Hello and greetings from J-List on this lovely Saturday afternoon.
Today was the summer Sports Day at my kids' kindergarten, and all the kids and parents spent the morning running relays and three-legged races, doing tug-of-war, and watching the kids show off their athletic skills. At the end of the day, the kids thanked their parents for working hard and gave their fathers framed pictures the kids had drawn. Rina, my daughter, must have been influenced by the pictures the other kids in her class were drawing, because I came out looking pretty Japanese, complete with black hair...
When you live in Japan, you learn to "adjust" your language so that the people you interact with will understand you. A "fan" in Japanese could be an electric fan, but the kind you hold in your hand is, to the Japanese mind, a completely different concept. A tissue is always a tissue, never a "Kleenex," although Kleenex is a popular brand here -- "milk" is the powdered stuff you put in your coffee, not what comes out of a cow. In a similar vein, there are several words that just "work" differently from word s in English, and it causes some confusion to the English-speaking mind. For example, there are two words for "cold" in Japanese: samui (for the air around you) and tsumetai (for anything that is cold to the touch, like ice cream). Gaijin invariably use th e wrong word when speaking Japanese. Also, the concepts of cold water (mizu) and hot water (yu or o-yu) are completely separate words, something that takes more than a bit of getting used to.
Yasu and Tomo are enjoying an Evangelion renaissance. Having missed the classical anime series when it was on the air in 1995, they're watching the series now, renting the episodes at the local Family Book. Every day at work we discuss the new psychologica l elements that come up in the show. If you like Eva and bishoujo games, I recommend you take a look at Season of the Sakura, which is basically a game based on the last 5 minutes of the Eva series (right down to several of the characters)
We're happy to announce that Borderline 3 ~Frozen Beach~ is shipping (and early, too!). This is an excellent work of hentai CG by illustrator Sakaki Naomoto, which we think is just wonderful. He's taken, ah, extra care with the detail of the 100% uncensore d graphics, too, and the result is a very erotic collection of "doujin" anime computer images -- something unavailable even to Japanese fans of this artist's work. The "click to zoom" feature on the images is great, too.
We've got a special announcement for the weekend: announcing the J-List 10% off sale. During the changeover from our current site, we're going to give 10% all magazine, photobook, anime art book and manga items on our site. This is our way of thanking you for your understanding while we work on the changeover. The temporary order form we've got up and running is working well, by the way, but if you find entering the items you want to buy into the form is cumbersome, we can accept orders either through our s ecure email form at https://rook.axnet.net/pages/virtual/jlist/orderjlist_secure.html or else directly via email. This is an excellent chance to pick up on some fantastic magazine, photobook and manga items from Japan!
Also, we've permanently lowered the price of one of our most popular video series, the Stark Nakedness Sports Series. This is a great and wacky video series from Soft on Demand that puts "zenra" (all-nude) Japanese girls in various athletic settings, from snow sports to nude underwater sports, "stealing into the room at night" and more. The #1 "Zenra" series video, though, is the classic "64 Zenra Girls in Rock-Paper-Scissors." 64 girls play jan-ken-pon with each other; the loser has to take off an article of clothing. Repeat. (The Zenra videos can be found on the SOD Main videos page.) In the last update, we talked about Morishita Kurumi's newest video release in which she actually performs with director TOHJIRO. Unfortunately, the item wasn't posted to the SOD video pages. We've corrected this now, sorry for the confusion ^_^
One of our most popular games over the past couple of years has been Nocturnal Illusion. One of the first bishoujo games ported to Windows 95, it features many nice characters and is popular with bishoujo gamers. Unfortunately, we had just sold out of the game -- or so we thought. The Gods of Pretty Girl Games smiled, and we found another 20 or so copies of this game in San Diego. If you're interested in this nice game, we suggest you get it before it sells out again.
We're glad to hear feedback from CM-Watch (http://www.cm-watch.com). This is a nice site (IMHO) where you can download a slice of Japan, in the form of Japanese TV commercials. There are many commercials we'll be showing you, from Brad Pitt's "Roots" coffee commercials to the infamous Simpsons CC Lemon ads. You can subscribe yourself to the CM-Watch updates mailing list to receive emails when the page is updated -- or if you like, just reply to this email and ask us to add you to the CM-Watch list. You need Quicktime 4 or 5 installed to view the movies on the site.
Saturday, May 26, 2001
Tuesday, May 22, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 22, 2001
Hello again from J-List, your neighborhood friend in Japan.
Have you ever spoken to a Japanese person and wondered why they make agreeing noises while you're talking? This is aspect of Japanese speech called "aizuchi," basically "agreeing sounds" that speakers make when having a conversation. In Japanese, I could be explaining something that happened to me, and the person I'm speaking to would say things like "ee" (yes), "so" (that's true), and "ne" (a general word of agreement). It may sound funny, but in Japanese, it's necessary to show that you're listening to the other person -- not making these noises shows you're not paying attention, and the person you're talking with is likely to ask you what's wrong. The trouble is when you carry aizuchi into English, and butt into what the other person is saying with "that's right" and "yes."
Well, I'm sorry to say that Sachiko (who worked at J-List two years ago) hasn't had much luck getting a career as a "talent" since she moved to Tokyo. She's working at a company that provides Internet telephony services, and is doing well. However, Kaori and I were surprised to learn that the daughter of our old boss (the owner of the school we used to work for, which has since gone bankrupt) has debuted as a singer and is now famous all over Japan. It floored us to learn that Yumiko-chan, the half-Japanese, half-American girl who was a silly 13-year-old when I last saw her (I remember playing Nintendo with her at her house) is now Fukuhara Yumiko, and is being managed by the same company that manages Max and Speed's Uehara Takako. She's even singing the title song to a Japanese drama. See her picture at http://www.rising.ne.jp/web/release/fukuhara_what.html . It just goes to show, you never know.
Do you detect the scent of minty freshness? There's something new in the air, and I'm happy to report that it's.....CM-Watch! CM-Watch (http://www.cm-watch.com) is a site we launched where you could download Japanese TV commercials (called "CMs" in Japanese), but the site had been on hiatus while I grapled with being too busy to update the page. Thanks to the hard work of my good friend James, the new webmaster, CM-Watch lives, and with new Japanese TV commercials for you to check out. CM-Watch is a little service we make available to you, the Japanophiles of the world, because we think Japan is such a nifty place. Enjoy! (Requires Quicktime, available at http://www.quicktime.com/.)
For this evening's update, we've got a nice volley of cool things from Japan for you, including:
The link to the Anime categories was broken during the weekend, making those pages inaccessible. The link has been fixed -- sorry about that. Other than this hiccup, the "cartless" shopping cart is working well, and there have been no more problems with orders at all. The new J-List page is coming along nicely, and will include all the features that have been requested for so long, including full product search. Thanks for your patience while we work on the new site.
Have you ever spoken to a Japanese person and wondered why they make agreeing noises while you're talking? This is aspect of Japanese speech called "aizuchi," basically "agreeing sounds" that speakers make when having a conversation. In Japanese, I could be explaining something that happened to me, and the person I'm speaking to would say things like "ee" (yes), "so" (that's true), and "ne" (a general word of agreement). It may sound funny, but in Japanese, it's necessary to show that you're listening to the other person -- not making these noises shows you're not paying attention, and the person you're talking with is likely to ask you what's wrong. The trouble is when you carry aizuchi into English, and butt into what the other person is saying with "that's right" and "yes."
Well, I'm sorry to say that Sachiko (who worked at J-List two years ago) hasn't had much luck getting a career as a "talent" since she moved to Tokyo. She's working at a company that provides Internet telephony services, and is doing well. However, Kaori and I were surprised to learn that the daughter of our old boss (the owner of the school we used to work for, which has since gone bankrupt) has debuted as a singer and is now famous all over Japan. It floored us to learn that Yumiko-chan, the half-Japanese, half-American girl who was a silly 13-year-old when I last saw her (I remember playing Nintendo with her at her house) is now Fukuhara Yumiko, and is being managed by the same company that manages Max and Speed's Uehara Takako. She's even singing the title song to a Japanese drama. See her picture at http://www.rising.ne.jp/web/release/fukuhara_what.html . It just goes to show, you never know.
Do you detect the scent of minty freshness? There's something new in the air, and I'm happy to report that it's.....CM-Watch! CM-Watch (http://www.cm-watch.com) is a site we launched where you could download Japanese TV commercials (called "CMs" in Japanese), but the site had been on hiatus while I grapled with being too busy to update the page. Thanks to the hard work of my good friend James, the new webmaster, CM-Watch lives, and with new Japanese TV commercials for you to check out. CM-Watch is a little service we make available to you, the Japanophiles of the world, because we think Japan is such a nifty place. Enjoy! (Requires Quicktime, available at http://www.quicktime.com/.)
For this evening's update, we've got a nice volley of cool things from Japan for you, including:
- First, some excellent new magazines, including the new Gal's Dee (featuring the slender but busty Yoshizawa Nanako), a new issue of the always-popular and never-enough-in-stock OK, and more
- For magazine/CD-ROM combo lovers, we've got a rare item -- Live Gal's Shower, which features both a full-color magazine as well as 2 CD-ROMs (Mac&PC Compatible) filled with excellent "bukkake" fun for you
- If you love Japan's beautiful photobooks, we've got several all-new hardcover photobooks, including the lovely nude photobook of the Cherry Bombers (the "anti" Mini-suka Police). We also have fresh stock of several of the "Bishoujo Memorial" photobooks.
- We've gotten in more stock of the very nice Cho Very Good photobook vol. 2, featuring a slew of Japan's most lovely AV idols
- We have a major update to our manga pages, with fresh stock of dozens of excellent manga, including some of our most popular manga and items that had been backordered for many weeks (and which might not be available once our current stock runs out). Remember to check both page 1 and page 2 for new items
- For doujinshi fans, we have fresh stock of the Great Work of Alchemy erotic doujiinshi, featuring great erotic themes
- We've got fresh stock of the popular Crystal Card 2000 vol. 2 series, featuring beautiful collectible cards of Japan's most lovely AV idols
- For hentai fans, see vol. 3 & 4 of Ohno Tetsuya's very lovely Mei King bishoujo anime DVD -- we'll be the first to admit it's a pricey series, but the beauty of these characters makes it worth it
- If you love SOD's daring brand of "Indies" AV, we've got another nice item for you -- a new "teasing the penis" series video, featuring four "kogal" types who have great fun with some lucky cocks
- Also for SOD, a great item for "chikan" (pervert on a train) fans: a super DVD featuring two complete hours of train-touching play and more
- For fans of Love Hina and Card Captor Sakura, we're happy to announce that our order of these "bilingual" comics has come in, and we've posted the items to the anime & toys page. These great manga include both English and the original Japanese, and are great for collectors or students
- For fans of Japan's lovely idols, we've got a daring DVD directed by the famous AV director TOHJIRO of Soft on Demand, who films the lovely Matsumoto Miku in ways that are far more erotic than filming her nude would be -- a truly amazing "hybrid" idol DVD (it's region-2 unfortunately)
- We have fresh stock of our silly "Looking for a beautiful woman" sticker on the Signs, Stickers and Headbands page
- We've got a bunch of new items on our Wacky Things from Japan pages, too, including the ultimate belt clip for your portable phone (go ahead, be Japanese), cute little "Hello Kitty" bottles that you can use to carry shampoo, contact lens solution, and other things, and more!
The link to the Anime categories was broken during the weekend, making those pages inaccessible. The link has been fixed -- sorry about that. Other than this hiccup, the "cartless" shopping cart is working well, and there have been no more problems with orders at all. The new J-List page is coming along nicely, and will include all the features that have been requested for so long, including full product search. Thanks for your patience while we work on the new site.
Monday, May 14, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 14, 2001
Hail and well met from your friends in Japan, J-List!
The Japanese may think that Brad Pitt is the sexiest man in the world, but to many Japanese fans, the hottest guy is Kimura Takuya, of the talented singing group SMAP (they also cook gourmet means in their spare time). One of the top Japanese "talents," he can sing, he can dance, and his TV dramas are always huge money-makers, especially when he stars with pretty actress Matsu Takako. He is to Brad Pitt what Matsuda Seiko is to Madonna, and the fact that he advertises Levi's in Japan while BP does the Edwin Jeans commercials seals their yin-yang relationship. See some pictures of Kimu-Taku, including some of his Levi's ads, at http://www.geocities.com/youarebest1/index2.html (fair warning, there are popups on this site).
