Greetings from J-List June 28, 2002

Greetings from J-List again, on this lovely Friday evening. This update is coming to you from Tokyo. I'm here on business, but wanted to complete the day's update on time, so I'm sending it via my iBook.

In Japan, there's a famous chain of restaurants called Anna Miller's. A great American-style establishment serving "Boston style" food that's really good, and their pies can't be beat by any restaurant in Japan. But Anna Miller's is famous for another reason: their sexy waitress uniforms, which feature very short skirts and, er, support for various parts of a woman's anatomy. As part of the general Japanese boom in "cosplay" (costume play, i.e. dressing up in various uniforms or costumes), the Anna Miller's sexy waitress uniforms have become famous throughout the country, and are as recognizable to Japanese as the Playboy Bunny is to Americans. To see what the uniform looks like, just search for "waitress cosplay" on the J-List site and see what comes up -- the bishoujo game Viper M1 also features a girl wearing this famous costume on the cover. Supposedly, the best place to experience Anne Miller's is the restaurant in Meguro, Tokyo (the girls are supposed to be the prettiest there, according to Tomo, who is an expert). I'm heading there for dinner tonight with a friend, so I'll check it out. The official homepage of Anne Millers can be seen at http://www.imuraya.co.jp/annamillers/index.html . (It speaks volumes of the company that they don't have their own .com or .co.jp site in the year 2002.)

Tomorrow is the official unofficial opening of Star Wars: Attack of the Cones in Japan, and all around the country theatres are showing special sneak-previews. I'll be waiting in line with the rest of the fans, despite the fact that I saw the film in the U.S. last month -- it's sort of a "fan thing" to want to wait in line and see the movie on the first day. One thing I will not do is pay to see the film in a "standing room only" showing, though. In Japan, they cheerfully continue to sell tickets to movies even after all the seats are sold out, although more modern theatres are slowly switching to an assigned seating system, where you are pre-assigned to a certain seat as on airline flights. You can generally buy beer in most modern Japanese theatres ("I'm talking about a glass of beer"). Movies in Japan are unfortunately very expensive -- $18 for adults in most showings, but better theatres in Tokyo charge $24 for an event like Star Wars. Of course, we willingly pay these prices.

If you've ever wondered why Japanese people may seem to have a thicker accent than people from some other countries when speaking English, the fault lies with Japanese being a relatively impovershed language phonetically. In the various dialects of American English, there are 12 phonetic vowels which we pronounce, but in Japanese, there are just five, and all sounds in the language are limited to a strict syllable-based sound system. Also, the Japanese have only one set of sounds that corresponds to L and R, which causes much confusion for them when learning to pronounce some words. As a result of these incompatibilities, some English words just don't work very well when imported into Japanese. As I've said before, most Japanese think the film "Lord of the Ring" is really "Road of the Ring" because the words lord and road are the same when said in Japanese. There's an anime called Bubblegum Crash, but I'm not really sure it's "crash," since "clash" and "crush" would also be the same when pronounced in Japanese. One of the most famous problems caused by incompatibilities in the Japanese phonetic system is the word "election," a word whose meaning changes quite a bit if you get the L/R wrong.

For the update today, we've got many nice new items for you. Our anime, snack, wacky and other items include:

• For fans of Japan's lovely swimsuit idols, some new items, including a great card series featuring the beautiful Yumiko Shaku
  
• Various snack items, including new fried rice mixes from Japan that are delicious, new miso soup, and more
  
• A new bento set, perfect for fans of Japan's boxed lunch culture
  
• For anime and toy fans, several new items, including a fabulous recreation of Astro Boy with a high-quality case, new Japan-only Hot Wheels, and more
  
• J-List loves the high-quality pre-painted anime statues produced in Japan, and we've gotten stock of two positively incredible items from Final Fantasy VII
  
• We have new Hello Kitty items, including Hello Kitty wet tissues perfect for removing your makeup at the end of the day (great for carrying with you, too), a deluxe Hello Kitty dish, cup and chopstick set that makes a great gift, more Hello Kitty onigiri (rice ball) maker, and more!
  
• Many other wacky items that could only come from Japan.
  

For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:

• First, new magazines, including the new Gal's Dee, the popular magazine for fans of Japanese women of "D" cup or larger -- the new issue features the lovely Yui Morishita and many more
  
• Also, for fans of our bargain priced magazines on page three, we've got new discounted items for you
  
• We have some nice photobooks for you, too, including Do Ero, a very interesting fetish photobook
  
• For fans of manga, we've got new volumes for you, along with several back-in-stock popular items -- also, the excellent volume 5 of Blue Eyes has finally been released!
  
• Also, a nice new doujinshi item that's all in English, a very interesting work for fans of Japan's unique fan-made doujinshi comics
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got some nice new titles for you, including "Itsuki Kinoshita Answers the Flagrant Requests of Semen Maniacs," an excellent new bukkake/semen fetish title from SOD
  
• Also, a new release in the best-selling No Cut!! DVD series, which gives you three full video releases over three hours on one DVD -- this one features the lovely Asuka Ozora
  
• Also, a new release from M's Video Group's famous president Kazuhiko Matsumoto and Soft on Demand, the first tie-in of a famous manga story with an amazing bukkake AV production
  
• Many more items!
  

Remember that J-List carries a wide variety of snacks from Japan, with about 100 different items in stock at all times, with everything from Pocky (popular chocolate covered sticks) to Shigekix (super-sour "hard gummi") to Japan's famous spicy caffeine gum, Black Black. All items have a "freshness date" printed on the packaging, and we guarantee that all the items we sell are within the date when the items are sent to you. So check out our fun snacks section!
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Greetings from J-List June 26, 2002

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Greetings from J-List June 24, 2002

Hello again from all of us at J-List!

We noticed many differences between Europe and Japan while we were there, but one area was very familiar to us: they use the Metric system, just as Japan does. Unfortunately it hasn't taken root with Americans, but the Metric system is very easy to get used to, as all gaijin who come here to live can attest. Instead of miles, you use kilometers (1 mile = 1.6 km, or about half again as long). Instead of inches, you use centimeters (1 in = 2.5 cm), so just divide by four, which makes a distance of 4 inches into 10 cm. (Through some fluke, TV screens are measured in inches in Japan.) And liters are not hard to get used to -- a liter is a little less than 1/4 of a gallon. Unfortunately, I don't think the U.S. will ever be able to adopt the Metric system without some sort of benevolent dictatorship being imposed.

