Greetings from J-List March 15, 2000

Hello from Japan, where even the feminine products have printed Hello Kitty on them.

One thing I'm often impressed with since coming to Japan is the "steadiness" I often see here. When I married my wife and moved to Isesaki, I noticed a man in a nearby field, spending his Sunday afternoon with his RC helicopter (one of the expensive ones), flying it around the field and landing it. Well, it's been six years since that day, and that man is still in that field every Sunday afternoon, playing with his RC helicopter. Over the past six years I've gone through many changes and evolutions, but I have to respect that man for his steadfast adherence to his hobby.

Likewise, this steadiness can be seen in Japanese TV, with anime staples that have been on the air for decades and thousands and thousands of episodes -- mainly Doraemon (the "robot of cat type" who comes from the future to be with his friend, Nobita-kun) and Sazae-san (which follows the happening of the Isono family every week, brought to you by the Toshiba Corporation). The longest running movie series in history is also from Japan -- "Otoko wa Turaiyo" ("It's Tough Being a Man") followed the traveling salesman Tora-san around Japan year after year, for a total of 48 installments (it's in the Guiness Book).

But as with all observations about Japan, there are the exceptions. In America, consumers expect trusted brands, and most of the products you see -- from Milky Way and M&Ms to Coca Cola and Rice Krispies -- have been around for dozens of years. In Japan, however, companies are under pressure to come up with new products -- Morinaga's Choco Flake may have been "the delicious chocolate snack enjoyed by consumers since 1963" but when retailers want something new to attract consumers, it "out with the old, in with the new."
Tonight's update is a nice one, with lots of nice new additions, including:

• An excellent selection of key holder/phone straps, including a keychain of "Street Licca" (the kogal version of Licca-chan), Godzilla 2000 and the Dancing Baby from Ally McBiel (on the anime & toys page)
  
• Haru, a wonderful hardcover photobook of the lovely and delicious Yoshikawa Minami, the "second Aonuma Chiasa"
  
• Great new magazines, including new issues of Panstopia and two different issues of D Cup Japan
  
• Excellent new idol videos, including Final Beauty videos of Yamada Mariya and Yoshida Satomi, and a new Race Queen video offering
  
• For fans of the excellent videos from Soft on Demand, we've got new "costume play sex" that have been very well received -- as with all SOD videos, they really push the envelope and show lots of detail
  

J-List customers tell us that word of mouth is the #1 one way they hear of us. If you know someone who's interested in Japan, please tell them about J-List. Thanks!

Greetings from J-List March 14, 2000

Greetings from Japan, the country with the highest per-capita number of vending machines in the world.

Well, March 14 and White Day are upon us. White Day is the counterpoint to Valentine's Day here in Japan, when men give return presents (usually white chocolate) to women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day. It's not a day that many take seriously of course (except convenience stores, who deck their shelves out with White Day decorations), but Japan is a country that runs on giri -- obligation -- and if you have an obligation to a coworker or acquaintance who gave you something on Valentine's Day, it's just good manners to get them something in return.

While on one of my late-night sessions of videotaped American television, I happened across the famed Chinpokomon episode of South Park, which pokes more than a little fun at the worldwide Pokemon craze. Watching the layers of ridiculous black jokes while the Asahi Super Dry and dried, shredded squid began to take effect made me reflect on the last decade and how much Japan has been a part of it. It was almost an out of body experience -- seeing the "anime" Colonel Sanders commercials for the first time brought on a similar eerie feeling. Incidentally, chinpoko is a kid's word for "penis" in case you wanted to know.

Tonight's update features many great new items, including:

Several new items from the excellent Gremlins toy series by JUN Planning, including the deluxe Gizmo and Mohawk (on the anime & toys page)

Also on the toy & anime page, a highly detailed figure of Edward Scissorhands from the cult movie classic

A half dozen great new adult wide manga, on the hentai manga page

For the motorcycle lover in you, we've added the excellent Outrider, the quintessential magazine for motorcyclists who love touring, as a revolving subscription item

New magazines, including more copies of the popular Okay!! and Ike Ike Magazine

Fresh stock of our great Japanese photobooks, including more copies of the popular Horiuchi Nana's "Tickle"

JAST USA is looking for translators for fun and interesting Japanese to English translations projects. If you can translate Japanese and are interested in working with us, please email me for more information.

Greetings from J-List March 11, 2000

Hello from Japan, where tuna is called "sea chicken."

Trains are a bigger part in the daily lives of Japanese than most Americans, and part of riding trains is checking out the interesting print advertising inside them. Every once in a while, a company will reserve every solitary advertising spot in a train, to attain total saturation of its message. Once Apple did this, and I was surprised to find myself riding a train car filled with "Think Different" ads. Most recently, NTT's Tu-ka portable phone service rented all the advertising spots on a train in central Tokyo to plug their "EZ-Web" service -- one of the many competing new proprietary "Internet by cell-phone" services that keep springing up in Japan. Each poster featured the recent #1 singer and "CM Queen" (as well as the face of Lycos in Japan) Hamasaki Ayumi -- Japan's "new" Amuro Namie.

In addition to heavy competition in the cellular phone industry here, competition is increasing among Japan's 3000 large and small Internet Service Providers, as each tries to add new features to attract people to the Internet. @Nifty pushes their service and lack of down-time, as well as features like fortune-telling right on their site, while NEC's Big Globe supports homepages viewable by portable phones. Sony's ISP, So-Net, allows you to interface the web with a virtual 3D "Postpet" front-end, while AOL Japan struggles to gain market share (with only 43 access points in all of Japan, it's no wonder they haven't done better).

