Greetings from J-List November 4, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where people have a tendency to get Eric Clapton's last name confused with "plankton" for some reason.

You've been in Japan too long when you make a sharp distinction between English and English conversation. This is one of the amusing "You've been in Japan to long when..." jokes (which I maintain on my personal homepage, http://www.myjapan.net), and it's part of the reason why Japan's approach to language learning has been largely unsuccessful. To the Japanese, English is an important subject that is studied in high school in preparation to enter college, and is comprised of grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and listening skills (as the Japanese always say, hearing) -- but it's never or used for communication, either written or spoken. English is always taught in Japanese by Japanese teachers. A completely different animal

The Japanese domestic auto industry is starting to look up. Nissan's new president, Mr. Gohsn (who is so cute he should be called "Gohsn-chan"), has announced a profit of $1.6 billion for the company, as his restructuring efforts begin to bear fruit. The first car designed as a result of the marriage of Nissan and Renault is the Bluebird Sylphy, and my mother-i- law liked it so much she bought one, replacing her aging Nissan Sunny. Other car makers are expecting sales to increase, among them GM, who is looking for ways to promote their popular cars (Saturn and Chevy Blazer) in Japan. Korea's Hyundai is also looking to get into the Japanese market, too, perhaps looking to capitalize on the cooperative atmosphere brought about by the co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup between the two countries

For this evening's update, we've got a lot of great new items, including:

• First, calendars! Although preorders for calendars have closed, we've got some limited stock of our popular anime, JPOP and other 2001 calendars posted to the various calendar pages
  
• We have new magazines for our AV magazine fans, including new issues of the excellent Video Boy, Best Video, and Suppin Evolution
  
• We have some really excellent photobooks in stock, on the Japanese photobooks pages, including great items by Hayama Kohime and Kohda Hitomi
  
• Also sure to be of interest is the new Waffle Super Collection vol. 2, featuring 15 of Japan's most lovely ladies
  
• It seems we can't keep our popular leg fetish photobook items in stock, since they're so popular. Leg and stocking fetish fans will love the new Mini-Suka Deluxe, which is truly a super item for leg fans
  
• We've got a first for fans of Kawashima Azumi -- a DVD photobook, a collection of 250+ unreleased photos of the lovely Azumi-chan in a format you can enjoy through any DVD player
  
• Also very cool, the new "Masterpiece of Soft on Demand" which presents 120 minutes of samples from their excellent products -- over 50 video titles covered in this great video!
  
• For our erotic manga fans, a great new volley of items, both all-new manga items, as well as some very manga items that had sold out -- see both the new releases and the best-sellers manga pages
  
• For fans of dojin-soft, the excellent fan-created computer CG and games, we have yet another excellent bunch of items, on the dojinshi page
  
• We have fresh stock of our of our most popular shirts, the white circle version of our "Looking for a Japanese girlfriend" wacky Japanese T-shirt
  
• Gundam fans, check out the really cool "anime strap" items we've added to the Anime Toys page -- Char Aznable and Amuro Rei figurines with mechs that you can attach to your camera, keys or portable phone
  
• For all those times when you never have enough chopsticks, we've got fresh stock of several different sets, including the high-quality balsa sticks that are so enjoyable to eat with -- see the Wacky Things from Japan for these
  
• Also on our Wacky Things page, cute metal "character plates" which you can hang in your room to add a touch of silly Japanese "kawaii"
  
• Finally, after a huge delay, we've got fresh stock of our most popular Japanese headband (hachimaki), Watashi wa H which means "I'm a pervert!" Just the ticket for livening up that party or Anime convention!
  

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday, and that means a big plate of sushi from our favorite sushi chain, Flower House, where four adults can eat themselves into a sushi coma for around $40. Have a nice weekend!

Greetings from J-List September 30, 2000

Hello again from Japan!

Japan can be a funny place. At the end of the day, Japan really loves Europe, and secretly wishes it could be a part of that continent. During the Meiji period, when Japan was looking to other nations as it modernized its institutions, they chose many elements from Europe to incorporate here. The French prefectural system, for example, was used as the model for Japan's system as they redrew their own internal boundaries in 1860's; they modeled their military on Prussia's, and their Diet on Britan's Parliament. In much the same was as British will jokingly pretend they're not part of Europe (since they're an island nation), the Japanese pretend they're not a part of Asia, and actually say "Asia and Japan" as if one were not part of the other. The fact that Japan and most of Europe are grouped in the same DVD region area speaks volumes

Speaking of DVDs and region codes, we've carried Japan's adult DVDs ever since they started appearing back in 1997, building a huge selection of great titles. While nearly all of Japan's adult DVD titles are zoned for "ALL" regions, meaning that you can view them on any DVD playback device, we've noticed that more and more titles we want to carry at J-List were zoned with region code 2 only. Rather than deciding not to carry these DVDs, we've created a new DVD page for region 2 discs, to offer you the best choice of products. Even if you don't have a code-free DVD player, you can view region 2 DVDs with virtually any DVD playback software on your computer, if you have a DVD ROM drive.

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

• First, some excellent new magazines not regularly seen on J-List, including new issues of Ok and Lip Mate
  
• For photobook fans, we've got fresh stock of both of Yuka's recent idol photobooks (on the photobooks pages)
  
• We have a dozen or so nice new "gouka-bon" format photobooks, the high-end S&M books that deal with various deeper forms of fetishism (Photobooks -> S&M)
  
• For manga fans. we have a half dozen all-new releases, with some really nice new adult wide manga that will go fast (Manga -> New releases)
  
• Also for manga fans, stock of Sadistic Angel, one of the most popular manga at J-List in recent months (Manga -> Bestsellers
  
• We've added more stock of the Kakyusei art book from the excellent Pink Pineapple production based on one of the most successful bishojo games of all time
  
• For video fans, we've got some nice items, including a really excellent Aoi Minori offering (ahh...Minori-chan), Kanazawa Bunko's debut as a SOD AV performer (very cool!), and a great new "tekoki" video featuring former Panasonic race queen Kanno Yukari!
  
• We have a bunch of all-new dojinshi, including both adult dojinshi and yaoi dojinshi -- and yes, we have Gundam Wing books
  
• Finally, on our new "Region 2 DVD" page, we've got the excellent Uchu Kikaku 120 minute Special, a wonderful selection of top-notch performances by the cutest AV gals today, including some of our favorites
  
• On the also-new "DVD Discount & Overstock" page, we're closing out several of our DVD titles, as well as all our stock of VCDs.
  

Remember that J-List carries delicious Japanese gum, like Lotte's Black Black, the spicy, caffinated gum recommend by truck drivers in Japan. See the Japanese Snacks -> Gum for everything we've got available.

Greetings from J-List September 28, 2000

Greetings from Japan, the country with the highest per capita number of vending machines in the world! (I think it's something like, 3.6 vending machines per person...)

