Greetings from J-List May 20, 2000

Hello again from Japan. It's a wet, cold Saturday afternoon today, so Chiharu and I've decided to take the kids out for that old Japanese pastime -- karaoke. Karaoke in Japan is usually enjoyed in a "karaoke box, a private room where you can sing without being nervous about how bad your singing is. Since we're going with the kids, we'll try to pick a place that has lots of anime and other songs kids might enjoy. I know I'll be asked to sing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody -- my five year old son's favorite song. Incidentally, if you've ever wondered about what the word karaoke" means, it comes from "kara" (meaning empty or air -- the same "kara" from the word karate), and "oke, an abbreviation for orchestra."

If you've ever wondered why Japanese often have thick accents when speaking English, part of the reason comes from the "phonetic poverty" of Japanese. In American English, there are something like twelve different phonetic vowels. depending on what dialect you speak, along with a host of challenging consonants. But Japanese has just five vowels -- A I U E O (the same five used in Spanish). Further, Japanese is a syllabic language, so words are always conceptualized in consonent-vowel blocks (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko

For this very wet weekend, we've got a very nice update for you all, with many nice new items. They include:

• First, Fake Out, a great new hybrid magazine featuring lovely photobook-quality photographs, high-grade paper, and interviews and more
  
• A rare item, Multiboy Vol. 3, includes photographs and video clips from some rare and hard-to-find actresses from 2-3 years ago
  
• We've got a super DVD for Kano Mizuho/Kusanagi Jun fans, from the popular Gallery series -- see the DVD page for this great item
  
• For fans of Soft on Demand's unique indies video offerings, we've got another nice "First Lesbian" series video, as well as two great "slow motion" features, capturing great moments in sex on high-speed film (see these on the in-stock video pages, or the by-order video pages if our current stock sells out)
  
• There are another half-dozen great hentai manga on the manga page, including the extremely busty "Sadistic Angel" by Caramel-Do
  
• Fresh dojinshi, including more stock of several popular titles by the Okachimentaiko dojinshi circle (Buy or Die, Pikaichi, Next, and the all-color Bura-Jiru)
  
• New stock of Strawberry Milk Candy and Milky white caramels on the Japanese Snacks Page
  
• Many back-in-stock photobooks, including Ozawa Madoka's popular hardcover photobook, Hitomi Ryo's Virginity, Nakamura Eri's Yume, Yoshino Sally's Sally! and more.
  

Well, I'm off to karaoke. Have a nice weekend, from your friends in Japan, J-List!

Greetings from J-List May 15, 2000

Hello again, on this rainy evening in Japan. A few hours ago the skies were booming and crashing with a fierce thunderstorm that had all of us jumping like scared cats.

The big news from Japan is the death of former Prime Minister Obochi, of complications from his stroke two months ago. Mr. Obochi, who hailed from Gunma Pref. (where J-List is located), was 62 years old, and was the third Prime Minister from Gunma in the history of modern Japan. Better at Japanese-style pooling of opinions rather than single, strong leadership (which doesn't really work in Japan), he was a good man. It's interesting to note that he died on his birthday -- my wife has a theory that people face a specially high risk if they encounter serious health problems near their birthdays, they're more likely to die.

Perhaps in keeping with the Buddhist idea of "migawari" (death occurring to make way for new life), we've got new life, in the form of kittens. Ran Ran, our three-colored cat, safely gave birth to five lovely kittens the other day. Kazuki, my son, wants to name them after the various transformation in Kamen Rider Couger (Titan Form, Pegasus Form, etc.) while Rina wanted to name them after the characters in her current favorite show, Ojama-Majo Doremi (Interrupting Witch Doremi).

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

• First, the opening of pre-orders for the upcoming Hentai Anime Poker Expansion Pack vol. 3 & 4 -- preorder now for free shipping! (see it on Hentai Games page 1 or the CD ROM page)
  
• Some great all-new photobooks, including Matsumoto Moe's lovely sailor suit pictorial
  
• Great new videos, on the special-order video page as well as the in-stock video pages, from Soft on Demane -- a new Fuckin' On offering with Fujitani Shiori, the "First Lesbian" performance of Meifa and Tachibana Kyoko, and a great item -- the "all nude olympics"
  
• Speaking of videos, we've got a dozen or so very nice new AV titles available on the special order video pages, including great new items by Morino Izumi, Sakurai Fuka, Asato Yuka -- and a super "Best of Neo Uniform Super Collection"
  
• For fans of our excellent Japanese DVD & Video CD, Tomo has finally gotten caught up with most backordered items and posted stock of all popular items -- so you can buy excellent DVD or VCD items and know that they're in stock!
  
• We've got all-new adult wide manga posted to the manga page, including a rare Sailor Moon hentai manga that's out of print
  
• A dozen new dojinshi, including some very rare and nice items
  
• A dozen new JPOP singles, at great prices as always
  
• Finally, the last available stock of several Sentimental Graffiti items. These soft vinyl figures have been on the J-List site for more than three years, but our supplier has finally exhausted their stock of these out-of-production figures. See them on the anime & toys page!
  

We've also added a six- and twelve-month subscription to the popular Beppin School, the long-requested popular magazine from Eichi Publishing, so you can now receive this great magazine each month. See it on the Magazine Subscriptions page!

Greetings from J-List May 13, 2000

Greetings from Japan -- home of the original onion wine (wine made from onions, yech).

The recent "hayari" (boom, fashion) among young women in Japan has been to tan their faces an ugly, dark shade, tint their hair into shocking colors, and wear phosphorous make up to make themselves stand out all the more. These girls are called Ganguro ("black face") or Yamanba ("old hag"). Mercifully, this shocking trend seems to be coming to an end, as young Tokyoites look for new ways of attracting attention and feeling special. The new boom is called "One-gal" (pronounced OH-ne gal), and is short for "oneesan gal" -- with girls modeling their fashions on the current role models Hamasaki Ayu and Fujiwara Norika.