We've got some really nice new items for you this evening, including:

First, we've got several excellent old and rare AV videos, including long out-of-print items by many nice AV stars (see in-stock video page 1)

Also in the "rare, and bound to sell out very quickly" category, we've got a few copies of the long-lost "Love 4" idol series, which brings lovely nude idol footage of four gals per tape -- including many rare faces like Fubuki Akira, Tohno Natsuko, Aonuma Chiasa, Yoshino Sally, and more (see the Idol & Soft Porn page)

Also on the Idol & Soft Porn page, we've got more Matsuda Senna videos in stock, and a lovely video by the most famous and beautiful Race Queen of them all, Fumika Suzuki

On the dojinshi scene, three great new additions, including a super Shadow Defense dojinshi with Chinli and Sakura, and a great erotic Nadia book (!)

For fans of J-List's unique anime & toys page, we've gotten in some cool Licca-chan items, including the highly cool "Street Licca" (a "cogal" version of Japan's #1 doll, complete with loose socks), and Color Change Kira-chan (a lovely, petite doll that changes her hair color) -- there are also Japanese clothes for fashion dolls

Mecha-Ike Older Sister, a nice new "liquid" magazine

More copies of several excellent photobooks that had sold out, including the lovely Saira, Hitomi Ryo's Virginity, Miura Aika's Last SOng, and this month's excellent Mini-Suka Deluxe

Remember that J-List has a special "Three Pack" of English-language hentai games. You can get any three games, including the excellent new release, Viper VM1, for just $105 shipped (extra shipping applies outside of the U.S./Canada) -- this is a savings of up to $30, as good as "buy 2, get 1 free." Take advantage of our offer now.

Greetings from J-List March 8, 2000

Greetings from J-List, your friend in Japan.

Three people are dead after two trains collided head-on on the Hibiya Line in Meguro, Tokyo, in a terrible train accident. By chance I was in Tokyo today, so I got a quick call on my "keitai" (portable) by my wife to see if I was alright. Japan's train safety has been called into practice in recent months, after several instances of concrete falling from Shinkansen tunnels.

In Tokyo, I stopped by Akihabara (the holy Mecca of electronics) to check out what all the fuss over the Playstation 2 is about. While I have to admit that the extra polygons supported by the game's graphics chips made for some of the smoothest 3D I've ever seen in a game console. I found the frame rates of some games to be rather low and limited. Given that high cost of the specialized chips means Sony is supposed to lose money on the console for two years or more, weak sales after the initial rush could turn PS2 into Vietnam for the company. As for the boy who had his Playstion stolen, all is well, and he's got a new unit, thanks to his grandmother -- see the story on ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000306_220.html

We've got some great new items on the plate for you this evening, including:

• Great new magazines, including the new issues of the very popular Gal's Shower, Nippon Mini-Suka Club and Okay!
  
• A half-dozen or so new erotic manga, on the hentai manga page, including a great new busty manga by Ichiro and Sanwa Comics
  
• For members of the Second Otaku Generation, we've got more of the excellent die-cast metal Yamato ship models, including the Andromedia and Desslar's flagship, along with a new Yamato and Captain Harlock's Arcadia, on the anime & toys page
  
• New photobooks, including a great new idol photobook (covering Japan's lovely idols)
  Many great additional copies of items that had sold out before, such as Hitomi Ryo's "Virginity" and the excellent Nowon (on the photobooks pages)
  
• New gouka-bon photobooks, including books for fans of older and married women ("hitozuma")
  
• Three great new tapes in the very erotic Deep Kiss series, which films Japanese women kissing other women then gets their reactions
  
• Finally, that rare gift you've been looking for, a great puzzle map of Japan!
  

If you want to amaze and impress the Japanese people in your life, J-List has zany, esoteric T-shirts with Japanese slogans like "Dare to be stupid" "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" and an excerpt from the Japanese constitution. See them all, along with our "Japanese English" shirts, on the wacky shirts page.

Greetings from J-List March 6, 2000

Hello again from J-List!

Well, Playstation 2 is on sale, after many months of anticipation, and it's an incredible explosion of consumer joy. Millions of PS2's are pouring out of the channel as shops everywhere. In Urawa, near Tokyo, however, there was disappointment. A boy who saved all his New Year's gift money to buy a PS2 had it snatched from his hand by two men on a motorcycle as he walked home. The police were looking into the crime.

Japanese people are always very happy when one of their own becomes famous outside Japan. Having baseball players like Nomo or soccer players like Shoji Joe in Spain recognized as being "good enough" to make it internationally tickles them to no end -- it was even great to find vain singer Matsuda Seiko's 3-second appearance in Armageddon was a thrill. So they are very happy to see Kudoh Yuki appear in Snow Falling on Cedars, a major Hollywood movie and a big step for Asian actresses everywhere (or so they say). I've been a big fan of Yuki-chan's ever since her days pitching ECC English Conversation schools on TV, and it's great to see her go where so few Japanese have been able to go before. I saw an interview with her the other evening, in which she talked about her great rivalry with Tamilyn Tomita and the difficulties she faced trying to make it in Hollywood. (See the movie's official homepage at http://www.universalpictures.com/snowfallingoncedars/cast.html).

Tonight's update is another nice one. Newly added items include:

• New magazines, including the first-ever issue of Cho! Very Good! (featuring the bad girls of Shibuya)
  
• Several copies of the excellent and much-requested Lucky Crepu, which features some of Japan's most lovely girls
  
• For fans of the rare, a number of trading cards of idols like Amuro Namie, Speed and Max before they were famous
  
• For our loyal and much-appreciated JPOP fans, a great update to our JPOP page, featuring a dozen or so new JPOP music singles (including Globe, Oguro Maki and Chinen Rina) -- and remember, our buy-4-get-1-free JPOP sale is going until further notice
  
• A wonderful new DVD, featuring sexy race queen Kihara Rei (and it's subtitled in English, Chinese and Korean!)
  
• From Kaori, a great update of in-stock adult videos, including Akimoto Yuna's "Let's Cosplay, Shirakawa Narumi Pretty Wife" and several fun train videos
  
• A unique and cool item, little "kisekae" (dressable) dolls of Oja-Majo Doremi, a popular girl witch show that my daughter loves
  
• For fans of J-List's unique collection of Japanese snacks, we've got Baked Chocolate Pretz, a wonderful tasty pretzel with chocolate baked into it (see the snacks page)
  

Well, that's all for now. We hope you have a good Monday!