The oldest known settlements in Japan are in Iwakuni, Gunma Prefecture, which happens to be about 20 minutes from our house. We were bored on Sunday, so we decided to take the kids to the museum there to show them the stone tools of people who lived as far back as 50,000 years ago. (They also have a full skeleton of a mammoth, too, a great things for parents wanting to entertain their kids.) Although Western Japan, with great former capitals like Kyoto and Nara, may had a greater influence on Japan history in the last 1500 years or so, the Kanto region was a very culturally active region in Japan's prehistory. During the Jomon Period (the age of pottery) and Yayoi Period (when the Japanese first started cultivating rice), the area where Gunma Prefecture now occupies was settled by many ancient people. Also, the region was very active during the area of the Mound Builders (from the 4th through the 7th century AD), and throughout Northern Japan you can find thousands of burial mounds.

At J-List, we always strive to make rare and unique products available to our customers. We're happy to announce that J-List is teaming up with Matsukameya, a famous maker of Japanese high school uniforms, to make them available to everyone around the world. Matsukameya is a maker of top-quality high school uniforms, with a variety of styles and colors. Each uniform is hand-made for you when you order it, and a wide variety of sizes are available for fans around the world (actually, Matsukameya designs their female uniforms so that even men can wear them, if they are so inclined). They're great for cosplay at anime conventions! See the new School Uniforms page for all our uniform tops and skirts, and be sure to check the size chart before ordering.

For our new update, we've got many nice items. Our anime, snack, T-shirt and wacky items include:

• First, the aforementioned Japanese school uniforms that we're so proud to be able to carry
  
• We have some very nice new sexy idol and swimsuit/Race Queen photobooks, hardcover and softcover
  
• For fans of sexy idol trading cards, we've got the very nice "trading card bible" of Natsuki Kato in stock
  
• In Japan, they have these killer eyedrops that refresh you and wake you up --- and we've got them in stock now (both for guys and for girls)
  
• For Kubrick collectors and Evangelion fans, we've got all three of the brand-new Kubrick figures sets in stock now, and they are really great
  
• Also, we've finally gotten in fresh stock of the Castle of Caliostro 2-DVD release that features both English subtitles and dubbed tracks, along with many valuable extras for Miyazaki fans (region 2)
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, many new items, including two great bento box cloth bags (but you can use them for anything), cute facial oil wipes, and a very spiffy Hello Kitty item for your car
  
• Fresh stock of the incredibly-popular Hello Kitty vibrators (we had 500 in stock when we went to Germany, but had almost sold out of all of them by the time I came back)
  
• Also, fresh stock of our unique and authentic Japanese loose socks (both 80 cm and 120 cm sizes)
  
• For Star Wars fans, a very cool item indeed: a 1/7 scale pre-painted soft vinyl model of Darth Vader, created by the famous Kotobukiya and ArtFX just for the Japanese market (you must see it to believe it, it is so cool)
  
• Finally, more cool items such as a great Japanese wooden coin bank, cool accessories for those who want to imitate the kogal way of fashion, and more!
  

For our adult customers, we've got many new items, too. They include:

• We have several new magazines for you, starting with the very nice new Bejean, the excellent oversized adult magazine from Eichi Publishing (featuring one of my favorites, Yuko Oguro, on the cover)
  
• For fans of all things anal, we've got limited stock of the popular Shake Hip for you, too (it's, ahem, rather detailed)
  
• We have an excellent selection of new photobooks today, with great new hardcover books by the sexy Yinling, the first nude photobook of Yuka Suzuki, and many more
  
• Also: a nice "Accidents" photobook by Kishin Shinoyama, featuring the lovely Ai Kurosawa (!)
  
• We've got the new CD Indies Deluxe in, featuring a full color magazine and two full Video CDs for you to enjoy viewing
  
• For manga fans, we've got more new volumes in stock for you, including the excellent Heaven or Hell Advanced by Blue Blood, a 2-volume set of Bomber Girl, and much more (also many back-in-stock books)
  
• For yaoi fans, we've got two great new yaoi comics in stock, too
  
• If you love Japan's adult DVDs, we've got several new ones, starting with a great "Sentai" production (fighting team, like Power Rangers) from Soft on Demand, with 210 minutes of footage on 2 DVDs (region free)
  
• SOD's "Best Selection" series DVDs give you the best moments of their thousands of productions -- now you can enjoy the best AV performances of Rin Tomosaki (region free)
  
• From Dogma, we've got an excellent new production with Kurumi Morishita and Shinobu Kasagi, a very artistic and erotic "dangerous drama" that features lesbian performances and more (region free)
  
• The sweet and charming Mai Satoh has been a regular in Japan's top magazines lately, and now we've got her DVD in stock (region free)
  
• Emily Yoshikawa (aka Emirie Yoshikawa) is Japan's first "Latino" AV idol (she's half Japanese, half-Dominican Republic) -- now see a great 3 hour "3 in 1" with her (region free)
  
• For region 2 fans, we've restocked the popular "Twice" featuring the elegant Kaoru Tsunoda (region 2)
  
• Finally, in a great new release from Moodyz, the beautiful Kaori Shimizu goes to America to find some great, big black men and have sex with them, in a "yellow cab" DVD that is spectacular (region 2).
  

Remember that J-List carries virtually all English-language bishoujo games that are in print, so you can find all the best games in one place. Peach Princess, Hobibox Europe, JAST USA and Milky House, we've got them all and all are in stock. Japan's bishoujo games are an interesting kind of interactive love-simulation game that's unique to Japan, and we hope you'll try out some of them. If you're unsure which games you think you'd like, feel free to email us for a recommendation!

Greetings from J-List June 17, 2002

Greetings from the J-List team!

We enjoyed out last days in Germany, taking the train to see the bustling city of Frankfurt, which is a very nice place, an interesting mixture of commerce, history and greenery. We also got to see some real soccer hooligans, driving through the street, mostly Turks boasting of their victory over Japan, and later and Koreans who were happy at defeating Italy. The hooligans were loud and surprising to us -- the only people who drive through the streets making noise in Japan are street gangs with bikes modified to be extra annoying, and right-wingers who play war songs about how great the Emperor is -- but it all seemed harmless for the most part. We had the bad luck to be in Germany on the hottest day in 15 years. Because it's not normally so hot, German air conditioning is far weaker what we're used to in Japan. We had fun in Frankfurt, but we did not solve the nagging Frankfurt/Frankfurter question (in Japan, a frankfurter without bread is a "frankfurt" and a hamburger without a bun is a "hamburg").

So now we're back in Japan, and find ourselves experiencing subtle instances of "reverse culture shock." Since my wife and I discovered the Joy of Beer in Germany, we got some from our shop (remember that, among the other blessings of my life, the first floor of our house in Japan is a liquor shop that my wife's parents run) and drank it...but it wasn't quite the same. Although Japan has a very developed beer industry, with some of the largest beer producing companies in the world such as Asahi, Sapporo and Suntory, nearly all Japanese beers contain rice in their ingredients (even Budweiser, which is sold by Asahi here). Perhaps the rice, or some other factor, gives Japan's beers a certain taste which is good, but not anything compared to what we had in Germany. Incidentally, the beer we decided suited us the best was Schneider Weiss, a semi-dark, slightly cloudy beer that is supposedly of Bavarian style. If you can ever lay your hands on some of this, we heartily recommend it!

