Monday, June 26, 2000
Greetings from J-List June 26, 2000
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Saturday, June 24, 2000
Greetings from J-List June 24, 2000
Greetings again from the land of pickled eggplant, curry rice and wine made from onions.
My son, who is five years old and in "Melon" class at his preschool (the school years are all named according to various fruits), had an interesting rite of passage the other night: "sleep over school, where all the children from his class spend their first night sleeping away from their parents. During the evening, the students and teachers play games and have fun activities, and the teachers dress up as ghosts. It's great fun for the kids, and it makes them feel very grown up (since the younger children are too little to go). What amazed me was that my wife had done all the exact same actives in the exact same way back when she did her first sleep over school, twenty-five years before. Despite the generational differences between mother and son, they were able to communicate on exactly the same level about how exciting it was to be away from home for the first time, how they felt when the teachers dressed up as scary ghosts, and so on.
One of the core themes about Japan is that they try to create a uniform society, in which social harmony is generated by the shared experiences of the society's in-group members. Creating this uniformity of life experience is the primary function of the Japanese educational system -- not teaching at all. Everyone goes through the same experiences, in the same order, and this gives them contact points which aid in making friends and social relationships. There are no aspects of public elementary and junior high school that aren't uniform all over Japan, from textbooks to the wearing of uniforms. There are no year-round schools or special tracks for gifted or slow-learning students, no skipping grades, and of course no home-schooling -- everyone experiences everything the same way. While Americans almost universally look on this kind of over-uniformity in a negative light, I can't help but think that much of the high quality of life Japan enjoys today comes as a result of the Japanese way of doing things.
For this weekend's update, we've got some extra special items, which include:
Remember that in addition to popular non-region-encoded DVDs, J-List carries Video CDs by such lovely angels as Tohno Natsuko, Yoshino Sally, Mizuno Haruki, Miura Aika, Ikegami Misa, and more. Since the titles that are released are quite different from the offerings available on DVD, you should check out our Video CD page for some great items.
My son, who is five years old and in "Melon" class at his preschool (the school years are all named according to various fruits), had an interesting rite of passage the other night: "sleep over school, where all the children from his class spend their first night sleeping away from their parents. During the evening, the students and teachers play games and have fun activities, and the teachers dress up as ghosts. It's great fun for the kids, and it makes them feel very grown up (since the younger children are too little to go). What amazed me was that my wife had done all the exact same actives in the exact same way back when she did her first sleep over school, twenty-five years before. Despite the generational differences between mother and son, they were able to communicate on exactly the same level about how exciting it was to be away from home for the first time, how they felt when the teachers dressed up as scary ghosts, and so on.
One of the core themes about Japan is that they try to create a uniform society, in which social harmony is generated by the shared experiences of the society's in-group members. Creating this uniformity of life experience is the primary function of the Japanese educational system -- not teaching at all. Everyone goes through the same experiences, in the same order, and this gives them contact points which aid in making friends and social relationships. There are no aspects of public elementary and junior high school that aren't uniform all over Japan, from textbooks to the wearing of uniforms. There are no year-round schools or special tracks for gifted or slow-learning students, no skipping grades, and of course no home-schooling -- everyone experiences everything the same way. While Americans almost universally look on this kind of over-uniformity in a negative light, I can't help but think that much of the high quality of life Japan enjoys today comes as a result of the Japanese way of doing things.
For this weekend's update, we've got some extra special items, which include:
- First of all, the excellent new Urecco, featuring a great selection of wonderful Japanese AV idols and models, including Kumano Pooh-ko, Uehara Mai, and the sizzling Asato Yuka
- There are great new photobooks added, including the immensely wonderful School Wear Collection, a wonderful file of the most popular high school uniforms in Tokyo, modelled by Kanazawa Bunko, Ozawa Madoka, and other sexy models
- The latest issue of the popular Denno Buto Musume (Electronic Fighting Girl) series, the popular anthology of erotic game-girl dojinshi manga
- For dojinshi fans, a dozen or so new titles, including some nice new adult items
- Two excellent tekoki" (hand-job) videos from the excellent Soft on Demand, featuring Asamiya Junko, Nagase Lum, and a host of others -- see them on Special Order video page 1 if our stock runs out on the in-stock pages
- Another excellent new DVD, The Best Obscene Collection, compiling 130 minutes of wonderful erotic performances by world-class AV idol Yuki Maiko -- see it on the DVD page
- If you like wacky toy items from Japan, we've got "iDog, a remote-controlled robot dog that comes in iMac-like colors and skeleton" (translucent) plastics
- For fans of the up-and-coming Card Captor Sakura, we have wonderful Sakura Pins and soft-vinyl Sakura Keychains, on the anime and snack pages -- full sets are available!