Greetings from J-List March 4, 2000

Greetings from Japan. It's a lazy Saturday afternoon as Tomo and I put the finishing touches on the weekend update today.

As the Japanese recession continues, I've noticed a definite trend in Japanese companies trying to turn their businesses around by emulating successful U.S. companies. Just as U.S. companies scrambled to copy the best of Japan's business practices in the 80's and early 90's (the Saturn company is a great example of this), Japanese companies are trying things the other way around. Seibu Department Stores have formed a cross-pollination alliance with Nordstorm, as they try to teach the "Nordy" method of customer service to their employees, while all manner of companies scramble to adapt e-business models to the Japanese markets.

One area of the Japanese economy that's doing well is beer, which is booming along nicely. Kirin has even knocked rival Asahi out of the lead, garnering 40.2 percent of the market to Asahi's 40.0 percent. In addition to the major brands like Kirin Lager and Asahi Super Dry, the Japanese beer market thrives on seasonal "limited run" beers like Sapporo's Winter Tale, Kirin's Spring has Come beer, and short-lived brands like Asahi First Lady (beer for ladies) and Super Malt (beer made from hops, and not partially from rice, as all other Japanese beers are). If you're interested in seeing some beer commercials, check out CM-Watch at http://www.cm-watch.com (newly updated).

Tonight's update is a nice one, with many great new items for you, including:

• Great new issues of Japan's most popular magazines, including the new Gokuh and Bejean -- the latter of which has a great appearance by the lovely Kanazawa Bunko
  
• New photobooks, including a great new leg fetish photobook, and more copies of the long-lost Kuroda Mirei first (bust 95 cm) photobook
  
• On the S&M photobook page, we've got new gouba-bon format books, including more copies of Traditional Bondage in Japan and the Deluxe Female Urine Book
  
• Some great single-issue copies of PC Angel, on the hentai manga page
  
• For fans of the excellent DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog, a sampler 2-Video CD & magazine set, the new issue is posted on the CD ROMs page
  
• On the in-stock videos page (page 1), a great new 60-minute cos-play (costume playing) video by the lovely Chinatsu Yui
  
• Finally, a great update to our puzzle page, with new puzzles by lovely illustrator Haruyo Morita, as well as great new anime puzzles for fans of The Princess Mononoke, Captain Harlock and Card Captor Sakura
  

Remember that anytime you order more than 10 units of any of J-List's gum or snack items, as well as our collectible card items, you get a 15% discount. We've got lots of great items in stock, so check out the snack & card/puzzle pages now!

Greetings from J-List March 2, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where fatherhood means never taking a bath alone...

I love to watch Japanese TV and see what the next "boom" might be. A company called Megahouse is banking that their tiny camera, a 1/4 size replica of the classic Leica camera, this camera takes real pictures on special quarter-size film. The company is hoping the tiny cameras catch on with high school girls and people in their 20's.

Another potential boom are new digital cameras with an adapter so you can send the pictures to your friends directly through your portable phone. After you snap a picture, you can "write" digitally on it with a special friend before you send it. It's made by NTT Docomo.

Tonight's update is another great one. First of all, by request, we've added funny Japanese English T-shirts to our wacky T-shirts page. Now, in addition to bizarre phrases in English, you can buy authentic Japanese-English T-shirts modeled after real shirts that we found here in Japan. Our shirts are 100% cotton Hanes Comfort-T, and feel really great. Check out the new funny English shirts on the T-shirt page now.

Other newly-added items include:

• Great new magazines, including the new Gal's Dee and Milky Dolls
  
• One of my favorite magazines, Ike Ike Magazine, featuring a wonderful spread of the very erotic Ms. Wakana Sena
  
• New items on our popular gouka-bon S&M photobook page, with a great all-Stewardess costplay book, and another one for fans of school uniforms
  
• For Video CD fans, four new VCD items added to the Video CD page
  
• New in-stock videos, posted by Kaori
  
• Amazingly, we've found a few copies of the out-of-print hardcover photobook Pistil, by the lovely Fubuki Akira
  

I'm flying out the door, heading for Tokyo on business. I'll stay at my favorite capsule hotel in the heart of Shibuya for 3800 yen, and enjoy the deep bath and sauna as well. I enjoy my little trips to Tokyo, but it's deathly cold tonight -- wish me luck!

Greetings from J-List February 29, 2000

Greetings from J-List. Rina and are are safely back in Japan, after an eventless flight on Korean Airlines.

I do so like KAL. The pibinbap (spicy Korean dish of rice, meat and vegetables) is delicious, and the stewardesses are always pretty. I added nicely to my Korean Airlines spoon collection this trip. I'll have to start on forks and knives, soon.

We were only gone a week, so Japan didn't change much while we were gone. Japan is still cold, and still filled with smokers who seem to be everywhere. Japan is still a very different place from California, and yanking my body from one environment into another still gives me a bizarre feeling sometimes. Still, jet lag aside, I'm back in my Japan life with no problems.

Omiyage, or souvenirs brought back from a trip, is a major tradition in Japan, and it's unthinkable to go somewhere and not bring back a suitable memento of your trip for those who didn't get to come along. For J-List I brought those chocolate seashells, along with 3 lbs. of Starbucks coffee. (We're all caffeine addicts here.) Kazuki wanted Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (which is based on Go Go Five) more than anything, so I brought him the U.S. version of Victory Robo. Chiharu got one of the rarest things to find in Japan, onion bagels and cream cheese. Kaori got the nicest omiyage of all though -- her Strawberry iMac, which she's eagerly playing with now at home.

