a truly mind-boggling selection of items for every taste. Did you miss checking through our 2006 anime, JPOP and gorgeous idol/actress calendars, with newly reduced prices? Looking for something wacky but fun from Japan, like our authentic tabi "ninja boots" or Japanese headbands? How about our amazing selection of Japanese snacks or gum? Or a downloadable dating-sim game for your PC? You'll always see a new side of Japan every time you browse J-List's products. To browse all our products in order of last update, click here
Remember that J-List is having a great sale on our close-out T-shirt designs, which we're getting rid of older shirts to make room for new creations. In addition to the reduced prices, you also get free shipping in the U.S. and Canada (or half price shipping for international customers). It's the last chance to buy such wacky designs as It Is Forbidden to Commit Seppuku, so check out our selection now!
Every month we present a new JAV star as "this month's girl." The selection for this month is the delightful indies idol Izumi Hasegawa, a gorgeous starlet who acts on the Moodyz label mostly. Born on March 12, 1983 in Tokyo, her "three sizes" are 88 (bust), 59 (waist) and 85 cm (hip). She's acted in a wide range of works, playing the cute girl-type, then an elegant female teacher (complete with glasses, gotta have the glasses), then taking on a mass of big black men from the USA. Her blood type is O, and her interests are karaoke, shopping, and going to hot springs (onsen).
Friday, December 30, 2005
On the Japanese concept of "normal," ideas that Japanese can't come up with, and how to be rude to the Emperor
Hello again from J-List. We're still enjoying our vacation in the U.S., this time in beautiful San Luis Obispo, where we've come to enjoy some natural hot springs (an American version of the onsen that we love so much in Japan). We're doing the whole tourist thing, visiting Hearst Castle, tasting wine, and eating corn chowder and potato pancakes at the Apple Farm Inn (a family tradition, whenever we're in the area).
Language always reflects the society that creates it, and there are many interesting words that give insight into Japan. I know that I consider myself quite a unique individual, and if you said I was the same as everyone else, I might be mildly insulted. But to many Japanese, being thought of as pretty much the same as everyone else -- embodied in the Japanese word futsuu, meaning "normal" or "usual" -- is not a problem at all, at least on the surface. When I was in college, I strove to be as different from everyone else as I could be, reading manga and blasting JPOP music in my car, but I had Japanese friends who made funny faces if I ever implied that they were very different from other Japanese, using either the words kawatteiru (meaning "odd" or "different") or the stronger hen ("strange"). At one of the Japanese bishoujo game companies we work with, there was a slightly odd programmer who legally changed his name to Reiji Abe, or in Japanese name order, Abe Reiji (ah-BEH REI-ji), because he wanted his name to have the same pronunciation as the English word "average" in Japanese. As an unique, individual American, sometimes I am hard pressed to understand Japan...
One thing about Japanese people: they often have a glorious, unifying sense about things, which is called joshiki which just means common sense. Joshiki pervades Japan, and helps explain why virtually all kids go to normal schools (there's no homeschooling in Japan) or why all babies are born in traditional hospitals (alternate birthing methods are very rare). I consider it a good thing that Japanese tend to be on the same wavelength on many important issues, although there are times when they seem to be incapable of conceiving of certain things that, say, might occur to foreigners, above the obvious like child carseats (which weren't required in Japan until 1999). A friend of ours runs a company and has rather a lot of debt, several loans at different interest rates. I suggested to him that he get one new loan at as low a rate as possible and use it to retire all the other loans he had, and this was the most brilliant idea he'd ever heard -- apparently no one thinks of things like that here. Sometimes the ideas that occur to gaijin are better left unstated though. In Japan, the kanji character kimi refers to the Emperor (as in Kimigayo, the Japanese National Anthem), yet the word is also a very informal word for "you," roughly translatable as "hey dude." I observed that, since kimi also refers to the Emperor, it might be acceptable to use this informal pronoun when addressing the Emperor himself -- surely an idea that could only occur to a gaijin. Bottom line, I don't think the irony of my suggestion was appreciated by the Japanese staff of J-List.
Remember that J-List carries the excellent region free DVD players by Lasonic, which allow you to enjoy DVDs from all countries, not just the U.S. and Canada. Whether you want to watch the high-end indies or anime DVDs from Japan, or enjoy discs from Europe, Australia or South America, the Lasonic players we've got are excellent for you. The players also play just about anything you can throw at them -- VCD, DVD-R/RW/R+ and more. But best of all, they're incredibly affordable, starting at just $68 for the Karaoke-enabled DVD-7880K, $109 for the full-featured DVD-7050, and just $148 for the take-anywhere M-280, which has a 7-inch wide screen and great features. All players are shipped out of San Diego for your convenience and are fully warranted.
Since this is the last J-List update of 2005, it's a good time to look back over the past year, which went by so fast our heads are still spinning. 2005 was a great year for J-List, and we brought cool products from Japan to tens of thousands of customers. We hope you'll continue to expect great things of J-List in 2006! So until next time, we'll say yoi otoshi o ("Have a Happy New Year"), which is what you say in Japanese before Jan. 1st -- after the New Year arrives, you break out with the akemashite omedetou (which literally means "Congratulations on opening the New Year").
Language always reflects the society that creates it, and there are many interesting words that give insight into Japan. I know that I consider myself quite a unique individual, and if you said I was the same as everyone else, I might be mildly insulted. But to many Japanese, being thought of as pretty much the same as everyone else -- embodied in the Japanese word futsuu, meaning "normal" or "usual" -- is not a problem at all, at least on the surface. When I was in college, I strove to be as different from everyone else as I could be, reading manga and blasting JPOP music in my car, but I had Japanese friends who made funny faces if I ever implied that they were very different from other Japanese, using either the words kawatteiru (meaning "odd" or "different") or the stronger hen ("strange"). At one of the Japanese bishoujo game companies we work with, there was a slightly odd programmer who legally changed his name to Reiji Abe, or in Japanese name order, Abe Reiji (ah-BEH REI-ji), because he wanted his name to have the same pronunciation as the English word "average" in Japanese. As an unique, individual American, sometimes I am hard pressed to understand Japan...