The drama of the Olympics continues, with the Japanese teams taking the glory of victory and the agony defeat when they can. Korea defeated Japan at Baseball on Wednesday in a hotly contested battle. Actually, the relationship between Korea and Japan is one of the most complex in Asia, after hundreds of years of battle and competition -- think England and Ireland, but with chopsticks. Like many countries, sports are a healthy way to get a rivalry out of your system, and Korea is always ready to play hard against Japan.

A few months ago, there was an episode of that TV show "Japanese! This is different!" (which allows foreigners from different countries to debate issues on life in Japan, in Japanese) devoted entirely to the relationship between the two countries, and it was quite interesting to watch. From the Japanese point of view, Koreans are overly angry about the many transgressions of World War II and before, and Japanese surveyed for the show wondered why Koreans couldn't get over what had happened a long time ago. (Japanese seldom say this about Hiroshima, however.) Japanese young people knew practically nothing about the two Koreas (one cogal interviewed thought that the Nanking Massacre had happened in Korea), yet 59.2% Koreans surveyed for the show thought that the possibility of Japan invading Korea again in the future was likely. Japanese were rightly concerned about the numerous kidnappings of Japanese by North Koreas over the past two decades. In the current Japanese history textbook for elementary school students, 1 1/2 pages was devoted to the atrocities committed by Japan in Korea; the same subject in the same book in South Korea covered 10 pages.

• There are new photobooks, including the new Cho Mach!! (very erotic cogal book), the lovely seminude and swimsuit photos of Hoshino Aki and Saitoh Nozomi, and a very interesting item for piercing fetishists
  
• For our special-interest photobook fans, we have new stock of several very nice let & panty stocking books (Photobooks -> leg fetish) and the Anal-ko Club (Photobooks -> Bondage & Fetish)
  
• We sell more adult manga than just about anything else here at J-List, and we've got some more cool items for you -- a half-dozen all-new items (Manga -> New releases)
  
• Yaoi fans, find two new wide manga yaoi works posted for you, too
  
• For our Japan AV video customers, a very special item -- Morishita Kurumi's "Fuckin' On" release, from Soft on Demand. A dynamite video that put you in the picture through use of rich 3D sound, Soft on Demand recommends listen to this video with headphones -- see this item on the SOD video pages
  
• Also for video fans, two excellent lesbian videos (Videos -> Lesbian)
  
• For DVD lovers, two very special items: Kawashima Azumi's extremely "Sexia collection" DVD, and our first offering of the hopelessly cute Shibuya Marina (see them both on DVD -> Main)
  
• For Pocky lovers, we've got more excellent chocolate covered pretzel sticks -- the lovely Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry Pocky (with real bits of strawberry) and Men's Pocky (Pocky made especially for men)
  
• We've got several of our popular wacky headbands back in stock, on the headbands & stickers page
  
• Finally, more stock of the surprisingly popular "It is forbidden to urinate here" wooden sign that keep going out of stock, on the Wacky Things from Japan page. So cool!
  

Okay, see you on the site!

Greetings from J-List September 26, 2000

Hello from your favorite island nation, Japan!

Olympic Fever continues to grip Japan, as everyone watches the various events taking place in Australia. Japan has won 5 gold medals as of Monday night, including the first ever marathon gold medal by a Japanese female runner. The most famous Japanese athlete at the Olympics, Tamura Ryoko (nicknamed "Yawara" after the famous manga series), was finally able to get a gold medal in Judo after eight years of enduring of silver and bronze. Being able to hold their own in international competitions like this is very important to Japanese, and they're pleased with their standing at Sydney.

Thanks to a reader in France for filling us in on the meaning of "gravure, which is used in Japanese to mean a busty, buxom idol (Yuka is a good example of a gravure idol"). The original meaning in French is "printing" or "engraving" -- a far cry from the meaning the Japanese have assigned the word. I've been in Japan so long, of course, I forget what words are English -- therefore you'll see us use "gravure" in our product descriptions sometimes. It can be funny that way -- for whatever reason, I never encountered the English word "cover" (as in, to cover a famous person's song, to sing a version of the song) before coming to Japan. I remember how careful I was, asking if I could use the word in English, as I wasn't sure if it was a Japanese word or not...

When we started our unique line of wacky Japanese T-shirts, with funny Japanese slogans on them, we had no idea how that they'd be a runaway success. It's been an interesting year, and we've had a lot of fun thinking of funny and esoteric things to put on our shirts. To celebrate the first anniversary of our T-shirts page, we're happy to be able to announce our Baby Doll T-shirts for girls! Made of 100% pre-shrunk cotton, the three Baby Doll shirts we have are colorful, cute, and are guaranteed to cause confusion and fun when you run into Japanese people. See the new shirts on the Wacky T-Shirts page!

In addition to our new T-shirts, we've got a huge number of other new items this evening, including:

• First, more of what we do best, Japanese magazines -- find the new issues of the best-selling Dela Beppin and Beppin School, as well as the new Pink Gold (Kurumi-chan fans, take note) and a new issue of Momo-Mizu, the popular "bathing suit only" magazine
  
• For photobooks, we recommend the lovely photobook "Cupid, by Sawada Yuri, a really nice and elegant collection of hairnude photos in a nice hardcover book
  
• Also for photobook fans, several back-in-stock items, including Wonderful (vol. 3 and 4), Secret Idol, and several books for leg fetish fans
  
• We have an excellent new Multi-Boy issue featuring many lovely performances, and a special DVD version of Cho! Very Good!! (on the CD ROM and MPEG page)
  
• For fans of Japan's unique AV videos, we have a host of new in-stock items for you. Look for new videos posted at the top of the Classics page (Miura Aika & Fubuki Akira compilation videos), on the New Releases page (Sakurai Fuka's Violent Lips" and more), and on the Theme Videos page (an interesting ass-centric new release)
  
• Also for video fans, a first at J-List -- female-to-female molesting videos, an interesting category of Japan's ever-creative SOD. See this video on their in-stock page, or on the Special Order Videos (SOD) page if the ones we have in stock sell out
  
• We have many excellent volumes of manga for you, both popular items we've gotten back in stock (Rich Girl's Specialist, Teaching the Virgin Boy and more) as well as several beautiful volumes that are new to the list -- please see the manga pages (especially New Releases and Best Sellers)
  
• J-List customers ask for more anime cards, so we've obliged: see the new cards from Kanon (a wonderful bishojo game that's taking Japan by storm this year) and Gundam War (featuring all Gundam characters and mechs) on the Anime Cards page
  
• Speaking of anime, we've got stock of the new Pokemon Choco Snack, a delicious chocolated maltball snack that comes with one of sixteen chromed cards -- very cool. See the Anime Snacks or the Snack pages for this item
  
• On our Wacky Things from Japan page this evening, please see two very cool items. One is a handy wooden back massager, which allows you to really relax the muscles of your back. Also, for those with "ear cleaning fetish" (people who love having their girlfriends or wives clean their ears for them), we've got a great Japanese-style ear wax pick that has a built-in flashlight, so the person doing the cleaning can see what they're doing
  
• Finally, fresh stock of some items we just couldn't keep in stock: more loose socks, socks glue (to hold up your loose socks), Japanese vocabulary study cards (for studying vocabulary words, use them to learn Japanese), and one of our best sellers, the Hello Kitty printed chopsticks.
  