In sports, it's harder to tell who the best-looking Japanese guys are. One contender is Ichiro, the popular baseball player who quit the top spot in Japan's baseball world (at least in making TV commercials, anyway), and went to join the Seattle Mariners. He's a handsome guy, even if he weren't a talented batter (fellow Japanese pitcher Nomo beaned him accidentally in a game last week, which was widely shown all around Japan). But my wife and I agree that the sexiest Japanese "sportsman" (athlete) has to be Nakata, who quit Japan's soccer league and is now a world-class soccer player in Italy. He's also fluent in Italian, which fuels the Euro-philism that all Japanese secretly keep in their hearts. (Remember that part of Peter's Unified Theory of Japan is that they secretly wish they were part of Europe. Why else would they make the DVD region codes for Japan and Europe the same?) You can see pictures of Nakata at http://nakata.net/official/light/document/document001.htm.
For the first update of the week, we've got some nice new items for you, including:
J-List sells many wacky and cool things from Japan, that aren't available to people living outside of Japan otherwise. One cool thing we love to sell is Japanese gum, with all the delicious flavors that sound funny at first, but are great once you try them. Kaori recommends the delicious sugarless gum containing Xylitol, a remarkable product from Finland that protects against cavities and tastes great. We've got several varieties of this delicious gum in stock, so check out our Japanese gum pages!
The Japanese may think that Brad Pitt is the sexiest man in the world, but to many Japanese fans, the hottest guy is Kimura Takuya, of the talented singing group SMAP (they also cook gourmet means in their spare time). One of the top Japanese "talents," he can sing, he can dance, and his TV dramas are always huge money-makers, especially when he stars with pretty actress Matsu Takako. He is to Brad Pitt what Matsuda Seiko is to Madonna, and the fact that he advertises Levi's in Japan while BP does the Edwin Jeans commercials seals their yin-yang relationship. See some pictures of Kimu-Taku, including some of his Levi's ads, at http://www.geocities.com/youarebest1/index2.html (fair warning, there are popups on this site).
In sports, it's harder to tell who the best-looking Japanese guys are. One contender is Ichiro, the popular baseball player who quit the top spot in Japan's baseball world (at least in making TV commercials, anyway), and went to join the Seattle Mariners. He's a handsome guy, even if he weren't a talented batter (fellow Japanese pitcher Nomo beaned him accidentally in a game last week, which was widely shown all around Japan). But my wife and I agree that the sexiest Japanese "sportsman" (athlete) has to be Nakata, who quit Japan's soccer league and is now a world-class soccer player in Italy. He's also fluent in Italian, which fuels the Euro-philism that all Japanese secretly keep in their hearts. (Remember that part of Peter's Unified Theory of Japan is that they secretly wish they were part of Europe. Why else would they make the DVD region codes for Japan and Europe the same?) You can see pictures of Nakata at http://nakata.net/official/light/document/document001.htm.
For the first update of the week, we've got some nice new items for you, including:
- First, some excellent new Japanese magazines for you, including the new issues of Video Boy and Best Video (two great magazines from Eichi Publishing that let you follow the entire Japan AV world easily), in addition to a special edition of the popular Waffle
- For fans of high-quality Japanese erotic photography, we have some nice photobooks for you, including Kurosawa Hitomi's lovely "age 19" photobook, fresh stock of some popular photobooks that had sold out, and more
- Bondage fans should check out the "Traditional Bondage in Japan" photobook we've posted (stock is limited though)
- For erotic manga fans, we've got a large update, with both new manga posted as well as fresh stock of some very nice full sets of erotic manga that have been popular (but which had sold out and been removed from the manga pages). Be sure to check both pages 1 and 2 for new items.
- For anyone who wants to learn more about how to please a woman, famous Japanese AV actor Kato Taka and director TOHJIRO will teach you in their great erotic DVD from Soft on Demand, The Much-treasured Sexual Technique Lecture DVD. This lesson centers around "How to make a woman come."
- Everyone love beautiful Japanese women, and Japan's Race Queens are some of the loveliest. By popular demand, we have fresh stock of the very nice (albeit expensive) Gal's Paradise 2000 ~Race Queen Collection Cards~
- Also for fans of lovely Japanese girls -- the latest set of Morning Musume collectible idol cards, "Sweet Morning Card II," featuring lovely glossy images of all the beautiful Mo-Musu gals
- For anime fans, two very special items only available from Japan -- first, a superb "Laputa Castle in the Sky" figure set (Sheeta, Pazu and the super-cool Laputa robot!), and from Banpresto, a highly detailed Lupin III figure set (full sets available!)
- In Japan, there are two brands of mayonnaise -- Ajinomoto and Kewpie. We've had Ajinomoto's in stock on our Japanese snacks & food page for a few weeks, and now we've added Kewpie -- so you can compare and decide for yourself which Japanese mayonnaise is the best
- On our funny Japanese signs & posters page, see new wacky wooden signs with interesting Japanese proverbs printed on them (including one of my favorites, "Boys be ambitious!")
- Also on our Wacky Things from Japan pages, we've got some great new items for you that only J-List could bring you -- including Hello Kitty toothbrushes, deluxe Japanese fans with wonderful Japanese pictures printed on them, origami paper, and more!
J-List sells many wacky and cool things from Japan, that aren't available to people living outside of Japan otherwise. One cool thing we love to sell is Japanese gum, with all the delicious flavors that sound funny at first, but are great once you try them. Kaori recommends the delicious sugarless gum containing Xylitol, a remarkable product from Finland that protects against cavities and tastes great. We've got several varieties of this delicious gum in stock, so check out our Japanese gum pages!
Friday, May 11, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 11, 2001
Hello again from your friends in Japan, J-List!
The Japanese use a lot of English words in their daily life, and depending on your age, spoken Japanese is often peppered with English words like stance, better, pretty, and so on. But when speaking Japanese, you have to "convert" the "English" words a bit before using them. The word "energy" is used in English, but it's pronounced with a hard G -- if you want people to understand you, you learn to pick up the new pronunciation, although it sounds odd at first. "Vitamin" is pronounced "bitamin," with a stress on the second syllable. Sometimes words come in via England, so they're unfamiliar to Americans like me -- a car's hood (bonetto), for example. And some "English" words aren't even English, but come from other languages, such as arubaito (part time job), anket (questionnaire), karte (a medical chart), and ruksak (a backpack). Because all foreign words are written in the Japanese katakana writing system, Japanese people tend to think that all these words are English.
Well, White Day is approaching. This is a silly Japanese day in which men must give a gift -- usually white chocolate -- to women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day. Convenience stores jump on the occasion to sell all manner of silly gifts, including many forms of chocolate. Men have an obligation to give chocolate back to people who gave them something, and shops know that they will sell a lot of "obligation chocolate" (giri choco) by March 14.
After several years of mocking Mazda's Bongo Friendee mini-van for having the strangest English of any Japanese car (right up there with the Mitsubishi Thanks Chariot and Toyota's Super Saloon), the versatility of this interesting, fun car finally wore me down, and we bought one. The continuing poor performance of the Japanese economy means that auto makers have to work hard and compete on price, so that helped our decision. The way you buy a car in Japan is quite different from how it's done in the U.S. Here, you always order a car and pick it up in 2-3 weeks, rather than getting it off a dealers' lot that day. Virtually all dealers are operated by the auto makers directly -- thus, you find only Mazda's at the local Mazda dealer (or maybe some Fords, since Ford owns most of Mazda). And as with deciding the date of your wedding, it's important to pick your car up on a "lucky day" according to special Buddhist calendar, to avoid problems and unhappiness. You can see the Bongo Friendee at http://www.friendee.mazda.co.jp/
For this evening's update, we've got some very nice items for you, including:
Remember that you can get any three of our $24.95 bishojo anime games for $70, shipping in US/Canada included. This is like getting $20 off, and it's a great deal. You can choose from Hentai Anime Poker, Three Sisters' Story, Season of the Sakura, Runaway City, Nocturnal Illusion, May Club, or even the enigmatic Transfer Student (which really, really come out some day). These games are in English, and are uncensored, so they're really cool.
The Japanese use a lot of English words in their daily life, and depending on your age, spoken Japanese is often peppered with English words like stance, better, pretty, and so on. But when speaking Japanese, you have to "convert" the "English" words a bit before using them. The word "energy" is used in English, but it's pronounced with a hard G -- if you want people to understand you, you learn to pick up the new pronunciation, although it sounds odd at first. "Vitamin" is pronounced "bitamin," with a stress on the second syllable. Sometimes words come in via England, so they're unfamiliar to Americans like me -- a car's hood (bonetto), for example. And some "English" words aren't even English, but come from other languages, such as arubaito (part time job), anket (questionnaire), karte (a medical chart), and ruksak (a backpack). Because all foreign words are written in the Japanese katakana writing system, Japanese people tend to think that all these words are English.
Well, White Day is approaching. This is a silly Japanese day in which men must give a gift -- usually white chocolate -- to women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day. Convenience stores jump on the occasion to sell all manner of silly gifts, including many forms of chocolate. Men have an obligation to give chocolate back to people who gave them something, and shops know that they will sell a lot of "obligation chocolate" (giri choco) by March 14.
After several years of mocking Mazda's Bongo Friendee mini-van for having the strangest English of any Japanese car (right up there with the Mitsubishi Thanks Chariot and Toyota's Super Saloon), the versatility of this interesting, fun car finally wore me down, and we bought one. The continuing poor performance of the Japanese economy means that auto makers have to work hard and compete on price, so that helped our decision. The way you buy a car in Japan is quite different from how it's done in the U.S. Here, you always order a car and pick it up in 2-3 weeks, rather than getting it off a dealers' lot that day. Virtually all dealers are operated by the auto makers directly -- thus, you find only Mazda's at the local Mazda dealer (or maybe some Fords, since Ford owns most of Mazda). And as with deciding the date of your wedding, it's important to pick your car up on a "lucky day" according to special Buddhist calendar, to avoid problems and unhappiness. You can see the Bongo Friendee at http://www.friendee.mazda.co.jp/
For this evening's update, we've got some very nice items for you, including:
- First, some excellent new erotic magazines from Japan, including the new issues of the all-Japanese Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, which feature all Japanese models photographed by Japanese photographers, and more
- For fans of the popular magazine + Video CD combo items, we've got a special item for you: the DVD & Video CD Perfect Guide IV, a massive all-color magazine with three VCDs filled with great erotic clips and "quickies" from a variety of genres
- We've got more one-shot issues of older magazines at the of Magazine page 2
- For leg fetish fans, we've got fresh stock of several items for you on the Leg Fetish photobooks page -- including a great new item, Costume Play Sisters, featuring a slew of erotic leg fetish cosplay
- If you love Japan's unique S&M photobooks and related items, check out the new items on the Gouka-Bon page, including SM Net, a magazine + dual-Video CD combo item for S&M and bondage lovers
- For photobook fans, we have several very nice all-new hardcover photobooks, as well as fresh stock of some popular items that had sold out
- There are several excellent new erotic wide mangas posted to the manga pages, including new titles from Tsukasa and Hit Comics, as well as fresh stock of several popular items (including some great large-breast manga items)
- Love dojinshi? We've got three, count them, three great erotic dojinshi from the Angel Pain series, including stock of the popular all-color Angel Pain vol. 5
- For yaoi lovers, we have the handsome new Be Boy Gold, the deluxe erotic yaoi manga monthly with nearly 500 pages of great artwork for you
- The "Puchi Angel" offering from Soft on Demand, featuring pure, pretty Japanese girls and lots of wonderful sailor school uniform themes, was a big hit -- so we've added two new videos in this popular series. See them on the SOD Main page (for the ones we have in stock) or the SOD special-order page (if we run out of stock on hand)
- For fans of the lovely Morishita Kurumi, there's a super erotic release on DVD (region 2), the Bright Blue Wood, with *90* minutes of excellent erotic AV by this special lady
- By customer request, we've created a great new page for you -- Anime DVDs, where we'll carry the unique anime DVDs released here in Japan. these anime DVDs are always of the highest quality, and while they are expensive, they give a lot of value (6 episodes per disc, long playing times). For starters, we've got the first two discs of Mach Go Go Go, the original series known as Speed Racer outside Japan, and the fantastic OVA Complete Collection of Iczer One -- with the entire anime series on one DVD!
- We love updating our Wacky Things from Japan pages, but unfortunately, we got so much cool, bizarre stuff in stock that the page got overcrowded. So, we've made a Wacky Things (Cute) page to go with our Wacky Things (Main) page. We've added some great items to this page, including a super Hello Kitty box with lid and drawer (so cute for your desk) as well as fresh stock of many popular items
- Finally, our popular Wacky Things from Japan page has also been updated, with a spiffy back massager (great for people who get itchy backs), the ultimate milk carton sealer (certified as being "really cool" by my mother, who bought them as gifts when she came to Japan), and more.