One thing about Japanese people: they often have a glorious, unifying sense about things, which is called joshiki which just means common sense. Joshiki pervades Japan, and helps explain why virtually all kids go to normal schools (there's no homeschooling in Japan) or why all babies are born in traditional hospitals (alternate birthing methods are very rare). I consider it a good thing that Japanese tend to be on the same wavelength on many important issues, although there are times when they seem to be incapable of conceiving of certain things that, say, might occur to foreigners, above the obvious like child carseats (which weren't required in Japan until 1999). A friend of ours runs a company and has rather a lot of debt, several loans at different interest rates. I suggested to him that he get one new loan at as low a rate as possible and use it to retire all the other loans he had, and this was the most brilliant idea he'd ever heard -- apparently no one thinks of things like that here. Sometimes the ideas that occur to gaijin are better left unstated though. In Japan, the kanji character kimi refers to the Emperor (as in Kimigayo, the Japanese National Anthem), yet the word is also a very informal word for "you," roughly translatable as "hey dude." I observed that, since kimi also refers to the Emperor, it might be acceptable to use this informal pronoun when addressing the Emperor himself -- surely an idea that could only occur to a gaijin. Bottom line, I don't think the irony of my suggestion was appreciated by the Japanese staff of J-List.
Remember that J-List carries the excellent region free DVD players by Lasonic, which allow you to enjoy DVDs from all countries, not just the U.S. and Canada. Whether you want to watch the high-end indies or anime DVDs from Japan, or enjoy discs from Europe, Australia or South America, the Lasonic players we've got are excellent for you. The players also play just about anything you can throw at them -- VCD, DVD-R/RW/R+ and more. But best of all, they're incredibly affordable, starting at just $68 for the Karaoke-enabled DVD-7880K, $109 for the full-featured DVD-7050, and just $148 for the take-anywhere M-280, which has a 7-inch wide screen and great features. All players are shipped out of San Diego for your convenience and are fully warranted.
Since this is the last J-List update of 2005, it's a good time to look back over the past year, which went by so fast our heads are still spinning. 2005 was a great year for J-List, and we brought cool products from Japan to tens of thousands of customers. We hope you'll continue to expect great things of J-List in 2006! So until next time, we'll say yoi otoshi o ("Have a Happy New Year"), which is what you say in Japanese before Jan. 1st -- after the New Year arrives, you break out with the akemashite omedetou (which literally means "Congratulations on opening the New Year").
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Japanese Daruma, the seasonal nature of Japan, and a sad day for Japan's Adult Video World
One of the coolest images of Japan, to me, are the Daruma, the unique red, roundish dolls that are quite visible in Japan around this time of year. A Daruma is a representation of Bodhidharma, a historical figure from India who founded Zen Buddhism and what would become Kung Fu, and who attained his unique shape by fasting and meditating for so long that his arms and legs disappeared -- although I just know that if I were to ask my Japanese wife about this she'd throw up her hands and tell me she has no idea what I'm talking about. Like Japan's Lucky Cat, which beckons good fortune (especially in business or money) into your home, a Daruma is an object that promises to bring you good luck. The doll originally comes with no eyes drawn in, and when you make a wish for the New Year, you blacken one of the eyes with ink. If your wish comes true during the year, you color the other eye, and a Daruma displayed in a home or business with both eyes colored in is a statement of having attained success. While the Daruma is ostensibly a Buddhist icon, it's become associated with Shinto rites such as New Year's Day, and has kind of "jumped" from one Japanese tradition to the other. Every city in Japan stakes out a "meibutsu" or "famous thing," some object or food that it is famous for, and Takasaki, our neighboring city, just happens to be famous for these beautiful Daruma Dolls. Their official train station bento is Daruma Bento, too, which is well-known throughout Japan.
One of the first things I learned about Japan after going there in 1991 was that it was a very season-focused country, with specific customs and activities for each time of year. Want to buy a warm coat? Buy it in the winter months, since no store will stock them at any other time of year. How about a swimsuit? They're not available outside of May-August for love or money. Fireworks are popular in high summer, but if you wanted to get them at another time of year (for example, to throw your own Guy Fawkes Day bash), you're out of luck. Sometimes J-List customers will wonder why we don't have any stock of our cool "tatami" sandals (actually called "zori" in Japanese) right now, and the reason is that our shoe distributors shut down all production of sandal-type shoes when summer ends, and our backorder of these shoes probably won't be filled until April or so. Calendars follow a similar pattern, and as the very strict "calendar season" that lasts from September to December ends, no calendars will be available in Japan until the 2007 season rolls around. The moral of the story is that if you see something cool on J-List, such as our still-amazing selection of over a hundred 2006 calendars, it's better to snap it up sooner rather than later, since all too often the item will disappear from the site forever.
There's been a tragedy in Japan's AV world: innovative indies director Hajime, of Hajime Planning, has died suddenly. Hajime started out as a salesman inside Japan's maverick indies AV studio Soft on Demand, working his way up through the ranks until he was able to become a director, creating the kinds of videos he wanted to see made under his Hajime Kikaku label. He always had a knack for making interesting productions using off-the-street raw talent, with fresh ideas like "Study of Whale Shower." J-List's Tomo had a great relationship with Director Hajime, and attended his funeral yesterday. The ceremony was a Who's Who of Japan's AV world, with everyone in attendance, from SOD founder Ganari Takahashi to Dogma director Tohjiro to stars like Kurumi Morishita, and even the legendary Kazuhiko Matsumoto (who invented the most infamous AV genre to come out of Japan in the past decade) was there. Hajime was very happy to be able to have his works reach fans outside of Japan through J-List, and we were very glad to be able to help people around the world learn about his amazing works.