We're glad to see our funny Japanese T-shirts are such a consistent hit, and to help you choose the shirt that's right for you, we've added a much-requested feature: the ability to choose your shirt color! Now you can choose most of our shirts in one of two colors (for example, the "I'm a strange foreigner" shirt now comes in dark blue or attractive brown, and the "American Devil" shirt now comes in orange or black). Of course you know that we now stock a huge range of sizes for you, from size S up through 3XL. As before, our funny Japanese T-shirts are 6.1 lb weight 100% cotton T-shirts printed right in the USA, so you never need to worry about Japanese shirt sizes ^_^ Remember that all our J-List shirts are 'signed' on the sleeves with our slogan ("Do you love Japan?") and our website logo.

This update is going out a little later than normal, since I had to go home and watch the World Cup game. Sadly, the U.S. was defeated by the excellent German team. It was a good game though, and we salute the German players. Good luck with the rest of the games!

For the new update, we've got a bunch of cool items for you. Our anime, snack, "wacky" and other items include:

• We've got some nice new anime and toy items in, including new Love Hina "SkyLuv Project" figures that are just too cool
  
• The "The Dog" collectors, a very cute plush Welsh Corgi that is soft and very cuddly
  
• For fans of our Japanese snacks, try our new items, including Bisco, a popular cookie for kids that's been made for nearly 100 years
  
• Also, stock of delicious "soba meshi fried noodle" snacks, Strawberry Milky candy, tart ume (OO-meh) candy, and more
  
• New and back-in-stock idol photobooks, including the sweet and sexy May Iikubo's hardcover "Secret" swimsuit photobook
  
• More Japanese food erasers
  
• New bento boxes, including a deluxe set we've posted
  
• A super item for Ultraman fans (you must see it to believe it)
  
• A great way to massage your feet and maintain health
  
• Several new Hello Kitty items, including Hello Kitty & Felix the Cat gum, Kitty wet tissues for use in many situations, and other items
  
• Cute rice bowls for children, and much more!
  

For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products, including:

• First, some new adult magazines, including the new issues of Video Boy and Best Video, the great "all purpose adult video magazines" of Japan
  
• Also, new amateur magazines for fans of amateur girls and "kogals"
  
• Many new and back-in-stock photobooks, including the lovely Rika Uesugi's "Female" hardcover photobook, the excellent Cherry Bombers nude photobook and more
  
• For manga collectors, a great update of new and restocked manga volumes, including new ones from Angel Comics, Kyun Comics and World Special Comics
  
• Also: fresh stock of some nice yaoi manga for fans of Japan's homosexual comics
  
• We've got a boatload of great adult DVDs for you today, starting with a great Gachinko Cat Fight from Soft on Demand, featuring tough girls who don't mind fighting (includes the lovely Nanami Nanase) (region free)
  
• We love Megumi Osawa, and now that she's a popular adult actress we're all the more interested in her -- see her newest erotic release from Kuki (region free)
  
• Atlas has had an incredible run of adult video releases in its eight years, and now you can enjoy the best of those eight years, in a new 2 DVD release featuring 48 actresses and 6 hours of footage! (region free)
  
• The "Do Lesbian" and "Do the Lesbian Act" DVDs from Soft on Demand and Dogma are always some of our most popular releases, and now you can enjoy one of the best lesbian performances ever (region free)
  
• For region 2 DVD collectors, Mayu Koizumi performs in one of the most incredible DVDs we've ever seen -- she has sex with 100 horny amateur men, one after another, as a digital counter counts them off (region 2)
  
• Maiko Yuki is one of the most popular AV idols of the past ten years, and now you can see her perform in an excellent new DVD release from Moodyz (region 2)
  
• Go on an erotic "Black Date" with Mirai Hoshizaki, and spend your time having your way with the lovely AV queen who will do whatever you say (region 2)
  
• Finally, a huge restocking of our best DVDs, including fresh stock of soft porn DVDs by Mai Hagiwara, Kaori Kuraishi and Maiko Kazano, Lesbian Maniax, Super Violent Shoot, The Kageki (subtitled in English!) and No Cut!! with Arisa Maki.
  

Well, that's all for now. The steady weight of jet lag is pulling be slowly downward, so I'll sign off. Hope to see you on the site!

Greetings from J-List June 17, 2002

Hello and guten tag from Germany!

The convention is over, and as usual, we are dog-tired after hours and hours of standing, talking to anime fans and explaining about J-List. We brought a few thousand of our popular Japanese pocket tissues, with our J-List URL and information on it, but many fans who received it had no idea what we were pressing into their hands. Pocket tissue is a staple of life in Japan -- when you walk down the street in Tokyo, you see girls handing out huge boxes of advertising tissue with company's messages on them. Japanese pocket tissue weren't very well known to fans in Germany, but thanks to us, the "tissue awareness" bar in Europe has been raised a notch. (Incidentally, every order from J-List comes with a free package of our tissue.)

We continue to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Old Country. Last night we had a delicious dinner in restaurant located in a famous 19th century Prussian fort with my sister and her husband, who live in Germany (we're a very international family). I'm typing this update from my iBook while cruising up the Rhine with Chiharu. Germany is a beautiful place, and the Koblenz and Rhine area especially lovely, with a great mixture of Roman ruins, beautiful castles, beautifully designed streets and parks, and more.

We continue to notice "little differences" (to use a Pulp Fiction phrase) between our home countries and Germany. All shops seem to close too early, and practically nothing is open on Sunday at all (just restaurants), which is quite different from the States, with its Super Walmarts that are open 24 hours. Taxis are nearly all Mercedez Benz, and are beautifully maintained by their drivers. We have yet to see a single McDonald's (so I can't have a "Royale with Cheese" experience), and we've yet to see a single policeman in any capacity, at least that we've recognized. There appears to be very little German music (apart from folk music), and all the radio we've heard has been American, mostly oldies and eighties hits. The food is very good here, and of course the beer is absolutely delicious. You never seem to get enough ice in your drink, though.

Happily, the J-List server shift is going well. The bug which kept new customers from checking out has been clipped (we think, anyway), and the problem with images not displaying was also fixed as well. The new server is much faster, and there are many "under the hood" improvements which will make things much easier for you and us. For starters, it's now easy for you to update your on-file shipping and billing addresses, and credit card on file too.