There are several great new items on the J-List site this evening, including:

• The new Dela Beppin, which features the lovely Kanazawa Bunko as well as many more lovely AV gals
  
• The new Birei, the highly erotic all-color magazine featuring the "Pheromone Princess" Hitomi Ryo and many others
  
• Other magazines, including the new issue of Men's Master
  
• A nice update to the high-end gouba-bon photobook page, with the Nakadashi 50 Renpatsu and Lesbos Club Special
  
• A great slew of in-stock adult videos, including Tajima Yu, Kawai Momo, Sakurai Fuka and the sizzling Yumeno Maria -- and more
  
• On the idol & softporn page, great idol videos of Asakura Megumi (!) and the Mini-Suka Police
  
• On the Japanese snacks page, Toppo, a wonderful baked pretzel with chocolate inside
  
• Finally, new from Soft on Demand, a wonderful 2-hour "Masterpiece of SOD" collection video featuring selections from nearly 100 high-quality titles.
  

Remember that the J-List 10%-20% sale on manga & dojinshi is coming to a close in just a few days. Check out the site now, to be sure you don't miss out. In addition to the fine hentai manga we've got, there's also a huge in-stock selection of Lunatic Party and Angelic Impact parody Sailor Moon & Evangelion manga series.

Although there are no Lucky Charms here in Japan, it is nice to be back. See you on the web!

Greetings from J-List February 19, 2000

Greetings from Japan, the home of "soft cream" and "Pal Sweet Diet."

Racism and bias are always bad things, and with population of foreigners in Japan rising -- the official number of registered foreigners is about 1% of the country, which means that the actual number is higher, counting foreigners who are not registered -- that can put pressure on a country. Recently, in Gunma, a man who accidentally killed an acquaintance while wrestling with him tried to blame the crime on foreigners, saying that they were attacked by a gang of Iranians. And in Hamamatsu, near Mt. Fuji, a Brazilian woman was denied entry into a Japanese-owned jewelry store because of her nationality (if she'd been from America or Europe, she'd have been welcome, but she was from Brazil). She sued and won.

On the other hand, sometimes we foreigners deserve some of the bad reputation we get. For example, a certain Korean coin with a very low value passes as a 500 yen coin (worth about $5) if holes are drilled in it. In many old vending machines, you can put in one of these counterfeit coins and get out a 500 yen coin. Theft using altered Korean coins has become a social problem throughout all of Japan, and nearly everywhere you go vending machines have the 500 yen slot disabled. Some years ago, counterfeit telephone cards with metal strips that could foil public phones were all the rage among foreigners and younger Japanese, allowing people to cheat NTT and make free phone calls. To buy the cards, you only needed to go to Ueno Park and find any Iranian -- I must admit to having bought a few myself. Most foreigners here are law-abiding, tax-paying members of Japanese society, but the ones that aren't ruin it for the group at large.

We've got a very special update for you tonight. First of all, we're extremely happy announce that JAST USA is bringing you the excellent Viper M1 hentai simulation game, by Hobibox Europe and Sogna. A positively wonderful game, with full motion animation, beautiful characters and three great hentai stories, the Viper M1 is one of the most requested games ever -- and now it's available in English and Italian!

Viper M1 is one of the best hentai games ever to be bought out in English. To "sweeten the pot" for hentai game fans, we've included the new title in our J-List "Threepack" special -- so you can get any three English games, including Viper M1, shipped to you for just $105 (or $120 outside of US/Canada). See this title on Hentai Games Page 1.

Oh, and one more item -- by customer request, the widescreen Laserdisc of Star Wars Episode 1, the only digital version of the excellent movie that will be released -- but only in international markets, not in the U.S.! Since we received several requests to carry this item, we've made the Japanese version of Episode 1 available to J-List customers for pre-order. It comes out April 7, but order your copy soon to make sure it's available.

Greetings from J-List February 17, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where seemingly all girls rank Audry Hepburn as their favorite actress, and The Bodyguard as their favorite movie.

Japanese pop music is very popular throughout Asia. Recently, the Kinki Kids (a two-man singing team, named after the Kinki region of Japan, not for any sexual deviance they might have) were mobbed by fans in Hong Kong. Singer/idol Noriko Sakai's popular in Asia got so great that she released some singles in Chinese, which was completely unheard of at the time. I saw a commercial for a L'Arc~en~Ciel album recently that consisted of a Thai pop news broadcast about the group, in Thai with Japanese subtitles.

There's a new law in Japan, or at least in Gunma, where we're located -- the Millennium Recycling Law. In an effort to enforce recycling, companies will be charged according to the amount of garbage they generate, and penalized for not using recycled materials. All of the packing materials J-List uses are made from recycled fiber, as we ship nearly everything from the U.S.

Tonight's update features some nice items, including:

• A wonderful new video by the blazing hot Miura Aika, a lovely new item that features not just the erotic sights of the lovely Aika-chan, but the sounds as well (headphones are recommended, so Aika can whisper sweetly in your ear)
  
• Many great regular magazines, including excellent new issues of Video Boy and Best Video, and the new issue of Okay!!
  
• A new magazine item we hope to see more of at J-List, Birei, featuring the lovely Sena Wakana (all new magazines are posted on magazine page 1)
  
• Several lovely new photobooks, including a great hardcover photobook by the lovely Hitomi Ryo, a "virtual weekend" with your virtual girlfriend, Mizuno Ai, and "Kiss me!" (see photobooks page 1)
  
• An update to our popular gouka-bon photobook page, some interesting but potentially disturbing new items
  
• For dojinshi fans, more copies of both Dopyu (large-breast fetish dojinshi) and Takashi Fujiyama's lovely Vier
  
• On the hentai manga page, more copies of the popular "How to draw manga girls" illustration book
  
• For fans of J-List's new Japanese gum, we've added Lotte's "No Time, a refreshing square gum that has little particles that brush your teeth for you while you chew it (on the Japanese snacks page).
  

The manga & dojinshi sale continues apace, as a lot of items are picked up by people wanting to take advantage of the 10-20% off all items. We've got a lot of stock, but many items won't be available after we sell our existing stock, so please stop by and check out the many great items we have.