Remember, J-List is having a great free shipping sale (or half price shipping, for customers outside the U.S. and Canada) on our close-out T-shirt and hoodie designs. We've got dozens of wacky Japanese T-shirts, with original designs that are bold and interesting and show off your love of Japan to everyone. We've added our long-selling "It is forbidden to urinate" T-shirt (which is based on signs you can actually see in Japan, believe it or not) to our reduced price/free shipping sale. Browse our selection now, before your size sells out!
Friday, December 23, 2005
A watershed year for Japan, notes on Japanese education and university life, and Alo-Hello USA!
Hello from sunny San Diego. We've made the hop from Japan to the U.S. to enjoy our first Christmas at home in three years. As usual, the 24-hours-door-to-door ordeal is a hard one, but except for some December turbulence on the way over, everything went pretty smoothly. Incredibly, the kids even managed to sleep most of the way, which is a rarity. Of course, that means we've got to deal with two jet-lagged kids who are up at 1 am now. Hm, maybe things didn't go that smoothly after all...
Well, it's looking like 2005 is going to be a watershed year for Japan: this is the first year the population will actually shrink, meaning that the number of babies born will be less than the number of deaths, which is coming a few years sooner than previously expected. Like many countries in the West, Japan is a very low birth rate, since most couples choose to have just one or two children, and some Japanese are choosing not to bother with marriage at all (these people are somewhat rudely named make-inu or "loser dogs" in Japanese). In the U.S. and Europe there's a constant stream of immigrants to add to the societies, but in Japan, an island nation in more ways than one, populations will actually start to fall. What will happen? No one can say for sure, but a shrinking tax base and markets that decrease in size despite demand for quality products has got to hurt a country. If nothing else, it might bring about a recession-like business climate even though individual markets might be otherwise healthy.
Japan has a highly developed educational system, with a network of compulsory elementary and junior high schools, and both public and private high schools (which are actually outside of optional here, although almost everyone goes). One of the goals of the educational system is to get students to that all-important day in their lives, the University Entrance Exam, which happens in January and February, when they will be tested on math, science, history, Japanese and English (grammar), to determine if they'll get into a top name school (the top school being Tokyo University) or a suberi-dome or "stop the slide" school, which is there to "catch" students as they slide down the system. Although studying for the university entrance tests is incredibly difficult, a funny thing usually happens once a student get into a school: he usually switches from study mode to "play" mode, working part time jobs or joining clubs (a friend of mine was in the Waseda ODD Club, which stands for Out Door Drinkers). Truth be told, a large number of Japanese college students fail to learn and grow in any meaningful way at many universities, which is why I've told my kids that I'll be sending them to school in the U.S. Scary Japan fact #736? Japan is continuing to build many new universities despite the shrinking population of students.
We still have over 100 amazing Japanese calendars in stock for you, and although they're selling at an incredible rate (we started out with 250 different calendars), we fortunately got some last minute stock of many of our popular items, from the Studio Ghibli (always the #1 seller, it features all original art) to cute faces like Yu Yamada to the amazing kanji art of Mitsuo Aida and much more. Whenever a calendar sells out for that year, we know that we're likely to receive emails from customers asking where the calendar they wanted to buy went. All too often, the answer is that the calendar is gone for good. Don't let this happen to you! (And remember, you can get an extra discount by ordering 4 or more calendars, a great idea if you want to share the love with friends or outfit home and office with Japanese calendar action.)
Well, it's looking like 2005 is going to be a watershed year for Japan: this is the first year the population will actually shrink, meaning that the number of babies born will be less than the number of deaths, which is coming a few years sooner than previously expected. Like many countries in the West, Japan is a very low birth rate, since most couples choose to have just one or two children, and some Japanese are choosing not to bother with marriage at all (these people are somewhat rudely named make-inu or "loser dogs" in Japanese). In the U.S. and Europe there's a constant stream of immigrants to add to the societies, but in Japan, an island nation in more ways than one, populations will actually start to fall. What will happen? No one can say for sure, but a shrinking tax base and markets that decrease in size despite demand for quality products has got to hurt a country. If nothing else, it might bring about a recession-like business climate even though individual markets might be otherwise healthy.
Japan has a highly developed educational system, with a network of compulsory elementary and junior high schools, and both public and private high schools (which are actually outside of optional here, although almost everyone goes). One of the goals of the educational system is to get students to that all-important day in their lives, the University Entrance Exam, which happens in January and February, when they will be tested on math, science, history, Japanese and English (grammar), to determine if they'll get into a top name school (the top school being Tokyo University) or a suberi-dome or "stop the slide" school, which is there to "catch" students as they slide down the system. Although studying for the university entrance tests is incredibly difficult, a funny thing usually happens once a student get into a school: he usually switches from study mode to "play" mode, working part time jobs or joining clubs (a friend of mine was in the Waseda ODD Club, which stands for Out Door Drinkers). Truth be told, a large number of Japanese college students fail to learn and grow in any meaningful way at many universities, which is why I've told my kids that I'll be sending them to school in the U.S. Scary Japan fact #736? Japan is continuing to build many new universities despite the shrinking population of students.
We still have over 100 amazing Japanese calendars in stock for you, and although they're selling at an incredible rate (we started out with 250 different calendars), we fortunately got some last minute stock of many of our popular items, from the Studio Ghibli (always the #1 seller, it features all original art) to cute faces like Yu Yamada to the amazing kanji art of Mitsuo Aida and much more. Whenever a calendar sells out for that year, we know that we're likely to receive emails from customers asking where the calendar they wanted to buy went. All too often, the answer is that the calendar is gone for good. Don't let this happen to you! (And remember, you can get an extra discount by ordering 4 or more calendars, a great idea if you want to share the love with friends or outfit home and office with Japanese calendar action.)