For this weekend's update, we've got some nice new items, including:

• New costumes -- including two very sexy "bunny girl" costumes and a great one for anime fans -- an authentic Cutey Honey replica costume
  
• Many excellent new erotic manga, including works from Hot Milk, Mujin and IC Comics -- as well as lower prices on many popular manga items
  
• For high-end erotic photobook fans, two great new gouka-bon format books -- both of them "all color"! (see the S&M photobook page)
  
• Wonderful back-in-stock photobooks, including Race Queen & Event Companion. Wonderful vol. 3 Kikuchi Rie's sold-out lovely photobook "Muku" (see the Photobook pages)
  
• A great shipment of new stock of videos by the excellent Soft on Demand, including popular items such as Love Zamen (sperm fetish), Fuckin' On with Miura Aika (a best seller!), Idol Shower with Tamura Marie, Deep Kiss, and more
  
• New Japanese snack items! The excellent Chelsea butterscotch candies and Morinaga's delicious Milk Caramel, with more than 100 years of history
  
• Finally, a great new item for J-List -- image CD ROMs featuring wonderful erotic air-brush artwork by such Japanese illustrators as Ariga Juzo, Yoshida Aiko, and more -- see these items on the CD ROM page (and please give us feedback if you'd like to see more items like this).
  

For fans of English-language hentai games, J-List has a great special -- any three games of your choice for just $100, shipping included*! Back at its original price! You can save up to $30 with this special offer -- it's like "buy two, get one free."

We updated the J-List site on Thursday, but the mail server choked partway through sending the updates list. New items that were posted on Thursday included:

• New magazines, including the new Milkiss from Million Publishing
  
• the new Mini-Suka Deluxe
  
• Asakura Megumi's excellent photobook "M" along with several other popular items that had sold out
  
• the much-requested Golden Stage erotic manga, vol. 1-3
  
• fresh stock of T-Dog 2000, the Princess Mononoke soft vinyl figure models, and the popular Yamato and Captain Harlock die-cast toys
  
• more wacky headbands
  

Do you have experience with magazine publishing, article and editorial writing, or J-E translating? Do you have a lot of knowledge and experience with adult anime simulation games or the "hentai" genre in general? Are you the San Diego area, or can you relocate? Do you want to put your experience to use, as part of an interesting new company? If so please email me -- we'd like to talk to you about a very special job possibility that's forthcoming.

Greetings from J-List May 13, 2000

Greetings from Japan -- home of the original onion wine (wine made from onions, yech).

The recent "hayari" (boom, fashion) among young women in Japan has been to tan their faces an ugly, dark shade, tint their hair into shocking colors, and wear phosphorous make up to make themselves stand out all the more. These girls are called Ganguro ("black face") or Yamanba ("old hag"). Mercifully, this shocking trend seems to be coming to an end, as young Tokyoites look for new ways of attracting attention and feeling special. The new boom is called "One-gal" (pronounced OH-ne gal), and is short for "oneesan gal" -- with girls modeling their fashions on the current role models Hamasaki Ayu and Fujiwara Norika.

For this weekend's update, we've got some nice new items, including:

• New costumes -- including two very sexy "bunny girl" costumes and a great one for anime fans -- an authentic Cutey Honey replica costume
  
• Many excellent new erotic manga, including works from Hot Milk, Mujin and IC Comics -- as well as lower prices on many popular manga items
  
• For high-end erotic photobook fans, two great new gouka-bon format books -- both of them "all color"! (see the S&M photobook page)
  
• Wonderful back-in-stock photobooks, including Race Queen & Event Companion. Wonderful vol. 3 Kikuchi Rie's sold-out lovely photobook "Muku" (see the Photobook pages)
  
• A great shipment of new stock of videos by the excellent Soft on Demand, including popular items such as Love Zamen (sperm fetish), Fuckin' On with Miura Aika (a best seller!), Idol Shower with Tamura Marie, Deep Kiss, and more
  
• New Japanese snack items! The excellent Chelsea butterscotch candies and Morinaga's delicious Milk Caramel, with more than 100 years of history
  
• Finally, a great new item for J-List -- image CD ROMs featuring wonderful erotic air-brush artwork by such Japanese illustrators as Ariga Juzo, Yoshida Aiko, and more -- see these items on the CD ROM page (and please give us feedback if you'd like to see more items like this).
  

For fans of English-language hentai games, J-List has a great special -- any three games of your choice for just $100, shipping included*! Back at its original price! You can save up to $30 with this special offer -- it's like "buy two, get one free."

We updated the J-List site on Thursday, but the mail server choked partway through sending the updates list. New items that were posted on Thursday included:

• New magazines, including the new Milkiss from Million Publishing
  
• the new Mini-Suka Deluxe
  
• Asakura Megumi's excellent photobook "M" along with several other popular items that had sold out
  
• the much-requested Golden Stage erotic manga, vol. 1-3
  
• fresh stock of T-Dog 2000, the Princess Mononoke soft vinyl figure models, and the popular Yamato and Captain Harlock die-cast toys
  
• more wacky headbands
  

Do you have experience with magazine publishing, article and editorial writing, or J-E translating? Do you have a lot of knowledge and experience with adult anime simulation games or the "hentai" genre in general? Are you the San Diego area, or can you relocate? Do you want to put your experience to use, as part of an interesting new company? If so please email me -- we'd like to talk to you about a very special job possibility that's forthcoming.

Greetings from J-List May 8, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where it's considered good manners to turn your car's headlights off while waiting at a stoplight, to avoid shining your lights in the eyes of the driver across the intersection from you.

I often look back on my years of teaching English as a Second Language to Japanese students with fondness. Besides being a good way to interact with a lot of pretty, nubile Japanese girls, teaching ESL allowed me to learn my own language in ways I'd never expected. If you've never had to explain the "why?" behind the meaning of two-word verbs -- work out, take in, speak out, etc. As a native speaker, I know when something is right or wrong, but as a teacher, it's important to be able to present the rules of English to your students in a clear manner. I remember trying to explain the nuance between "another" and "other" and being stumped for weeks.