Remember that you can get any three of our $24.95 bishojo anime games for $70, shipping in US/Canada included. This is like getting $20 off, and it's a great deal. You can choose from Hentai Anime Poker, Three Sisters' Story, Season of the Sakura, Runaway City, Nocturnal Illusion, May Club, or even the enigmatic Transfer Student (which really, really come out some day). These games are in English, and are uncensored, so they're really cool.
Wednesday, May 09, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 9, 2001
Hello from Japan, where a car's blinker is called a "winker."
One of the more enjoyable pasttimes to engage in when learning Japanese is to memorize useless kanji for words that aren't usually written in kanji (mainly because the kanji are too hard for Japanese to remember). One way to write the word "urusai" (which means "loud" or "annoying" and is the basis of the name of the 80s anime Urusei Yatsura) is literally "May flies" (as in, the dirty little insects that reproduce so much in the month of May). I've never figured out why Japan is overrun with flies in May, but they're everywhere, buzzing and basically being "urusai." We've got fly paper hung in the kitchen to keep them from getting into the rice cooker.
Japan is one country where a pocketful of change can be a serious amount of money. Because the Japanese use coins for 100 and 500 yen denominations of their money (roughly equal to US$1 and $5), it's quite common for a handful of change to be a lot of money indeed -- $20 or more. I'm all for the U.S. Government taking the bold step of eliminating the $1 bill altogether, without giving any choice to consumers. A coin is just as easy to use as a bill, and the savings from using coins over paper for the $1 unit would be in the millions. I'm sure it'll happen right after the Metric System gets adopted, however...
In addition to these cool CD-ROM titles, we've got some great items for you, including:
Imagine yourself walking down the street. Suddenly, you run into some Japanese people, preferably the cute kind. They might nod and walk on by, but if you're wearing a funny Japanese T-shirt from J-List, who knows what could happen? We've got T-shirts that communicate cool messages like, "I want to be Japanese" or "I'm looking for a Japanese girlfriend." If you want to confuse and confound just for the fun of it, how about "Hentai gaijin" (perverted foreigner) or the perplexing "Self-loathing." If you admire the beauty of Chinese characters, we recommend "Daikoku-bashira" (big black pillar) or our "Happiness" T-shirts. If you secretly wish you were Japanese, send that message with a J-List shirt, too. And since we now offer free shipping on many of our T-shirts, as we try to make room for new designs, it's a great time to check out what we've got to offer.
One of the more enjoyable pasttimes to engage in when learning Japanese is to memorize useless kanji for words that aren't usually written in kanji (mainly because the kanji are too hard for Japanese to remember). One way to write the word "urusai" (which means "loud" or "annoying" and is the basis of the name of the 80s anime Urusei Yatsura) is literally "May flies" (as in, the dirty little insects that reproduce so much in the month of May). I've never figured out why Japan is overrun with flies in May, but they're everywhere, buzzing and basically being "urusai." We've got fly paper hung in the kitchen to keep them from getting into the rice cooker.
Japan is one country where a pocketful of change can be a serious amount of money. Because the Japanese use coins for 100 and 500 yen denominations of their money (roughly equal to US$1 and $5), it's quite common for a handful of change to be a lot of money indeed -- $20 or more. I'm all for the U.S. Government taking the bold step of eliminating the $1 bill altogether, without giving any choice to consumers. A coin is just as easy to use as a bill, and the savings from using coins over paper for the $1 unit would be in the millions. I'm sure it'll happen right after the Metric System gets adopted, however...
In addition to these cool CD-ROM titles, we've got some great items for you, including:
- Many new 18+ items
- For fans of our unique Japanese snack foods, we've got a major update, including fresh stock of many candy items, Pokemon gummi, Pocky and Toppo, delicious miso soup with asari (clams) in it, sweet dried plums, and more
- We have more of our trademark Silly Wooden Signs with funny messages in Japanese on them, including the most popular sign we've ever carried -- the famous "Do not urinate here" sign
- New items on the Wacky Things from Japan page include the ultimately cute trash can for your desk, a beautiful bamboo flower pot made of charred bamboo, We've also added fresh stock of many items that had sold out, including several varieties of our popular $5 Japanese-English dictionaries.
Imagine yourself walking down the street. Suddenly, you run into some Japanese people, preferably the cute kind. They might nod and walk on by, but if you're wearing a funny Japanese T-shirt from J-List, who knows what could happen? We've got T-shirts that communicate cool messages like, "I want to be Japanese" or "I'm looking for a Japanese girlfriend." If you want to confuse and confound just for the fun of it, how about "Hentai gaijin" (perverted foreigner) or the perplexing "Self-loathing." If you admire the beauty of Chinese characters, we recommend "Daikoku-bashira" (big black pillar) or our "Happiness" T-shirts. If you secretly wish you were Japanese, send that message with a J-List shirt, too. And since we now offer free shipping on many of our T-shirts, as we try to make room for new designs, it's a great time to check out what we've got to offer.
Monday, May 07, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 7, 2001
Hello again from Japan, where a movie release is called "road show." We were slowed down last week by both the Golden Week problems as well as some server hiccups, but we're back, with a great update for J-List fans. The page is working fine now, although not that we are keeping most of the large images off the server to avoid the problems coming back (please forgive our dead links).
Well, Japan feels just a little more like home to me, now that the local Toys "R" Us is open. I took the kids there for a treat on opening day, and was surprised to see thousands of Japanese, getting into the spirit of American consumerism. On the other hand, what the Market gives, the Market taketh away: Burger King has unfortunately retreated from their foray into the Tokyo fast food market, and has sold the leases to their dozen or so stores to -- ugh -- Lotteria. Back to eating at the Subway in Ocha-no-mizu.
All languages have different elements which are new to learners coming in from other languages. In Japanese, there are long and short vowels -- the sounds "ko" and "koh" are two completely different phonetic concepts in Japanese, just as L and R are in English. It can be confusing when learning Japanese: ojisan means "uncle" but ojiisan (note the extra "i") means "grandfather." The long/short sounds are so completely separate that Japanese don't even hear a similarity in the sounds. I once had a student named Ohno Yoko (Yoko, not Yohko). When I pointed out that her name was similar to the wife of the former Beatle (which is Yohko, with the long vowel), she told me she'd never thought of that in her life.
The long/short vowels also cause problems when transliterating Japanese into English. For example, Akimoto Yuna's name is really Yuuna, not Yuna (long vowel), but it's tedious and pointless to write her name the "correct" way when it makes no difference to how the name is pronounced. At J-List, we generally transliterate names and words in whatever way makes them shortest and clearest, especially from the standpoint of pronunciation -- thus, we'd use "Yuna" in the above example. We usually write words like bishoujo, doujinshi as bishojo and dojinshi, although it's technically less accurate. Sometimes AV actresses have an "official" English spelling, or one that's very accepted (Tohno Natsuko, Ohura Anna), we usually use those. It's a difficult situation -- the multiple spellings is a big challenge for search engines, for example -- but it's all part of Japanese.
Announcing the Spring Video Sale! We're a bit overstocked on our popular AV videos, so we've moved tons of titles to the Discount Video page. In addition to free SAL shipping, until the end of May you can buy 3 and get the 4th video free. The videos must be in stock (not a problem, we've got hundreds in stock now). The lowest priced video is the "free" one, so if you choose four videos of similar price, it's like getting 25% off.
For the first update of a fresh week, we've got some nice items for you, including:
We're looking for a person knowledgeable about Japan's bishojo games, who can help work up an article for publication in a major adult magazine. If you have a writing background and are preferably published, please talk to us. Thanks!
Well, Japan feels just a little more like home to me, now that the local Toys "R" Us is open. I took the kids there for a treat on opening day, and was surprised to see thousands of Japanese, getting into the spirit of American consumerism. On the other hand, what the Market gives, the Market taketh away: Burger King has unfortunately retreated from their foray into the Tokyo fast food market, and has sold the leases to their dozen or so stores to -- ugh -- Lotteria. Back to eating at the Subway in Ocha-no-mizu.
All languages have different elements which are new to learners coming in from other languages. In Japanese, there are long and short vowels -- the sounds "ko" and "koh" are two completely different phonetic concepts in Japanese, just as L and R are in English. It can be confusing when learning Japanese: ojisan means "uncle" but ojiisan (note the extra "i") means "grandfather." The long/short sounds are so completely separate that Japanese don't even hear a similarity in the sounds. I once had a student named Ohno Yoko (Yoko, not Yohko). When I pointed out that her name was similar to the wife of the former Beatle (which is Yohko, with the long vowel), she told me she'd never thought of that in her life.
The long/short vowels also cause problems when transliterating Japanese into English. For example, Akimoto Yuna's name is really Yuuna, not Yuna (long vowel), but it's tedious and pointless to write her name the "correct" way when it makes no difference to how the name is pronounced. At J-List, we generally transliterate names and words in whatever way makes them shortest and clearest, especially from the standpoint of pronunciation -- thus, we'd use "Yuna" in the above example. We usually write words like bishoujo, doujinshi as bishojo and dojinshi, although it's technically less accurate. Sometimes AV actresses have an "official" English spelling, or one that's very accepted (Tohno Natsuko, Ohura Anna), we usually use those. It's a difficult situation -- the multiple spellings is a big challenge for search engines, for example -- but it's all part of Japanese.
Announcing the Spring Video Sale! We're a bit overstocked on our popular AV videos, so we've moved tons of titles to the Discount Video page. In addition to free SAL shipping, until the end of May you can buy 3 and get the 4th video free. The videos must be in stock (not a problem, we've got hundreds in stock now). The lowest priced video is the "free" one, so if you choose four videos of similar price, it's like getting 25% off.
For the first update of a fresh week, we've got some nice items for you, including:
- Many new 18+ items
- For Japanese idol fans, we've got stock of the newest Morning Musume card set -- the Priname Petit Card series -- only $2.50 per pack!
- There is fresh stock of the silly wooden sign that has "Now being punished" (oshioki-chu) on it
- We have limited stock (one set of each, actually) of FULL SETS of the Cardcaptor Sakura keychain and Cardcaptor Sakura stationary set -- both very lovely! See the Anime Snacks page for these items.
- We have fresh stock of several cool items on our Wacky Things from Japan, including the surprisingly popular train/bus pass holder, Japanese vocabulary word cards, wacky Japanese notebooks with funny English written on them, and more. We've also added new items, including a very nice new Japanese "noren" room curtain (add a touch of Japanese style to your room), a wonderful Japanese pouch that can hold your digital camera or MP3 player, and more.
We're looking for a person knowledgeable about Japan's bishojo games, who can help work up an article for publication in a major adult magazine. If you have a writing background and are preferably published, please talk to us. Thanks!
Saturday, May 05, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 5, 2001
Hello again from your friends in Japan, J-List!
The Japanese use a lot of English words in their daily life, and depending on your age, spoken Japanese is often peppered with English words like stance, better, pretty, and so on. But when speaking Japanese, you have to "convert" the "English" words a bit before using them. The word "energy" is used in English, but it's pronounced with a hard G -- if you want people to understand you, you learn to pick up the new pronunciation, although it sounds odd at first. "Vitamin" is pronounced "bitamin," with a stress on the second syllable. Sometimes words come in via England, so they're unfamiliar to Americans like me -- a car's hood (bonetto), for example. And some "English" words aren't even English, but come from other languages, such as arubaito (part time job), anket (questionnaire), karte (a medical chart), and ruksak (a backpack). Because all foreign words are written in the Japanese katakana writing system, Japanese people tend to think that all these words are English.
Well, White Day is approaching. This is a silly Japanese day in which men must give a gift -- usually white chocolate -- to women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day. Convenience stores jump on the occasion to sell all manner of silly gifts, including many forms of chocolate. Men have an obligation to give chocolate back to people who gave them something, and shops know that they will sell a lot of "obligation chocolate" (giri choco) by March 14.
After several years of mocking Mazda's Bongo Friendee mini-van for having the strangest English of any Japanese car (right up there with the Mitsubishi Thanks Chariot and Toyota's Super Saloon), the versatility of this interesting, fun car finally wore me down, and we bought one. The continuing poor performance of the Japanese economy means that auto makers have to work hard and compete on price, so that helped our decision. The way you buy a car in Japan is quite different from how it's done in the U.S. Here, you always order a car and pick it up in 2-3 weeks, rather than getting it off a dealers' lot that day. Virtually all dealers are operated by the auto makers directly -- thus, you find only Mazda's at the local Mazda dealer (or maybe some Fords, since Ford owns most of Mazda). And as with deciding the date of your wedding, it's important to pick your car up on a "lucky day" according to special Buddhist calendar, to avoid problems and unhappiness. You can see the Bongo Friendee at http://www.friendee.mazda.co.jp/
For this evening's update, we've got some very nice items for you, including:
Remember that you can get any three of our $24.95 bishojo anime games for $70, shipping in US/Canada included. This is like getting $20 off, and it's a great deal. You can choose from Hentai Anime Poker, Three Sisters' Story, Season of the Sakura, Runaway City, Nocturnal Illusion, May Club, or even the enigmatic Transfer Student (which really, really come out some day). These games are in English, and are uncensored, so they're really cool.