Please remember that we're looking for J-E translators who are interested in working on exciting projects involving translating of games and manga. If you've got these skills, please drop us a line. Thanks!

Greetings from J-List September 22, 2000

Greetings from J-List September 22, 2000

Greetings again from that wackiest of places, Japan.

The movie Schindler's List was a very touching story. Japan had their own little-known Schindler, a man named Chiune Sugimoto, a Japanese consulate in Estonia who used his special status to grant tens of thousands of travel visas to Jews who were fleeing the coming Nazi terror. Ignoring orders from his home country, he issued visas relentlessly in the months before the Soviets invaded, allowing refugees to travel first to Japan, then onto their final destinations in Canada, the United States and South America. His efforts allowed over 40, 000 people to reach safety.

The Japanese are great innovators, and they've really picked up the DVD ball and are running with it. Now Hitachi (whose slogan in Japan is "Inspire the next") has made the first DVD video camera, a video camera which records onto a DVD-RAM disc. It's being marketed by star pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke of the Seibu Lions, the baby of Japan's baseball league because he's a good pitcher and he's got such a cute face. You can see this camera at http://dvd.hitachi.co.jp/ (Japanese site).

We have some very nice new items for you this evening, including:

• Several all-new magazines, including two ones that I like a lot, Video Boy and Best Video, which offer great birds-eye views of the entire Japan AV world, and all currently popular AV stars
  For photobook fans, we've got the wonderful first photobook of one of my favorite idols, Tanaka Rena -- on photobook page 1
  
• Also for photobook fans, we have several back-in-stock items, including some really excellent leg fetish books that had sold out before -- see these books on the photobooks (page 1) photobooks (leg fetish) pages
  
• We love Japan's unique hentai manga here at J-List, so we've got more manga for you: on manga (new releases) we've got several excellent new adult manga, and on manga (best-sellers) you can find fresh stock of some of our most popular books, including the dynamite Innocent Age 1-3 sets
  
• Yaoi fans, we've got great new items for you -- see the 12+ new yaoi works posted to the yaoi manga & dojinshi page (but remember we have limited stock of each one)
  
• For bishojo game fans, find more copies of the excellent E-Login (the best-selling bishojo game magazine in Japan) on the magazines (hentai) page, and also more copies of Ohno Tetsuya's "Pussy Cat" hentai artbook
  
• We have fresh stock of some of our most popular adult videos from Soft on Demand, including the very popular Idol Shower "bukkake" theme video series
  
• Also for video fans, we have a dozen or more new items posted to the special order videos (new releases) page -- you can browse these great titles and pre-order the ones you want, and we'll send them to you as soon as they come in
  
• We love those funky reflective Japanese stickers with silly slogans on them. We have a new one that features a picture of a cute car and warns drivers to "drive safely"
  
• There's a new, longer version of the "plus cord" that lets you bridge bulky power supplies so they don't take up too much room on your power strip -- this one is 1.5 meters long (very handy to have these around your computer setup)
  
• For fans of our unique Japanese gum, a cool new item -- Xylets, a delicious sugarless gum bursting with flavor, made with xylident, a new product that fights cavities as you chew. As the package says, Xylets is your teeth friendly, with fresh and juicy flavor.
  
• Finally, autumn is here, which means it's time for a great new lineup of one of our most popular categories, Glico's delicious Pocky snacks! Two new flavors of the excellent "Mousse Pocky" have been added to the Pocky & Pretz page, chocolate and white. They're both delicious, and since they're incredibly popular in Japan this season, we aren't sure if we'll be able to keep them in stock. Check them out!
  

Okay, let's go see the site!

Greetings from J-List September 20, 2000

Hello again from Japan!

On the Japanese TV show Denpa Shonen, singer Kahala Tomomi is still plugging away, trying to break into the American market. Now she's trying to find a band that's looking for a vocalist, but her English is really tripping her up: "I am Japanese singer, American debut please" just isn't good enough for the competitive American music world. Meanwhile, on another segment of the same show, a student who wants to get into Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan, is locked in a room for 24 hours a day with a teacher, where he studies math

As the Japanese economy continues it lackluster performance, certain types of business models are proving wildly successful. One area that has shown solid growth is the used car industry, a complex network of dealers that form national networks, allowing a customer to easily find exactly the car he wants, even if it's located a thousand miles away. One dealer, T-Up, has an interesting twist on this system: they deal only with buying and selling Toyota cars. With a bright green and white sign that's obviously stolen from the 7-Up logo, they've found that by specializing in one category and doing it well, they can build a successful business even during a faltering economy.

For this evening's update, we have some very nice items for you, as usual, including:

• First, we have two great new magazines, the new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, two lovely examples of the excellent Penthouse Japan edition, which feature only lovely Japanese models shot by Japanese photographers
  
• We have several lovely back-in-stock photobooks, more copies of the wonderful "Legend of Love 2000" hardcover photobook
  
• S&M lovers should check out the new issue of Slave Mania, now posted to the photobooks (high-end S&M) page
  
• For fans of elegant leg-oriented manga-style artwork, artist Yagami Hiroki's popular G-Taste photobook is in stock, on the art books (hentai) and photobooks (leg fetish) pages
  
• Speaking of art, we've got a great new shipment of some of our most popular manga in, with a dozen or so new and back-in-stock manga. Look on the manga (bestsellers) and manga (new releases) pages for the newly posted items
  
• There are more in-stock copies of the popular Comic Jumbo and Kairakuten erotic comics, on the magazines (hentai) page
  
• For dojinshi lovers, there are a half dozen excellent one-shot dojinshi newly added -- these items are only available in limited numbers, so look at the new items quickly
  
• We have a very special 120 minute DVD for fans of large breast AV angels -- Ultra Bust Legend, featuring 20 different wonderful AV actresses for you
  
• Also for DVD lovers, more stock of DVD Wow, a full color magazine and 120 minute sampler DVD, featuring wonderful AV performances from some of J-List's most popular actresses
  
• We have more adult videos in stock -- including the silky Nishihara Kyoko, the pure Kawashima Azumi and one of our all-time favorites, the sexy Yoshino Sally
  
• For the anime fan in you, we have limited stock of a cool item -- a "seal collection" (i.e., stickers) of the popular anime and game Sakura Wars
  
• Finally, from our "wacky, wacky things from Japan" corner, we have a handy "hand roller" to massage your neck and back, and a real Japanese wooden abacus -- cool!
  

Remember that hentai game fans can take advantage of J-List's popular "Threepack" special, of any three hentai games for just $90, including shipping to the US or Canada. This allows you to save up to $35 on our great English-language hentai RPG and advanture games. Check them out on the Hentai Games pages now!

Greetings from J-List September 18, 2000

Greetings from Japan, where Pocari Sweat is always fresh and cold.