The English version of Princess Mononoke is still running in Japanese theaters. I saw an interesting show about the making of the English version -- about the fights between the Japanese and American staff when it came to make any changes from the original script as Miyazaki-san wrote it. For example, there's one scene where Ashitaka silently cuts his hair and moves for the door -- to Japanese viewers, this is a gesture that he's going on a long journey from which he won't be returning. Since American viewers might not understand this back story, the U.S. release includes dialogue from a character that has his back to the viewers, allowing the meaning of this act to be explained. They compared the theatrical trailer that Miramax released for the film -- featuring mostly fast action battle scenes and music -- with the film trailer released in France. The French version featured slow, dramatic scenes, and wasn't viewed as an action movie. The film did much better in France than in the U.S.

For tonight's update, we've got some nice items, including:

• Great new magazines, including the excellent new issues of Beppin School and Gokuh
  
• For fans of "indies" (independent AV), a great dual Video CD & magazine combo -- MPEG Cyber Indie's -- with nearly 2 hours of cool indie AV footage and an all-color magazine
  
• A fantastic selection of new hentai game artbooks, including the excellent CG graphics of Yuhei & Girl in a Box, and Viper GTB (see these on the hentai manga page)
  
• New dojinshi (dojinshi page)
  
• A selection of new in-stock videos including Kano Mizuho, the lovely Kojima Kaori's Home Teacher video, a new "Rich Wife" (Kifujin) video, Kanazawa Bunko's Contrary Soap, and more
  
• A wonderful new DVD featuring the lovely Miwa Haruna
  
• Some new toy items on the anime & toys page, including another copy of the hard-to-find Bruce Lee figurine phone strap/key holder
  

While J-List will continue to post items on eBay, we are proud of the very special place we've built -- a unique pleace where people who love cool stuff from Japan can find something fun, from rare magazines to manga to wacky Japanese T-shirts and only-from-Japan bizarre things for adults. So you have our promise that although we might post some items on eBay -- especially items that we have a good supply of -- the best place to browse the rare and unique items we have will always J-List. Thanks for your support!

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

Greetings from J-List May 6, 2000

Hello and TGIF from Japan. We're sixteen hours ahead of California, so we get to start our weekend a little early each week.

Just as I was typing the text of Wednesday's update, Japan was gripped in a "busjack" drama. A mentally trouble 17-year old boy hijacked a bus with a kitchen knife, and held the passengers hostage for hours while police tried to talk the boy out of the bus. Not wanting to use violence against the boy, who is a minor, the police inadvertently let one of the passengers be killed. I'm no fan of violence, but the inability of the Japanese police to make the decision to use deadly force ended in the death of an innocent. It's yet another embarrassing fiasco for Japan's police, who have had a rough time of late. Other recent problems included a girl who was held hostage for nine years in an insane man's house despite police investigations and searches in the area, and special rules whereby friends and family of police officers got out of paying some fines they owed.

On Raiha Shonen, the sister show to Denpa Shonen (which followed two men as they hitchhiked from the bottom of Africa to the top of Europe), a new project is underway: a hitchhiking journey to find the origin of men, or noodles (as in ra-men). Starting in Rome, two comedians are hitchhiking along the "noodle road" (their version of the silk road), talking with chefs to find exactly where noodles and pasta began. They've made their way to Turkey by now, as they continue on their zany quest.

The so-called "ILOVEYOU" virus is ravaging computers all over the world, and in Japan, too. We hope it's not affecting your computers. J-List is proud to be a Macintosh-based company, with ten or so Macs backed up by a few PCs, so we're relieved at times like this.

For tonight's update, we've got some great items, including:

• First and foremost, we're happy to announce that Legend of Fairies and Fairy Nights are shipping -- a great two-part hentai game for Window and Macs, we're sure you'll love these great titles
  
• New magazines, including the popular Nippon Mini-Suka Club leg fetish magazine
  
• Also for leg fans, The Chair and Chirarism, an interesting photobook of beautiful, leggy women sitting in chairs, photographed from low angles
  
• Several back-in-stock photobook items, including more copies of Wonderful, Sally! and Sendo Emi's "Tomadoi" (on the photobook pages)
  
• A half dozen excellent all-new manga, including Usagi, an erotic manga drawn by a female hentai manga illustrator
  
• For our Yaoi fans, Generous Kiss, a compilation of excellent yaoi material into one large manga volume
  
• Several new dojinshi single issues
  
• For fans of our nutty "hachimaki" headbands with funny slogans on them, with several wacky slogans (on the T-shirt & Costumes page)
  
• For fans of older ladies, an interesting gouka-bon format book on the high-end S&M photobook page
  
• Two new low-price DVDs -- excellent offerings by Shiraishi Kotoko and Kuramochi Akane
  
• Various additions to the Anime & Toys page, including the last of the Bakuretsu Hunter (Sorceress Hunters) Tira Misu cold-cast figurines
  
• Finally, something my wife and I love carrying -- great new Takara dolls, including three wonderful Jenny dolls, with a great Kimono Jenny item, and a new Kimono Licca-chan series doll, too. Licca and Jenny are the two most famous dolls in Japan. More demure and small-bodied than the buxom Barbie, they reflect the pretty values of Japanese young girls. (See the anime & toys page for these items).
  

Check out these great items!

Greetings from J-List May 3, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where you can actually walk around and find signs saying "Chikan chuui" (Beware of sex perverts).

I am truly a happy gaijin. A new onsen (hot springs bath) has opened not *two kilometers* from J-List. Since I'm a big fan of Japanese onsen, sento (public baths) and saunas, this is great for me the kids. The onsen has three saunas and eighteen different baths, with everything from the herbal baths to simulated waterfalls to an electric bath -- yes, there's even an aloe bath. Getting naked with dozens of men has never been more fun.

My wife and I are watching a friend's Twin Peaks collection, working our way through the series tape by tape. It's really natsukashii -- er, we feel really nostalgic -- watching this snapshot of American pop culture from a decade ago. Incidentally, there was a series of Twin Peaks Georgia Coffee commercials featuring the actors from the show, with a little mini-mystery that unfolded with each commercial. If anyone has these on tape or any other format, please contact us so we can get them posted on CM-Watch!

Golden Week has officially descended on Japan. We're still working here, with Kaori and Tomo taking turns coming in to process orders and do mail, but unfortunately, since the post office is closed, EMS orders can't be sent out until Monday. We'll make sure all orders are prepped and ready to go as soon as the holiday is over.