And we have a new update for you, too, a whole slew of new products from Japan, courtesy of our staff in Japan. There are many newly posted items, including magazines, photobooks, several new volumes of manga (along with fresh stock of previous posted issues), a large number of new and back-in-stock DVDs, and more. We've also got new anime and toy items, several new Japanese snack and gum items, fresh stock of snacks, new "wacky things from Japan," and more. We hope you'll check out the site -- thanks in advance!

Well, we're off to Frankfurt tomorrow, after a wine tasting tour in the morning. We'll be back in Japan by Thursday -- we'll see you then!

Greetings from J-List June 14, 2002

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Greetings from J-List June 10, 2002

Hello again from all of us at J-List!

All of Japan is gripped in World Cup excitement as the games progress. Harumi-chan, the biggest soccer fan here at J-List, was crying tears of joy because of Japan's 1-0 victory over Russia. America is also making a good showing, and everyone is hopeful that they'll get to the finals. I am an American, and soccer is not really a part of my blood and culture as it is with most of the rest of the world, but I found myself quite on the edge of my seat during the game last night, cheering especially for the most popular Japanese player, Nakata, who plays professional soccer in Italy and is fluent in Italian. The game last night was watched by a staggering 65 percent of all Japanese.

My wife Chiharu and I will be going to Germany, to attend our first anime convention in Europe. We'll be in Kolbenz for Animagic, June 14-16, so if you're in the neighborhood, we certainly hope to see you there. We'll be laden with interesting items from Japan, including our Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massagers, Japanese gum and snack goods, lots of doujinshi, and our popular English-language bishoujo games. The homepage for information on the convention can be found at http://www.animania.de/animagic/2002/animagic2002.html . This isn't my first trip to Europe however. Back in 1995, I went on a "Pulp Fiction tour" of Europe, silly American that I am, and had a Royale with Cheese with beer at McDonald's, enjoyed a glass of beer in a movie theatre in Amsterdam, and so on. Also, my wife and I were fortunate to be able to go see beautiful Malaga and Barcelona two years ago.

For the new update, we've got a bunch of excellent new items for you, including:

• First, we've got great new magazines, including a great new item for followers of Japan's indies studios and idols, DMM, which is value-priced, as well!
  
• Also, several new amateur and "nampa" (how to pick up girls and take them to love hotels) magazines in stock
  
• There's a great new concept in adult magazine, too: complete issues dedicated to just one lovely AV idol, as in the new Urecco Hardcore, featuring a complete issue dedicated to the beautiful Kaori Nakatani
  
• For fans of Japan's sexy leggy gals, a new issue of Minisuka and Panst Collection (that is, Mini Skirt and Panty Stocking Collection)
  
• Also, a new issue of Digital Jukujo, a magazine and dual Video CD combo item that is great for fans of "jukuko" (mature ladies)
  
• From our office in Japan, we've got limited stock of some rare photobooks that we're posting to the site, including the Hit Fetish photobook (one of the most interesting ass-centric photobooks we've ever carried)
  
• We have a half-dozen or so excellent erotic mangas for you, including the very nice "Milk Slave" by Belle Comics and Branshea, as well as a general restocking of popular items
  
• Also, more volumes of the popular "Electric Fighting Daughters" manga, which are anthologies of the best erotic "game girl" doujinshi
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got a great lineup of DVD releases, starting with the lovely Pure Fresh Date with Megumi Osawa (now a confirmed hardcore AV actress) (region free)
  
• The brazen and erotic Marina Matsushima has a massive pair of breasts -- 105 cm J cup -- which outshines even Anna Ohura. Now we have her excellent DVD release! (region free)
  
• A nice item for fans of amateur Japanese girls, we've got the massive i-Club, featuring a 240 minute "perfect collection" with 36 models (region free)
  
• Another great long-playing DVD, enjoy 4 hours of the best of Big Morkal for a great price, which is not to be believed (region free)
  
• A fun experimental adult production, three lovely Office Ladies play dress-up with a male coworker, turning him into a "Compulsory Mannequin" for their sexual amusement (region free)
  
• If you love the charming style and erotic good looks of Ai Kurosawa, then enjoy her new soft porn DVD release from Bauhaus, which includes much imagery of Ai-chan, including her uncensored hair nude (!) (region free)
  
• Tomo has also updated the entire DVD pages with fresh stock of some popular titles, including Bondage Battle 4, Ai Nagase's excellent "Love Day After Tommorrow," the excellent AV of Japan's "Latino" AV idol Emily Yoshikawa, titles by Ichigo Milk and Aika Miura, and new stock of "Street Fucker" (Street Fighter sexual parody)
  
• We always carry lovely photobooks and DVDs for fans of Japan's JPOP idols, swimsuit idols and Race Queens, and we've got some nice new additions for you, including a great Ayumi Hamasaki photobook
  
• Also posted, a great image DVD of the lovely Yuko Oguro, the 17 year old swimsuit idol who has charmed her way to the top of Japan's idol world
  
• We've got some great new anime toy items in stock, including a deluxe "full action doll series" from Sakura Wars, one of the coolest Gundam toys we've ever carried, and a limited edition figure set from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (a popular manga in Japan)
  
• Also, for fans of the Choro Q micro radio control cars from Takara, we have a deluxe set of ten cars for you to race and have fun with
  
• We have a new volley of unique Japanese snacks for you, including ume-boshi (tart sour plum) flavored pretzels (yes, you read right), fun Japanese "stick sugar," and more
  
• Also, we've restocked many of popular types of Japanese miso soup, which is very healthy and delicious
  
• We have some cute Hello Kitty items, including a nifty Hello Kitty "child on board" sign for your car, new Kitty notebooks, and more
  
• Finally, we've got cute Japanese notebooks for fans of Hamutaro (Hamtaro), the cute new hamster you'll soon be hearing more of, and also one of my daughter's favorite shows, Ojamajo Doremi.
  

We're very close to switching the site from the old server to the new one -- only a few hours away, in fact. We've tested the new site, and we think everything will go well, but just in case, please email us if you have a problem or make an order but don't hear from us about it. The new order system supports many new features, including allowing you to easily update your current addresses and payment method, and it also supports many new under-the-hood features (in addition to being about twice as fast as the current server). We hope everything goes smoothly, but let us know if anything breaks.

Greetings from J-List June 7, 2002

Hello again from your friends in Japan!

Well, the World Cup is going on now, and I could feel the energy right when I got off the plane at Narita. Every I looked, Japanese were anxious about the world's most important soccer (football) event, and looked very proud to have so many foreigners coming to Japan to watch the games. Looking good in the eyes of foreigners is very important to the Japanese, and the airport was spotless and beautiful as extra guards patrolled to make sure no terrorists attacked.