- We've got more of our popular $5 magazines on magazine page 3, as well as lower prices on many of our DVDs, the Star Wars Episode 1 Laserdisc, and the excellent Princess Mononoke PVC figures (which I personally love)
- Finally, two great new flavors of Wata Gum, the funky Japanese cotton-candy that melts in your mouth to become delicious gum -- just $1 per pack on the Japanese snacks page!
Remember that in addition to popular non-region-encoded DVDs, J-List carries Video CDs by such lovely angels as Tohno Natsuko, Yoshino Sally, Mizuno Haruki, Miura Aika, Ikegami Misa, and more. Since the titles that are released are quite different from the offerings available on DVD, you should check out our Video CD page for some great items.
Thursday, June 22, 2000
Greetings from J-List June 22, 2000
Hello from Japan. Chiharu and I are back in the Land of the Rising Sun after 24 hours or so in transit. Spain was wonderful, but it is nice to be home.
Coming back from Europe to Japan has been a new lesson in reverse culture shock. Jerking ourselves out of the relaxing and slower-paced style of living that the Spanish enjoy and coming back to busy, bustling Japan has been a little difficult. Quite used to going back and forth between California and Japan, Europe was a while new collection of interesting experiences for us. Just to make it more fun, I heightened my sense of cultural displacement last night by watching, back to back, the U.S. Godzilla followed by Godzilla vs. Destroyer with my son.
While we were away, the mother of Emperor Akihito passed away at the age of 97. A formal, strict woman, Japan's version of the Queen Mum was known for being cruel to the current Empress, Michiko, who came from common blood (actually she is from Gunma Prefecture, not far from where J-List is). Japanese use formal titles when referring to the Royal Family, and never use their names -- Emperor Akihito is known as the Heisei Emperor, since Heisei is the current age according to the Japanese calendar. Since it's taboo to write anything bad about the Imperial Family in Japan, you'll never see news of the troubles between Michiko and the Emperor's mother on any news show. Actually
Last week also saw the death of Takeshita Noboru, a particularly corrupt politician who once controlled the most powerful faction of Japan's elite Liberal Democratic Party. A kingmaker, he held the power to decide who would be Prime Minister -- he even took the leadership of the country for a short time. In the style of disgraced Japanese politicians, he never left office, continuing to win his home election and remaining a force in Japanese politics even after stepping down as Prime Minister.
For tonight's update, we've got a host of very special items for you, including:
Along with this great new DVD, remember that J-List has the best selection of Japanese adult DVDs you'll find anywhere, with over 50 different excellent titles, most currently in stock. Many of the excellent items we have are subtitled in English and Chinese, too, for the ultimate viewing experience.
Coming back from Europe to Japan has been a new lesson in reverse culture shock. Jerking ourselves out of the relaxing and slower-paced style of living that the Spanish enjoy and coming back to busy, bustling Japan has been a little difficult. Quite used to going back and forth between California and Japan, Europe was a while new collection of interesting experiences for us. Just to make it more fun, I heightened my sense of cultural displacement last night by watching, back to back, the U.S. Godzilla followed by Godzilla vs. Destroyer with my son.
While we were away, the mother of Emperor Akihito passed away at the age of 97. A formal, strict woman, Japan's version of the Queen Mum was known for being cruel to the current Empress, Michiko, who came from common blood (actually she is from Gunma Prefecture, not far from where J-List is). Japanese use formal titles when referring to the Royal Family, and never use their names -- Emperor Akihito is known as the Heisei Emperor, since Heisei is the current age according to the Japanese calendar. Since it's taboo to write anything bad about the Imperial Family in Japan, you'll never see news of the troubles between Michiko and the Emperor's mother on any news show. Actually
Last week also saw the death of Takeshita Noboru, a particularly corrupt politician who once controlled the most powerful faction of Japan's elite Liberal Democratic Party. A kingmaker, he held the power to decide who would be Prime Minister -- he even took the leadership of the country for a short time. In the style of disgraced Japanese politicians, he never left office, continuing to win his home election and remaining a force in Japanese politics even after stepping down as Prime Minister.