Well, we're extremely glad to say that Japanese Calendar has begun again at J-List. Japanese Calendar Season is a great time when stores in Japan can order the large-size unique Japanese calendars for sale close to the end of the year. J-List makes these really cool calendars available to you, so you can join in on the fun and take a piece of Japan with you through next year. You can preorder the calendars you want between now and around the end of October, and your calendars will come in, probably around a month after you order. When calendar season ends, it ends -- calendars completely disappear from Japan until the same time next year.

If you haven't seen these calendars before, they're really something special -- most are "A2" size, which translates to 23 x 16 inches approximately, and are basically large posters attached by a spine at the top, seven pages (two months per page, with a cover page). One thing they have in common is the beautiful printing on heavyweight paper, which add color and life to any room.

It's always fun to see how the various singers and idols move around the list, indicating how their popularity has risen or fallen during the past year. Singer and CM queen Hamasaki Ayumi bagged the coveted CL-1 position, replacing Suzuki Ami, Glay, Puffy and Amuro Namie as the #1 popular entity in Japan in past years. The ten-member singing group Morning Musume, idol Fukada Kyoko, the individual former members of Speed, and the incredibly popular busty smiling girl Yuka also made strong showings. Anime calendars that J-List readers might like include Card Captor Sakura, Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon (yes

Incidentally, we apologize for the smallness of the calendar pictures. Unfortunately, all we currently have to work with is a small poster with tiny pictures of the calendars, which we've spent time scanning and polishing as best we can. The calendars are actually large size, beautifully printed works of art, yet the scans on the site (which show the front pages of each calendar) are quite small.

In addition to the full listing of 2001 calendars, we have a bunch of great new items:

• First, tons 'o brand new magazines, including the new Bejean (Kanazawa Bunko, Kawashima Azumi, Kusanagi Jun), the bold Gokuh (very artistic nude performance by Kumano Pu-ko), the delicious new Gal's Dee ("busty revolution"), and the pretty new Suppin
  
• We have a fantastic new photobook in the Tennyo series, by the incredibly talented Masaaki Miyazawa, this time featuring the angelic Aoi Minori -- this book is so good, it's got both me and Tomo stopping work to steal glances at it
  
• Three more copies of Fubuki Akira's dynamite photobook "So Long"
  
• There's a new adult dojinshi on the dojinshi page, featuring great King of Fighters, Viper and Battle Athletes erotic play
  
• There are several new erotic manga on the manga (new releases) page, including a new release in the "Meganekko DX" series by Tsukasa, featuring all hentai stories about girls wearing glasses (the Japanese have great imaginations)
  
• Finally, a very cool video item from SOD, Morishita Kurumi's "Lesbian Love Hell, in which she boldly explores the world of lesbian sex and more. It's 100 minute video that looks to be extremely interesting for fans of Kuru Kuru" (to use Kurumi's nickname). (We have only one in stock currently. If it sells out, remember that you can find it on the SOD Special Order videos page.)
  

Well, thanks for checking out J-List, and please see the new 2001 calendars, now!

Greetings from J-List September 14, 2000

Hello again from Japan, the original home of the salad pretzel.

2000 is shaping up as the "year of the recall" in Japan. Of course the Bridgestone/Firestone scandal in the U.S. is at the forefront of everyone's minds (I have an American friend who works for Bridgestone, one of only a few foreigners in the company, and he's been quite busy with damage control meetings for the past few weeks). Mitsubishi has also gotten itself into trouble, for failing to recall a model of TV set and a car that had manufacturing defects, and covering up the reports of the problems in the first place. Also, major milk manufacturer Yuki-jirushi (Snow Brand) failed to recall improperly prepared milk, which resulted in thousands of people in the Osaka area getting sick.

In the last update I talked about Japanese typhoon season. As I was sending the update, Nagoya was getting pummeled by a huge typhoon, which flooded the entire prefecture and killed seven. Also, the rain shut down the Tokaido bullet train line, which forced 71 trains loaded with people returning home from Tokyo to spend the night inside the trains, unable to leave the train or get food. We have several friends in Nagoya, but fortunately they all managed to come through it without any damage.

For this evening's update, we have some nice items for you, which we've all been hard at work on. They include:

• First and foremost, several new magazines are in, including two popular "liquid" fetish books, Gal's Shower and Pakkun Mecha-Ike, as well as the new Top Video
  
• We have limited stock of other magazine items, including some value-priced back issues of The Best (on the magazine back issues page) and several in-stock issues of the popular E-Login (on the magazines (hentai) page)
  
• We have several nice new photobooks, including Mori Hiroko's elegant hardcover photo work (on photobooks page 1) and a positively wonder "campaign girl" fetish photobook on the leg fetish page
  
• We also have several back-in-stock photobook items, including Enra (lovely Japanese idols in kimono nudes) and the very popular and erotic "Cosplay Cuties" photobook
  
• For our manga fans, we have several new items, including "Picture Diary of Sexual Abandonment, an excellent new manga from Hit Comics, a complete three-volume set of erotic manga, and more
  
• For dojinshi fans, we have great stock of several new titles, including two great erotic Sailor Moon parody dojinshi by Energya
  
• The special order" video (new AV idols) page has been updates with new videos you can special order -- see the excellent titles by Asakura Kaori, bitch of bitches Yanagi Haruka, a bathing suit & sex fetish title with the amusing title "Pheromone Bikinies, and more
  
• For our JPOP fans, we have several new JPOP CD singles posted -- remember our final JPOP sale, where you can buy 2 and get 1 free on any JPOP album or single
  
• We had such success with our two previous Japanese wind chimes that we've got another one -- a deluxe bamboo wind chime, which makes a pleasant bamboo sound as wind blows. We really like finding items like this from Japan for you... Find this on the Wacky Things from Japan page.
  
• J-List carries Japanese congratulations envelopes (shugi-bukuro), which are traditionally used for presenting money to people as congratulations for happy events, but you can use them for anything. We have a new deluxe congratulations envelope on the Wacky Things page, which features a beautiful metal wire wound into the shape of a crane.
  
• Finally, in the you didn't even know you needed it, category, we've got the perfect small pan for making Japanese-style scrambled egg (tamago-yaki) in little squares. Perfect for sushi, putting in your bento-box, or doing anything creative with eggs. When my mother came to Japan, she couldn't buy enough of these for her friends when she went home.
  

Friday is a Japanese holiday, Keiro no Hi, or Respect for the Aged Day, so it'll be quiet around J-List. Today, my son went to visit the members of a nearby elderly home where they danced and sang songs. If you have any elderly people in your lives, be extra nice to them -- they'll appreciate it.

Greetings from J-List September 12, 2000

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Greetings from J-List September 10, 2000

Man, Apple's Airport is really great. Today's update is being brought you from my living room, via my Powerbook and a booster antenna. Kazuki and I are about half way through Zeta Gundam, and we're watching an episode while I finish up tonight's update.

In any language, there are little areas that are especially difficult or challenging. When Japanese people study English, they get hung up on idioms ("it's raining cats and dogs"), and two word verbs and their many nuances (throw up, throw off, throw away, etc.). Also, because it's quite hard to find native English speakers to practice English with, Japanese have trouble getting used to understanding spoken English.