Tonight's update is a very nice one, with many new items, including:

• First, we're proud to announce the triumphant return of Beppin School to the J-List site -- see the excellent item, featuring some of the best Japanese angels ever, on magazine page 1
  
• Speaking of magazines, we've got several other new offerings, including the excellent new issue of Panst Dream (one of our favorites) -- great for leg and up-skirt fans
  
• For adult video fans, we've got fresh stock of the two best-selling videos in J-List's history, Fubuki Akira's excellent Baby Oil and Immoral Lesson (see the in-stock video page) as well as stock of the popular "Deep Kiss" series by Soft on Demand
  
• For photobook fans' we've got several copies of Tazawa Minako's lovely "D-Cup Angel" photobook
  
• For our loyal JPOP fans, 20+ new JPOP CD singles, including some nice items including "East End x Yuri" (silly Japanese rappers)
  
• For fans of older models, we've got several nice new gouka-bon-format books on the high-end S&M photobooks page
  
• Finally, a wonderful new puzzle item for people who love the modern/traditional artwork of contemporary illustrator Morita Haruyo!
  

We're also happy to announce that we've cut the price of the excellent adult anime game, Viper M1, the excellent English-language hentai game will lots of great animation. Also, look for lower prices on our popular costumes, including the only Race Queen, Sexy Nurse and Sailor Moon costumes available from Japan!

Greetings from J-List April 26, 2000

Hello again from J-List, where you've always got a friend in Japan.

I was recently asked what Japanese couples call in each other. Most couples refer to each other by either their names (Kaori, Tomokazu, Chiharu, etc.) or by cute, personalized nicknames that the Japanese seem to invent with ease. My nickname is "P-chan, although I was named after a Siamese cat my wife used to have, not after the famous pig from Ranma 1/2. Also used are two words for you" -- "anata" (used by women referring to their husbands or boyfriends) and "omae" (a rough, almost possessive word used by men to their wives/girlfriends, or to children). A man who uses "omae" to his wife or girlfriend is unconsciously stressing his possession of her, in very subtle tones.

Simple concepts like "you" and "I" can get quite complicated in Japanese. The basic word for "I" is "watashi, and this is what is used in formal settings (also as watakushi"). Girls get a cute version of this word -- "atashi" -- and good boys are supposed to use "boku." Rough and tough boys, as well as men who want to project their manliness, will use the men's word "ore" (oh-rey). Kenshiro, of Fist of the North Star, uses this term. For "you, the formal word is anata, but kimi" (a familiar word for use among friends) and the aforementioned men's words "omae" are a bit more common. A person's choice of what words he uses for "I" and "you" reveals much about his personality and self-image. A cute little girl will use the term "atashi" or "watashi" and play with Licca-chan dolls; young boys, such as my son, will experiment with acting tough by using the word "ore" (think of young Simba from The Lion King

We've got some very nice items for tonight's update, including:

• Lots of all-new magazines, including the beautiful new Ike Ike Magazine, the fun "violence photo magazine for men, as well as a new soap girl" magazine item and "Komadam Get!!" (for fans of girls in their 20's)
  
• For fans of the excellent Lucky Crepu, a truly wonderful Lucky Crepu Deluxe special photobook filled with excellent and lovely photos
  
• Fresh stock of the current Best Shot, a wonderful Photoshot-format "mook" featuring dozens of the most lovely faces in Japan, from popular idols to AV
  
• Many "oldie but goodie" photobooks, items that had been in stock before but sold out -- including Eichi Bauko's "HB, and Yoshino Sally's excellent Sally!" photobook
  
• A great selection of value-priced special-order videos in the popular "New Master Video" series, on the special order video page
  
• In case you didn't get enough manga in Monday's update, we've got another dozen or so all-new wonderful adult manga items, with some really excellent new items by some of Japan's most unique and talented hentai artists
  
• Finally, fresh stock of some of our most popular Japanese snack items, including Black Black (caffeine keep-awake gum), Lotte No Time (gum for when you have no time to brush), Super Cola Shigekix (super sour "hard gummi"), and more!
  

Remember that J-List has a great special -- any three English-language adult anime simulation games for $105, shipped. You can save up to $30 total -- that's like "buy 2, get 1 free." Check out our excellent offerings, now, on the hentai game pages.

Greetings from J-List April 24, 2000

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Greetings from J-List April 20, 2000

Greetings from J-List April 17, 2000

Hello again from that zaniest of places, Japan.

One show we like to watch on late-night Japanese TV is "Ranking Kingdom, which ranks the week's top music, movies, and TV shows. They don't stop there, though -- they rank everything from comics to songs sung in karaoke boxes to wiener sausages. (We found that the brand we eat. Kunsei-ya from the Marudai Foods Company, was #2.)

Ranking shows are quite common in Japan. One show ranks the top ten news stories of the past week, based on how much air time they were given. Last week's #1 story was the rumors surrounding the romance of Kimura Takuya of SMAP and singer/actress Kudo Shizuka. One of the most handsome and sought-after bachelors in Japan, it must be a shock to the myriad of his fans to see him pairing up with an older woman like that. I wonder what she knows that they don't?

For today's update, we've got some excellent new items, including:

• Great new magazines, including the new issue of Men's Master, as well as a special treat: more copies of the excellent Pink Gold, featuring the most important AV stars of the 20th century
  
• The excellent Waffle Super Collection, a high-quality glossy photobook-format issue containing lovely photographs of some of Japan's most charming girls (on the photobook pages)
  
• More excellent one-shot magazines, including more copies of old issues of Nowon and Photoshot
  
• Lots of excellent new manga, on the hentai manga page, including the excellent Feminism Sex Machine"
  
• More stock of adult videos, including fresh stock of *all* of the excellent titles by the excellent Soft on Demand (we really do recommend the Deep Kiss series)
  
• New gum from Lotte -- a delicious three-pack of gum, with Sweetie, Blueberry and an exotic new flavor, Mungasteen
  
• By customer request -- we've got more stock of the "nihonjin kanojo boshuchu" ("Looking for a Japanese girlfriend") T-shirt, on the T-shirts & Costumes page
  
• Finally, great new character items, including lovable new Miffy stuffed animals, the "robot of cat type" from the future, Doraemon, and NHK's great character, Domo-kun.
  