For tonight's update, we've got a host of very special items for you, including:
- Great new magazines, including The Top Video and a new offering, Fetish Doll
- A great selection of new photobooks, including some excellent hardcover photobooks by the acclaimed Aida Garo (which are always popular)
- Also, many excellent back-in-stock photobooks, including Super Low-Angle, The Nama-Ashi, Super Lingerie, and the very popular Live photobook by Inoue Harumi
- From our friends at SOD, a dynamite item -- the Morishita Kurumi Fan Thanks Day video, in which she performs fellatio and hand-jobs on 40 of her lucky fans -- directed by female AV director Sugawara Chie
- For fans of dojin-soft, excellent hentai artwork on CD ROM and floppy, we've got a dozen excellent items on the dojinshi page
- If you like J-List's excellent erotic manga, see the half-dozen all-new offerings on the hentai manga page
- Fans of the excellent Card Captor Sakura will like the new metallic character cards on the anime and cards pages
- For value-minded fans, the latest DVD & Video CD SOft Catalog is in, with 2 discs of excellent footage, all for a low price
- A slew of our popular $5 magazines, on magazine page 3
- JPOP fans will enjoy the 12+ new JPOP CD singles posted to the JPOP page
- For fans of our Japanese snacks, we now offer a unique item -- sake candy! Made with real sake!
- And last, but not least, a positively fantastic DVD for all J-List fans -- the excellent Kuki 20th Anniversary DVD, with *200* minutes of performances by Miura Aika, Wakana Sena, Yoshino Sally, Komuro Yuri, Suzuki Manami, Shiraishi Hitomi, Kitahara Rina
Along with this great new DVD, remember that J-List has the best selection of Japanese adult DVDs you'll find anywhere, with over 50 different excellent titles, most currently in stock. Many of the excellent items we have are subtitled in English and Chinese, too, for the ultimate viewing experience.
Friday, June 16, 2000
Greetings from J-List June 16, 2000
Greetings from Japan, home of the tomato flavored pretzel...
Japan's many bizarre vending machines are world famous. There are vending machines here for everything from underwear to adult toys to eggs and ramen. The Japanese are masters at making them shallow, so they can be placed on a narrow sidewalk without sticking out into the street. Vending machines that accept the equivalent of a $100 bill are quite common, too. Beer vending machines are one of the most interesting to foreigners. They tickled me, too, when I came to Japan. Back in my single days, my gaijin friends and I would spend our summer evenings sitting by our favorite beer vending machine in front of the train station, and talk to people as they walked by.
Now, however, the days of the beer vending machine are coming to an end. In an effort to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors, and partially out of sensitivity to how Japan looks in the eyes of the international community beer vending machines have been quietly banned. As of this April, the only machines that are allowed are ones that require a drivers' license to be inserted, for age verification (my father-in-law had to buy one of those for our liquor store). Minors can't get beer from vending machines any more, however Japanese shops and convenience stores don't really have the custom of "carding" people to see if they're of age to buy beer or cigarettes -- hence, anyone who reasonably passes for the age of 20 can probably buy anything they want from a convenience store without question. Also, minors are allowed to work in convenience stores that carry alcohol which means that verifying the age of customers would be pretty hard to do.
We've got a host of excellent items for you this evening, including:
Remember that you can find bargain and discounted items on the higher-numbered pages (video page 3 and 4, magazine page 3, photobooks page 2). There are always lots of cool items on these pages, which you can pick up for a great price.
I'm writing this update in -- you're going to be shocked -- Malaga, Spain. Right at the bottom of the country, it's a beautiful city facing the Mediteranian, known for bullfighting, Bacardi and also as the birthplace of Picasso. I'm here on busines, but Chiharu is here with me, and we're enjoying some rare time together away from the kids -- the first such time we've ever been able to take. Malaga is great -- the wine, the seafood -- and we're having fun. We'll be back in Japan in a few days!
Japan's many bizarre vending machines are world famous. There are vending machines here for everything from underwear to adult toys to eggs and ramen. The Japanese are masters at making them shallow, so they can be placed on a narrow sidewalk without sticking out into the street. Vending machines that accept the equivalent of a $100 bill are quite common, too. Beer vending machines are one of the most interesting to foreigners. They tickled me, too, when I came to Japan. Back in my single days, my gaijin friends and I would spend our summer evenings sitting by our favorite beer vending machine in front of the train station, and talk to people as they walked by.