For me, studying Japanese has always been great fun, but there are were difficult areas, to be sure. There's an interesting category of four-syllable words that were quite hard to get down when I was studying Japanese: sokkuri ("it looks exactly the same"), pittari ("it's a perfect fit"), bikkuri ("I'm quite surprised"), and so on -- there are about 50 of these words, all with hard to learn but well-defined meanings. But the most challenging area of Japanese study for non-Chinese, non-Taiwanese, non-Korean students of Japanese is definitely kanji. An extremely complex system of pictures and meanings

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

• First, great new magazines, including another new issue of the popular Cho Very Good, for fans of outrageous Japanese cogals
  
• If you like legs, we've got some great items for you, including several new and back-in-stock let fetish books -- including Panstopia, Panst Dream, Leg's Queen, See-Through Fetish, and more
  
• For photobook fans, we've got some wonderful new ones for you, including Girl Friends 2000, a super hardcover book featuring 36 AV idols for you, Yamazaki Akari's erotic "Mellow Fruits, and an interesting bishojo ass" book
  
• We've also got more copies of such popular photobooks as Miyazawa Nude vol. 2, Secret Idol, and Yamada Mariya's "Mariya 2"
  
• We have more copyes of the excellent hentai art books that had been sold out, The Season of L (L no Kisetsu, L standing for "ero" to the Japanese ear) and Cherry Soft, on the hentai art books page
  
• We have some great new videos in stock, including the lovely Aoi Minori's "Fetish Virgin" (gotta love a video with a title like that)
  
• We have a dozen or so *all new* dojinshi posted to the dojinshi page, some really nice ones from last month's Comic Market
  
• JPOP fans are responding to our "final JPOP sale, picking up a lot of JPOP albums and singles with our buy two, get one free." We've sweetened the pot, with 20+ new items on the JPOP page, including limited stock of Amuro Namie, Suzuki Ami, and more
  
• For today's additions to the "wacky things from Japan" category, we've added a wonderful Hello Kitty spoon & fork; a nifty pair of hooks that you attach to the back of your car's seat to hang trash bags, food the the kids, and more; and by request, more of the surprisingly popular "Japanese word cards"
  

Remember that J-List has the only "bizarre Japanese T-shirts" you'll find, with great slogans on them, from "Looking for a Japanese girlfriend" to "I'm a strange foreigner" to the fun favorite, Philosophy of Hentai. Check them out on the T-shirts page!

Greetings from J-List September 9, 2000

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Greetings from J-List September 4, 2000

Hello again from Japan, the country where toilets wash and dry your butt for you -- we have one of these in our house, actually.

To Japanese singers, America is the "holy land, and every musician dreams of succeeding there. Dozens have tried and failed -- Matsuda Seiko being the most famous -- but except for Pink Lady, who's single Kiss In The Dark spent three weeks on the top 40 in 1979, no Japanese singers have ever made much of a splash. Denpa Shonen, the Japanese TV show that followed comedians as they hitchhiked from the bottom of Africa to the top of Europe, is trying to change that: they want to help to make Kahala Tomomi a star in America. The former girlfriend of master Japanese music producer Tetsuya Komuro (who gave us such great lyrics as get chance and luck" and "Body feels EXIT") and best-selling singer in her own right, she fell on hard times emotionally and professionally when she broke up with TK. Her new plan: to debut in America. Each week on Denpa Shonen, the camera follows her around as she goes to record companies in Los Angeles, asking in terrible English if she could please talk to a producer about a recording contract. She sings her own songs at Japanese karaoke boxes to make demo tapes, or outside record companies with a portable karaoke set. If you're in the Los Angeles area, keep your eyes out for her and tell her we said "ganbatte kudasai" (do your best).

There was an interesting drama on TV last week, which got one of the highest viewer ratings of any drama in history -- 29%. Called "Tale of One Hundred Years, it told the story of three generations of women, in the Taisho (prewar), World War II and modern eras. Each character was played by popular Japanese actress Matsushima Nanako (see a profile of her at http://www.topidols.com/nanako_matsushima/profile.htm), so that the grandmother, mother and daughter were all portrayed by the same woman. The drama played close attention to how the lives of Japanese women have changed in the last century -- in the Taisho era, for example, it was illegal for a woman to cheat on her husband, but not illegal of the husband did the same thing. The third part of the drama was filmed almost entirely in the U.S.

We've got loads of cool new items for you this evening, including:

• First, some killer back from the dead" photobooks, including two copies of Ikegami Misa's wonderful 3rd photobook, Yoshioka Chihiro's dynamite nude photobook, Picasso's great "Costume Viper, and more
  
• Also for photobook fans, the lovely hardcover photobook of idol Kawamura Risa, age 15
  
• For magazine fans, we've got even more popular classic backissues of Urecco from as far back as 1993 -- cool
  
• We have some supremely lovely videos in stock, including four dynamite classic AV videos by the dynamite Fubuki Akira and the sizzling Yoshino Sally -- see them on the Videos (Classics) page
  
• For DVD fans, we have not one, but TWO super Miura Aika erotic DVDs in stock: Aika Loves You 3, a super collection of some of her best previous AV performances, and an all *new* production, the 120 minute Destruction by Lewdness"!
  
• Manga fans will love the new offerings we've posted, with some absolutely fantastic new erotic manga that are destined to become popular at J-List
  
• For JPOP fans, we have some great new singles and albums, including some hard to find items -- and check below for a great announcement about our JPOP CDs
  
• We've got more "wacky items from Japan" for you -- plug extenders which fold neatly out of the way (in brilliant iMac "skeleton" colors!)
  
• By popular demand, we have 10 more units of the popular "ashi-fumi board, which presses the pressure points on the bottom of your feet for a wonderful massage feeling
  
• How do Japanese high school girls keep those outrageously tall socks from falling down? With socks glue, of course! Now you can buy your very own socks glue, on the Fun Stuff page
  
• Finally, dumb cornball joke broken finger" and "nail through the finger" gags to amuse your friends.
  

Announcing J-List's *FINAL* JPOP sale! We want to say thanks to J-List's loyal JPOP fans for your continued interest in our selection of bargain-priced JPOP CDs. JPOP CDs typically cost $12 and up for singles, $30 and up for albums, so our low-priced selection has always been popular. We're going to treat you to one, massive final sale on our JPOP singles and albums. For the rest of the month, buy any TWO Japanese music CDs and get the third free. Help us clear out all our stock of already ridiculously cheap JPOP CDs!

Greetings from J-List September 1, 2000

Greetings again from Japan, the original home of the Bongo Friendy, a fairly cool camp-car from Mazda.