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Japan's discovery of asbestos, difficulties fitting in in Japan, and even more on Japanese and English
It's often said that Japanese society follows behind the West by one or two decades or so, and time and time again I see evidence that this is true. Various changes in Japanese society, from laws governing discrimination in the workplace to child safety standards and public smoking, as well as the slowly growing divorce rate here, seem to come between ten and twenty years after the U.S. and Europe. This year Japan seems to have suddenly discovered that such a thing as asbestos exists and that it causes various forms of terrible cancer, despite the rest of world knowing this for the past quarter-century. Incredibly, asbestos was only recently banned, and hundreds of schools still use it as their primary insulation, possibly my daughter's. Ack!
No matter how much we may try to fit in to our life here in Japan, there are inevitable differences that crop up between our family and our Japanese friends. We finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and went to see the movie the other day. A friend of my son's wanted to come along since he liked the books, too, but there was a problem: we always watch the subtitled versions of films rather than the dubbed one, which kids generally see because they can't read the difficult kanji found in Japanese subtitles. My son's friend was too young to read the subtitles, so we had to go see the movie without him. I've always made it our family policy to only buy movies in English, which has really helped my children get linguistic input in their second language, but sometimes they know so much English they can't interface with others well.
Yes, the Japanese preference for watching foreign films with subtitles rather than dubbed in Japanese is one of the great benefits to living here as opposed to say, China, where all film are dubbed into the local language. This is no doubt part of Japan's special relationship with English and general open-mindedness when it comes to mixing English into their own language. Still, there are many times when the "English" the Japanese use can be confusing, when a word is imported but assigned a slightly different meaning. Many anime fans know that the word for magic is maho, but the Japanese use the English word magic (majikku) too, however only in reference to slight-of-hand tricks that a magician might perform. If you put real milk in your coffee, you'd use the Japanese word (gyunyu); the English word milk (miruku) is also used, but only when talking about powdered or liquid creamer. Every foreigner in Japan has to unlearn the word "bike" (baiku) in reference to a bicycle, since the term always means motorcycle here. And a few weeks ago, we went to buy a new sofa, and I was confused by the salesman, who showed us sofas made out of real leather (kawa) as well as ones made with imitation leather (called "leather" in Japanese, pronounced lezaa). Of course, the differently-defined words aren't "wrong," just different from my own North American dialect, but it can still take some getting used to.
It's never too late to give the gift of wacky things from Japan, thanks to J-List's convenient gift certificates, which you can give to anyone very easily. Gift certificates can be given as physical items sent in a gift box from our San Diego office, or (since Christmas is so close) "virtually," as a printable PDF file sent through email. You can enter any name you like for yourself and your recipient, enter a customized message, and choose whatever amount you want to give. Best of all, email gift certificates are free (physical delivery ones are $3), and they never expire.
We've got one more treat for everyone: a price drop our very cool portable region-free player, the AMW M-280, a take-anywhere DVD player with high-quality letterbox screen that plays DVDs from anywhere in the world, be they region 2 discs from Japan, PAL discs from Europe, you name it. It's got many excellent features, like the ability to play DVDs on a TV or accept video from an external source and display it on the unit's screen, two headphone jacks, and of course it has a full 1-year warranty. At the new price of just $148, it's too good for you not to pick one up. (They're great for keeping in the car, too, for long trips with the kids.)
No matter how much we may try to fit in to our life here in Japan, there are inevitable differences that crop up between our family and our Japanese friends. We finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and went to see the movie the other day. A friend of my son's wanted to come along since he liked the books, too, but there was a problem: we always watch the subtitled versions of films rather than the dubbed one, which kids generally see because they can't read the difficult kanji found in Japanese subtitles. My son's friend was too young to read the subtitles, so we had to go see the movie without him. I've always made it our family policy to only buy movies in English, which has really helped my children get linguistic input in their second language, but sometimes they know so much English they can't interface with others well.
Yes, the Japanese preference for watching foreign films with subtitles rather than dubbed in Japanese is one of the great benefits to living here as opposed to say, China, where all film are dubbed into the local language. This is no doubt part of Japan's special relationship with English and general open-mindedness when it comes to mixing English into their own language. Still, there are many times when the "English" the Japanese use can be confusing, when a word is imported but assigned a slightly different meaning. Many anime fans know that the word for magic is maho, but the Japanese use the English word magic (majikku) too, however only in reference to slight-of-hand tricks that a magician might perform. If you put real milk in your coffee, you'd use the Japanese word (gyunyu); the English word milk (miruku) is also used, but only when talking about powdered or liquid creamer. Every foreigner in Japan has to unlearn the word "bike" (baiku) in reference to a bicycle, since the term always means motorcycle here. And a few weeks ago, we went to buy a new sofa, and I was confused by the salesman, who showed us sofas made out of real leather (kawa) as well as ones made with imitation leather (called "leather" in Japanese, pronounced lezaa). Of course, the differently-defined words aren't "wrong," just different from my own North American dialect, but it can still take some getting used to.
It's never too late to give the gift of wacky things from Japan, thanks to J-List's convenient gift certificates, which you can give to anyone very easily. Gift certificates can be given as physical items sent in a gift box from our San Diego office, or (since Christmas is so close) "virtually," as a printable PDF file sent through email. You can enter any name you like for yourself and your recipient, enter a customized message, and choose whatever amount you want to give. Best of all, email gift certificates are free (physical delivery ones are $3), and they never expire.