The CM-Watch site has been updated with Esumi Makiko's smart shampoo commercial, the Pokka Got it!" canned coffee commercial, Amuro Namie's husband drinking corn soup, and more, so check it out at http://www.cm-watch.com .

Greetings from J-List February 14, 2000

Hello from Japan, where love and chocolate is in the air. Today is Valentine's Day, and in Japan, that means men getting chocolate from women. I got a nice box of chocolate pretzles from my wife, but my son Kazuki made out much better, getting chocolate from half a dozen girls in his class, as well as his teachers. Men who get chocolate on Valentine's Day are obliged to give a gift (usually white chocolate) on White Day, which is on March 14.

In Japan, the #1 and #2 music producers who are vying for the public's music dollars are Tetsuya Komuro (creator of TRF, Globe, Suzuki Ami, and so on) and Tsunku, creator of Morning Musume. Now Tsunku has taken Morning Musume and two other bands he produces (a four-girl group Taiyo and Cisco Moon and Coconuts Musume, a group of gaijin women from Hawaii) and mixed them up into three new units (in Japanese a "unit" is a musical group): Blue Seven, Yellow Five, and Red Four. All three new units will release singles on the same day in March. Should be good to see.

We've got a lot of great new items for you this evening. The new items include:

• We got gum! By customer request, we've added unique and hard-to-find Japanese gum to the Japanese Snacks page -- including the caffeine-loaded Black Black, Lotte's Green Gum (the gum that tastes like an evergreen), Sweetie Grapefruit gum, and more
  
• Excellent new idol videos, including JPOP music videos by Morning Musume, Pucchimoni and the ultra-popular Utada Hikaru, as well as Fujiwara Norika's idol video
  
• By popular demand, we've gotten Digimon cards (the Japanese starter set) as well as excellent Digimon stickers (11 to a pack, just $2)
  
• For fans of Pokemon cards, we've got more stock of the English cards, and are closing out our stock -- so check out the prices
  
• On the anime & toys page, we've got a Color Change Aki-chan, a doll with hair that changes color when you touch it, and a new Hello Kitty clock item
  
• New in-stock adult videos, courtesy of Kaori (who is in charge of the videos)
  
• For fans of J-List's high-end S&M photobook page, a great new item, Stupid Angel, featuring an excellent selection of great fetish photos
  
• All-new adult wide manga, both normal Hentai Manga as well as a nice Yaoi wide manga.
  

And speaking of Manga... Announcing the February Manga & Dojinshi Sale! We've got too many manga & dojinshi in stock, and we'd like your help in getting it out the door so we can make room for new items. To help you out, we'll offer a 10% on all manga & dojinshi if you order three or more items. Order six or more items, and get a 20% discount. Since we've got lots of stock of the popular Viper manga, as well as the Lunatic Party and Angelic Impact, it's a great chance to get a lot of manga or dojinshi and save $$$. This offer will run through the end of February.

Also, a simplification on our snacks and cards policy. In the past, we've sold both single-unit and full-box version of snacks and cards/stickers but keeping track of the number of each we had in stock was a challenge. Effective immediately, if you order 10 or more single units of any card, snack or gum item, we'll give you a flat 15% discount (whether it's a full case or not).

That's today's update -- see you on the web!

Greetings from J-List February 12, 2000

Greetings from Japan, the home of Aloe yogart (one of my favorites).

Well, a chapter has ended in the childhoods of Japanese little boys everywhere: after a run of about 10 months, Go Go Five, the current "five team" show, has ended. The evil demonic Saimer made one final attempt to destroy Tokyo, but the Go Go Five members teamed up with their transforming train/robot mechs Liner Boy, Victory Mars and Max Victory Robo, to save the day. The show is replaced by the new five-team show, Time Ranger.

The genre of the five-team show may have seemed new to American kids when Power Rangers came out, but it's been a staple of Japanese kids since time out of mind. About every year the powers that be (Bandai) roll out a new show to replace the old, to keep toy sales strong. Before Go Go Five were Gingaman and Mega Ranger, and years ago, Go Ranger, Change Man, Car Ranger, and so on. It'd be interesting to see Saban adapt some other Japanese five-team themes in the future.

Starting alongside Time Ranger is a new installment of the venerable Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) series, Kamen Rider Couger. This series is made to appeal to adults as well as well as kids, it's rife with high production values and lots of cool effects. On the other hand, it's by far the most violent show in its class ever to be shown on Japanse TV, and this is causing concerned parents to question why such a show would be put on during the "kids's slot, Sunday morning at 8:00 am.

We've got some really nice new items for you this weekend. First, by customer request, we've been able to carry the very exciting and popular Deep Kiss" video series by Soft On Demand. These videos explore lesbian themes by asking female friends to kiss for the camera, then give their reactions. A related item, Deep Kiss Special, has 19 of Japan's most famous AV idols (including Miura Aika) perform their best "deep kiss" against a glass sheet, with a camera on the other side. The effect is most interesting. See these on in-stock video page 1.

Also, after a long drought, we've been able to get some great new idol items for the Idol & Soft Porn page. After the bankruptcy of one of our distributors were weren't able to get any good idol videos, etc. but we've found a new company that has a lot of great items. For starters, we've got six lovely idol videos of the popular idol/actress Fukada Kyoko and busty idol Yuka on *DVD*, for your viewing pleasure. Look for more quality items on the idol page soon.

Other updated items include:

• New and back-in-stock photobooks, including Photoshot, Best Shot, Eichi Bauko's "H-B, and more
  
• An update of JPOP singles, including some really nice Amuro Namie, Aikawa Nanase, Puffy, and more
  
• For anime toys fans, a kise-kae" (changeable clothes) version of Card Captor Sakura, with all accessories, on the anime page
  
• More copies of Bikyaku Queen, a lovely pantyhose-fetish photobook
  

Remember that J-List offers 6- and 12-month subscriptions to the most popular Japanese magazines: Urecco, Bejean, Dela Beppin, Gokuh, Video Boy, Best Video, and Gal's Dee. It's a great way to get each issue as soon as it becomes available, and get free issues, too! See the subscriptions page for more information.