Translating a word from one writing system to another is known as transliterating. Most of the the time it's an easy thing to transliterate Japanese into English, as Japanese is made up of easy syllables that consist of either a vowel (a i u e o) or a consonant and a vowel (ka ki ku ke ko, ra ri ru re ro, etc.). There are three syllables that don't fit neatly into this system though -- shi, chi, and tsu -- which, because of the way they're pronounced, can't be written with the convenient consonant+vowel system (i.e., si, ti and tu). As always

For this weekend's update, we have an especially large selection of cool stuff for you, including:

• First, we have super new magazines, including a wonderful new Gal's Dee (gotta love Kajiwara Mayu as the busty young wife) and Do-Up!, a super new all-amateur magazine
  
• The new issue of Wonderful is in, and it's a hot one, featuring sixteen different lovely AV stars, including Kusanagi Jun and Hoshino Marin
  
• We have some killer one-shot magazines from 1995, on the magazine "backissues" page -- including some extremely cool premium issues which have to be seen to be believed
  
• We have a great volley of new photobooks, including two of the *extremely* beautiful Tennyo series by master photographer Miyazawa Masaaki -- featuring lovely angels Morishita Kurumi and Hagiwara Mai
  
• As usual, we've got additional copies of very special photobooks that have sold out in the past -- including the lovely Genji Shana's "Mezame" photobook
  
• We have some groovy new videos posted on the SOD page ((36 Naked Girls in Private Interview") and on the Japan AV Today page (several great new in-stock titles)
  
• A real value item is the DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog, which provide 2 full VCDs of great sampler footage, nearly 2 hours, along with a full color magazine. See the new item on the MPEG CD ROMs page (in the VCD and DVD master category)
  
• For fans of Takara's "anti-Barbie, the demure and cute fashion doll Licca-chan, we have a selection of circa-1970 Licca-chan stationary items that are very cool, on the Anime (fashion dolls) page
  
• In an entire new product category for J-List, we now sell everything you need to take up classic Japanese calligraphy (Shodo) -- brushes, ink, stone ink dish, paper, and more. Find these cool items on the Fun Stuff" page
  
• We have more stock of some of our most popular items, including some great wacky headbands, new stock of the "Plus Cord" Magic Extender, fresh stock of the surprisingly popular Buddhist beads, and new Japanese congratulations envelopes
  
• For the ladies, something only Japan could invent -- Japanese facial oil wipes, which soak excess oil from your face and leave you feeling clean and refreshed
  
• If you're part of the Yamato generation, we have more stock of the die-cast Yamato completed models on the Anime Toys page
  
• Finally, something for the hobby fan in everyone -- Uchusen, the quarterly magazine of hobby, Godzilla and Ultraman, and the Garage Kit Catalog 2000, a super color book filled with pictures of the current leading edge in these cool PVC models.
  

Can you translate from Japanese to English? We're looking for J-E translators who can help us bring out the next generation of excellent bishojo games. If you're interested, please drop us a line -- thanks!

Greetings from J-List August 30, 2000

Hello again from your friend in Japan!

Summer is always fun in Japan. It's a time of memory-making and trips to Wild Blue Yokohama where you can swim and beat the heat. The hotter is gets, the less clothes the girls in Tokyo wear, which always makes my business trips more interesting, too.

Summer is also a time for "booms, and it's always interesting to see what will be popular. This year the word that was on everyone's lips has been -- Vietnam. Vietnam has stealthily invaded Japan's fashion and shopping world, bringing everything from interesting furniture and jewelry to Vietnamese traditional clothing (think of a China dress with pants), and it seems all the women in Tokyo are interested in Vietnam. Vietnamese style coffee and Vietnamese restaurants are booming, and airline ticket sales to the country are at an all-time high.

For tonight's update, we've got a fresh selection of fun items for you, including:

• Cool new magazines, including Pine, a wonderful all-color magazine featuring 14 of your favorite AV idols -- like the cover says, girls are so fresh in Pine"
  
• New backissues of older magazines, including a very special premium issue of The Best featuring Fubuki Akira (!)
  
• If you love Japanese lovely ladies showing their sexy, stylish legs, the very special new issue of Mini-Suka Deluxe is in, and it is really a great issue
  
• The wonderful sexy model trio Mini-Suka Police are wonderful to behold in the new photobook on the photobooks and idols pages -- Asakura Megumi is just lovely in the great photos in this book
  
• Our buy-3-get-1-free sale on gouka-bon books ends tomorrow, but just for you, we've got a nice new addition -- Piss Freak, featuring 73 Japanese girls in a unique Japanese fetish book
  
• Do you like "Polygon girls"? See the interesting all-polygon CG and hentai magazine & CD ROM, on the CD ROMS page
  
• On the erotic manga pages, we've got a great new erotic title, Tsuyudaku, as well as fresh stock of many of our most popular titles, like Alice First, Love Doll, and more -- see the new releases and best-seller manga pages
  
• If you're a fan of Japan AV videos, there are a dozen or so new titles, mostly "one shots, on the discounted videos page
  
• For our loyal DVD fans, we have fresh stock of some of our best-selling titles, including the Kuki 20th Anniversary DVD (Black), Aika Loves You 2, Kawashima Azumi's dynamite Memories" and "Excellent Double Bomb" -- all in stock, and completely zone free!
  
• Also for DVD fans, the fantastic Kuki 20th Anniversary DVD (White), with 15 of the most popular and lovely AV idols and *200* minutes of great action! (please note, however, that this title is zoned for region 2, unlike all of our other DVD titles)
  
• Just when you think J-List has run out of wacky new things to bring you, we've got classic Japanese "emergency exit" sign-plates, suitable for placement in any room
  
• Finally, our traditional wooden Japanese chime sold so well, we're out of them. We've got a wonderful replacement, though -- a classical Japanese metal wind-chime, which makes a lovely sound when wind blows through it. See it on the Fun Stuff page!
  

Remember that you can find great discounted prices on higher-numbered pages, like Magazine page 3, Photobooks page 2, and so on.

Greetings from J-List August 28, 2000

Greetings once again from your favorite volcanic nation, Japan.

Japanese people love little gadgets, and no gadget in recent years has attained as much popularity as the cellular phone. The Japanese cellular market is dominated by NTT"s DoCoMo subsidiary, with other players competing on price and features as best they can. One of the features in NTT's crown is iMode, an Internet-like system that allows you to access many convenient features through your phone. AU, a new company formed by cellular provider Ido, and long distance companies KDD and DDI, will bring a new feature: phones based on Qualcomm's CDMA standard, allowing a traveler to use his normal phone in Japan, America, Hong Kong

One thing that's hard to get used to is seeing Japanese people rapidly typing emails on their phone's keypad. Based on a code that's quite easy to learn (if you're used to Japan's system of 46 syllable-based sounds) -- 11 through 15 is the A line, 21 through 25 is the KA line, etc. -- Japanese seem to get along fine without a full keyboard. With the popularity of mail-enabled cell phones, the image of the tired commuting salaryman or board young people listening to music while on the train have been smashed. Now everyone's playing with their "keitai, sending email.