Now, however, the days of the beer vending machine are coming to an end. In an effort to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors, and partially out of sensitivity to how Japan looks in the eyes of the international community beer vending machines have been quietly banned. As of this April, the only machines that are allowed are ones that require a drivers' license to be inserted, for age verification (my father-in-law had to buy one of those for our liquor store). Minors can't get beer from vending machines any more, however Japanese shops and convenience stores don't really have the custom of "carding" people to see if they're of age to buy beer or cigarettes -- hence, anyone who reasonably passes for the age of 20 can probably buy anything they want from a convenience store without question. Also, minors are allowed to work in convenience stores that carry alcohol which means that verifying the age of customers would be pretty hard to do.
We've got a host of excellent items for you this evening, including:
- A full *dozen* great new adult manga, including new December's Girl, a wondeerful sexy maid erotic work, and a new Electronic Love Princess (fighting girl hentai manga) for you
- On the anime page, there's a very cool manga -- a tribute to Space Battleship Yamato by today's top manga artists (something I love)
- A host of back-in-stock photobooks, including Nishihara Kyoko's lovely "Mezame, Kusanagi Jun's Kubire 2, and Mignonne ~ D Cup Angel"
- New magazines, including NG NuGasu, an interesting "sex indoors and out" magazine
- Several excellent bondage and S&M books on the gouka-bon page including a high-quality Black S&M Costume photobook, an extremely detailed bondage photobook, and a super item featuring Miura Aika
- For DVD fans, two great new items -- Legend of Seven Nights vol. 2 (with another seven luscious Japanese AV idols) and a reprinted item, the excellent Large Breast Girls' School, featuring Ariga Miho, Wakana Sena Nanase Ayumi, Ozawa Madoka, and more -- all in a great English-subtitled story
- New videos, including a very special item for fans of Sawaguchi Miki, one of the most famous huge-bust AV actresses of the late 90's (and also one of the hardest to find videos of)
- The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog is in, with nearly 2 hours of great sampler footage on two MPEG discs (see it on the CD ROM page) -- an excellent value
- We've got a "visual guide" for the new Macross Playstation game VF-X2, on the anime page
- 20+ new JPOP CD singles, including TMN, Amuro Namie, Chinen Rina and J-Rocker Aikawa Nanase -- all at the lowest prices you'll find on the web
- For collectors of cute cards, we've got some out-of-production Card Captor Sakura anime cards, and some sexy idol cards featuring the buxom Pirates, on the Cards & Puzzles page
- Finally, new "reserve subscription" magazines, which you can get sent to you automatically every month. For hentai fans, we will now carry Bug Bug and the excellent Tech Gian (with a CD ROM full of games and images!). For yaoi fans, we'll have the excellent Junk Boy available -- an excellent yaoi manga magazine with 450+ pages each month.
Remember that you can find bargain and discounted items on the higher-numbered pages (video page 3 and 4, magazine page 3, photobooks page 2). There are always lots of cool items on these pages, which you can pick up for a great price.
I'm writing this update in -- you're going to be shocked -- Malaga, Spain. Right at the bottom of the country, it's a beautiful city facing the Mediteranian, known for bullfighting, Bacardi and also as the birthplace of Picasso. I'm here on busines, but Chiharu is here with me, and we're enjoying some rare time together away from the kids -- the first such time we've ever been able to take. Malaga is great -- the wine, the seafood -- and we're having fun. We'll be back in Japan in a few days!
Monday, June 12, 2000
Greetings from J-List June 12, 2000
Greetings from Japan, home of the tomato flavored pretzel.
Japan's many bizarre vending machines are world famous. There are vending machines here for everything from underwear to adult toys to eggs and ramen. The Japanese are masters at making them take up little space, so they can be placed on a narrow sidewalk without sticking out into the street. Vending machines that accept the equivalent of a $100 bill are quite common, too. Beer vending machines are one of the most interesting to foreigners. They tickled me, too, when I came to Japan. Back in my single days, my gaijin friends and I would spend our summer evenings sitting by our favorite beer vending machine in front of the train station, and talk to people as they walked by. It was great.