Don't forget J-List's anime, toy & puzzle sale, going on right now. Buy any two items -- from that Captain Harlock or Final Fantasy VIII puzzle you've been eyeing, to the "kogal" Street Licca phone strap to that deluxe Kitty-chan wall clock -- and get 20% off the total for those items. We'll be removing most of our stock from the site soon, for shipping to the U.S., so help us out and save some money! Kaori especially thanks you...

Greetings from J-List April 15, 2000

Greetings from Japan, home of the original canned coffee (UCC Coffee, first canned in 1969).

Recently, the famous landmark Studio Alta, a department store in the heart of Shinjuku and the most famous "building TV" in Japan, was sold. Mitsukoshi Department Stores, who had operated the property in the red for years, got $200 million for it, which is lot for a single building, but not all that much when you consider that, during the bubble period, the value of all the land in Tokyo exceeded the value of the entire United States. I still remember with fondness then first time I trekked into Shinjuku

This year is my wife's turn to be one of the official mother representatives at our kids' preschool. Each year, two mothers from each class are, ah, pressed into service to help out with the various events (the two parent/child sports events, the annual year-end show, and so on). Being busy with J-List, my wife didn't want to take volunteer, but it's one of those Japanese "in-group" thinks -- membership in a certain social group brings with it certain responsibilities which must be met to avoid disturbing the balance of the entire group. The driving force behind this is "hito no me" (lit. "the eyes of others"): sure, she would never be forced into volunteering for the extra responsibility, but the fear of the constant gaze of the other mothers made her give in. The concept of "hito no me" and being concerned with how you appear in the eyes of others is one of the major engines driving Japanese social interaction.

We've got a bang-up update for you this weekend. New items include:

• Great new magazines, including the new Urecco and Gal's Dee issues (both lovely)
  
• Some nice one-shot items on the photobooks page, including old issues of Nowon
  
• Speed's excellent "Legend of Speed" photobook (with special "memorial card" so you can be a card-carrying Speed fan)
  
• More copies of hot photobooks that had sold out, including Sendo Emi's "Tomadoi, Yatsu Shinoby's Kyu Kyu Pin!" and Hitomi Ryo's excellent "Virginity"
  
• For the many Miura Aika fans out there, we've got more copies of Last Song and her popular MPEG King issue
  
• For our Japanese snack fans, we've added the entire line of Bulgaria Yogart soft-chews (in plain, strawberry, blueberry and "raichi" (that exotic fruit from Thailand -- er, what is this called in English?)
  
• On the anime & toys page, a truly unique set of Star Wars items: small soft vinyl figures in the anime "super deformed" style, which speak different lines from the movie when you place them on your hand
  
• Finally, we've got DVDs and more DVDs, including a wonderful "Cosplay Museum for the 21st century and a the complete "history DVD" of Hidaka Saya, as well as two wonderful idol items: the lovely Mitsuya Yoko's "Mai-go" DVD and "Super Nice Body's" featuring three of Japan's most famous idols
  

I've got another wedding to go to on Sunday, for a former student of mine. And another speech to give in Japanese! Well, wish me luck -- see you on the web.

Greetings from J-List April 13, 2000

Hello again from Japan, that wacky place where "yes, that's so" always means "no."

Well, the Season of the Sakura has come to Japan -- all throughout the country, millions of cherry blossoms are exploding in wonderful shades of pink and white. What better excuse to take a few hours off work, break out the portable gas range and have chicken fajitas and yakiniku (Korean barbecue) under the falling sakura petals? This custom is called hanami in Japan, and we're big fans of it here at J-List. See our "sakura special report" at http://www.myjapan.net/peter/sakura2000.html . You can see all of us -- even Kaori drinking beer! -- as well as Jose, the newest addition to the J-List team.

One of the problems with living in a foreign country where English isn't spoken is maintaining one's native language. I don't actually forget English, of course, but there are the occasional difficult word that, when I go to access in my brain, I find isn't available. I mean, there isn't much use for words like gynalogical or irreplaceable when you live in Japan and talk with Japanese who have learned ESL (that's English as a second language, in English teacher-speak).

Tonight's update is a very good one indeed. We've got:

• New magazines, and more magazines, including the excellent new Birei, Men's Master (great for Minori Aoi fans) and more
  
• All-new photobooks, including the mysterious Nishio Etsuko's very artful and erotic photobook
  More copies of some of our most popular items, including Kanazawa Bunko's 4th Photobook, Wakana Sena's "Dahlia, Ozawa Madoka's Fairy Sketch, and Horiuchi Nana's popular book
  
• Because we sold out in less than a day, we've got more stock of the love Crystal Card AV collectible cards
  
• For our yaoi fans, two very nice yaoi anthology manga
  
• Many great new special-order videos, including items by Aoi Minori's Loving Raw, Honjoh Sayuri's excellent Mejiri, Fujitani Shiori's comeback video, and a super compilation video featuring performances by *8* lovely gals, including the incredibly rare Ariga Miho (see special order videos page 1)
  
• On our anime & toys page, we've got T-Dog 2000, a wonderful robotic toy dog that moves around your room, avoiding obstacles and walls, as well as fresh stock of the hard-to-find Princess Mononoke & Moro figure
  
• Fresh JPOP CDs!
  

We're also happy to announce that we've gotten our first stock of the excellent and much-requested Star Wars Episode 1 on Laserdisc. The LD release of the film is an extremely high-quality one, in CLV with wonderful high-quality video and full THX sound. The movie is the wide edition, in English, with Japanese subtitles, and they're sealed in plastic bags for collectors. The run will likely be short for this product, so let us know quickly if you want us to get you one. (They're going for around $150 on eBay as I write this.) Each one comes with a special pack of Japanese postcards, too.

Greetings from J-List April 11, 2000

Greetings from Japan, where velcro goes by the name of "magic tape."