The Japanese use a lot of English words in their daily life, and depending on your age, spoken Japanese is often peppered with English words like stance, better, pretty, and so on. But when speaking Japanese, you have to "convert" the "English" words a bit before using them. The word "energy" is used in English, but it's pronounced with a hard G -- if you want people to understand you, you learn to pick up the new pronunciation, although it sounds odd at first. "Vitamin" is pronounced "bitamin," with a stress on the second syllable. Sometimes words come in via England, so they're unfamiliar to Americans like me -- a car's hood (bonetto), for example. And some "English" words aren't even English, but come from other languages, such as arubaito (part time job), anket (questionnaire), karte (a medical chart), and ruksak (a backpack). Because all foreign words are written in the Japanese katakana writing system, Japanese people tend to think that all these words are English.
Well, White Day is approaching. This is a silly Japanese day in which men must give a gift -- usually white chocolate -- to women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day. Convenience stores jump on the occasion to sell all manner of silly gifts, including many forms of chocolate. Men have an obligation to give chocolate back to people who gave them something, and shops know that they will sell a lot of "obligation chocolate" (giri choco) by March 14.
After several years of mocking Mazda's Bongo Friendee mini-van for having the strangest English of any Japanese car (right up there with the Mitsubishi Thanks Chariot and Toyota's Super Saloon), the versatility of this interesting, fun car finally wore me down, and we bought one. The continuing poor performance of the Japanese economy means that auto makers have to work hard and compete on price, so that helped our decision. The way you buy a car in Japan is quite different from how it's done in the U.S. Here, you always order a car and pick it up in 2-3 weeks, rather than getting it off a dealers' lot that day. Virtually all dealers are operated by the auto makers directly -- thus, you find only Mazda's at the local Mazda dealer (or maybe some Fords, since Ford owns most of Mazda). And as with deciding the date of your wedding, it's important to pick your car up on a "lucky day" according to special Buddhist calendar, to avoid problems and unhappiness. You can see the Bongo Friendee at http://www.friendee.mazda.co.jp/
For this evening's update, we've got some very nice items for you, including:
- First, some very nice 18+ products on our 18+ pages
- By customer request, we've created a great new page for you -- Anime DVDs, where we'll carry the unique anime DVDs released here in Japan. these anime DVDs are always of the highest quality, and while they are expensive, they give a lot of value (6 episodes per disc, long playing times). For starters, we've got the first two discs of Mach Go Go Go, the original series known as Speed Racer outside Japan, and the fantastic OVA Complete Collection of Iczer One -- with the entire anime series on one DVD!
- We love updating our Wacky Things from Japan pages, but unfortunately, we got so much cool, bizarre stuff in stock that the page got overcrowded. So, we've made a Wacky Things (Cute) page to go with our Wacky Things (Main) page. We've added some great items to this page, including a super Hello Kitty box with lid and drawer (so cute for your desk) as well as fresh stock of many popular items
- Finally, our popular Wacky Things from Japan page has also been updated, with a spiffy back massager (great for people who get itchy backs), the ultimate milk carton sealer (certified as being "really cool" by my mother, who bought them as gifts when she came to Japan), and more.
Remember that you can get any three of our $24.95 bishojo anime games for $70, shipping in US/Canada included. This is like getting $20 off, and it's a great deal. You can choose from Hentai Anime Poker, Three Sisters' Story, Season of the Sakura, Runaway City, Nocturnal Illusion, May Club, or even the enigmatic Transfer Student (which really, really come out some day). These games are in English, and are uncensored, so they're really cool.
Thursday, May 03, 2001
Greetings from J-List May 3, 2001
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Friday, April 27, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 27, 2001
Greetings from Japan, the home of the Toyota FunCarGo and Crunky chocolate.
Well, after many years, Fox's long-running TV show 90210 has finally ended here in Japan. Shown on Saturday nights on NHK at 11 pm since time out of mind, the show had many Japanese fans, who watched it in Japanese, or if they wanted to practice their English, with English turned on. Kelly, with her small, demure body and beautiful golden hair, is by far the most popular character among Japanese fans. Nearly all the foreigners I know watched the show, all of them saying things like, "I wouldn't get caught dead watching this back home." But when you're an expat in Japan, you learn to adapt.
One woman holds the key to Japan's perceptions of movies, including what they watch, when they watch it, and how they feel when they watch it. Her name is Toda Natsuko, and she's the Carl Zeiss of the movie translation world. All studios clamor to get her to translate their movies, and any movie that opens in Japanese theaters without the honored "Translation: Toda Natsuko" credit can expect to miss its financial goals. Translation through a medium like subtitles, which must be short enough to be read easily and clearly, but sufficiently accurate to carry the meaning of the film, is a difficult process, but Japanese moviegoers like Ms. Toda's translations the best.
Well, Golden Week is upon us. A week during which several national holidays happen to fall, Golden Week this year isn't actually a week long -- it's two long weekends with a normal break in the middle. Golden Week is an important time for Japanese to enjoy leisure activities, and as a result, no matter where you go, there are mobs of people trying to take advantage of the holidays. Of course, the Internet rests for no Japanese holiday, so the J-List staff will be stippling our holidays, to make sure everything goes smoothly during the week.
We've updated the top 5 list for the past week, too.
For the weekend's update, we've got our usual cool volley of interesting items for you, including:
Remember that J-List is having a sale on our popular Japanese T-shirts, to clear stock out and make room for new and interesting designs. You can choose from messages that are beautiful for the aesthetic value of the kanji -- the Chinese character for "long life and happiness" (or as we've interpreted it, Live Long and Prosper), messages that will amuse ("Watashi wa H" which means "I'm perverted"), or more practical messages, such as "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend." All our shirts are 100% cotton Hanes Comfort-T's, printed in the USA, so you don't need to worry about Japanese sizes. Check out our cool shirts today!
Well, after many years, Fox's long-running TV show 90210 has finally ended here in Japan. Shown on Saturday nights on NHK at 11 pm since time out of mind, the show had many Japanese fans, who watched it in Japanese, or if they wanted to practice their English, with English turned on. Kelly, with her small, demure body and beautiful golden hair, is by far the most popular character among Japanese fans. Nearly all the foreigners I know watched the show, all of them saying things like, "I wouldn't get caught dead watching this back home." But when you're an expat in Japan, you learn to adapt.
One woman holds the key to Japan's perceptions of movies, including what they watch, when they watch it, and how they feel when they watch it. Her name is Toda Natsuko, and she's the Carl Zeiss of the movie translation world. All studios clamor to get her to translate their movies, and any movie that opens in Japanese theaters without the honored "Translation: Toda Natsuko" credit can expect to miss its financial goals. Translation through a medium like subtitles, which must be short enough to be read easily and clearly, but sufficiently accurate to carry the meaning of the film, is a difficult process, but Japanese moviegoers like Ms. Toda's translations the best.
Well, Golden Week is upon us. A week during which several national holidays happen to fall, Golden Week this year isn't actually a week long -- it's two long weekends with a normal break in the middle. Golden Week is an important time for Japanese to enjoy leisure activities, and as a result, no matter where you go, there are mobs of people trying to take advantage of the holidays. Of course, the Internet rests for no Japanese holiday, so the J-List staff will be stippling our holidays, to make sure everything goes smoothly during the week.
We've updated the top 5 list for the past week, too.
For the weekend's update, we've got our usual cool volley of interesting items for you, including:
- First, many interesting new 18+ products
- For fans of the wonderful manga and anime Love Hina, we have a very special item -- the next 4 anime DVDs in the series. Each of these long-playing DVDs comes with a great limited edition PVC figure from the anime series -- a great item, and hard to find!
- We have the ultimate Mobile Suit Gundam toy ever seen, a wonderful high-end fully poseable recreation from Bandai, on the anime & toys page
- Also on the anime page, we've posted the next 3 volumes of the popular Cardcaptor Sakura bilingual comic, so you can enjoy the great manga in English -- with Japanese also written on the page, for those who want to use manga to larn Japanese
- We've got fresh stock of several sizes of our popular Wacky Japanese T-shirts, for those who want to sport a wacky Japanese message
- For Japanese snack and food fans, we've got some new items -- a new deluxe box of Japanese green tea, and a new twist on our furikake -- delicious beef & sukiyaki flavor!
- Finally, on our Wacky Things from Japan update for today, we've got some really cool traditional things from Japan, including fashionable paper parasols, a deluxe wind chime, cute hooks for your room that say "For your agreeable life," and more!
Remember that J-List is having a sale on our popular Japanese T-shirts, to clear stock out and make room for new and interesting designs. You can choose from messages that are beautiful for the aesthetic value of the kanji -- the Chinese character for "long life and happiness" (or as we've interpreted it, Live Long and Prosper), messages that will amuse ("Watashi wa H" which means "I'm perverted"), or more practical messages, such as "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend." All our shirts are 100% cotton Hanes Comfort-T's, printed in the USA, so you don't need to worry about Japanese sizes. Check out our cool shirts today!
Monday, April 23, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 23, 2001
Hello and greetings once again from Japan!
Well, Universal Studios Osaka is finally a reality, and everyone in Japan is being bombarded with marketing messages from the theme park, trying to get them to go spend their money there. Arnold Schwartzenegger (universally known as "Shuwa-chan" here in Japan) was in Osaka recently to help promote the opening. They did the silly things they do on Japanese TV when foreigners come to visit, gushing about them to no end, and poking fun at them, too -- the gave Arnold a Japanese writing brush and tried to get him to copy some kanji, to see how it turned out. He gave up and wrote "I'll be back" in English.
There are certain grammatical structures that work differently in Japanese than in English. In English, we have two concepts for pointing at objects -- here/there, this/that, etc. But in Japanese, there are "location association" concepts -- here, there, and over there (farther away). Location is expressed with koko (here, where I am), soko (there, where you are) and asoko (over there, where a third person may be). There are little nuances that come out these words. Asoko (over there) is a euphemism for a person's genital area, for times when using a more direct word isn't desirable. Acchi (another word meaning "over there") has some negative meanings as well, and "acchi no hito" (the person from over there) is a euphemism that refers to foreigners -- the people from far outside. Incidentally, listen to Japanese speak, and you might notice a tendency differentiate between "this" as an adjective ("this apple") and "this" as a noun ("I bought this"), using "this one" instead of "this" in the latter case.
We've reorganized some of the J-List pages a little big. First of all, we now have DVD Page 1 and DVD page 2 (with lower-priced items being posted on page 2), as well as a new Soft on Demand code-free DVD page, to celebrate the fact that they're releasing all DVDs as region free now.
For the first update of the week, we've got some nice items for you, including:
Thanks for being a part of J-List!
Well, Universal Studios Osaka is finally a reality, and everyone in Japan is being bombarded with marketing messages from the theme park, trying to get them to go spend their money there. Arnold Schwartzenegger (universally known as "Shuwa-chan" here in Japan) was in Osaka recently to help promote the opening. They did the silly things they do on Japanese TV when foreigners come to visit, gushing about them to no end, and poking fun at them, too -- the gave Arnold a Japanese writing brush and tried to get him to copy some kanji, to see how it turned out. He gave up and wrote "I'll be back" in English.
There are certain grammatical structures that work differently in Japanese than in English. In English, we have two concepts for pointing at objects -- here/there, this/that, etc. But in Japanese, there are "location association" concepts -- here, there, and over there (farther away). Location is expressed with koko (here, where I am), soko (there, where you are) and asoko (over there, where a third person may be). There are little nuances that come out these words. Asoko (over there) is a euphemism for a person's genital area, for times when using a more direct word isn't desirable. Acchi (another word meaning "over there") has some negative meanings as well, and "acchi no hito" (the person from over there) is a euphemism that refers to foreigners -- the people from far outside. Incidentally, listen to Japanese speak, and you might notice a tendency differentiate between "this" as an adjective ("this apple") and "this" as a noun ("I bought this"), using "this one" instead of "this" in the latter case.
We've reorganized some of the J-List pages a little big. First of all, we now have DVD Page 1 and DVD page 2 (with lower-priced items being posted on page 2), as well as a new Soft on Demand code-free DVD page, to celebrate the fact that they're releasing all DVDs as region free now.