For tonight's update, we've got a ton of great nice items, including:

• First, new magazines, including two popular items, Cho Very Good!! and OK, the magazine for beautiful Rapeman life"
  
• If you love sexy Japanese women in silky stockings, high high heels, and short skirts, the new Super Legs is up, too
  
• We have some wonderful new photobooks, including the "commercial film special" photobook of the wonderful Yuka, Tamura Ayumi's lovely "girl of summer" hardcover photobook, and more
  
• Also, we have more copies of a dozen or so great photobooks that had gone out of stock, including the popular "Nude Grand Prix" by Aida Garo
  
• There's a great new erotic wide manga on the manga (new offerings) page, Cosplay Heaven
  
• On the Dojin Soft page, we've got several really excellent new one-shot DVDs, with fabulous dojin erotic works on CD ROM
  
• We've got three dynamite and very classy new videos for you: Japan AV's "good girl" Kawashima Azumi's "Promise, busty dream Yumeno Mariya's H cup Explosion, and a super *90 minute* Contrary Soap Heaven" special
  
• For our DVD lovers, another great long-playing featuring *16* lovely AV idols and *120 minutes* of super erotic performance -- see Obscene Venus Ecstasy Collection on the DVD (Gallery) page
  
• If you're a member of the Macross Otaku Generation, there's a great new "Macross Perfect Collection" card series, on the Anime Cards & Puzzles page
  
• Want the ultimate Bruce Lee phone strap/key holder? We've got a cool one on the Anime Toys page
  
• For our loyal JPOP fans, we've got a dozen or so new CD singles and maxi-singles, including new music from Uehara Takako, T&C Bomber, and Da Pump
  
• On the "Trendy Stuff" page, we've got another slew of wacky, fun stuff -- today we've posted Japanese study cards, the little cards held together on a removable plastic loop. Use them to study Japanese vocabulary!
  
• Finally, for fans of fun Japanese snacks, we've got a new "charcoal roasted" traditional coffee candy, on the Japanese snacks page. It's delicious!
  

Do you read Pulp, by Viz? If so, please shoot us an email -- we'd like to ask you're opinion on this publication. Thanks!

Greetings from J-List August 26, 2000

Hello again from J-List, your #1 source for cool stuff from Japan!

The Japanese language is awash with loan words, most of which come from English -- words like "situation" and "category" and "industrial designer" are used in Japanese pretty much as-is. The more cosmopolitan the speaker is, the more English they'll pepper their Japanese speech with, just as English speakers sometimes use French terms while they speak. Sometimes a "stylish" word such as "necklace" will be imported, with the original Japanese word ("kubiwa") changing in meaning (now it refers to a dog's collar).

Japanese didn't always import a lot of English words, however. Before and during World War II, Japan had close relations with Germany, and as a result, many of the loan words Japanese use in their daily speech, such as arbeit (a part-time job, which often gets shortened to "baito" in Japanese), karte (a medical chart) and anket (a questionnaire) are not English at all. (Disclaimer to our German customers: we may be wrong about the spelling and/or actual origin of these words, sorry if so.) This doesn't stop students of English from using these words in English, of course

For this weekend's update, we've got some very nice items for you, as always, including:

• New magazines, including the very nice new issue of Men's Master, featuring lovely nude features by Asato Yuka, Kouda Hitomi and Yoshikawa Minami
  
• A large number of new photobooks, including vol. 1-5 of the nice "Privacy" series, a line of hardcover photobooks documenting the lovely "private room" nudes of five wonderful Japanese ladies
  
• As always, we've got some popular back-in-stock items for you too, among them the very nice So Long photobook by Fubuki Akira (another 8 copies in stock, since last week's sold out so quickly), and Ozawa Madoka's lovely hardcover photobook
  
• On our magazine backissues page, we've got several premium issues which will likely go quickly, including a very rare issue of Penthouse with a certain Taiwanese lady on the cover
  We have two new killer hentai artbooks on the Artbooks (Hentai) page (on the manga & dojinshi master category)
  
• For those who love Soft on Demand's creative approach to AV making, a new installment in the excellent "Fuckin' On" series with Okazaki Mio
  
• Also from SOD, the end-all in leg-fetish videos: a super 90 minute video covering all the bases, including silky stockings, sexy high-heels and up-skirt shots, leotard fetish, and more --quoth the English on this cover, The fetish heaven has been full of legs
  
• In addition to fresh stock of the endlessly cute Morning Musume collectible cards, our stock of the busty idol group "Pirates" collectible cards is down to $1 a pack -- see them on the Anime Cards & Puzzles page
  
• Since the world can never be too wacky, we have several interesting new items on the Trendy Goods page -- including more interesting wooden signs to decorate your room with, even more of our wacky Japanese reflective stickers, a new "Buddhist bead" item suitable for use as a bracelet in case you're not Buddhist, and a lovely stationary set made from traditional Japanese "washi" paper.
  

Remember J-List's sale on our lovely S&M and fetish "gouka-bon" format books. These are great "interest books" for fans of some of Japan's unique fetish categories, and our "buy 3 get 1 free" sale ends Sept 1.

Greetings from J-List August 24, 2000

Greetings from Japan, where it's not polite to stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice.

It sure is hot in Japan this summer! In fact, it's a full 2 degrees centigrade hotter this year than in past years, something which has pushed sales of air conditioners up more than 50%. The heat has caused many would-be guests at Tokyo Disneyland to opt for the "after 6" late-night ticket and skip the hot afternoon. When it gets hot, the Japanese tend to eat spicy food to give them stamina, which has pushed sales of kimchee up as well.

Every afternoon at around 4:30, the kids walk over to J-List, and we all stop what we're doing and ask them about their day. Rina, it seems, has finally gotten over her fear of the "scary Furby" (really a plush doll of Mohawk, from Gremlins 2 which we had sitting in the hall) and can use the J-List bathroom all by herself. In sadder news, the official J-List Cat, who Kaori nicknamed Nyan-ko Sensei (Dr. Meow), has unfortunately given birth to stillborn kittens. The father, a sandy white cat who comes to visit every once in a while

Our Wacky Japanese T-shirts are selling well, and it's always fun to see which will be the most popular. We weren't surprised to see the "Japanese flag" version of "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" take the #1 spot right away, but "Hen na gaijin" (I'm a strange foreigner) pulled quickly into the #2 position, especially with American customers, who seem to like the red, white and blue motif. The enigmatic "Philosophy of Hentai" remains firmly in place at #3.

For tonight's update, we've all been working hard to bring you some cool new items. They include:

• New magazines, including not one, but two different issues of MPEG King, a magazine + two video CD combo item that give you 140+ minutes of AV enjoyment for a low price
  
• We have several nice photobook items, including a really excellent First Photobook by the lovely Morishita Kurumi, and more copies of Vivian Hsu's soon-to-go-out-of-print "Venus"
  
• For Japan AV video fans, we've got some truly excellent new videos in stock, including hot, new idols like the busty nurse Fukada Miho and the sizzling Yumeno Maria (on the New Offerings page) as well as fresh stock of dynamite videos by Miura Aika and Kanazawa Bunko (on the "Classics" videos page)
  
• we've got another dozen of "special order" video offerings on the Video Catalog (New Releases) page. There are great new Reserve you copies now!
  