For some reason, there are several English phrases that have burned themselves into the consciousness of the Japanese. When Dr. Clarke left Sapporo, where he helped establish what would become Sapporo University, he said left the words "Boys, be ambitious, which has endured ever since (making him far more famous than he deserved to be). When idol singer Yamaguchi Momoe retired from singing, she sang a tear-filled song that contained the English words Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your tenderness." All Japanese seem to know these little snippets.

Well, Japan's child seat law kicked in April (one thing about Japan, everything starts in April). Long have foreigners living in Japan railed against Japan for not enacting such a law. It's a good thing, to be sure, but they've gotten a little overzealous -- rather than, say, California's limit of "4 years, or 40 pounds, all children under the age of six are required to ride in carseats at all times. It's a bit of an inconvenience for my son, who turned five and hasn't used his carseat in a year. But it's progress, anyway.

We're a day later than usual with today's update, so we're adding some extra good items, including:

• Great new regular magazines, including the new Bejean, the Penthouse Japan Special that was waylaid by database elves during our last update, and a new item -- Sperma Pherome Musume (love those titles) -- see magazine page 1 for the new items
  
• On magazine page 2, a special treat -- a slew of great one shot" older magazines, some featuring some very rare and hard-to-find AV actresses
  
• On our high-end S&M photobook page, we've added several wonderful new "gouka-bon" photobooks, including the new Slave Mania and two different all-color photobooks for fans of beautiful "over 30" ladies
  
• For our DVD fans, we've got four great new DVDs in the "Gallery" series posted, by Yoshino Sally, Shiraishi Kotoko, Komuro Yuri and the lovely Mita Yuho (which, we've all decided, is supposed to mean "I saw a UFO" in Japanese)
  
• The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog, with nearly 2 hours of footage on two MPEG discs
  On the Video pages, the excellent Love Zamen 2 video from Deep's is posted (if you don't know what it is, don't see special order video page 1)
  
• Finally, for fans of the CG idol Terai Yuki, some special puzzle items (and yes, they are covered by the "buy any 2 items, get 20% off" anime & puzzle sale we're having now).
  

We're glad to see the positive reaction to the excellent costumes we added to the site last weekend. Carrying Japanese sailor uniforms, race queen/campaign girl outfits and other items has been a long dream for all of us, and we're glad we were able to find such cool products to make available. We know that many of the items aren't cheap -- we chose Costume World Japan because of a good range of costume sizes coupled with durability, and because they wanted to see their products sell to cosplay fans outside of Japan -- but we're sure the high quality will win you over.

Greetings from J-List April 7, 2000

Greetings from Japan, where people really do boy while they talk on the telephone (I catch myself doing it once a day).

The Japanese language has a great many kotowaza or old proverbs, recounting the wisdom of past generations. There are kotowaza dictionaries and "one a day" calendars that offer a different old proverb daily, and studying these is fun for me, because Japanese are surprised when you know something this archaic. One of my favorite kotowaza is "ningen banji saiou-ga-uma" which means "All things are like Saiou's horse." This refers to an old story about a man named Saiou whose horse broke his leg -- making everyone say how unfortunate he was. Because he had no horse, though, he didn't have to go off to battle to be killed, so this was a good thing. The moral of the story is, when something good or bad happens, no one can say for sure if it is truly a good or bad thing in the end.

I've been enjoying my AirPort, the wireless networking system from Apple and Lucent Technologies. I'd long wanted to network the J-List office is about 500 meters and our house (the liquor store), but until now, the technology hasn't been available. Now I can do email and surf on my Powerbook from my living room, while enjoying my current favorite beer, Asahi Super Malt, with those delicious "persimmon seed" spicy rice crackers. Technology is so wonderful -- where will we all be in five years?

Tonight's update is a very special one, because we're able to announce our latest great addition to J-List -- unique Japanese anime & sexy costumes! The newly rechristened T-Shirts & Costumes page now features high-quality costumes, including the often-requested high school "sailor suit" uniforms, a super-sexy Race Queen vinyl uniform (modeled after Suzuki Fumika's own!), a classic Chun Li "China dress, a stern nurse, and one of the coolest, a slim and sexy Avex girl" costume. These are high-quality machine-sewn items made by Costume World Japan, a fine maker of excellent costumes, that will bring you years of enjoyment and fun. Since Japanese sizes can be quite different from those outside of Japan, we've posted the recommended measurements (bust, waist

(Yes, that is Kaori, by the way, modeling these lovely costumes for us and on the new costumes page. Isn't she lovely?)

We've got lots of other cool items, including:

• A hot new photobook by the lovely Kanazawa Bunko, on the photobooks page
  
• A great treat -- fresh stock of the incredibly popular Crystal Card nude AV cards (1999 vol. 2)
  
• Lower prices on Video CDs, gouka-bon books, and all of our Pokemon & Digimon cards and stickers
  
• Fresh stock of many popular items, including the Princess Mononoke soft vinyl figures, the popular Mini-Suka Police keychains, and more!
  

Announcing the April Anime Toys & Puzzle Sale! To help keep our stock room from being overrun, we're announcing a big sale! Buy two or more puzzle or anime toy items (including anime figures, models, phone straps, dolls, clocks, and so on) on the Anime & Toys or the Cards & Puzzles pages, and get 20% off the total for those items! It's a great excuse to pick up that cool Gatchaman or Captain Harlock puzzle, that very special Hello Kitty clock, or that wonderful "Dancing Baby" phone strap for the "Ally" fan in your office... The sale will run until the end of April

Greetings from J-List April 5, 2000

Happy Wednesday from Japan, where foreigners are somehow compelled to refer to the country of George Washington as "the States" and by no other name.

Japanese society and relationships can be a pretty ordered business sometimes, determined by "in groups" and the concept of "uchi" (inside my group) and "soto" (outside the group). In Japan, for example, most people have a group of friends throughout elementary and junior high school, but separate when it comes time to go to high school -- high school isn't part of the compulsory education in Japan, and people usually go to a school that fits their scholastic level or goals rather the one nearest their house. One result of this is that an adult will often have one group of "junior high school friends" and another group of "high school friends, without any crossing over between the two groups. When one group of friends goes, say, for karaoke, they are relaxed and casual, and this is reflected in their language -- the most informal language is used among friends. However, if an unrelated group were to be mixed -- say, a high school friend were to mix in with the group of junior high school friends -- the result can be barriers of politeness that are damned hard for a Westerner to grasp. One thing you learn early on when living in Japan is, don't mix your groups: if you've got friends from two different areas of your life, don't invite them to a social event without knowing the potential risks.