Now, however, the days of the beer vending machine are coming to an end. In an effort to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors, and partially out of sensitivity to how Japan looks in the eyes of the international community, beer vending machines have been quietly banned. As of this April, the only machines that are allowed are ones that require a drivers' license to be inserted, for age verification (my father-in-law had to buy one of those for our liquor store). Minors can't get beer from vending machines any more, however Japanese shops and convenience stores don't really have the custom of "carding" people to see if they're of age to buy beer or cigarettes -- hence, anyone who reasonably passes for the age of 20 can probably buy anything they want from a convenience store without question. Also, minors are allowed to work in convenience stores that carry alcohol
We've got a host of excellent items for you this evening, including:
Remember that you can find bargain and discounted items on the higher-numbered pages (video page 3 and 4, magazine page 3, photobooks page 2). There are a¶lways lots of cool items on these pages, which you can pick up for a great price.
This is the Month of Travel for me. I'm off to Spain, of all places, for a week. To make the three-hour trek to Narita Airport in time for the flight, we have to leave at 4 am -- so it makes more sense to just stay up all night, then go. My wife wouldn't forgive me if I didn't take her along, so she's coming -- she's always wanted to see Barcelona. While we're gone, the efficient J-List staff will make sure all updates and orders go smoothly in our physical absense.
Well, until next time! ¶
Japan's many bizarre vending machines are world famous. There are vending machines here for everything from underwear to adult toys to eggs and ramen. The Japanese are masters at making them take up little space, so they can be placed on a narrow sidewalk without sticking out into the street. Vending machines that accept the equivalent of a $100 bill are quite common, too. Beer vending machines are one of the most interesting to foreigners. They tickled me, too, when I came to Japan. Back in my single days, my gaijin friends and I would spend our summer evenings sitting by our favorite beer vending machine in front of the train station, and talk to people as they walked by. It was great.
Now, however, the days of the beer vending machine are coming to an end. In an effort to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors, and partially out of sensitivity to how Japan looks in the eyes of the international community, beer vending machines have been quietly banned. As of this April, the only machines that are allowed are ones that require a drivers' license to be inserted, for age verification (my father-in-law had to buy one of those for our liquor store). Minors can't get beer from vending machines any more, however Japanese shops and convenience stores don't really have the custom of "carding" people to see if they're of age to buy beer or cigarettes -- hence, anyone who reasonably passes for the age of 20 can probably buy anything they want from a convenience store without question. Also, minors are allowed to work in convenience stores that carry alcohol
We've got a host of excellent items for you this evening, including:
- A full *dozen* great new adult manga, including new December's Girl, a wondeerful sexy maid erotic work, and a new Electronic Love Princess (fighting girl hentai manga) for you
- On the anime page, there's a very cool manga -- a tribute to Space Battleship Yamato by today's top manga artists (something I love)
- A host of back-in-stock photobooks, including Nishihara Kyoko's lovely "Mezame, Kusanagi Jun's Kubire 2, and Mignonne ~ D Cup Angel"
- New magazines, including NG NuGasu, an interesting "sex indoors and out" magazine
- Several excellent bondage and S&M books on the gouka-bon page, including a high-quality Black S&M Costume photobook, an extremely detailed bondage photobook, and a super item featuring Miura Aika
- For DVD fans, two great new items -- Legend of Seven Nights vol. 2 (with another seven luscious Japanese AV idols) and a reprinted item, the excellent Large Breast Girls' School, featuring Ariga Miho, Wakana Sena, Nanase Ayumi, Ozawa Madoka, and more -- all in a great English-subtitled story
- Also for DVD fans, we've got fresh stock of nearly every DVD we carry, so you can get your order filled quickly, without waiting
- New videos, including a very special item for fans of Sawaguchi Miki, one of the most famous huge-bust AV actresses of the late 90's (and also one of the hardest to find videos of)
- The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog is in, with nearly 2 hours of great sampler footage on two MPEG discs (see it on the CD ROM page) -- an excellent value
- We've got a "visual guide" for the new Macross Playstation game, VF-X2, on the anime page
- 20+ new JPOP CD singles, including TMN, Amuro Namie, Chinen Rina and J-Rocker Aikawa Nanase -- all at the lowest prices you'll find on the web
- For collectors of cute cards, we've got some out-of-production Card Captor Sakura anime cards, and some sexy idol cards featuring the buxom Pirates, on the Cards & Puzzles page
- Finally, new "reserve subscription" magazines, which you can get sent to you automatically every month. For hentai fans, we will now carry Bug Bug and the excellent Tech Gian (with a CD ROM full of games and images!). For yaoi fans, we'll have the excellent Junk Boy available -- an excellent yaoi manga magazine with 450+ pages each month.