Japanese names are interesting to study. Japanese put their family names before their first names, so that Ai Nagase's name is really Nagase Ai if you're in Japan. It can be confusing, which is part of why we developed the J-List search engine to bring up the same results. Japanese female names often have "ko" in them (Keiko, Miko, etc.), which means "child." Boy's names, on the other hand, often reflect their status in the family. If a boy is the oldest son, he'll often have a name that indicates this, by having the number 1 or the word "first" in it. (I can tell that Ichiro is the oldest son in his family because ichi is "one" in Japanese.) The most "vanilla" sounding names in Japanese (i.e., the names that correspond to John and Mary Smith in English) are Taro and Hanako Yamada. Japanese names always use kanji, Chinese characters, and just as there are various spellings for Western names, there are often many ways to write a person's name in kanji.

For the first update to the J-List site since I returned to Japan, we've got another fine volley of high-quality and wacky products from Japan, including:

• First, we're happy to announce a new bishoujo game from Hobibox Europe, the Viper Limited Edition CD-ROM, which is a 2D scrolling game that's great fun, along with a CD full of excellent CG and many other extras, including the uncensored VM1 artwork -- this great title is in stock now and is only $14.95!
  
• We have some excellent new magazines, starting with the new Urecco (featuring the lovely Maiko Kazano, Rina Okada and so many more), as well as several superb amateur and kogal magazines
  
• We've got the excellent new Photo Shot DX, featuring no less than *44* of the most popular erotic Japanese women, including Ai Kurosawa, Rio Sannomiya and many more
  
• We've got some excellent new nude and erotic photobooks, including new hardcover items, and a superb new offering in the Yellows series by Akira Gomi
  
• For fans of Japan's great hentai manga, we've got another big update, with some excellent deluxe and lower-priced manga volumes
  
• For fans of one of the most popular bishoujo games in history, Tokimeki Memorial, we've got some nice art books by the artist
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got some great new titles, starting with the "erotic drama" of Kurumi Morishita and Ai Nagase, detailing the strong lesbian love of these girls (Ai-chan plays a girl in a wheelchair) -- just great, from Tohjiro's Dogma label (region free)
  
• Also from Dogma, see the incredibly sexy "mother and daughter nymphomaniac pair" of Sayaka Tsutsumi and Marie Sugimoto (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand, see the extremely erotic "cosplay jukujo bukkake" performance of the lovely Reika (region free)
  
• A cool new "zapping" erotic DVD from SOD lets you interactively switch between one of three hot girls to see what their doing with their day -- who they're talking to, who they're having sex with, etc. (region free)
  
• For fans of Bauhaus's excellent soft porn DVD releases, we've got a new offering with the lovely Kaori Kuraishi (region free)
  
• Enjoy the loveliness of Ichigo Milk in a very erotic new offering from TMA Agency (region free)
  
• For fans of Japan's fun toy and anime items, we've got some nice new items, including new Japan-release Hot Wheels, a cool figure from the Ultraman universe, and a die-cast recreation of one of the coolest trains in Japan
  
• We have fresh stock of the popular Japan-only Star Wars "super deformed" Battle Droids, too
  
• For Licca-chan fans, we've got limited stock of the "Kogal" Licca-chan, a contemporary version of Licca with short high school skirt, loose socks, portable phone, and "jaguar style" purse
  
• For fans of our Japanese snack items, we've got several, including "Lamune Marshmallows," cool Calpis candy (which is really good, trust us), new Japanese teas and fried rice mixes, and more
  
• Also, a restock of many popular items, including our very popular Sushi Gummi, fruit-flavored "fish" made of gummi on marshmallow "rice", and fresh stock of some of our most popular Japanese gum, including Lotte's Black Black (spicy caffeine gum), Blue Berry gum, and more
  
• Hamtaro is coming to the U.S., and we've got some cool Hamtaro items for you, including hamster bento boxes, Hamutaro coloring books, and more!
  
• If you love Japan's irresistible swimsuit and sexy idols, check out the new items we've got for you
  
• Finally, lots of other items, including sushi making molds, funny fish-shaped soy sauce bottles, shaved ice gummi, and more!
  

We've updated the J-List "Top 5" (really a top 10) has been updated, so you can check out what products have been selling the most over the past two weeks.

We're almost ready to switch the J-List site over to the new server, which will be faster and will have several new features. If anything suddenly goes wrong, we'll get it fixed right away. Please let us know if you experience any problems with the site -- thanks in advance!

Greetings from J-List May 22, 2002

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Greetings from J-List May 20, 2002

Hello again from all of us in Japan!

One of my first instances of "culture shock" upon arriving in Japan was seeing Japanese toilets. While most toilets in homes or restaurants are the standard Western toilets you are used to, many in public places are Japanese style, which means a toilet without a seat -- just a long, oval toilet that you squat over. Using them is quite a challenge, especially the first time, when you're not sure which direction you should face (for the record, face the raised part). For some reason, all the toilets on trains are Japanese style, which means that if you ever have to take a long journey by train in Japan, you'll have to contend with a seatless toilet while on a jerking, moving train. Japanese universally prefer seatless toilets to the sit-down kind, because no matter how dirty the toilet may be, no sensitive area touches your body. Toilets here have handles that move two ways, with the characters for "small" and "large" on them. If you've only got a little, turn the handle towards "small" to let a little water out. Later, I learned that the words for No.1 and No.2 in Japanese are shouben (or "small convenience") and daiben ("large convenience"), which solved the riddle of the small/large characters on Japanese toilet handles.

Soon Japan will enter its rainy season, a month-long period when it will rain most every day and be very gloomy. The rain is funny, too -- rain during rainy season falls in larger drops, which seem to be designed to get you extra wet when you're running out in it. In fact, the word for rainy season, Tsuyu, is written "plum rain" because the raindrops are the size of plums falling from the sky. We bought our car, a Mazda Bongo Friendee, which has a foldable table and chairs inside, specifically with rainy season in mind. Rather than moping around the house during weekends, we can take the kids out in the car to have an in-car picnic, even if it's pouring outside.

Apologies for my SOV/SVO goof. That's what I get for working too hard. English is indeed a SVO language (subject, verb, object). As they say in Japan, "Even monkeys fall from trees."