For tonight's update, we've got some really great stuff:

• For magazine fans, we've got a bunch of new magazines posted, including the new issues of Video Boy, Best Video, Nippon Mini-Suka Club, and more
  
• Also on magazine page 1, a treat -- not one, but two great issues of Penthouse Japan, the wonderful Japanese-format erotic magazine featuring all Japanese models
  
• Photobooks, including Ouchi Arisa and Iikubo May, on photobooks page 1
  
• For manga fans, a fresh posting of all-new erotic wide" manga, with some nice new postings
  
• For the Yamato fan in you, we've got two new Yamato die-cast ships, which may be the last -- if rumors we've heard of Mimko going out of business are true
  
• Also on the Anime & Toys page, more of the popular Sentimental Grafitti figures available for order, as well as high-quality metal & plastic Gundam toys
  
• A long-awaited update to the Special Order video pages, where you can pre-order excellent videos by Kanazawa Bunko, Yoshikawa Minami, and many more
  
• For fans of Soft on Demand's truly unique "Indies" style of erotic entertainment, we've got great new titles, including Nagase Lum's hot Cosplay Doll, a new "shiofuki" video, and the classic 1996 Masterpiece of SOD, featuring the nude olympics, performances by several artists who have retired, and one of our favorites -- the "arial sex" (a couple having sex while suspended in mid-hair by cranes, and filmed by a helocopter)
  
• Finally, on our fun Japanese snacks page, we've added fresh stock of the super tart "hard gummi" candy, Lemon Shigekix, as well as a great new flavor -- Super Cola!
  

Well, Chiharu and Kazuki are back from their stay in the States. (See? I did it again.) As is our custom when someone returns home, our Japanese house has been transformed into a shrine celebrating American gastric values -- everything from Pop Tarts to Lucky Charms to tortillas those delicious onion bagels. Well, time to go home and have some Hamburger Helper!

Greetings from J-List April 3, 2000

Hello from Japan, now with 50% more volcanic eruptions than before!

The big news in Japan right now is the sudden hospitalization of Prime Minister Obuchi, who suffered a stroke and has slipped into a coma Monday. Mr. Obuchi has had a rough couple of years as he tried to move the country through rough economic and political waters. Hailing from Gunma Prefecture, not too far from where we are, he's been a good example of Japanese-style leadership -- rather a strong leader, he's been a consensus-builder, something more important to Japan than Clinton-esque Presidential political figures. It's a rough time to lose the head of government, especially with the ongoing eruption of Mt. Usu in Hokkaido.

For Americans, the parliamentary form of government used by Japan (which is modeled after the UK, I believe) can be downright confusing -- kind of like a soccer fan trying to understand the rules of American football. When I was on the plane to come to Japan back in 1992, the Prime Minister had just dissolved the Diet for some reason or another. I was concerned -- if Clinton suddenly dissolved the Congress, there'd be civil war, tanks in the streets of Washington, machine-gun fire. Over the years, I've learned more about the Japanese political process, and even helped out on one political campaign (having a white boy among your staff really turns voters' heads). Despite its differences from the American system, I do like the "grass roots" feel of democracy

For tonight's update, we've got:

• First, a slew of new in-stock videos, on the in-stock videos page, including Deep Kiss, Miura Aika, Kano Mizuho, and the cat-like Hirosue Nao
  
• For fans of the excellent Soft on Demand videos, we've got three new "zamen" (sperm-centric/bukkake) video offerings (see in-stock and special order video pages)
  
• Several all-new gouka-bon books on the S&M/Fetish photobook page
  
• New DVDs from the excellent new "Gallery" collection, including titles by Wakana Sena, Misaki Mao and Hitomi Ryo -- with multi-angle viewing and a 'secret key' hidden features on the disc
  
• Lower prices on tons of manga, magazines and videos
  
• Finally, for the fun-loving, funny Japanese hachimaki headbands, with slogans like "Looking for a girlfriend" "I'm 'H'" and more! (see them on the Japanese T-shirt page)
  

Incidentally, the reference to "not by the hair of my chinny chin-chin" generated a lot of mail, so I thought I'd explain it: in Japanese, chin chin is a child's word for penis, similar to "chinpoko." Therefore the meaning is quite different from the original ^_^

Greetings from J-List April 1, 2000

Greetings from Japan, where red is the opposite of white.

I had great fun at my friend's wedding in Iwate Prefecture. It wasn't the snowy wasteland I was expecting, although it was cold. Fortunately for me, Hanamaki is a famous onsen (hot springs) town, so I got to enjoy the best onsen in Japan (according to the hotel employee). Getting naked in front of other men has never been so good... (See pictures of the happy couple at http://www.myjapan.net/peter/wedding3.html.)

The Tohoku area (the northern part of the main Japanese island of Honshu) is a great area, and I did some hitchhiking when in my days as a single gaijin. What it lacks in castles and battlegrounds and shrines it makes up in charm. Known for enka, the eerily beautiful music of rural Japan, it's interesting because all the place names are very un-Japanese, being derived from original Ainu names. One place I enjoyed going to in the past was Aizu-Wakamatsu, the scene of one of the last battles of the conflict between the feudal samurai and the pro-reform Restorationists, who were trying to modernize Japan. Rather than submit to becoming "modernized, the last remaining group of samurai chose to commit seppuku. It's a grim but fascinating place to visit.