Greetings from J-List February 11, 2000

Hello from Japan and J-List. It's a relatively warm day today, as we get the update out a few hours earlier than usual.

J-List had technical difficulties during parts of Tuesday and Wednesday, which caused temporary problem viewing the J-List site. Also, some orders that were processed by the shopping cart weren't actually processed. If anyone made an order or left email via the secure email link and didn't get a reply from us, please contact us immediately.

Today is a holiday in Japan, National Foundation day, the date of the enthroning of Japan's first emperor according to legend and adopted by the creators of Japan's first constitution in 1880's. The holiday was made illegal by MacArthur after World War II as part of the outlawed "Emperor System, but was reinstated some years ago.

One thing I've noticed in Japan -- few Japanese think deeply about what a given holiday is all about. Contrary to the image Americans had of Japan in the 80's, all Japanese will gladly take a holiday, and generally don't think deeply about the point of the day. November 23rd is Labor Thanksgiving Day, but you never seen any laborors being thanked -- actually, they all seem to go out of their way to work on this day so they can earn extra money. In America, there are holidays to remember veterans who have both fought and died in past wars, but in Japan, there are few similar customs.

We've got some nice items for you today. Partially in commemoration of the holiday (?), we've got four new wacky Japanese T-shirts, including our most bizarre yet, a shirt with the 9th Amendment to the Japanese Constitution, which proclaims that Japan as a nation denounces war as a tool of state policy and promises to work for peace with all the nations of the world. There are three more wacky shirts posted as well -- Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" "I want to be Japanese" and "Dare to be Stupid." See them on the Japanese T-shirt page.

Other new items include:

• A super new item, the Cho Very Good!! which features eleven of the most popular Japanese AV gals in lovely sailor costplay
  
• New magazines, including the new Nippon Mini-Suka Club
  
• A bunch of new erotic dojiinshi, including a great new offering from the fine people at Okachimentaiko, as well as more stock of all Okachimentaiko dojinshi
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, two wonderful large-size wall clocks (on the Anime & Toys page)
  
• Two great new "reserve subscription" magazines for J-List fans: Comic Coro Coro, an 800+ managa magazine with highly collectible Pokemon and other items inside each month, and the fashion magazine JJ, filled with great information on what's trendy among Japan's lovely young ladies
  
• G-Net, a super new dual-Video CD & magazine sampler item
  
• For DVD-philes, two great new DVDs contaiing the entire erotic works of the lovely Asakura Mai
  
• More!
  

That's all, see you on the site!

Greetings from J-List February 10, 2000

Hello from Japan and J-List. It's a relatively warm day today, as we get the update out a few hours earlier than usual.

J-List had technical difficulties during parts of Tuesday and Wednesday, which caused temporary problem viewing the J-List site. Also, some orders that were processed by the shopping cart weren't actually processed. If anyone made an order or left email via the secure email link and didn't get a reply from us, please contact us immediately.

Today is a holiday in Japan, National Foundation day, the date of the enthroning of Japan's first emperor according to legend and adopted by the creators of Japan's first constitution in 1880's. The holiday was made illegal by MacArthur after World War II as part of the outlawed "Emperor System, but was reinstated some years ago.

One thing I've noticed in Japan -- few Japanese think deeply about what a given holiday is all about. Contrary to the image Americans had of Japan in the 80's, all Japanese will gladly take a holiday, and generally don't think deeply about the point of the day. November 23rd is Labor Thanksgiving Day, but you never seen any laborors being thanked -- actually, they all seem to go out of their way to work on this day so they can earn extra money. In America, there are holidays to remember veterans who have both fought and died in past wars, but in Japan, there are few similar customs.

We've got some nice items for you today. Partially in commemoration of the holiday (?), we've got four new wacky Japanese T-shirts, including our most bizarre yet, a shirt with the 9th Amendment to the Japanese Constitution, which proclaims that Japan as a nation denounces war as a tool of state policy and promises to work for peace with all the nations of the world. There are three more wacky shirts posted as well -- Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" "I want to be Japanese" and "Dare to be Stupid." See them on the Japanese T-shirt page.

Other new items include:

• A super new item, the Cho Very Good!! which features eleven of the most popular Japanese AV gals in lovely sailor costplay
  
• New magazines, including the new Nippon Mini-Suka Club
  
• A bunch of new erotic dojiinshi, including a great new offering from the fine people at Okachimentaiko, as well as more stock of all Okachimentaiko dojinshi
  
• Two great new "reserve subscription" magazines for J-List fans: Comic Coro Coro, an 800+ managa magazine with highly collectible Pokemon and other items inside each month, and the fashion magazine JJ, filled with great information on what's trendy among Japan's lovely young ladies
  
• G-Net, a super new dual-Video CD & magazine sampler item
  
• For DVD-philes, two great new DVDs contaiing the entire erotic works of the lovely Asakura Mai
  
• More!
  

Greetings from J-List February 7, 2000

Hello again from Japan, the country that loves to wrap cookies individually.

The case of the poor seven-year-old boy who was murdered in Kyoto has been solved. The murderer, a troubled 21-year-old youth, turned himself in to investigators, only to run away during questioning. He climbed to the top floor of a nearby apartment complex and jumped to his death. The story has been all over the morning wide shows (they seem to love to show camera views peering down from the balcony where the man jumped, to show what his last view would have been). Unfortunately the man left no diary or notes to give a clear indication as to why he did what he did. It's a sad ending to a sad story.