For the first update of the new week, we've got another excellent volley of items from Japan for you, including:

• First, we have new magazines, including some excellent amateur, kogal and hitozuma magazines for you
  
• We have some great new photobooks for you, including the great new hardcover work from Maiko Kazano, showing her erotic "Memory of Nineteen"
  
• For fans of older magazines, we've got more classic and premium back issues in stock for you, including some issues of Boyes, which are always very rare and in demand (see them on magazine page 2)
  
• For bishoujo anime fans, two item, the Bishoujo Anime Collection art book capturing virtually all hentai anime in the past 3+ years, and a beautiful second La Blue Girl erotic art book
  
• Also, we have new and restocked erotic manga, as usual, including some excellent new works we think you will love
  
• We have some great new erotic DVDs for you, starting with a great erotic new performance by Sally Yoshino as the "enslaved secretary" (region free)
  
• SOD's Deep's label does its bid for Korean-Japanese relations with a new erotic Korean AV release (subtitled only in Japanese, unfortunately) (region free)
  
• For fans of sexy anime cosplay erotica, enjoy the Sexy Girl's Cosplay War by Big Morkal (region free)
  
• Another very nice title, Aika Miura is a "female prisoner" in a very erotic hardcore bondage release (region free)
  
• The sweet and lovely Hikari Kisuki has charmed J-List readers in her nude magazine appearances, and now you can buy her softporn from Eichi Video (region free)
  
• For fans of "OL" fetish, i.e. office ladies who look so sexy in the workplace, enjoy the new release from Dream Ticket (region 2)
  
• Another great Indies release, Super Violent Shoot, puts three "semen girls" against dozens of men in a festival of bukkake (region 2) -- comes with a free packet of "love love lotion"!
  
• Finally, for M's Video Group fans, enjoy another incredibly beautiful, hardcore video release from this, the most famous name in bukkake in Japan (VHS)
  
• Finally, we've gone through and discounted many of our indies and pro adult videos, so you can get them for a great price, and free SAL shipping too!
  
• If you love Japan's elegant Race Queens as we do, we've got some new items for you
  
• We have more cool items in the series known as "The Dog," including really cool stickers of your favorite doggie!
  
• For Totoro fans, see the very soft, very touchable Neko Bus plush we've just gotten in stock
  
• Also, really cool new Sailor Moon dolls (with outfits you can change), and a very rare and very cute Cardcaptor Sakura poseable figure from Bandai
  
• We've restocked many popular toy items, including the Japan-only Hot Wheels from Bandai, as well as the very cool sushi lights (little sushi keychains that really light up!)
  
• Look for more Hello Kitty items, too, including the popular toy refrigerator and food set, as well as a Hello Kitty herbal garden and very fun "popping straw" set
  
• We've got many new snack items in, including new delicious fried rice mix, new Pocky (both large and small)
  
• We gotten in fresh stock of the very cool Tomy "mini car" toy cars, which are standard Hot Wheels scale -- they are so unique and fun to play with
  
• If you ever loved Ultraman (as I did), we've got some very cool items for you -- recreations of the most famous battles from the Ultraman universe, with our rubber hero fighting famous monsters
  
• Finally, look for other very cool items, including a Thunder Bunny contact lens case (but we've got very limited stock), new bento boxes and sets, sushi and onigiri makers, and much more! Enjoy all the new items!
  

We're happy to announce that we've been able to find a new manga distributor, which helps us get books for you faster and more efficiently. Since Japan is a very regulated and organized place, still with many levels of distributors between end-user and manufacturer, we hope our new distributor will help us bring many more items to you.

Although we've gotten more stock of delicious Pocky in today, the stock we have now is just about our last before summer arrives. Unfortunately, Pocky melts in the heat and high humidity of Japan's summer, and so we don't reorder it in the summer months. If you'd like to get some of our delicious Pocky, you should hurry!

Greetings from J-List May 17, 2002

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Greetings from J-List May 13, 2002

Hello again from your friends in Japan!

Yasu and I went down to the Tokyo Toy Show at Tokyo Big Sight, and were treated to all the upcoming offerings of Takara, Bandai, Tomy and all the other big names in toys. There was some kind of device that translated what your dog was saying when he barked, more Japan-only Matchbox releases, a Gundam cockpit you can really ride in, many cool Licca-chan doll items, some fun remote control toys, new Kubrick toys, and more. They even had some real live Race Queens! Of course all of us at J-List work really hard to find fun and interesting things to carry at J-List, and we'll continue our hard work.

I remember my confusion when, coming to Japan, I went to my first Japanese juku (cram school) to teach English conversation, not knowing what a juku really was. Basically, in Japan, students attend normal school until 3 or 4 pm, and then they often attend one of thousands of these evening and weekend schools scattered around Japan where they study various subjects, math, science, English and kokugo, which means "national language" (i.e., Japanese). Some very old-style jukus teach abacus, Japanese brush writing, and so on. In every neighborhood you can find several juku run by people living in that area, each catering to a slightly different age group or specializing in this subject or that. Study during compulsory education (elementary and junior high) is relatively stress-free for Japanese kids, and they go to juku as much for the social aspect (hanging out and studying with friends) as anything else. But when students prepare for high school and college, for which an entrance exam is required, they must buckle down and study, and there are jukus that do nothing but help students get into the high school or college of their choice.

If you try to get into a college but fail, you are a "ronin" (a masterless samurai), and most ronin go to "prep schools" (yobiko) which are large schools that do nothing but prepare students for getting into the college of their choice. It is actually possible, although it's very rare, for a 15 year old to try to get into a private high school but fail, thus making them a "junior high school ronin" who doesn't go to school while they prepare to take the tests again next year. This is very rare, about one person in 10,000, but one of my students did this. Actually, since high school is not required in Japan, a certain number of youths in rural prefectures decide not to go at all, and start working instead -- to Japanese, this is the epitome of "baka" (stupid) and is avoided by most of them.

For the new update, we've got some great items for you, including:

• First, we have the new Urecco, and it's a beautiful one, with a great selection of the best Japanese AV lovelies for you, Ai Kurosawa, Megumi Osawa, Hitomi Hayakawa, Hitomi Hasegawa, and more
  
• We have new indies, amateur and kogal magazines in stock, including the always-popular Cho Mach! featuring an erotic tribute to kogal culture
  
• Also: fresh stock of many nice discounted magazine items, including popular $5 and up issues of Urecco that had been out of stock (but really hiding in our stock room)
  
• We've got a positively dynamite leg, stock and up-skirt fetish photobook, capturing 15 famous AV stars and 17 amateur gals in their lovely, leggy beauty
  
• Look for some nice new photobooks, including the photobook of Rui Sakuragi, the top Japanese AV idol of the mid-1990's
  
• Also in stock, the lovely EX CD-ROM, which features a full color magazine and CD-ROM (video CD) filled with sample movies
  
• For bishoujo game fans, enjoy a full Japanese erotic game, Yuukan Shinshi (Bourgeoise Gentleman), and a full art book, for a great price
  
• We have a great update of hentai manga for you, with some excellent new adult comics, including the new issue of Pururun Seminar (!) and the positively beautiful Tale of G Street by Hot Milk Comics
  
• For DVD lovers, we've got many new items for you, starting with the last of the SOD Memorial DVD releases, four new full-length titles at great prices, including the "Worst 10 Titles of SOD History" (region free)
  