For the first update of the week, we've got some nice items for you, including:
- Many new 18+ items
- For fans of Japanese manga, we've got two very interesting items: *bilingual* comics from Japan of Love Hina and Cardcaptor Sakura, in English with Japanese written to the side of the speech balloons -- great for both collectors and students
- New items on our Japanese snacks page include some tasty new flavors of konnyaku jelly -- as well as lower prices on much of our stock of interesting Japanese snack and food items
- We've got new wacky things from Japan for you too, including all-new Japanes maps (a map of Japan and a map of the world, with Japan right in the center), new books to help you learn hiragana and katakana, an authentic Japanese abacus, the ultimate condiment holder for your tabletop, and more of our amazingly popular Hello Kitty chopsticks
Thanks for being a part of J-List!
Friday, April 20, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 20, 2001
Hello and greetings from Japan, on this quiet Friday evening.
There are many interesting things you notice about the Japanese when you live in Japan -- all highly subjective, of course. They tend to not eat bread crusts, for one thing, and in fact, Japanese bread is sold in supermarkets without the heels -- which might explain why Japanese women are seemingly all constipated. Japanese people never drink root beer, but most can drink Dr. Pepper. Japanese who try Mexican refried beans usually don't like them, because they're not sweet as Japanese beans are -- but if they live overseas for a year or more, they usually come around. And for some reason, all Japanese girls' shoe sizes seem to be either 23 or 23.5 centimeters.
Money is another interesting issue. Discussing money is quite a delicate thing, and the subject is always wrapped in layers of Japanese politeness and "keigo" (polite language) when it is brought up. It's not always necessary to talk money directly though. As an English teacher, I've accepted jobs without even mentioning money at all -- and when my pay envelope came, I trusted that it would be sufficient. Similarly, I've hired Japanese artists to do work without bringing up payment. In situations like this, of course, there's a lot of trust on both sides, and neither would want to hurt that trust by taking advantage of the situation. It's all part of living in Japan.
We're just a little big happier, thanks to the opening of our very own freeway. The North Kanto Jidoushado is a freeway that branches off of the Kanto Expressway, allowing us to drive quickly to nearby Maebashi and Takasaki, and take the freeway all the way to Tokyo if we want. In Japan, where city driving is far more common then freeway driving, it takes hours to get anywhere -- a big difference from San Diego, I can tell you. Now we have a little more freedom to go places on the weekends in our Bongo Friendee. Of course, Japanese freeways aren't "free" at all -- if they were, people would use them too much, and they'd be clogged with cars all the time. To go to Takasaki the toll is about $6; to go all the way to Tokyo, it's around $30.
The "top 5" for the past week has been updated, too.
For the weekend's update, we've got an extra special update for you, including:
J-List sells the finest selection of Wacky Things from Japan that we know of -- and it's not hard finding new things to sell, since Japan is such a Wacky place. We have it all -- everything from Japanese notebooks with funny English on them to clamps for your futon to Hello Kitty toilet paper to rice scoops to handy things for your bath and laundry. We enjoy selling some of these things because it allows you to touch a little piece of Japan. Since most of the items on our Wacky Things from Japan pages are extremely affordable -- from $2 -- we hope you'll check out our stock regularly. We also can't help thinking that many of the bizarre things we're able to bring you from Japan would make perfect gifts for the Japanophile in your life ^_^
There are many interesting things you notice about the Japanese when you live in Japan -- all highly subjective, of course. They tend to not eat bread crusts, for one thing, and in fact, Japanese bread is sold in supermarkets without the heels -- which might explain why Japanese women are seemingly all constipated. Japanese people never drink root beer, but most can drink Dr. Pepper. Japanese who try Mexican refried beans usually don't like them, because they're not sweet as Japanese beans are -- but if they live overseas for a year or more, they usually come around. And for some reason, all Japanese girls' shoe sizes seem to be either 23 or 23.5 centimeters.
Money is another interesting issue. Discussing money is quite a delicate thing, and the subject is always wrapped in layers of Japanese politeness and "keigo" (polite language) when it is brought up. It's not always necessary to talk money directly though. As an English teacher, I've accepted jobs without even mentioning money at all -- and when my pay envelope came, I trusted that it would be sufficient. Similarly, I've hired Japanese artists to do work without bringing up payment. In situations like this, of course, there's a lot of trust on both sides, and neither would want to hurt that trust by taking advantage of the situation. It's all part of living in Japan.
We're just a little big happier, thanks to the opening of our very own freeway. The North Kanto Jidoushado is a freeway that branches off of the Kanto Expressway, allowing us to drive quickly to nearby Maebashi and Takasaki, and take the freeway all the way to Tokyo if we want. In Japan, where city driving is far more common then freeway driving, it takes hours to get anywhere -- a big difference from San Diego, I can tell you. Now we have a little more freedom to go places on the weekends in our Bongo Friendee. Of course, Japanese freeways aren't "free" at all -- if they were, people would use them too much, and they'd be clogged with cars all the time. To go to Takasaki the toll is about $6; to go all the way to Tokyo, it's around $30.
The "top 5" for the past week has been updated, too.
For the weekend's update, we've got an extra special update for you, including:
- First, some killer and rare magazines from Japan, including Cho Very Good!! (kogals doing bad things), Mecha ike! Hot Breast Girls (very nice amateur magazine), and more
- We have some very nice all-new photobooks for you, including Yanagi Asuka's very sexy hardcover photobook, fresh stock of several popular items, and more!
- If you like Japanese leg fetish books, we've got fresh stock of several items on the leg & stocking fetish photobook page
- For fans of Japanese amateur "indies" AV, we have a great new issue of MPEG Indies, featuring two super Video CDs filled with great amateur sex, as well as a full color magazine!
- In addition to several all-new volumes of excellent erotic manga from Japan, we've posted a very special item: the complete set of Furita ni Omakase, the masterful erotic manga about Sayuri and Jun, two policewomen who always managed to get into some bizarre sexual situations (the manga is on order with the publisher, please order your copies to ensure you can get your set)
- We have some very nice one-shot erotic dojinshi for you, posted to the dojinshi page -- check these out quickly, before they disappear
- For fans of busty Japanese AV actresses, we've got a super new video in the "Menu" (lit. "woman's breast") series. This super video features and busty and delicious Kitahara Erika in a great sexual performance for you
- For fans of the bold, refreshing Soft on Demand, we've got not one, but two new videos in their popular All Nude Challenger series, in which 108 lovely nude Japanese girls participate in wacky and bizarre nude sports to get money -- very cool!
- Also for Japan AV lovers -- a huge volley of sale and discount items, posted on the Videos (discount) page, all with *free shipping*
- For erotic DVD fans, we've got a super item -- a new 120 minute sexual performance featuring the hopelessly "kawaii" Hijiri Sayaka, a fresh, lovely Japanese AV performer
- Lovers of Japan's elegant and sexy Race Queens should check out the DVD and Idol pages, for two wonderful Race Queen DVDs by Pony Canyon
- We have fresh stock of several of our unique Japanese snack & food items, including sake candy (with real sake!) and Sakura Drops, the delicious hard candy that comes in an old-style tin, and boasts over 100 years of history
- Also on the snacks & food page, two new flavors of our surprisingly popular Japanese furikake
- For fans of beautiful things from Japan, we've posted a very cute Hello Kitty puzzle, along with a fantastic deluxe puzzle featuring a gold reproduction of Haruyo Morita's "Oboro-zuki"
- Finally, we've got fresh stock of some cool things from Japan for you, on our Wacky pages -- including the ultimate way to squeeze all the tooth paste out of your
J-List sells the finest selection of Wacky Things from Japan that we know of -- and it's not hard finding new things to sell, since Japan is such a Wacky place. We have it all -- everything from Japanese notebooks with funny English on them to clamps for your futon to Hello Kitty toilet paper to rice scoops to handy things for your bath and laundry. We enjoy selling some of these things because it allows you to touch a little piece of Japan. Since most of the items on our Wacky Things from Japan pages are extremely affordable -- from $2 -- we hope you'll check out our stock regularly. We also can't help thinking that many of the bizarre things we're able to bring you from Japan would make perfect gifts for the Japanophile in your life ^_^
Wednesday, April 18, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 18, 2001
It's another warm April day in Japan, and outside my window, the grasshoppers are warming up for the summer, still two months ago.
If you're ever in Japan, there are some rules you should observe. In many ways, Japan is obsessed with death, and several "faux pais" flow from this. For example, you should never stick chopsticks in your rice straight up ("tachi-bashi"), as this is done as part of a Buddhist funeral ceremony (mothers tell their children "only dead people" can stick their chopsticks in their rice). Similarly, you should never hand a piece of food to someone else with chopsticks, as it violates some taboo that's related to funerals in some way that's beyond gaijin comprehension -- instead, put the piece of food on a place and let the other person take it. Traditionally, you're not supposed to give cups or plates to someone in sets of four, since four in Japanese is "shi" which also means "death." Never give a potted plant to someone in the hospital, as it implies that they'll be in the hospital a long time (hence the need for roots). Other points of politeness are less intense. When going into any house, you take your shoes off, as shoes and feed are considered to be very dirty in Japan (although I've seen Japanese occasionally go quickly past the foyer to get something they forgot, without taking their shoes off).
We did a little spring cleaning last week, and took the opportunity to change the shoji paper on our shoji doors. Shoji are sliding wooden doors with paper glued to them, and they fit very nicely in with Japanese life. They slide sideways, so they don't take up any room cramped Japanese houses, and the traditional use of shoji in Japan brings a healthy Japanese-style to any room, even western-style rooms. The funniest part of re-hanging the shoji is of course ripping the old paper off -- we called on our kids to help us with this, and they go at it with a passion. The shoji paper market is quite large, with many different companies competing to bring the best shoji paper for your shoji doors. Variations include shoji that are hard to tear (they've got cotton fibers in them), shoji you can hang by just running an iron over the paper, and shoji with various interesting patterns woven into the paper.
For anyone who loves beautiful Japanese women, we have a fascinating CG collection on CD-ROM for you -- Skin Conscious vol. 1 & 2. A massive collection of incredibly beautiful hand-painted erotic airbrush images, each of these CD-ROMs is filled with 620+ megabytes of fabulous artwork, with 900 different images in the set, provided at full size for printing out, and with no copy protection. Skin Conscious is being printed right now, but we've posted it for preorders tonight -- order them now and get free shipping! (Skin Conscious is posted on Hentai & Adult Anime --> Hentai CG collections)
In addition to the Skin Conscious collections, we've got the following really cool new items for you:
J-List accepts all major credit cards for orders, via the secure order form on our web site. But we also are happy to another forms of payment, such as Paypal and Billpoint. We get several emails a week from people asking if check or money order payment are okay, and the answer is of course yes -- just make an order and choose "check or money order."
Some have asked about the enlarged images that are still now showing up. We've kept many of the images off the server, to keep the hard drive space problem we've been having from coming back. We're hard at work on a permanent fix, and should have the problems taken care of soon!
If you're ever in Japan, there are some rules you should observe. In many ways, Japan is obsessed with death, and several "faux pais" flow from this. For example, you should never stick chopsticks in your rice straight up ("tachi-bashi"), as this is done as part of a Buddhist funeral ceremony (mothers tell their children "only dead people" can stick their chopsticks in their rice). Similarly, you should never hand a piece of food to someone else with chopsticks, as it violates some taboo that's related to funerals in some way that's beyond gaijin comprehension -- instead, put the piece of food on a place and let the other person take it. Traditionally, you're not supposed to give cups or plates to someone in sets of four, since four in Japanese is "shi" which also means "death." Never give a potted plant to someone in the hospital, as it implies that they'll be in the hospital a long time (hence the need for roots). Other points of politeness are less intense. When going into any house, you take your shoes off, as shoes and feed are considered to be very dirty in Japan (although I've seen Japanese occasionally go quickly past the foyer to get something they forgot, without taking their shoes off).
We did a little spring cleaning last week, and took the opportunity to change the shoji paper on our shoji doors. Shoji are sliding wooden doors with paper glued to them, and they fit very nicely in with Japanese life. They slide sideways, so they don't take up any room cramped Japanese houses, and the traditional use of shoji in Japan brings a healthy Japanese-style to any room, even western-style rooms. The funniest part of re-hanging the shoji is of course ripping the old paper off -- we called on our kids to help us with this, and they go at it with a passion. The shoji paper market is quite large, with many different companies competing to bring the best shoji paper for your shoji doors. Variations include shoji that are hard to tear (they've got cotton fibers in them), shoji you can hang by just running an iron over the paper, and shoji with various interesting patterns woven into the paper.