• If you love DVDs, we've got some killer ones for you: Sexy Lingerie Fuck Collection and Nurse Fuck Collection, each featuring *dozens* of lovely AV idols from present and past for your enjoyment -- find these
  
• There's a new series of the popular Crystal Video nude AV idol cards, on the photobook and magazine pages -- -very nice
  
• There's a cache of new artbooks and photobooks on the Anime Artbooks page, including the new Final Fantasy IX book, the Gundam Manual 3, and a super magazine for 1/700 scale model fans
  
• We have fresh stock of some items that have proven surprisingly popular, including various reflective stickers with funny slogans, the "Do not urinate here" wooden signs, and one of the most popular items, Hello Kitty chopsticks
  
• For your kids, or the kid in you, in-stock issues of Yochien, a great magazine for kids which features tons of pictures of current anime and special effect shows, as well as giving you tons of stickers and put-together toys in each issue -- recommend for Rika-chan and Pokemon fans
  
• For lovers of fine Japanese snacks, we have fresh stock of Pocky, Coconut Pocky, Tomato Pretz, our popular sake candy (with real sake inside!) and more
  
• Finally, a great item I've wanted to see in the US for many years, little plug extenders that keep those big, fat AC adapters you sometimes get from taking up too much space on your power bar. Find them on the Trendy Goods page.
  

Greetings from J-List August 22, 2000

Hello again from Japan, your personal friend in Japan!

The Japanese have some interesting superstitions about names, and generally labor over the choice of a name for a baby quite a lot, even seeking the advice of Shinto priests as they try to choose a name that will bring happiness to the family. Chinese characters are always written with an exact number of strokes, and one form of prediction is concerned with the number of strokes in the first name and last name combined -- some combinations will bring happiness, others bad luck. Also, some kanji combinations carry bad connotations. Our son Kazuki (peace + tree) was originally going to be named Kazuma (peace + horse), but the Shinto priest steered us away from using the character for horse because it would bring bad luck.

We went to Germany! Well, sort of. In rural Japan, there's a recreation of a German village, called Kronenberg, or more familiarly, Doitsu-mura (German Village), here. A kind of theme park, it's a place where you can see recreations of German architecture, drink German beer, eat sausage

For tonight's update, we have some really cool products for you, including:

• For Japanese magazine fans, the new Dela Beppin, which features some of the most lovely Japanese gals around (we especially loved Morishita Kurumi dressed as an erotic Indian Princess)
  
• We have more of our popular "one shot" backissues of Japanese magazines from 1995-1997, including some great new copies of The Best
  
• For fans of photobooks, both volumes of Miyazawa Masaki's excellent "Nude" hardcover photobooks, which feature dozens of lovely hard-to-find AV idols shot by the extremely talented photographer
  
• Also quite cool, the Best Video Special Ranking Gourmet 2000, and Love Dream, a wonderful "photographic of 18 girls' hair nude" (including Miura Aika and more), as well as several new leg fetish books
  
• We have some very cool hentai art books, including the Perfect Collection Series for Kakyusei, Hiyoko Voice, and how to draw cute girls in uniforms (see the hentai art books pages)
  
• We have some excellent dojinshi on the dojinshi page, with 30+ new items, including many brand new dojinshi from the past Comic Market
  
• Also from the Comic Market, we have new dojin-soft (with some very nice adult CG collections) and cool yaoi books, too -- yes, we have Gundam Wing
  
• There are several brand new manga volumes on the Manga (new releases) page, including some really cool new works -- also, more copies of the popular all-color Climax Collection
  
• On the Videos (discount) page, overstocked items for you by Ariga Ryo and Kawashima Azumi and more
  
• Finally, some great new videos SOD -- Get Panty and Peroman, two offerings which explore the immorality of Japanese young women in Shibuya.
  

Remember that J-List carries wacky snack and gum items from Japan, which aren't available overseas. In addition to Pocky and other pretzle-stick-type snacks, we have the full line of Lotte's delicious gum, including the best-selling gum at J-List, the spicy, caffeine-enriched Black Black. We also carry really cool toy & snack combination items, which are only available in convenience stores here in Japan, including the very cool "Hyper Gundam" series (which my own son loves) -- available in perfect sets.

Well, that's all for now -- until next time, thanks for being a part of J-List!

Greetings from J-List August 19, 2000

Hello again, on this fine Saturday afternoon (Japan time). I'm putting the finishing touches on today's update, and then I'm going to do some Saturday-type things, like go shopping and wash the Saturn. (Yes, we live in rural Japan yet drive a Saturn, the first sold in the prefecture...)

It's often said that Japan is anywhere from 10 to 25 years behind the U.S., socially. Looking at the delayed adoption of child carseat laws, it seems to hold true most of the time. It was just about ten years ago that the concept of "political correctness" entered the English mindset, and sure enough, I see slow signs of it taking root here. First, it's become slightly taboo for the teachers at my kids' school to say "mother" or "father, since some of the kids come from single-parent families. Instead, the generic word hogosha" (care-giver) is the new term. Also, the Japanese have finally figured out that "skin-color" (hada-iro) is not really a suitable name for a crayon.

Still, Japan remains a pretty stable place, where 90% of the people pretty much agree on the way to raise kids and get things done from day to day -- this is "joshiki" (common sense). Babies are born in hospitals, all kids go to school, and the father in a family is the "daikoku-bashira" or the large, black pillar that holds the house up -- i.e., he is the central provider for the family. Ideas that are seen as radical, such as homeschooling, just don't take root here. Another concept that just never got a foothold in Japan is American-style feminism. My wife recently watched a Japanese show about Gloria Steinem, which detailed the views and positions of the American movement. To say that she

• We've been lucky to get some additional copies of the wonderful Fubuki Akira last photobook, So Long -- a very special item that will not last long. See it on photobooks page 1
  
• Also on the photobooks pages, several back-in-stock items, including more copies of Miura Aika's Last Song, and a great item for leg fans
  
• For dojin fans, we've got a slew of excellent new dojinshi, but they'll go fast, so check them out soon -- be sure and check the "dojin soft" game and CG collections on the dojin-soft page, too
  
• If you love Japan's unique erotic manga, check out the new volumes on the Manga (new releases) page
  
• The new DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog is in stock -- this is a great all-color magazine which includes two full Video CDs of Japan AV sampler "quickies." It's nearly 2 hours of footage for a very cool price
  
• Since we love the cool videos and attitude of Soft on Demand, we've got some new ones for you: Go! Go! Magic Mirror Box Car vol. 1 & 2 (three lovely girls take men into a special truck outfitted with one-way mirrors then have sex with them in seeming full view of everyone), the new installment of First Les, starring Makino Saori, and a wonderful "tekoki assistance" video with Okazaki Mio
  
• We have more stock of the surprisingly popular "Japanese congratulations envelopes" (which are used in Japan when giving money but can be used for any ornate purpose) and the reflective "it is forbidden to urinate here" stickers (torri version)
  
• Finally, a new item: a Japanese long-necked shoe-horn, which allows you to put on your shoes without handing way down, as with normal shoe-horns. This item has been requested by J-List customers, so we've obliged. Find this item on Wacky Japanese Stuff-> Fun Stuff.
  

That's all for now -- thanks for being a part of J-List, and we'll see you on the web!