• Soft on Demand founder Ganari Takahashi is personally directing the career of the lovely new star child of Soft on Demand, Ruri Anno, in her excellent 2nd erotic DVD release (region free)
  
• The lovely Sara Akikawa has lovely, long legs, and you will love her new leg fetish offering from Deep's (region free)
  
• In sumo wrestling, there are 48 ways to defeat your opponent, and in Japanese traditional sex, there are 48 sexual positions -- see them all in a great new DVD we've got in stock now (region free)
  
• For lesbian fans, enjoy the new Les Gal Paradise, featuring 16 girls who show you their first hardcore lesbian sex (region free)
  
• From M's Video Group and Waap Entertainment, a wonderful new Minami Hoshikawa "Album of G Cup Semen" (region 2)
  
• Also, a great restocking of DVD titles for you, including Mai Hagiwara, Anna Ohura, Street Fucker, Lesbian Girls' School, and many more
  
• For fans of Japan's lovely Race Queens, swimsuit idols and other beautiful women, we've got new items in stock for you, including an all-new Fumika Suzuki DVD!
  
• J-List also carries Japan-only releases of anime, including the films of Hayao Miyazaki with full English subtitles and dubbed versions on the discs -- and we've gotten in fresh stock of Porco Rosso, one of my favorite of his films
  
• Look for more Hello Kitty items, and new Hamutaro cute items as well -- including a massive restocking of the most popular bento box in our history
  
• Want to be stylish like Japanese kogals? We've got a small bag with leather strap that is all the rage in Shibuya these days
  
• We've got nice new snack items in stock for you, including a Ramun geletin drink you can enjoy, delicious traditional Japanese hard candies, and a big restocking of our runaway hit, gummi sushi
  
• If you're getting ready for the World Cup, or if you're just patriotic, we've got some killer bamboo folding fans with national flags on them (USA, Spain, Britain, Germany, Korea, Japan, France, Italy
  
• We have some cute new Ultraman little Tinibiz figures in for you, and for fans of "The Dog," some extremely cute straps for your portable phone or keys
  
• Japan has a highly developed and interesting Pro Wrestling world, and we've got some more fun pro-wres action figures in stock for you
  
• Also: for fans of the anime and manga Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (er, God-Wind Pirate Jeanne), the very cute shoujo story from Ribbon, we've got the deluxe art book for you
  
• Finally, look for authentic chopsticks from Japan, more unique Japanese pens and funny English notebooks, unique Japanese soy sauce holders, a cute traditional coin bank, more odd "flowers of the world clothespins" and more!
  

Remember that J-List carries authentic Japanese "loose socks," those outrageous baggy socks that high school girls wear. They're great fun to wear, and are good for anyone putting together anime cosplay. If you're looking for

I see we're almost out of our popular Lasonic region-free DVD players -- we have only 4 in stock as of this writing. If our stock runs out, you can still order them, and we've got 150 of the units on order.

Greetings from J-List May 10, 2002

Hello and TGIF from all of us in Japan!

One thing I've learned from my years in Japan is that the Japanese are greatly concerned with child-raising and education. All around the city I live in you can see signs with slogans of wisdom from the local PTA, like "Weak-minded children come from over-protective parents" and "Children learn respect for their parents by watching how their parents respect their own parents." (One of my goals is to find a list of all of these slogans and post them, translated, to my personal homepage.) Often Japanese parents care too much about education, and push their kids too hard to study so they can get into the best universities. Mothers who do this are a kind of caricature in Japanese society, making their kids study at after-school cram schools (called "juku"), take English conversation lessons, and study with private tutors. They're called "education mamas" (kyoiku mama), and I've met more than a few during my years as an English teacher in Japan.

I think, however, that all that has passed in the past fifty years of Japan's educational system is heading for a change. With a rapidly aging population and very low birth rate of 1.35 babies per woman, the number of children under the age of 15 at a postwar-low, just 18 million or 14.3 percent of the population here. This amounts to a "famine" of young people which currently affects much of Japan -- including educators in Japan's after-hours juku schools as well as companies that make things that kids want to buy. In parts of Japan, they have had to close public school and combine school districts because of the shrinking number of kids. In Japan, kids are made to study harder to prepare for entrance exams for high school and college, a policy that has been very good for the Japanese in the past. However, I worry about a long-range degradation in the quality of education here, as the standards of Japan's high schools and universities are lowered as more school chase fewer students. As far as my wife and I are concerned, we're planning to send our kids to school in the U.S. whey they reach that age.

I've spent the week testing out my own Lasonic DVB-090 DVD player, which J-List currently sells, and I've added to the description on our website. It really is a nifty player, with many nice touches, such as separate fast forward/fast back and chapter forward/back buttons on the remote, a screen zooming option, reliable "set and forget" region free feature which is fully reversable, and all major remote control buttons replicated on the player itself, so you can use it even if you don't have the remote handy. If you're interested in viewing all the DVDs from Japan and are looking for a great buy, we recommend the DVB-090, but if you're interested in a region free player that's a little higher-end, please wait a little while. We plan to expand our line of DVD players to include ones with more features, such as progressive scan and Dolby/DTS sound support, soon.

For the pre-weekend update, we've got an extra-special update for you, with some really nice new products, including:

• First, we've got some very nice new magazines in stock, including Pink Labyrinth, a very stylish erotic amateur magazine featuring kogals in love hotels
  
• The double-thick bukkake magazine Gal's Shower remains one of the most popular magazines in our history, and we've got the great new issue for you
  
• A beautiful item for sexy swimsuit idols, the new Scholar DX features a great look at Japan's most lovely girls
  
• A rare and special treat for photobook collectors, we've got two deluxe works featuring Bunko Kanazawa and Reina Muragami, which feature incredibly beautiful nude photos -- and they're, ahem, very, very detailed!
  
• We have other new photobooks for you, too, including the beautiful photobook of Mayu Koizumi (107 cm J cup, wow!), photobooks by Rin Tomosaki and Aya Otosaki, the erotic Shinobu Kasagi, and fresh stock of some older items (Aida Garo)
  
• We've got a good offering of erotic hentai manga, with some excellent new books this time, including Body Language, the fantastic illustrated manga with 32 color pages!
  