Remember that you can find bargain and discounted items on the higher-numbered pages (video page 3 and 4, magazine page 3, photobooks page 2). There are a¶lways lots of cool items on these pages, which you can pick up for a great price.
This is the Month of Travel for me. I'm off to Spain, of all places, for a week. To make the three-hour trek to Narita Airport in time for the flight, we have to leave at 4 am -- so it makes more sense to just stay up all night, then go. My wife wouldn't forgive me if I didn't take her along, so she's coming -- she's always wanted to see Barcelona. While we're gone, the efficient J-List staff will make sure all updates and orders go smoothly in our physical absense.
Well, until next time! ¶
Wednesday, May 24, 2000
Greetings from J-List May 24, 2000
Greetings from Japan, the only country with love hotel built like the cruise ship Q.E. II (and it's right in our city).
It's late at night in Japan now, and Tomo and I are working very hard to get the J-List update posted because we were both in Tokyo all day. Going to Tokyo is always a treat. A giant mass of 11 million people, Tokyo is a wonderful place where virtually anything can be found, as long as you don't mind the constant stress of having people in your "personal space" all the time. Tomo and I enjoyed coffee at Starbucks and a Whopper at Burger King as we moved through the pre-summer humidity of Tokyo. While I certainly love all things Japanese, there'll always be a place in my heart for all those slices from "back home."
Finding gems of silly English is always fun. It's everywhere, of course, since the Japanese revere English as "kakko ii" (cool) in much the same way as Americans use Spanish and French words to add flavor to English. While eating at my favorite restaurant in Shibuya (an authentic Italian restaurant with the unlikely name of DJ's Bar & Grill), I noticed the following proclaimed on the menu: "In Japan, restaurants today, everybody talks about the Mediterranean, but nobody does anything about it. 'Mediterranean' equals garlic, pizza, bright colors, loud noise
For tonight's update, we've got some very nice items for the site, including:
That's all for now -- hope you're having a great week!Greetings from Japan, the only country with love hotel built like the cruise ship Q.E. II (and it's right in our city).
It's late at night in Japan now, and Tomo and I are working very hard to get the J-List update posted because we were both in Tokyo all day. Going to Tokyo is always a treat. A giant mass of 11 million people, Tokyo is a wonderful place where virtually anything can be found, as long as you don't mind the constant stress of having people in your "personal space" all the time. Tomo and I enjoyed coffee at Starbucks and a Whopper at Burger King as we moved through the pre-summer humidity of Tokyo. While I certainly love all things Japanese, there'll always be a place in my heart for all those slices from "back home."
Finding gems of silly English is always fun. It's everywhere, of course, since the Japanese revere English as "kakko ii" (cool) in much the same way as Americans use Spanish and French words to add flavor to English. While eating at my favorite restaurant in Shibuya (an authentic Italian restaurant with the unlikely name of DJ's Bar & Grill), I noticed the following proclaimed on the menu: "In Japan, restaurants today, everybody talks about the Mediterranean, but nobody does anything about it. 'Mediterranean' equals garlic, pizza, bright colors, loud noise
For tonight's update, we've got some very nice items for the site, including:
That's all for now -- hope you're having a great week!
It's late at night in Japan now, and Tomo and I are working very hard to get the J-List update posted because we were both in Tokyo all day. Going to Tokyo is always a treat. A giant mass of 11 million people, Tokyo is a wonderful place where virtually anything can be found, as long as you don't mind the constant stress of having people in your "personal space" all the time. Tomo and I enjoyed coffee at Starbucks and a Whopper at Burger King as we moved through the pre-summer humidity of Tokyo. While I certainly love all things Japanese, there'll always be a place in my heart for all those slices from "back home."