For anyone who loves beautiful Japanese women, we have a fascinating CG collection on CD-ROM for you -- Skin Conscious vol. 1 & 2. A massive collection of incredibly beautiful hand-painted erotic airbrush images, each of these CD-ROMs is filled with 620+ megabytes of fabulous artwork, with 900 different images in the set, provided at full size for printing out, and with no copy protection. Skin Conscious is being printed right now, but we've posted it for preorders tonight -- order them now and get free shipping! (Skin Conscious is posted on Hentai & Adult Anime --> Hentai CG collections)
In addition to the Skin Conscious collections, we've got the following really cool new items for you:
- We have several nice new erotic magazines from Japan, including some very nice kogal magazines, and more
- Something that should sell well is Buru Mani, a lovely deluxe photobook featuring some very pretty girls -- from the publishers of Waffle
- For photobook lovers, we've got some great new items for you, including several very nice leg-fetish photobook items on the let photobooks page
- For fans of magazine + video CD magazine combos, a great issue of MPEG Typhoon, with excellent amateur AV on two VCDs
- Japanese know their fetishes, and one popular fetish is "doctor play." There's a lot of interesting sexual perversion to enjoy in "You can be a gynecologist, too," a magazine + dual Video CD item on the high-end photobooks page
- One of the most popular color manga/art books in recent months has been Yui Shop 2, a beautifully erotic all-color book by Toshiki Yui -- but we sold out in about 30 minutes. Well, we've not only got more stock of Yui Shop 2, but by massive customer request, we've got Yui Shop 1, too -- both in stock now!
- We have another update to our manga page, of course, with fresh stock of many titles that had been sold out of backordered
- We've got *four* new hentai dojinshi, featuring great hentai artwork from Black Cat, Yugioh, and more
- Yaoi fans, see the elegant Rigel ~ A winter's constellation on the yaoi page
- For fans of Japan's lovely hentai games, we've got a nice issue of Fantasienne for you, with over 260 pages of great info on Japan's current games
- For those who appreciate Japan's beauty, we've got several nice photo puzzles posted to the anime page for you to check out
- If you love Japanese snacks and gum, we've done a major restock, adding fresh stock of several popular items, including Milky Candy (white milk-flavored caramels, they're great), as well as some of our unique Japanese gum, only available from J-List
- See the ultimate Japanese flag sticker for you car on the Wacky Stickers & Signs page
- For this evening's "wacky" update, we've got some cool new items, including an all-new version of Japanese "socks glue" (to hold your socks up), an oil sheet for ladies with real gold in it, the ultimate 360 degree swiveling hanger, and more! Check out all the new items!
J-List accepts all major credit cards for orders, via the secure order form on our web site. But we also are happy to another forms of payment, such as Paypal and Billpoint. We get several emails a week from people asking if check or money order payment are okay, and the answer is of course yes -- just make an order and choose "check or money order."
Some have asked about the enlarged images that are still now showing up. We've kept many of the images off the server, to keep the hard drive space problem we've been having from coming back. We're hard at work on a permanent fix, and should have the problems taken care of soon!
Saturday, April 14, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 14, 2001
Hello and greetings once again from Japan!
Well, Universal Studios Osaka is finally a reality, and everyone in Japan is being bombarded with marketing messages from the theme park, trying to get them to go spend their money there. Arnold Schwartzenegger (universally known as "Shuwa-chan" here in Japan) was in Osaka recently to help promote the opening. They did the silly things they do on Japanese TV when foreigners come to visit, gushing about them to no end, and poking fun at them, too -- the gave Arnold a Japanese writing brush and tried to get him to copy some kanji, to see how it turned out. He gave up and wrote "I'll be back" in English.
There are certain grammatical structures that work differently in Japanese than in English. In English, we have two concepts for pointing at objects -- here/there, this/that, etc. But in Japanese, there are "location association" concepts -- here, there, and over there (farther away). Location is expressed with koko (here, where I am), soko (there, where you are) and asoko (over there, where a third person may be). There are little nuances that come out these words. Asoko (over there) is a euphemism for a person's genital area, for times when using a more direct word isn't desirable. Acchi (another word meaning "over there") has some negative meanings as well, and "acchi no hito" (the person from over there) is a euphemism that refers to foreigners -- the people from far outside. Incidentally, listen to Japanese speak, and you might notice a tendency differentiate between "this" as an adjective ("this apple") and "this" as a noun ("I bought this"), using "this one" instead of "this" in the latter case.
We've reorganized some of the J-List pages a little big. First of all, we now have DVD Page 1 and DVD page 2 (with lower-priced items being posted on page 2), as well as a new Soft on Demand code-free DVD page, to celebrate the fact that they're releasing all DVDs as region free now.
For the first update of the week, we've got some nice items for you, including:
Thanks for being a part of J-List!
Well, Universal Studios Osaka is finally a reality, and everyone in Japan is being bombarded with marketing messages from the theme park, trying to get them to go spend their money there. Arnold Schwartzenegger (universally known as "Shuwa-chan" here in Japan) was in Osaka recently to help promote the opening. They did the silly things they do on Japanese TV when foreigners come to visit, gushing about them to no end, and poking fun at them, too -- the gave Arnold a Japanese writing brush and tried to get him to copy some kanji, to see how it turned out. He gave up and wrote "I'll be back" in English.
There are certain grammatical structures that work differently in Japanese than in English. In English, we have two concepts for pointing at objects -- here/there, this/that, etc. But in Japanese, there are "location association" concepts -- here, there, and over there (farther away). Location is expressed with koko (here, where I am), soko (there, where you are) and asoko (over there, where a third person may be). There are little nuances that come out these words. Asoko (over there) is a euphemism for a person's genital area, for times when using a more direct word isn't desirable. Acchi (another word meaning "over there") has some negative meanings as well, and "acchi no hito" (the person from over there) is a euphemism that refers to foreigners -- the people from far outside. Incidentally, listen to Japanese speak, and you might notice a tendency differentiate between "this" as an adjective ("this apple") and "this" as a noun ("I bought this"), using "this one" instead of "this" in the latter case.
We've reorganized some of the J-List pages a little big. First of all, we now have DVD Page 1 and DVD page 2 (with lower-priced items being posted on page 2), as well as a new Soft on Demand code-free DVD page, to celebrate the fact that they're releasing all DVDs as region free now.
For the first update of the week, we've got some nice items for you, including:
- Many new 18+ items
- For fans of Japanese manga, we've got two very interesting items: *bilingual* comics from Japan of Love Hina and Cardcaptor Sakura, in English with Japanese written to the side of the speech balloons -- great for both collectors and students
- New items on our Japanese snacks page include some tasty new flavors of konnyaku jelly -- as well as lower prices on much of our stock of interesting Japanese snack and food items
- We've got new wacky things from Japan for you too, including all-new Japanes maps (a map of Japan and a map of the world, with Japan right in the center), new books to help you learn hiragana and katakana, an authentic Japanese abacus, the ultimate condiment holder for your tabletop, and more of our amazingly popular Hello Kitty chopsticks
Thanks for being a part of J-List!
Wednesday, April 11, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 11, 2001
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Tuesday, April 10, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 10, 2001
Hello again from your friends in Japan, J-List!
The Japanese approach to family structure is very different than in the U.S. In Japan, a family has a "jikka" or "real house," where their parents live. At certain times during the year, mainly New Years' Day and Obon, a holiday that's kind of a cross between Thanksgiving and Halloween, people return to their jikka to be with family. Usually the oldest son is the one who stays with his parents, taking over the family business if there is one. My wife is an only child, so there was a lot of expectation for her to remain in her house, despite the fact that she wanted to live in America. When I married her, it was expected that we would live in the house and "see to things" (including taking care of my wife's parents as they grow older).
My mother and nephew stayed with us for a week, and it was interesting hearing some of their observations about Japan. My nephew, a typical 12-year-old Pokemon-loving teenager, was interested in many things, too, from the way they play Auld Lang Sine in stores when it's time to close (so you know to hurry up and leave) to stoplights that are horizontally oriented instead of vertically, as they are in the States. My mother, who is really into strict bedtimes for children, was aghast to see my kids staying up til 10 pm most nights. It's a different paradigm -- in Japan, kids don't really have bedtimes, but go to sleep when they are sleepy. It's aided by the fact that Japan's day is about 2 hours later than the U.S. -- school starts at 9 am, not at 7 am, as it did for me, and people usually from 10 to 6, not from 9 to 5. So it all works out.
For this evening's update, we've got some extra-special items in store for you, including:
First, we've got several excellent new magazines, including the excellent new Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, not one but two issues of Iketeru Peach-Ass Girl, and another of those cool magazines that show embarrassing photos of Japanese idols
For photobook fans, we've got some excellent items, including the new Tennyo, featuring the lovely Yoshinaga Mika as photographed by Miyazawa Masaaki, and the incredibly erotic Strawberry Diary 2, by the famous Aida Garo
We've got fresh stock of several sold-out photobooks, including the very cool "From the bathroom with love," the sultry Honjoh Sayuri's "Bedrooms" and Ikeno Hitomi's sizzling S&M photobook
For fans of amateur Japanese girls, check out Gal's Special, featuring all-amateur content in a great all-color format
For hentai manga lovers, we've got some excellent new postings, along with fresh stock of several extremely popular manga offerings that had been sold out and backordered for a long time -- check out out always well-stocked manga pages now
If you like erotic doujinshi, we've got two cool ones for you, both based on Love Hina, the popular new anime
Yaoi fans should check out the two "boy's love anthology" items we've posted for you, each featuring a great collection of yaoi artwork and themes
For erotic DVD and doujinshi fans alike, we've got a cool item: Street Fucker, a 120 minute DVD filled with all parody Street Fighter live-action costume play sex, starring the very pretty Shirakawa Narumi as Chun Li, Sakura and the STII characters
For AV fans, we've got two great videos for you -- the charming Tomosaki Rin in "I'll Give You Help Onanie" (female-assisted masturbation) and Fujisaki Ayaka in a fantastic breast-fetish video "A-Class Busty Criminal"
The extremely popular G-Taste series continues in the latest G-Taste DVD, the Kannazuki Mai Edition
One of the most requested anime items on J-List has been the Love Hina anime series, and we're happy to announce that you can order the Love Hina DVDs on our Anime DVD page. This is a wonderful anime based on one of the most popular manga in years, and we think it's really cool
For fans of the popular game Kanon, we've got the official Kanon Trading Card Game version 2.0 in stock
Speaking of Kanon, check out the Kanon Personal Phone Strap on the anime & toys page, before it's gone, along with several other cool things for fans of Ultraman and Yamato
We have two excellent flavors of Lotte's Xylitol chewing gum on the Japanese gum page. Xylitol is a new product from Finland that promotes tooth health, and this is a great-tasting gum from Japan that incorporates it. In Blueberry Yogurt and Orange Soda flavor!
We've got a nutty item for you on our Japanese stickers & signs page -- Super Buddha! We guarantee that if you put this on your car, you'll be unique
Finally, our always-fun Wacky Things from Japan pages have been updated weather real Japanese subway map; a "stick-free" rice scoop with holder, great for anyone who eats Japanese-style rice; a cooling "relax mask" that reduces puffiness around your eyes; a deluxe keychain that makes losing your keys very difficult; and the only stainless steel drinking cup you'll ever need.
Over the years, we've carried many interesting products, including Japan's unique bishoujo (aka hentai) games in English. One of the first companies to translate these games into English was Otaku Publishing of the UK, and when they stopped selling the games, we bought the last of their stock. That stock is nearly gone now -- Return to Paradise Heights is down to the last 25 copies or so. So if you haven't played this classic game and want to, get it fast!
The Japanese approach to family structure is very different than in the U.S. In Japan, a family has a "jikka" or "real house," where their parents live. At certain times during the year, mainly New Years' Day and Obon, a holiday that's kind of a cross between Thanksgiving and Halloween, people return to their jikka to be with family. Usually the oldest son is the one who stays with his parents, taking over the family business if there is one. My wife is an only child, so there was a lot of expectation for her to remain in her house, despite the fact that she wanted to live in America. When I married her, it was expected that we would live in the house and "see to things" (including taking care of my wife's parents as they grow older).
My mother and nephew stayed with us for a week, and it was interesting hearing some of their observations about Japan. My nephew, a typical 12-year-old Pokemon-loving teenager, was interested in many things, too, from the way they play Auld Lang Sine in stores when it's time to close (so you know to hurry up and leave) to stoplights that are horizontally oriented instead of vertically, as they are in the States. My mother, who is really into strict bedtimes for children, was aghast to see my kids staying up til 10 pm most nights. It's a different paradigm -- in Japan, kids don't really have bedtimes, but go to sleep when they are sleepy. It's aided by the fact that Japan's day is about 2 hours later than the U.S. -- school starts at 9 am, not at 7 am, as it did for me, and people usually from 10 to 6, not from 9 to 5. So it all works out.