We've got one more treat for everyone: a price drop our very cool portable region-free player, the AMW M-280, a take-anywhere DVD player with high-quality letterbox screen that plays DVDs from anywhere in the world, be they region 2 discs from Japan, PAL discs from Europe, you name it. It's got many excellent features, like the ability to play DVDs on a TV or accept video from an external source and display it on the unit's screen, two headphone jacks, and of course it has a full 1-year warranty. At the new price of just $148, it's too good for you not to pick one up. (They're great for keeping in the car, too, for long trips with the kids.)
Monday, December 19, 2005
Cold and snow in Japan, the Japanese vs Albert Einstein, and Japanese studying "best practices"
Hello from freezing, windy Japan! The country has been hit by a cold front of Siberian winds that have chilled the entire nation. As usual, the snow in Japan falls mainly on the Sea of Japan side, and people on the side of the country facing Korea and China are buried in white, while those of us on the other side of the Japan Alps merely get a lot of cold, biting wind. Lucky us.
The Japanese love it when famous foreigners come to Japan, and it's always a big deal when top stars like Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves or "Bra-Pii" visits to promote their latest film. But this is not a new phenomenon -- back in the 1920s, another famous man visited the country, creating quite a stir at the time. The man was Albert Einstein, and he had been invited to hold a series of lectures on General Relativity so that the Japanese could understand his theories. Everywhere Einstein went he was followed by reporters and fawning fans, and he stayed many months here, traveling all around the country and sharing his thoughts with leading Japanese scientists. He also schlepped around the Kyoto area, enjoying traditional ryokan inns and feeding the deer in Nara, just like so many other gaijin have done since. He was also fascinated in the physics behind the nightingale floors in Nijojo Castle in Kyoto, which are designed to squeak when walked on so that ninja couldn't sneak into the castle. The Japanese really appreciate humility in a person, and this feature was more than abundant in Mr. Einstein, part of the reason for his great popularity here.
School has ended for my son, and he's been working on his winter vacation homework, since Japanese kids always get assignments over long breaks to keep them from going baka. Although I'd be dishonest if I said I liked everything about Japan's education system -- I really dislike the idea that there's only one correct way to approach any problem, and there's still not enough tolerance for people like my daughter who don't fit the standard mold of what a Japanese student is supposed to be -- all in all I am impressed with the quality of education my kids are getting here. I've noticed some "best practices" that the Japanese put into effect to make education more effective. For starters, the importance of benkyo (studying) is taught at a very early age, and when students start the first grade parents buy them a special study desk of their very own, a good way to set the tone for the next nine years of compulsory education. The Japanese use many tricks and rhymes to help them remember things like the names of the planets in our Solar System or the first 20 digits of pi, and my wife can recite more than half the periodical table of elements because of memory tricks like this she used when she was small. One of these tricks involves changing how their numbers are pronounced in order to make them easier to say quickly, which helps Japanese children memorize their timestables, although it adds a layer of difficulty for American fathers wanting to help their kids with their studies.
We've updated our contact form, making it easier for J-List customers to contact us securely. The new form lets you select your subject and automatically routes it to where it should go (e.g. manga questions to Yasu, DVD questions to Tomo, and so on). The form is secure, too, so you can leave mail to J-List without worrying about prying eyes. If you ever want to contact us, just visit the website and click the Contact J-List link in the upper left hand coner.
The Japanese love it when famous foreigners come to Japan, and it's always a big deal when top stars like Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves or "Bra-Pii" visits to promote their latest film. But this is not a new phenomenon -- back in the 1920s, another famous man visited the country, creating quite a stir at the time. The man was Albert Einstein, and he had been invited to hold a series of lectures on General Relativity so that the Japanese could understand his theories. Everywhere Einstein went he was followed by reporters and fawning fans, and he stayed many months here, traveling all around the country and sharing his thoughts with leading Japanese scientists. He also schlepped around the Kyoto area, enjoying traditional ryokan inns and feeding the deer in Nara, just like so many other gaijin have done since. He was also fascinated in the physics behind the nightingale floors in Nijojo Castle in Kyoto, which are designed to squeak when walked on so that ninja couldn't sneak into the castle. The Japanese really appreciate humility in a person, and this feature was more than abundant in Mr. Einstein, part of the reason for his great popularity here.
School has ended for my son, and he's been working on his winter vacation homework, since Japanese kids always get assignments over long breaks to keep them from going baka. Although I'd be dishonest if I said I liked everything about Japan's education system -- I really dislike the idea that there's only one correct way to approach any problem, and there's still not enough tolerance for people like my daughter who don't fit the standard mold of what a Japanese student is supposed to be -- all in all I am impressed with the quality of education my kids are getting here. I've noticed some "best practices" that the Japanese put into effect to make education more effective. For starters, the importance of benkyo (studying) is taught at a very early age, and when students start the first grade parents buy them a special study desk of their very own, a good way to set the tone for the next nine years of compulsory education. The Japanese use many tricks and rhymes to help them remember things like the names of the planets in our Solar System or the first 20 digits of pi, and my wife can recite more than half the periodical table of elements because of memory tricks like this she used when she was small. One of these tricks involves changing how their numbers are pronounced in order to make them easier to say quickly, which helps Japanese children memorize their timestables, although it adds a layer of difficulty for American fathers wanting to help their kids with their studies.