For tonight's update, we have some great new items:

• Famed photographer Akira Gomi's Last Loose Socks" -- a great multimedia documentary of the lives and loves of Japan's high school girls (on the photobook and CD ROM pages), for Mac and Windows
  
• For photobook fans, we've got a bunch of popular photobooks, including Sendo Emi's "Tomadoi", the Nama-Ashi, and an item that is destined to sell out quickly, three copies of Fubuki Akira's "Impressive"
  
• A lovely new photobook by the sweet and charming Uehara Rinka, Minet
  
• More copies of the popular CG artbooks, Find Love 2 and Renkin Jutsu no Musume, on the anime page
  
• For Pokemon fans, we're closing out our inventory of delicious Pokemon cookies and choco snacks, as well as those cool Hello Kitty phone strap & heart-shaped carmel treat sets
  
• Finally, for our loyal hentai manga fans, we're happy to announce that Paradise Lost, the excellent series of Evangelion hentai dojinshi anthologies, is *back in print* and available on our site now!
  

We're moving right along with the two upcoming Milky House hentai games, Legend of Fairies and Fairy Nights, and expect them to ship by May 1. You can pre-order them from J-List and get the games sent to you as soon as they're released, and get free shipping to boot. See them on Hentai Games page 2, or the CD ROM page.

Greetings from J-List March 31, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where the Three Little Pigs' chant "not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin" has a different meaning entirely.

The end of March is upon us, and with it, the break-up of the four-girl band Speed. They've been an incredible force in the pop world in the last three years, and Japan is currently awash with little "mini-Speeds, second-rate pop singing/dancing groups that aspire to take Speed's vacant #1 slot in the music world. It won't really be vacant, of course, since Takako, Hiroko, Eriko and Hitoe all plan to pursue solo careers. (If you like Hiro, see her cute by ditzy shampoo commercial on http://www.cm-watch.com).

My son Kazuki is tickled that last year's five-team show, Go Go Five, is living on as part of the footage of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. While many elements of the American version are the same -- the irrefutable coolness to a four-year-old boy of a train that flies and transforms into a robot -- I of course noted the differences so I could report them to all of you. For one thing, the original Go Go Five is a family -- four brothers and their little sister, Matsuri-chan, and contain themes like families always stick up for each other" or "even if brothers have a falling out, they're family, so they always make up in the end." The American show choose totally unrelated characters to interact with each other, and of course the need to reflect all the mosaic groups that make up the U.S. -- token black, token Asian, token female who's smarter than all the men and knows UNIX -- is reflected in the end product. Kazuki and I both agree that Red's "Ladder Punch" (extending ladders that "punch" out of the fire engine mech) are totally stupid

In tonight's update, we've got some nice new items:

• A nice magazine & dual-Video CD item, with a focus on the lovely Miura Aika (although the clips on the VCDs seem to be mostly Indies)
  Great photobooks, including new items (Yamauchi Mihoko's Brilliant and Asakura Megumi's "M") as well as back-in-stock items that had sold out before
  
• On the gouka-bon book, some extremely wonderful high-end S&M and fetish books (most of which are single issues and will sell out quickly, so hurry if you're interested in these)
  
• New manga on the hentai manga page, along with more copies of some old favorites (December's Girl and others)
  
• Twenty or so new dojinshi on the dojinshi page, including some of the very lovely Nozui Magic volumes
  
• New puzzles -- a great tribute to the Toei Godzilla movies, and a large-size brilliant Red Fuji with Flying Cranes, on the puzzle page
  
• One of the baddest mechs ever to come out of Gainax -- Gunbuster, on the Anime & Toys page
  
• The lovely swimsuit idol Ms. Shaku Yumiko, in her very popular idol video, on the idol video page
  
• New stock of Himo-Q, one of my favorite Japanese snacks (think long gummi string)
  
• Close-out prices on all our Pokemon stickers -- see the cool metallic and embossed stickers on the cards & puzzles page.
  

I've got an adventure tomorrow -- I'm off to a tiny town in rural Iwate Prefecture, near the top of Japan, for a wedding. Northern Japan is still a frozen wasteland in March, or at least it seems that way to my San Diegan-mind set. Until I get back, see you on the web!

Greetings from J-List March 28, 2000

Hello again from Japan, home of the American Dog (someone must have thought a Corn Dog would sell better with this name).

Grand Master Takatoriki has won the latest sumo tournament, taking the sumo world utterly by surprise. A less well-known rikishi, he's been wrestling for 18 years, and has never won a tournament in his life. In a TV interview, he broke the normal rules sumo wrestlers have against showing emotion openly by crying tears of joy over winning. In other sumo news, Wakanohana, one of the most famous of all the current crop of wrestlers, announced his retirement due to poor emotional and physical health. Wakanohana and his younger brother, Takanohana, are well known and popular in the sumo world. Both achieved the rank of Grand Master (Yokozuna)

My wife and son are in the U.S., enjoying a much-deserved dose of American culture -- everything they can't get here in rural Japan, from Starbucks to Taco Bell to good old American shopping malls. We all like living in Japan of course, but there's nothing like going to California and speeding down the wide, straight freeways, eating Hawaiian-style shave ice on the beach in Mission Bay... Since we both can't leave J-List along, we take turns, taking one kid at a time to make sure they get enough exposure to their "other" country, America. With my wife gone, I'm free to putter around (only married men know the fun of "puttering around")

Tonight's update features some good new items, including:

• A fistful of new magazines, including several excellent rare and "one shot" items, on all magazine pages (but most of the new single-issues are on page 2)
  
• The new "Aishite ageru" (I'll Love You), a nice "wet"-themed magazine from Million Publishing
  
• Several lovely new photobooks, including some excellent leg, skirt and high-heel shoe fetish items
  
• And on the gouka-bon page, several nice new S&M-themed all-color photobooks
  
• For dojinshi fan types, more copies of the popular "Effecter" and "Limit Break" dojinshi
  
• New hentai "wide" manga on the manga pages, and lower prices for all our stock of the excellent Colorful Moon & Electric Fighting Daughters manga series
  
• New adult videos in-stock, including some rare one-shot videos (see pages 1 and 4 for the new items)
  
• For our idol video fans, we've got a rare Kahala Tomomi gravure video, and a lovely new Race Queen offering from Pony Canyon (on the idol page)
  
• New JPOP "maxi-singles" (long-playing singles with several tracks), including new CDs by Suzuki Ami, Hide, and more
  
• Finally, for that young Pokemon fan with a birthday coming up, some new Pikachu children's puzzles (on the cards & puzzles page)
  

Hope you're having a good start of your week -- see you on the web!