For this evening's update, we've got some extra-special items in store for you, including:
First, we've got several excellent new magazines, including the excellent new Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, not one but two issues of Iketeru Peach-Ass Girl, and another of those cool magazines that show embarrassing photos of Japanese idols
For photobook fans, we've got some excellent items, including the new Tennyo, featuring the lovely Yoshinaga Mika as photographed by Miyazawa Masaaki, and the incredibly erotic Strawberry Diary 2, by the famous Aida Garo
We've got fresh stock of several sold-out photobooks, including the very cool "From the bathroom with love," the sultry Honjoh Sayuri's "Bedrooms" and Ikeno Hitomi's sizzling S&M photobook
For fans of amateur Japanese girls, check out Gal's Special, featuring all-amateur content in a great all-color format
For hentai manga lovers, we've got some excellent new postings, along with fresh stock of several extremely popular manga offerings that had been sold out and backordered for a long time -- check out out always well-stocked manga pages now
If you like erotic doujinshi, we've got two cool ones for you, both based on Love Hina, the popular new anime
Yaoi fans should check out the two "boy's love anthology" items we've posted for you, each featuring a great collection of yaoi artwork and themes
For erotic DVD and doujinshi fans alike, we've got a cool item: Street Fucker, a 120 minute DVD filled with all parody Street Fighter live-action costume play sex, starring the very pretty Shirakawa Narumi as Chun Li, Sakura and the STII characters
For AV fans, we've got two great videos for you -- the charming Tomosaki Rin in "I'll Give You Help Onanie" (female-assisted masturbation) and Fujisaki Ayaka in a fantastic breast-fetish video "A-Class Busty Criminal"
The extremely popular G-Taste series continues in the latest G-Taste DVD, the Kannazuki Mai Edition
One of the most requested anime items on J-List has been the Love Hina anime series, and we're happy to announce that you can order the Love Hina DVDs on our Anime DVD page. This is a wonderful anime based on one of the most popular manga in years, and we think it's really cool
For fans of the popular game Kanon, we've got the official Kanon Trading Card Game version 2.0 in stock
Speaking of Kanon, check out the Kanon Personal Phone Strap on the anime & toys page, before it's gone, along with several other cool things for fans of Ultraman and Yamato
We have two excellent flavors of Lotte's Xylitol chewing gum on the Japanese gum page. Xylitol is a new product from Finland that promotes tooth health, and this is a great-tasting gum from Japan that incorporates it. In Blueberry Yogurt and Orange Soda flavor!
We've got a nutty item for you on our Japanese stickers & signs page -- Super Buddha! We guarantee that if you put this on your car, you'll be unique
Finally, our always-fun Wacky Things from Japan pages have been updated weather real Japanese subway map; a "stick-free" rice scoop with holder, great for anyone who eats Japanese-style rice; a cooling "relax mask" that reduces puffiness around your eyes; a deluxe keychain that makes losing your keys very difficult; and the only stainless steel drinking cup you'll ever need.
Over the years, we've carried many interesting products, including Japan's unique bishoujo (aka hentai) games in English. One of the first companies to translate these games into English was Otaku Publishing of the UK, and when they stopped selling the games, we bought the last of their stock. That stock is nearly gone now -- Return to Paradise Heights is down to the last 25 copies or so. So if you haven't played this classic game and want to, get it fast!
Monday, April 02, 2001
Greetings from J-List April 2, 2001
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Wednesday, March 28, 2001
Greetings from J-List March 28, 2001
Greetings once again from Japan, where we've taken time out from tinkering with Mac OS X to bring you another (hopefully) interesting update!
An interesting aspect of the Japanese language is that there are multiple words for "you" and "I," and which one you use speaks volumes about how you perceive yourself. The basic word for I is "watashi" but not used all that much. Words that boys usually use are "boku" (a soft word, usually polite) or "ore" (a rougher word, which can be rude depending on the setting you use it in). A girl who is somewhat tomboyish might use the former, or if she's really tough, she might even use the latter; similarly, a young boy (like my son) might show how grown-up he is by using "ore." The "girl's" word for I is "atashi," and a homosexual speaking in an effeminate manner would use this word for himself. Words for you include "anata" (a somewhat formal word, it's also used by a wife when addressing her husband), "kimi" (a close term, used among friends) or the rougher "omae," used when talking down to someone, or among male friend showing their manliness.
When foreign visitors come to Japan, one observation make is that there's not that much that's written in English. I speak and read Japanese, so I don't think about it much, but it's true -- there are many times when Japanese aren't considerate enough of English-speaking visitors. At least there are many English newspapers to choose from in Japan. The most famous is the Japan Times, which has a long history -- I used to read old newsreels from the World War II years, when I worked in the library back in my SDSU days. I prefer the Daily Yomiuri, however, which has an interesting feature: they cycle in opinion pages from the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Independant, for a variety of interesting viewpoints from the U.S. and Europe.
For tonight's update, we've got some truly excellent items for you, including:
Remember that J-List has a full line of unique and interesting snack foods, from traditional Japanese Pocky to Gummi Pikachu to the excellent Crunky Crunch Chocolate. Check out our excellent items now!
An interesting aspect of the Japanese language is that there are multiple words for "you" and "I," and which one you use speaks volumes about how you perceive yourself. The basic word for I is "watashi" but not used all that much. Words that boys usually use are "boku" (a soft word, usually polite) or "ore" (a rougher word, which can be rude depending on the setting you use it in). A girl who is somewhat tomboyish might use the former, or if she's really tough, she might even use the latter; similarly, a young boy (like my son) might show how grown-up he is by using "ore." The "girl's" word for I is "atashi," and a homosexual speaking in an effeminate manner would use this word for himself. Words for you include "anata" (a somewhat formal word, it's also used by a wife when addressing her husband), "kimi" (a close term, used among friends) or the rougher "omae," used when talking down to someone, or among male friend showing their manliness.
When foreign visitors come to Japan, one observation make is that there's not that much that's written in English. I speak and read Japanese, so I don't think about it much, but it's true -- there are many times when Japanese aren't considerate enough of English-speaking visitors. At least there are many English newspapers to choose from in Japan. The most famous is the Japan Times, which has a long history -- I used to read old newsreels from the World War II years, when I worked in the library back in my SDSU days. I prefer the Daily Yomiuri, however, which has an interesting feature: they cycle in opinion pages from the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Independant, for a variety of interesting viewpoints from the U.S. and Europe.
For tonight's update, we've got some truly excellent items for you, including:
- First, we've got two positively wonderful magazines from you: the new Gokuh and Bejean, both oversized and filled with lovely Japanese angels, like Hagiwara Mai and Ohura Anna -- very nice!
- For photobook lovers, we've got some excellent items for you, including a great selection of our popular leg, stocking and "low angle" photobooks, and some great high school uniform photobooks
- For dojinshi fans, we've got limited stock of some excellent all-new items
- If you are a manga lover, of course we've got new erotic wide manga from Japan for you, including several all-new manga offerings by Hit and several other comic houses
- For fans of Japan's erotic DVDs, we've got a super DVD in the "Pure" series, featuring three lovely contemporary Japanese girls who express their sexuality in really interesting ways
- For collectors of region 2 encoded DVDs, a superb item featuring 120 minutes with six lovely AV stars, including Yoshino Sally, Suzuki Manami and Komuro Yuri
- For fans of our popular discount videos pages, some great titles from the J-List vault, including some Miura Aika and Yoshikawa Minami -- all with free SAL shipping!
- For Japanese idol card fans, fresh stock of the Bururun Club II series
- We've got fresh stock of some of our popular Wacky items, including wooden Japanese signs (our most popular is "It is forbidden to urinate here"), and more blank Japanese vocabulary study cards
- A neat new item Wacky Things from Japan page, a collection of highly useful zippered pouches, which you can use to protect your camera, CD player, or any similar device
- We've got limited stock of the very cool Domo-kun phone/camera strap on the anime toys page
- For Japanese snack & food fans, two delicious boil-in-bag spaghetti sauces: pasta cream (mmm), and "bongore bianco" (I know I've got that spelled wrong, I've never seen the word written in anything but Japanese ^^), complete with delicious clams!
- We have a very nice Hello Kitty letter and postcard set on the Cute Wacky Things page
- Finally, look for beautiful stickers from the Edo period, Japanese sushi decorative grass, a super item for cleaning your shoes, and the ultimate room freshener for those who like to read...
Remember that J-List has a full line of unique and interesting snack foods, from traditional Japanese Pocky to Gummi Pikachu to the excellent Crunky Crunch Chocolate. Check out our excellent items now!
Monday, March 26, 2001
Greetings from J-List March 26, 2001
Hello again from J-List
Breakfast cereal is one of the major staple foods in the U.S., and it's slowly growing in popularity here in Japan, too. It was slow going, though -- Japanese consumers preferred Japanese food, like fish, miso soup and natto (fermented soybeans), to what looked to them like "bird seed." Now, several brands of cereal compete for share the Japanese cereal market, lead by Kellogg's, who markets Corn Flake, Corn Frosty, Choko-wa (chocolate loops), and All-Bran. Unfortunately, Kellogg's products are very expensive here -- about $4 for a box that contains only 2-3 American-sized bowls of cereal, so I usually choose Ciscorn or Calbee's cereal products. Amazingly, Japan is a huge consumer of rice, but no one sells Rice Crispies or a copycat product here.
Japanese is an interesting language grammatically. In Japanese, you have various "particles" which you use to mark words -- a subject particle, an object particle, and so on. Related to this are the many Japanese "counters" you use to count things. There are hundreds of these counters, each used with different kinds of objects. To count thin, flat objects like cards or sheets of paper, you use "mai" (e.g. ichi mai, ni mai, san mai). To count long, cylindrical objects like an umbrella, you use "hon" (ippon, ni hon). There are special counters for birds (wa), small animals like dogs (hiki), larger animals like cows (tou), and so on -- similar to words like "gaggle" "herd" and "flock" in English, but extended to virtually all countable nouns. It's quite fun to try to learn them all.
Japan had a large quake on Saturday which destroyed thousands of homes and left several dead around Hiroshima and Ehime Prefecture, on the smallest Japanese island of Shikoku. J-List is about 1500 km from Hiroshima, so we were quite far from the damage -- I didn't even know about the quake until I read it in the Daily Yomiuri. It was a terrible tragedy, but we're glad there wasn't more loss of life.
We had some server problems on Saturday, Japan time, which resulted in the shopping cart not adding items that were added to the cart properly. We are very sorry for for the inconvenience. The site is working fine now, and we think the problem are over, but if you have any problems with the J-List cart, you can order via our secure email form at https://rook.axnet.net/pages/virtual/jlist/orderjlist_secure.html . Currently, most of the larger images have been removed from the server to keep he drive from filling up while we move servers, so please use "thumbnail view" when browsing the J-List site.
For the new update, we've added some excellent items for you, including
First, some excellent adult magazines from Japan, including the stellar new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, a super new Gal's Dee for fans of busty Japanese girls, and the very erotic amateur magazine High-Teen Nessha Boy
For photobook fans, we have A5 format color photobook of the popular CD-ROM series Yellows 2.0, Yellows 3.0 ~ China and Yellows 1.0 ~ Americans, which are mostly out of print
Als for photobook lovers, a special item: From the Bathroom with Love, which contains fabulous nude shots of Japan's most famous AV gals, but also pictures of their own homes with maps to their homes -- features virtually every popular AV girl in Japan today
For bondage and discipline lovers, an interesting magazine + dual Video CD sampler item with footage from Brain Trust and others
We have two excellent new dojinshi in stock for you: the very sexy 12 Kaiten, an exploration in Japanese "waitress fetishism," and Energya's fabulous new collection of hentai Sailor Moon
We've got a bunch of excellent erotic manga that have been posted, with many new all-new volumes, including books from IC, Do and Oak Comix -- also a super new issue of Electric Fighting Daughters, the "game girl" hentai parody dojinshi anthology manga
Also for manga fans, we have fresh stock of the truly excellent Paradise Lost erotic dojinshi anthologies from Fusion Product
For DVD lovers, another excellent re-issue DVD for fans of classic gals -- Ozawa madoka's sexy "18 Dreams"
Also for DVD fans, we've posted the Masterpiece of SOD collection DVD, which features killer samples from 64 titles released between May and August of 2000
If you love the pure and virginal Minori Aoi, check out her "Lucky Creamy Girl" video offering, from the famous Uchu Kikaku, on our video pages
From Soft on Demand's Deep's label, an excellent compilation video featuring 120 minutes of their excellent tekoki, cosplay and other video works
For fans of Takara's very lovely Licca-chan doll series, we've got a cool set of keychains featuring Licca dressed for a summer festival -- Asakura Licca-chan -- on the anime & toys page
We've got fresh stock of one of my favorite foods from Japan, konnyaku jelly, on the Japanese snacks and food page. Konnyaku is a vegetable-based food that is very solid and firm, and is used as a diet food here because it fills you up while providing very few calories. Check out our konnyaku jelly items before we sell out again
Also on the snacks page, a delicious new twist on furikake: kimchee flavor (yum)
We've got several very cute things for you for the Wacky Things from Japan (cute stuff) page, including two new Hello Kitty chopsticks, and a really nice set of Kitty-chan bags of different sizes -- great for giving gifts or eating your lunch
We've got two sets of lovely collectible cards for you -- for lovely idol fans, the deluxe and very popular swimsuit and high school uniform cards of Nagai Luna, and for anime fans, the excellent Love hina trading card series
For our T-shirt fans, we've got a few leftover "I'm a virgin killer" Japanese kanji T-shirts
For our Wacky Things from Japan customers, some really cool new items, including traditional bamboo ear cleaners (they feel so good!), more extra-long cooking chopsticks from japan, origami paper for kids, a bamboo mat that has many uses, and the "ultimate" slly container for your desk!