We've updated our contact form, making it easier for J-List customers to contact us securely. The new form lets you select your subject and automatically routes it to where it should go (e.g. manga questions to Yasu, DVD questions to Tomo, and so on). The form is secure, too, so you can leave mail to J-List without worrying about prying eyes. If you ever want to contact us, just visit the website and click the Contact J-List link in the upper left hand coner.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Japan's lack of faith in construction, new foods you can eat in Japan, and the J-List Year-End Party
Japan is a nation founded on construction, and much of the country's modern economy is derived from building roads, bridges, and tall, sturdy buildings. Japanese have a lot of faith that their excellent engineering and building codes will protect them from the earthquakes that plague the country, but that faith is being sorely tested now. An architect named Hidetsugu Aneha has admitted to designing numerous structures including hotels, condominiums and even an office building in our own city using deliberately falsified data about the construction and amount of steel used in order to to keep costs down. As a result, a staggering 73 buildings in 17 different prefectures may have to be torn down, as they may collapse in the event of a large quake. Already several hotels constructed using the falsified data have closed their doors to avoid endangering guests, and the full extent of the scandal may not be known for some time.
When you come to live in Japan, it's inevitable that you'll get used to eating some new foods. Being an island nation dependant on the sea, Japanese eat a lot of seafood, something I've really come to appreciate since coming to live hear in 1991. Between delicious sushi, beautifully arranged sashimi and various other types of fish, I eat a lot more seafood here than I thought possible back in the States. Another staple of Japanese gastric culture is rice, and steamed white rice is eaten with almost meal -- in fact, the word for cooked rice (gohan) also serves as a general word for food in general. (Japanese often imagine that Americans eat every meal with a big plate of white bread on the side.) I still love good old Vlassic Dill Pickles from home, but I've come to appreciate some of the local pickled foods, especially Korean-style kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage, although the stuff they make in Japan is never spicy enough for me). Chocolate came to Japan only in the last century, and it's still thought of as somewhat exotic. A much more "down to Earth" Japanese snack treat might be yaki-imo, or baked sweet potatoes cooked over hot stones, sold by a vendor who drives around in a truck playing an eerie song in imitation of the Ice Cream Man from back home. It took me a while, but now I can really appreciate the taste and warmth of baked sweet potato eaten on a cold winter afternoon. (Here the yaki-imo song in MP3 format.)
Tonight is J-List's bonenkai (boh-NEN-KAI), or Year End Party, a big tradition in any company in Japan. Literally meaning "Forget the Past Year Party," it's a time to look back on all that's happened over the past year and say otsukare-sama deshita (ohts-KAH-ray-sah-mah deh-SHTA, "thanks for your hard work") to all employees. 2006 has been an outstanding year for J-List -- we've brought many cool things from Japan to tens of thousands of customers all over the world, and we thank everyone for helping us grow. After eating at a local restaurant famous for its fresh fish (the fish all live in a big tank in the center of the restaurant, and the sashimi guy plucks them out and prepares them as each order comes in), we'll hit a karaoke room and belt out some songs.
We've been hammering out lots of cool new Japan-themed T-shirt designs this month, since our shirts and hoodies make popular gifts, and today we've got another cool design we think you'll love. Thanks to the popularity anime, a lot of obscure Japanese words have been finding their way into English, and one word we're hearing a lot is "sukebe" (pronounced "su-KEH-beh"), which means someone with a dirty mind, essentially the same thing as the famous "ecchi." Our new shirt is perhaps the perfect stealth design, since people who know what it means will laugh, but those who don't will think it's just a generic T-shirt. Totally wacky!
Want to visit Tokyo? Thanks to up-and-coming film director Joe Doughrity and his DVD documentary Seven Days in Japan, you can! Joe made a film of his adventures exploring in Japan's most populous city, and shows you just about everything you've ever wanted to see, from anime museums to the nightlife of Shibuya and more -- he even visit an animation studio. It's a great way to enjoy a visit to Japan for just $10.
When you come to live in Japan, it's inevitable that you'll get used to eating some new foods. Being an island nation dependant on the sea, Japanese eat a lot of seafood, something I've really come to appreciate since coming to live hear in 1991. Between delicious sushi, beautifully arranged sashimi and various other types of fish, I eat a lot more seafood here than I thought possible back in the States. Another staple of Japanese gastric culture is rice, and steamed white rice is eaten with almost meal -- in fact, the word for cooked rice (gohan) also serves as a general word for food in general. (Japanese often imagine that Americans eat every meal with a big plate of white bread on the side.) I still love good old Vlassic Dill Pickles from home, but I've come to appreciate some of the local pickled foods, especially Korean-style kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage, although the stuff they make in Japan is never spicy enough for me). Chocolate came to Japan only in the last century, and it's still thought of as somewhat exotic. A much more "down to Earth" Japanese snack treat might be yaki-imo, or baked sweet potatoes cooked over hot stones, sold by a vendor who drives around in a truck playing an eerie song in imitation of the Ice Cream Man from back home. It took me a while, but now I can really appreciate the taste and warmth of baked sweet potato eaten on a cold winter afternoon. (Here the yaki-imo song in MP3 format.)
Tonight is J-List's bonenkai (boh-NEN-KAI), or Year End Party, a big tradition in any company in Japan. Literally meaning "Forget the Past Year Party," it's a time to look back on all that's happened over the past year and say otsukare-sama deshita (ohts-KAH-ray-sah-mah deh-SHTA, "thanks for your hard work") to all employees. 2006 has been an outstanding year for J-List -- we've brought many cool things from Japan to tens of thousands of customers all over the world, and we thank everyone for helping us grow. After eating at a local restaurant famous for its fresh fish (the fish all live in a big tank in the center of the restaurant, and the sashimi guy plucks them out and prepares them as each order comes in), we'll hit a karaoke room and belt out some songs.
We've been hammering out lots of cool new Japan-themed T-shirt designs this month, since our shirts and hoodies make popular gifts, and today we've got another cool design we think you'll love. Thanks to the popularity anime, a lot of obscure Japanese words have been finding their way into English, and one word we're hearing a lot is "sukebe" (pronounced "su-KEH-beh"), which means someone with a dirty mind, essentially the same thing as the famous "ecchi." Our new shirt is perhaps the perfect stealth design, since people who know what it means will laugh, but those who don't will think it's just a generic T-shirt. Totally wacky!