The Japanese government continues its policy of lending money to banks at 0%, in order to keep interest rates ultra-low and promote growth in the economy. It's therefore cheap to borrow money -- if you can find a bank willing to lend it to you -- but the return on savings is the lowest in the world. A standard bank saving accounts account gets you .02% annually -- so if you keep $1000 in a bank for a year you'll get just $2 for your trouble. American-style money market funds have become popular, but they still only offer around 2-2.5% to investors. Meanwhile, E*Trade is pushing online investing strongly here, as Japan continues to change as a result of outside pressure.

We've got some nice items for you today. Updated items on J-List include

• The new issue of Urecco, which features some of the hottest and most beautiful AV idols and models in Japan today
  
• A slew of new adult manga to the hentai manga page, including some very nice S&M and bondage manga (and a new offering by the popular Araki Kyoya)
  
• A selection of new special-order videos, including several nice new "costplay" (costume fetish) and bondage videos
  
• New JPOP CD singles, for fans of our low-priced JPOP CDs
  
• More!
  

We've gone through and reduced prices on nearly all of our in-stock manga and dojiinshi, to help make room for great new items. There are some cool items there, in stock and ready to go out to you, so please take a look at the reduced items. Thanks!

Greetings from J-List February 4, 2000

Hello again from Japan, the Origin of the Sun (as seen from China, who thought up the name).

The convenience the Internet brings is no secret to anyone reading this list, but for people like me, ex-pats living abroad, being able to buy any books, music, and computer equipment from my computer, with only a slightly longer delay than if I lived in the U.S., is just wonderful. While the Blair Witch Project is in the theaters here, I've got it on DVD from the States.

I think back to what Japan was like when I arrived, in 1992 -- someone would find a small store that stocked import food, maybe Pringles or M&M's, and all the foreigners would rush over and buy everything they could -- a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos was worth more than its weight in gold to foreigners in Japan back then. Now that Japan's markets have opened, partially as a result of pressure from the U.S. government, there are far more foods and products from the U.S. here. It's good to see the change.

We've got a fine update for you tonight, just in time for the weekend. First and foremost, we've started carrying Licca-chan (Rika-chan) fashion dolls on J-List, starting with the very lovely Kimono series. These are very nice fashion dolls by Takara, designed to be more petite than American dolls, with Japanese girls in mind. After Christmas, when we gave my daughter a Licca-chan doll and some accessories, my wife and I have wanted to carry them on J-List and evangelize Licca-chan to J-List customers ever since. See them on the Anime & Toys page.

Other new items include:

• New magazines, including the new Gal's Dee, Milky Dolls, and a new monthly, Ai shite ageru (I'll Love You)
  
• New official Pokemon cards, in English, as well as our full-deck sets of Japanese cards, all in stock
  
• New items on the deluxe S&M & fetish book page, including a lovely bondage book featuring some of J-List's most popular idols
  
• A healthy update of our popular adult manga, on the hentai manga page, with a half-dozen new additions
  
• The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog, a great magazine with two full VCDs and nearly 2 hours of sampler footage
  
• For fans of our "reserve subscriptions, two additions: Colorful Manpukusei (the first monthly hentai manga magazine with all-CG content) and Shojo Kakimei (erotic manga for women) -- see them on Reserve Magazines page 2.
  

We've also got stock of the popular Yellows CD ROM series, through which Japanese photographer Akira Gomi documents the female nude body. We've got new stock of Yellows 2.0, Yellows 20 Years Old, and for people who want to see American women through the eyes of the Japanese, Americans 1.0 (see all on the CD ROMs page).

Greetings from J-List February 3, 2000

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Greetings from J-List January 31, 2000

Hello to all from Japan on this cool, quiet evening.

Tragedy has struck J-List again, with the sudden death of Kiki, our American Shorthair cat. My mother in law found him dead in the lot behind our house (which is a liquor shop). Our favorite of our three cats, we liked him for his intelligence and the way he would always crawl into our laps. He is survived by Rin Rin and Ran Ran.

We've always kept cats, mainly because my Japanese family believes that if you have cats around, they die in place of the humans if there's some bad luck in store for the family. I'm not sure if it's a Buddhist idea, or just a belief that my family got on their own, but all I know is that right after each of our children were born, one of our cats died (which my wife calls "migawari, a passing of one life in the household as a new one comes in).

It's one of many beliefs (one might say superstition" but I won't, since my wife is on this mailing list) that I'm exposed to, living in a Japanese family, and I always do my best to reserve judgement as best I can. One such belief that my wife and mother follow strongly

We've got some nice additions to the J-List site tonight. Newly added items include:

• Two absolutely lovely soft vinyl recreations from Princess Mononoke, whose creation was overseen by Miyazaki himself, on the Anime Page
  
• Also on the Anime Page, a nice selection of several new only-in-Japan Hello Kitty items, for the little Hello Kitty fan in you
  
• New magazines, including new issues of DD Toppers and D Cup Japan (see magazine page 1), in addition to some cool older one-shot magazines (including some cool issues from 1988!)
  
• Hentai illustation and "digital comic" magazine/CD ROM combination items, for Mac and Windows, on the CD ROM page
  
• A host of new and back-in stock photobooks, including more copies of Tickle, by Horiuchi Nana, and Last Song, by Miura Aika
  
• For fans of really cool old things from Japan, a complete set of 13 historical magazines from the 1950's looking back on World War II from the Japanese perspective (on the photobooks page)
  

Remember that in addition to our "reserve subscriptions" that allow you to reserve issues of current Japanese magazines, J-List has great 6- and 12-month subscriptions to most of our popular magazines, including Urecco, Bejean, Dela Beppin, Gal's Dee, Video Boy and Best Video. And with your subscription, you get 1 or 2 issues, free! See the Magazine Subscriptions page for more information.

All the J-List product pages were broken during Saturday, U.S. time, due to a glitch in our scripts in Japan. Everything was up and running about twelve hours after they went down, and we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced. Thanks to everyone who emailed us about the problems with the page. (That's what I get for staying up til 2 am making improvements to the site...)

Greetings from J-List October 30, 2000

Happy Monday, everyone, from your friends at J-List.