Breakfast cereal is one of the major staple foods in the U.S., and it's slowly growing in popularity here in Japan, too. It was slow going, though -- Japanese consumers preferred Japanese food, like fish, miso soup and natto (fermented soybeans), to what looked to them like "bird seed." Now, several brands of cereal compete for share the Japanese cereal market, lead by Kellogg's, who markets Corn Flake, Corn Frosty, Choko-wa (chocolate loops), and All-Bran. Unfortunately, Kellogg's products are very expensive here -- about $4 for a box that contains only 2-3 American-sized bowls of cereal, so I usually choose Ciscorn or Calbee's cereal products. Amazingly, Japan is a huge consumer of rice, but no one sells Rice Crispies or a copycat product here.
Japanese is an interesting language grammatically. In Japanese, you have various "particles" which you use to mark words -- a subject particle, an object particle, and so on. Related to this are the many Japanese "counters" you use to count things. There are hundreds of these counters, each used with different kinds of objects. To count thin, flat objects like cards or sheets of paper, you use "mai" (e.g. ichi mai, ni mai, san mai). To count long, cylindrical objects like an umbrella, you use "hon" (ippon, ni hon). There are special counters for birds (wa), small animals like dogs (hiki), larger animals like cows (tou), and so on -- similar to words like "gaggle" "herd" and "flock" in English, but extended to virtually all countable nouns. It's quite fun to try to learn them all.
Japan had a large quake on Saturday which destroyed thousands of homes and left several dead around Hiroshima and Ehime Prefecture, on the smallest Japanese island of Shikoku. J-List is about 1500 km from Hiroshima, so we were quite far from the damage -- I didn't even know about the quake until I read it in the Daily Yomiuri. It was a terrible tragedy, but we're glad there wasn't more loss of life.
We had some server problems on Saturday, Japan time, which resulted in the shopping cart not adding items that were added to the cart properly. We are very sorry for for the inconvenience. The site is working fine now, and we think the problem are over, but if you have any problems with the J-List cart, you can order via our secure email form at https://rook.axnet.net/pages/virtual/jlist/orderjlist_secure.html . Currently, most of the larger images have been removed from the server to keep he drive from filling up while we move servers, so please use "thumbnail view" when browsing the J-List site.
For the new update, we've added some excellent items for you, including
First, some excellent adult magazines from Japan, including the stellar new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, a super new Gal's Dee for fans of busty Japanese girls, and the very erotic amateur magazine High-Teen Nessha Boy
For photobook fans, we have A5 format color photobook of the popular CD-ROM series Yellows 2.0, Yellows 3.0 ~ China and Yellows 1.0 ~ Americans, which are mostly out of print
Als for photobook lovers, a special item: From the Bathroom with Love, which contains fabulous nude shots of Japan's most famous AV gals, but also pictures of their own homes with maps to their homes -- features virtually every popular AV girl in Japan today
For bondage and discipline lovers, an interesting magazine + dual Video CD sampler item with footage from Brain Trust and others
We have two excellent new dojinshi in stock for you: the very sexy 12 Kaiten, an exploration in Japanese "waitress fetishism," and Energya's fabulous new collection of hentai Sailor Moon
We've got a bunch of excellent erotic manga that have been posted, with many new all-new volumes, including books from IC, Do and Oak Comix -- also a super new issue of Electric Fighting Daughters, the "game girl" hentai parody dojinshi anthology manga
Also for manga fans, we have fresh stock of the truly excellent Paradise Lost erotic dojinshi anthologies from Fusion Product
For DVD lovers, another excellent re-issue DVD for fans of classic gals -- Ozawa madoka's sexy "18 Dreams"
Also for DVD fans, we've posted the Masterpiece of SOD collection DVD, which features killer samples from 64 titles released between May and August of 2000
If you love the pure and virginal Minori Aoi, check out her "Lucky Creamy Girl" video offering, from the famous Uchu Kikaku, on our video pages
From Soft on Demand's Deep's label, an excellent compilation video featuring 120 minutes of their excellent tekoki, cosplay and other video works
For fans of Takara's very lovely Licca-chan doll series, we've got a cool set of keychains featuring Licca dressed for a summer festival -- Asakura Licca-chan -- on the anime & toys page
We've got fresh stock of one of my favorite foods from Japan, konnyaku jelly, on the Japanese snacks and food page. Konnyaku is a vegetable-based food that is very solid and firm, and is used as a diet food here because it fills you up while providing very few calories. Check out our konnyaku jelly items before we sell out again
Also on the snacks page, a delicious new twist on furikake: kimchee flavor (yum)
We've got several very cute things for you for the Wacky Things from Japan (cute stuff) page, including two new Hello Kitty chopsticks, and a really nice set of Kitty-chan bags of different sizes -- great for giving gifts or eating your lunch
We've got two sets of lovely collectible cards for you -- for lovely idol fans, the deluxe and very popular swimsuit and high school uniform cards of Nagai Luna, and for anime fans, the excellent Love hina trading card series
For our T-shirt fans, we've got a few leftover "I'm a virgin killer" Japanese kanji T-shirts
For our Wacky Things from Japan customers, some really cool new items, including traditional bamboo ear cleaners (they feel so good!), more extra-long cooking chopsticks from japan, origami paper for kids, a bamboo mat that has many uses, and the "ultimate" slly container for your desk!
Wednesday, March 21, 2001
Greetings from J-List March 21, 2001
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Monday, March 19, 2001
Greetings from J-List March 19, 2001
Hello again from Japan, where fatherhood means never taking a bath alone...
Bongo Friendee aside, it's quite interesting to analyze Japan's car names. Above all, they must sound "kakko ii" (cool), and since nothing sound cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life and Legend, or Nissan's Bluebird and Sunny. But many other names come from slightly altered English, so that they cause the same emotional response while being original. Words like Carolla or Tercel or Sylphy or Premacy sound like English, but car companies can still "own" the original names.
Japanese cars must never, ever have Japanese names, since that would be "kakko warui" (un-cool) -- Japanese are always amused to learn that the Suzuki Jiminy is sold as Suzuki Samurai in the U.S. However, there are some cars whose names started out as Japanese words before being "English-ified." Toyota Camry, for example, gets its name from "kammuri," which means crown in Japanese -- which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan here called Toyota Crown. Other names that have a "Japanese" feel to them are Daihatsu's Mira (sort of sounds like "mirai" which means "future") and Mitsubishi's Minica (which sound like what it is -- a very small "mini car").
Incidentally, no one drives Camry here, and it's quite rare that you see them driving on the streets. Honda's popular Step Wagon (a mini-van) and Toyota's Estima are far more common.
For this week's first update, we've got some extra-special items for you, including:
We've also lowered the price of the very popular Creamy Angel CD-ROM series vol. 1 & 2 from $14.95 to $9.95. This is a really excellent hentai CG series featuring the full works of Japanese erotic CG illustrator Mashitaka. See these and other very cool items on our hentai CD-ROM pages.
Bongo Friendee aside, it's quite interesting to analyze Japan's car names. Above all, they must sound "kakko ii" (cool), and since nothing sound cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life and Legend, or Nissan's Bluebird and Sunny. But many other names come from slightly altered English, so that they cause the same emotional response while being original. Words like Carolla or Tercel or Sylphy or Premacy sound like English, but car companies can still "own" the original names.
Japanese cars must never, ever have Japanese names, since that would be "kakko warui" (un-cool) -- Japanese are always amused to learn that the Suzuki Jiminy is sold as Suzuki Samurai in the U.S. However, there are some cars whose names started out as Japanese words before being "English-ified." Toyota Camry, for example, gets its name from "kammuri," which means crown in Japanese -- which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan here called Toyota Crown. Other names that have a "Japanese" feel to them are Daihatsu's Mira (sort of sounds like "mirai" which means "future") and Mitsubishi's Minica (which sound like what it is -- a very small "mini car").
Incidentally, no one drives Camry here, and it's quite rare that you see them driving on the streets. Honda's popular Step Wagon (a mini-van) and Toyota's Estima are far more common.
For this week's first update, we've got some extra-special items for you, including:
- Killer new magazines, including the very lovely new Beppin School. Because last month's issues were unavailable, we expect this great issue to go fast, so pick it up if you want a copy
- Also very cool, Urecco's CosPet, a look at some of Japan's most killer AV gals in sexy costumes
- For photobook lovers, we've got some nice all-new titles, including Yokoyama Yuki's very erotic hardcover nude photobook
- Also for photobook fans, some limited stock of some classic photobooks, including Miyazawa Rie's category-killing "Santa Fe"
- Leg fans, don't miss the Internet Idol and Race Queen panty stocking fetish photoobok (3 copies posted)
- Also very cool, we've now got stock of the fabulous Mania Club Deluxe, an all-color hardcore S&M photobook featuring 25 gorgeous AV gals, including Yoshino Sally, Sawaguchi Miki, and many more
- For dojiinshi fans, we've got fresh stock of two incredible works from Okachimentaiko: The Next Climax Magazine 3 (all Gundam hentai dojinshi) and Burajiru 2 (a lovely *color* Yamato, Pokemon and other hentai dojinshi)
- If you love hentai games from Japan, a new issue of Fantasienne is posted for your approval
- For as long as we've sold Japan's erotic manga, the #1 seller has been Harazaki Takuma's positively beautiful erotic comic Golden Stage. Now vol. 5 of this supremely crafted hentai manga is available
- For fans of very hardcore yaoi, we've got the excellent "SM Boy's Love Anthology Stinger" on the yaoi page for you
- For DVD collectors, a very nice magazine + code-free DVD sampler item, with *120 minutes* of great footage from 74 different adult DVD titles
- Also for DVD fans, a great item -- the DVD version of SOD's First Period of 2000 product sampler, and this DVD is code-free (yaay)
- The DVD titles Bondage DX and Big Morkal's 4 hours sample item, which had sold out and were accidentally taken off the J-List site, are reposted (sorry about that)
- For Japan AV video lovers, we've got two for you: Shy DX 2000, a great erotic video featuring 8 of Japan's most popular actresses performing for you over 90 minutes, and Sexy Restaurant Konna Miller's an erotic exploration of Japanese waitress fetishism
- For fans of our "wacky" things from Japan, we've restocked several items, including Hello Kitty chopsticks (the pefect symbol of Japan in one little package), Japan's milk container sealers, and the washing machine balls that make your clothes cleaner
- For Japanese snack fans, we've got some nice items for you, including a deluxe Miso Soup package (with different varieties of soup in one package), children's furikaku that comes with a cool Japanese pokemon figure, and just one package of the much-requested winter limited edition chocolate
- For Japanese gum fans, find Meiji's Xylish sugarless mint gum, that protectes your teeth with the help of a funky compound invented in Norway
- We've got the ultimate Japanese set of funny stickers for your bathroom on the Japanese signs page
- And finally, new items on our Wacky Things from Japan page include Hello Kitty tissue, a delue package of chopsticks that say "Live long and prosper" on them in Japanese (well...), and the ultimate Japanese device for separating egg yolks from whites!
We've also lowered the price of the very popular Creamy Angel CD-ROM series vol. 1 & 2 from $14.95 to $9.95. This is a really excellent hentai CG series featuring the full works of Japanese erotic CG illustrator Mashitaka. See these and other very cool items on our hentai CD-ROM pages.
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