Want to visit Tokyo? Thanks to up-and-coming film director Joe Doughrity and his DVD documentary Seven Days in Japan, you can! Joe made a film of his adventures exploring in Japan's most populous city, and shows you just about everything you've ever wanted to see, from anime museums to the nightlife of Shibuya and more -- he even visit an animation studio. It's a great way to enjoy a visit to Japan for just $10.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Christmas vs. Buddhism in Japan, all about New Year's, and a Japanese math problem for you to solve
The Christmas holiday means different things to different people, and each country has its own way of observing it. By and large, Japan is a Buddhist nation, although it seems that many people here don't consciously think about themselves in terms of the religion, despite the Buddhist altar, incense and candles in their house -- it's just atari-mae (ah-TAH-ree MAH-eh, mean "taken for granted") that these objects should be in a Japanese home. Because there isn't a long tradition of celebrating the yuletide as there is in the West, Christmas tends to be a bit of an external thing here, less of a holiday (not a holiday at all, actually, as everyone has to go to work), and more of a special time for different segments of society, such as children who look forward to presents, couples who are planning a special date, and friends gathering for a Christmas party with lots of karaoke. One thing I've noticed is that Christmas tends to be an American thing in Japan, having presumably been filtered through the U.S. occupation from 1945-1951, and Japanese today know who Santa Claus is but have little awareness of "Father Christmas" and other British images of the holiday (although they have Christmas Cake here). This is a bit of a bummer, since I've always loved the images presented in Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters (a treat if you don't know them, hunt them down on Amazon), and read them to my American/Japanese kids often.
Just a week after Christmas comes the most important of days in Japan, Oshogatsu, aka New Year's Day. Everyone is making preparations now, buying New Year's decorations to hang on their doors, display in the foyers of their homes, or in some instances, fix to the hoods of their cars. One of the most famous types of decorations is called kagami mochi, lit. "mirror rice cake," attractively arranged pressed rice that are delicious with a dollop of soy sauce. Tonight it's time for us to make our nengajo, or New Year's Cards, which we mail out to all our friends here. I'm torn between choosing something from the excellent Taste of Japan nengajo art collection we've posted to the site today or taking a picture of the kids with our dog Chibi (since 2006 is the Year of the Dog).
After school my son attends a juku, an after-hours study school that compliments his school curriculum and ostensibly covers some of the subjects he's learning at school, but in Japanese (since his school is 70% English). His juku teacher likes to give mind-bending math problems to the students and see if they can find the answers. Here are two such problems that stumped me. Each of the equations below is incorrect. Add one straight line somewhere in each of the two equations to make it correct. See here for the answer.
He're happy to announce that Ever 17 is now in stock. A great new release from Hirameki International for Windows PCs, this is an incredibly dramatic bishoujo title that all fans should play. It is May 1, 2017, and without warning, seven people are trapped in an undersea marine park. Water, air and food are in short supply, and the protective bulkhead can only withstand the pressure of the surrounding water for 119 hours. How will they interact, by cooperating or fighting each other for the scarce resources? Will love grow between the doomed members? Who will betray whom? A super new interactive title that all fans can enjoy, in stock in San Diego!
We've gotten in a huge volley of some of our last stock of 2006 anime, idol, JPOP and other calendars, so now is a great time to browse our selection and make your orders. Restocked calendars include this year's runaway hit Tsubasa Chronicle (all three versions), the always-popular Studio Ghibli, Totoro and Domo-kun calendars, lovely Leon Kadena, Gackt's amazing offering, beautiful Japanese women in hot springs, famous castles of Japan, and a whole lot more. The stock we have will be the last we get in for these calendars, so hurry!
Just a week after Christmas comes the most important of days in Japan, Oshogatsu, aka New Year's Day. Everyone is making preparations now, buying New Year's decorations to hang on their doors, display in the foyers of their homes, or in some instances, fix to the hoods of their cars. One of the most famous types of decorations is called kagami mochi, lit. "mirror rice cake," attractively arranged pressed rice that are delicious with a dollop of soy sauce. Tonight it's time for us to make our nengajo, or New Year's Cards, which we mail out to all our friends here. I'm torn between choosing something from the excellent Taste of Japan nengajo art collection we've posted to the site today or taking a picture of the kids with our dog Chibi (since 2006 is the Year of the Dog).
After school my son attends a juku, an after-hours study school that compliments his school curriculum and ostensibly covers some of the subjects he's learning at school, but in Japanese (since his school is 70% English). His juku teacher likes to give mind-bending math problems to the students and see if they can find the answers. Here are two such problems that stumped me. Each of the equations below is incorrect. Add one straight line somewhere in each of the two equations to make it correct. See here for the answer.
He're happy to announce that Ever 17 is now in stock. A great new release from Hirameki International for Windows PCs, this is an incredibly dramatic bishoujo title that all fans should play. It is May 1, 2017, and without warning, seven people are trapped in an undersea marine park. Water, air and food are in short supply, and the protective bulkhead can only withstand the pressure of the surrounding water for 119 hours. How will they interact, by cooperating or fighting each other for the scarce resources? Will love grow between the doomed members? Who will betray whom? A super new interactive title that all fans can enjoy, in stock in San Diego!
We've gotten in a huge volley of some of our last stock of 2006 anime, idol, JPOP and other calendars, so now is a great time to browse our selection and make your orders. Restocked calendars include this year's runaway hit Tsubasa Chronicle (all three versions), the always-popular Studio Ghibli, Totoro and Domo-kun calendars, lovely Leon Kadena, Gackt's amazing offering, beautiful Japanese women in hot springs, famous castles of Japan, and a whole lot more. The stock we have will be the last we get in for these calendars, so hurry!