For a country that loves English enough to come up with adjectives like "towny, cars with names like Bongo Friendy" and "Super Saloon, and song titles like Body feels EXIT, you'd think there'd be a lot of English in use here. Well, there isn't any more English in daily use in Japan than there is French in the U.S., despite general agreement that French is tres cool." Although every beer and coffee can has an English description of the quality of the item -- "Sapporo beer is made from the finest hops for a delicious taste and refinement" -- you'd be surprised how easy it is to find yourself standing on a train platform with not even a sign in English telling you where the train is headed. Since I read Japanese, I tend not to notice it that much, but whenever I've got friends from the U.S. here, it hits me -- while the Japanese try their best to make foreigners feel welcome here, they don't do that good a job when it comes to marking things in English. It's also quite rare to find someone who can help you in English in a shop, if you need it: despite a massive six years of study in Junior High and High School, and four more if the person went to college

Just a last call for calendar pre-orders -- we'll have to stop taking orders for calendars as of the end of October 31st, much as we regret it. J-List has over 150 great 2001 calendars for you to choose from, with great JPOP calendars (former Speed girls, L'Arc~en~Ciel), super anime calendars (Ah My Goddess, Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon), sexy idol calendars (Race Queen Suzuki Fumika, Asakura Megumi), lovely nude calendars (Kanabun)

For this evening, we've got some cool new items for you, including:

• First, we've got new Japanese adult magazines, including the new Cho Very Good!! (cogals), Iketeru Peach Ass Girls (for fans of "wet" themes), The Sperm Oneesan, and more
  
• For photobook fans, we've got several nice items on the photobook pages, including the Waffle Super Collection, featuring a great selection of lovely Japanese girls
  
• On the leg fetish photobook, a great item, Windoh! 96, showing what fun you can have with sexy women in skirts and wind machines
  
• The very hardcore bondage photobook series Black continues, on the high-end S&M photobook page
  
• For hentai fans, some excellent in-stock copies of PC Angel -- see them on the Magazines (Hentai) page
  
• Erotic manga fans will enjoy the deluxe size 250+ page hentai manga, Forbidden Meat, on Manga (new releases)
  
• We've also got additional fresh stock of manga on the manga pages, mostly new releases and best-sellers, including some very cool items that have sold out in the past months
  
• Do you love dojinshi? We've got not one, but *two* new erotic dojinshi works from Okachimentaiko -- great!
  
• We have two great new DVDs for you: AV 2000 vol. 1, featuring 20 of Japan's hottest AV gals in a super 120 minute gallery; and Bikini & Underwater Fuck Special, featuring underwater sex, bikini fetishism -- and *English subtitles!*
  
• More copies of the New Age Girl's Comic Shojo Kakumei can be found on the yaoi page
  
• For fans of our extremely popular wacky Japanese headbands, we've got fresh stock! See them on the Stickers & Headbands page
  
• Finally, we have fresh stock of several popular items, including handy Japanese cooking chopsticks, our unique wooden signs ("It is forbidden to urinate here" and "My room"), and the extremely cute "door message" plaques that allow you to tell others when you're in your room or "out of door."
  

Okay, that's all for now!

Greetings from J-List January 28, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where Nutrasweet is known as "Slim Up Sugar."

The Japanese do love to bathe, and most foreigners living here get caught up in this passion. Going to onsens (hot springs) is the national leisure activity of Japan, and billions are spent annually. Since Japanese have the highest longevity in the world, it would be interesting to see a scientific test done, to see if the daily relaxation gotten from the daily bath had long--term beneficial effects on a person's health.

My kids and I love baths, too -- we have a fancy computer console in our bathroom that fills the bath for you to the preset level and temperature then beeps when it's ready. I also take the kids out to our favorite public bath/sauna, Furo 21, at least once a week. Parents bathing with their kids provides what the Japanese have come to call "skinship" -- the important skin-to-skin relationship between parents and children.

Since the weekend is upon us, we've got an extra good update for J-List readers. The new items added to the site include:

• A large volley of new parody game manga, including several volumes of the Electronic Fighting Daughter and Electronic Love Daughter series, in stock!
  
• For fans of dojinshi and fan-created computer images, we've got a nice new selection of floppy and CD-R-based "dojin-soft" with some really excellent images, including some playable games, on the dojinshi page.
  
• New magazines, including some excellent new "one shot" magazines on Magazine pages 1 and 2, as well as more of the popular $5 magazine on page 3 (including some "lost" Urecco issues)
  A bunch of new in-stock videos, including Asakura Mai, Yumeno Maria, and the lovely Ozawa Madoka (see in-stock videos page 1)
  
• More special-order videos, for people who want to reserve their own copies of the newest, most popular before they come in stock -- we've got some nice ones, including Sakurai Fuka, a nice Elevator Girl item, and more
  
• A fresh infusion of some all-new Year 2000 calendars, including some unique "beauty of Japan" ones that we're interested in getting feedback on. See most of the calendars on photobook page 1, although some of the anime/JPOP calendars are on those respective pages.
  
• New puzzles, including a new lovely artwork puzzle by Morita Haruyo (a character from traditional Japan) as well as a super puzzle item for Morning Musume fans
  
• Finally, a long-deserved update to our Japanese Snacks page, with fresh stock of the delicious "Mogi Mogi Fruits" (Gummi fruit trees) at a lower price, as well as two all-new items: Delicious Gummi Pokemon candy, and one of my all favorite snacks of all time, Shigekix, the incredibly tart lemon "hard gummi" candy. We're very happy to be able to bring these cool treats to people living outside of Japan.
  

To better serve our customers and protect your privacy, we've made some changes to the order form, allowing you to better specify how you want your package sent from J-List. Gift wrapping is now an option (either for sending gifts to a friend, or as added protection against customs agents in certain countries). You can opt for a completely hand-written label, too, in addition to the "no J-List return address" option. We hope these improvements will serve you!

Thanks for checking out J-List. We hope you have a great weekend!