Finding gems of silly English is always fun. It's everywhere, of course, since the Japanese revere English as "kakko ii" (cool) in much the same way as Americans use Spanish and French words to add flavor to English. While eating at my favorite restaurant in Shibuya (an authentic Italian restaurant with the unlikely name of DJ's Bar & Grill), I noticed the following proclaimed on the menu: "In Japan, restaurants today, everybody talks about the Mediterranean, but nobody does anything about it. 'Mediterranean' equals garlic, pizza, bright colors, loud noise
For tonight's update, we've got some very nice items for the site, including:
- First and foremost, a great new *180 minute* Miura Aika DVD, Aika Loves You vol. 2 -- with tons of wonderful footage for those who can't get enough of this woman
- We have several wonderful new photobooks, including "Enra, a wonderful item featuring the erotic kimono beauty of traditional Japan, featuring lovely photographs of five well-known models (see the photobook pages)
- There's an interesting new magazine, Pink Water, featuring lovely amateur Tokyo girls in (and partially out of) various bathing suits -- a unique swimming wear fetish magazine"
- Also for photobook fans, we've got more copies of many new popular items, including Vivian Hsu's "Venus, Horiuchi Nana's "Tickle,
- A half dozen all-new manga on the hentai manga page, including Sex 2000, a very erotic and artful millennium erotic comic"
- For anyone (like me!) who loved the original Ultraman series from the 1960's, some very cool recreations on the anime & toys page
- 20+ new JPOP singles, including some very popular and rare items from Puffy, Utada Hikaru, and more
- More stock of the previous sold-out Star Wars Episode 1 laserdisc
- Finally, more "special order" videos posted -- pre-order them to make sure you get them as soon as J-List gets its stock in. Included are more of the popular Secret Garden series, which offers 90 minutes of some of Japan's most popular AV performers.
That's all for now -- hope you're having a great week!Greetings from Japan, the only country with love hotel built like the cruise ship Q.E. II (and it's right in our city).
It's late at night in Japan now, and Tomo and I are working very hard to get the J-List update posted because we were both in Tokyo all day. Going to Tokyo is always a treat. A giant mass of 11 million people, Tokyo is a wonderful place where virtually anything can be found, as long as you don't mind the constant stress of having people in your "personal space" all the time. Tomo and I enjoyed coffee at Starbucks and a Whopper at Burger King as we moved through the pre-summer humidity of Tokyo. While I certainly love all things Japanese, there'll always be a place in my heart for all those slices from "back home."
Finding gems of silly English is always fun. It's everywhere, of course, since the Japanese revere English as "kakko ii" (cool) in much the same way as Americans use Spanish and French words to add flavor to English. While eating at my favorite restaurant in Shibuya (an authentic Italian restaurant with the unlikely name of DJ's Bar & Grill), I noticed the following proclaimed on the menu: "In Japan, restaurants today, everybody talks about the Mediterranean, but nobody does anything about it. 'Mediterranean' equals garlic, pizza, bright colors, loud noise
For tonight's update, we've got some very nice items for the site, including:
- First and foremost, a great new *180 minute* Miura Aika DVD, Aika Loves You vol. 2 -- with tons of wonderful footage for those who can't get enough of this woman
- We have several wonderful new photobooks, including "Enra, a wonderful item featuring the erotic kimono beauty of traditional Japan, featuring lovely photographs of five well-known models (see the photobook pages)
- There's an interesting new magazine, Pink Water, featuring lovely amateur Tokyo girls in (and partially out of) various bathing suits -- a unique swimming wear fetish magazine"
- Also for photobook fans, we've got more copies of many new popular items, including Vivian Hsu's "Venus, Horiuchi Nana's "Tickle,
- A half dozen all-new manga on the hentai manga page, including Sex 2000, a very erotic and artful millennium erotic comic"
- For anyone (like me!) who loved the original Ultraman series from the 1960's, some very cool recreations on the anime & toys page
- 20+ new JPOP singles, including some very popular and rare items from Puffy, Utada Hikaru, and more
- More stock of the previous sold-out Star Wars Episode 1 laserdisc
- Finally, more "special order" videos posted -- pre-order them to make sure you get them as soon as J-List gets its stock in. Included are more of the popular Secret Garden series, which offers 90 minutes of some of Japan's most popular AV performers.
That's all for now -- hope you're having a great week!
Saturday, May 20, 2000
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:
Well, I'm off to karaoke. Have a nice weekend, from your friends in Japan, J-List!
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!
Monday, May 15, 2000
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:
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!
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!
Saturday, May 13, 2000
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
Monday, May 08, 2000
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:
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!
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!
Saturday, May 06, 2000
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:
Check out these great items!
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!
Wednesday, May 03, 2000
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:
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!
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!
Wednesday, April 26, 2000
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:
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.
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.
Monday, April 24, 2000
Greetings from J-List April 24, 2000
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Thursday, April 20, 2000
Monday, April 17, 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:
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...
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...
Saturday, April 15, 2000
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:
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.
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.
Thursday, April 13, 2000
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:
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
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:
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.
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.
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