Monday, December 12, 2005
NHK and Japanese history, a shocking fire at 3 am, and the living-challenged in Japan
Well, the popular historical drama Yoshitsune has come to an end, and what an end it was. Every year Japan's NHK public television network (the Domo-kun people) makes one breathtakingly beautiful samurai-era drama called the Taiga Drama, and this year's was Yoshitsune (yo-shee-TSOO-nay), the story of a popular folk hero in a war that preceded the Kamakura Shogunate of 1192. Last night the final episode aired, detailing the dramatic last battle of Yoshitsune and his retainers, especially his bodyguard Musashibo Benkei, who fought so hard for his lord that he died while standing on his feet and who has folk hero status in his own right. Taking its cues from the historical dramas of the BBC, Japan has a strong tradition of reliving its history through jidai geki (period dramas, where the word Jedi comes from). It's a very entertaining way for Japanese of all ages to learn about their history. It's common to see pop idols and other popular actresses widen their appeal with fans by appearing in jidai geki, such as former Morning Musume idol Maki Gotoh, who played Yoshitsune's sister.
We got a shock last night: we heard the air-raid siren that goes off every day at noon to signal lunchtime, but at 3 in the morning, which meant there was a fire somewhere in the city. We looked out the window, not expecting to be able to see anything, but were surprised to see a wall of flame and sparks shooting up just a few houses down from us. By the time I got there, the house had already been consumed by fire, and our local fire department was rushing to get water on it. Happily, no one lived in the house, but it was still a real shame, as it was a beautiful old-style Japanese home with real clay kawara tiles. They're still checking for the cause, but arson is feared.
Japan is a great place, with a lot to offer anyone who lives here, but the complexities of society can be too much for some people, who opt out of their rest of their lives through suicide. A staggering 30,000 Japanese choose to take their own lives each year, about the same number as in the U.S. despite the fact that Japan has half America's population. There are various reasons for the high suicide rate, of course -- those with failed businesses and lots of debt are a prime group in post-Bubble Japan, as are young people who face ijime, teasing bordering on psychological torture. Perhaps he biggest reason is the near total lack of a psychological help network, and an innate resistance to seeking help or counseling by people here. In recent years there's been an increase in online suicide groups who forms pacts and die together, often in the eerie forest known as Aokigahara Jukai, a "sea of trees" near Mt. Fuji. Tragically, no less than three separate group suicides were discovered on Sunday in Osaka, Nagoya and Sapporo, with a total of ten people ending their lives together. I personally can't understand the impetus to willingly join the living-impaired -- I mean, life is good, and if it's not for some reason, wait a while and things will get better. Each of us has a mysterious ability to change anything about our lives we want by improving our basic attitudes about life, so be mae-muki (MAH-eh MOO-kii, a really positive Japanese word I like that literally means "forward facing") and tomorrow will be a better day.
J-List sells our famous wacky Japanese T-shirts and soft, warm hoodies, hand-printed with care in San Diego by our experienced silkscreening staff. We're very happy with how successful they've become, and now we've got a new design for you. In Japanese, the letter "H" (pronounced "ecchi") is a euphemism for anything, er, naughty, and we have a new design that captures the bizarreness of this idea by parodying the famous Ecko rhinoceros logo. We've got both a standard T-shirt (in cool-looking Army Green) and a warm hoodie (in red) posted to the site for you now. Enjoy these wacky new designs! All our T-shirts make excellent Christmas gifts, too.
We got a shock last night: we heard the air-raid siren that goes off every day at noon to signal lunchtime, but at 3 in the morning, which meant there was a fire somewhere in the city. We looked out the window, not expecting to be able to see anything, but were surprised to see a wall of flame and sparks shooting up just a few houses down from us. By the time I got there, the house had already been consumed by fire, and our local fire department was rushing to get water on it. Happily, no one lived in the house, but it was still a real shame, as it was a beautiful old-style Japanese home with real clay kawara tiles. They're still checking for the cause, but arson is feared.
Japan is a great place, with a lot to offer anyone who lives here, but the complexities of society can be too much for some people, who opt out of their rest of their lives through suicide. A staggering 30,000 Japanese choose to take their own lives each year, about the same number as in the U.S. despite the fact that Japan has half America's population. There are various reasons for the high suicide rate, of course -- those with failed businesses and lots of debt are a prime group in post-Bubble Japan, as are young people who face ijime, teasing bordering on psychological torture. Perhaps he biggest reason is the near total lack of a psychological help network, and an innate resistance to seeking help or counseling by people here. In recent years there's been an increase in online suicide groups who forms pacts and die together, often in the eerie forest known as Aokigahara Jukai, a "sea of trees" near Mt. Fuji. Tragically, no less than three separate group suicides were discovered on Sunday in Osaka, Nagoya and Sapporo, with a total of ten people ending their lives together. I personally can't understand the impetus to willingly join the living-impaired -- I mean, life is good, and if it's not for some reason, wait a while and things will get better. Each of us has a mysterious ability to change anything about our lives we want by improving our basic attitudes about life, so be mae-muki (MAH-eh MOO-kii, a really positive Japanese word I like that literally means "forward facing") and tomorrow will be a better day.
J-List sells our famous wacky Japanese T-shirts and soft, warm hoodies, hand-printed with care in San Diego by our experienced silkscreening staff. We're very happy with how successful they've become, and now we've got a new design for you. In Japanese, the letter "H" (pronounced "ecchi") is a euphemism for anything, er, naughty, and we have a new design that captures the bizarreness of this idea by parodying the famous Ecko rhinoceros logo. We've got both a standard T-shirt (in cool-looking Army Green) and a warm hoodie (in red) posted to the site for you now. Enjoy these wacky new designs! All our T-shirts make excellent Christmas gifts, too.
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