• For DVD fans and collectors, we've got some very nice new items for you, starting off with another four 2+ hour releases in the oh-so-popular SOD Memorial series, with Bunko Kanazawa, Mai Kazama, an erotic psycho-drama, and more (region free)
  
• Also, by happy fortune, we were able to restock the full sets of the SOD Memorial DVDs -- you can own ALL 40 of these fabulous titles, over 8 days of constant AV viewing, for a very low price! (region free)
  
• Dogma, the label of famed AV director, has gone independent, splitting off from their parent company Soft on Demand -- see a great new "female bukkake teacher" performance starring Kurumi Morishita commemorating their independence (region free)
  
• Also from the new Dogma, a super lesbian performance, Do the Lesbian Act! (region free)
  
• We've got a super "Private Observation of Female Body" performance by the excellent Wanz Factory, allowing you to learn everything about the erotic Yuka Igarashi (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've got fresh stock of several titles, including the highly recommended Yinling of Joytoy and several other titles
  
• For anime fans, we've got some nice new anime toy and other items in, including a really cool new My Neighbor Totoro wooden alarm clock,
  
• Also, we've gotten in fresh stock of the popular Kiki's Delivery Service 2-disc set DVD, truly the best release of this film anywhere in the world
  
• Newly added Hello Kitty items include Kitty sushi makers, Hello Kitty chopsticks, Hello Kitty savings banks, and more
  
• Also, we've got some really nice new bento-related items in, including a deluxe new 2-section bento box, more of the complete sets of bento boxes and other items, and just in time for Hamtaro to be broadcast on American TV, more cute "Hamster Club" bento box sets
  
• For your kitchen we've got some nifty items, including a great way to cook fish or mochi (rice cake), a bowl-and-chopstick set, a spiffy cutting board from Japan, and a really cool Hello Kitty coffee cup!
  
• For collectors of Licca-chan, the cute fashion doll by Takara, we've got a very cool "Major League Baseball Licca" series in stock for you
  
• For snack and candy fans, we've got fresh stock of furikake, including red salmon for making onigiri with, delicious soft candy with cherry gummi inside, and a cool item, Lord of the Rings chips
  
• Finally, look for spiffy Japanese pens that write in many colors, Japanese play money, some very cool plastic hiragana letters for learning Japanese, and more!
  

Did you know that Kanazawa Bunko is named after a train station in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Yokohama? If you read J-Mate, you would -- you can read interviews with her and with dozens of lovely adult video idols from Japan on J-Mate. And the site has been updated, with new interviews (Rio Sannomiya and AV director Turbo Muigo), as well as reviews of many great DVDs, English bishoujo games and more!

When you order something from J-List, you don't just get service with a smile from Kaori, Harumi and the rest of our Japanese staff, you also get Japanese advertising tissue. J-List includes a pack of advertising tissue (which are handed out in front of train stations in Japan) with every order. If you want to get more, we sell a box containing 12 packs of our special pocket tissue at our cost, just $1.60. Then you can give this fun and unique Japanese pocket tissue out to your friends! Just search for 'tissue' on our website to find this item.

Greetings from J-List May 8, 2002

Greetings again from all of us at J-List!

The Japanese have invented a new product category to help combat traffic problems at toll gates: Electronic Toll Collection, which is basically a computer system you put in you car, which lets you speed through toll booths, paying the toll automatically as you drive through. It seems kind of silly, but if it helps reduce traffic in Tokyo, I am all for it -- and already Japanese makers are competing to bring out the smallest or the thinnest ETC hardware for your car. i wish they'd chosen a different name for it though -- when I look at the ETC lane, my gaijin eyes see "etc." as in "et cetera," as in, this lane is for these types of vehicles, and that lane is for all others. It's confusing for me, and I know what ETC is -- I imagine that somewhere in Japan, foreign visitors are driving through the lanes, thinking that they are special toll booths for non-Japanese to use.

We got some comments on Japanese adaptions of food from around the world, so we thought we've give some more details. One popular dish in Japan is "gratin" which is, to the Japanese at least, pasta that's cooked in a white or cheese sauce, then baked. (In the anime Nadia of the Mysterious Sea, the "Grandis Tank" is nicknamed the Gratin, a joke that's hard for Americans to get.) One of my favorites is "doria," which is rice with white sauce (sometimes ketchup), put in a casserole dish with cheese on top -- then everything is baked until the cheese is crispy and hot. One of my favorite foods of all time is "hamburg doria," doria with a hamburger (salsbury) steak, baked into it. Another delicious food my wife is sure would be a hit in the U.S., are croquettes (from France), which to the Japanese, at least, are potato patties that are fried all crispy (they're great with curry powder inside, too). Finally, Japanese love castella, a tasty sweet cake from The Netherlands.

Unfortunately we had a problem with Tomo's computer -- several days of outgoing mail had not been sent, but was sitting in the outgoing mail box. The end result was that some customers who had paid for their orders received "awaiting payment" notices. We apologize for any confusion -- if you received a mail from us and don't know what to make of it, email us and we'll straighten it out.

For our new update, we've got a ton of very nice new items for you, including:

• First, we've got in several nice magazine items for you, including several new amateur and kogal magazines, and a new and rare item for busty Japanese girl fans
  
• For photobook lovers, we've got several excellent adult photobooks, including the interesting erotic photobook of a love doll named Candy Girl which have to be seen to be believed, as well as new Chinkame erotic works
  
• Also, check out fresh stock of Anna Ohura's fantastic photobook "Mischief"
  
• We have some excellent hentai manga works for you, with newly published works by some of Japan's most popular artists and manga houses -- also, fresh stock of a dozen or so back in stock manga titles, with some very nice ones for you
  
• For DVD fans, we've got another large update, starting with another volley of the oh-so-popular SOD Memorial Series -- four new value-priced DVD releases for SOD fans (region free)
  
• Then, ever since Nanami Nanase went off her all-semen diet, she went and got fat -- so SOD president Ganari Takahashi has put her on an erotic training program designed to slim her down (region free)
  
• SOD's Magic Mirror Bus (a bus with one-way glass inside, called a "magic mirror" in Japanese) helped make them famous, and now we've got the full boxed set available for order (stock is limited, but more are already on order) (region free)
  
• Adult Video Wrestling, which features real sexual "pro-wres" up on the stage, is a huge hit with J-List fans -- so we've gotten a new DVD in stock for you! (region free)
  
• We were also happy to see the interest in Korean adult video, and we've got a new title posted -- For Fairy, starring the lovely Charin Gahee (region free)
  
• Another beautiful soft porn offering from Bauhaus, enjoy the lovely beauty and youth of Kaori Kuraishi (region free)
  
• We've got another excellent "Super Angle of Manko" release in which 90% of the camera angles are from the point of view of the woman's genitalia -- this stars Ai Nagase and Mai Kuramoto (region 2)
  
• Also, we've restocked a large number of our popular DVD titles, including Kyoka Usami Best Selection, Touching Breasts for the First Time, Let's Do Sex with Ai Nagase, How to Perfect and many more!
  
• Tomo has added to our new Japanese film DVD collection, with a very interesting psychological tale of fear and triumph (region 2, English subtitled)
  
• Anime fans should check out the very cool Ceramic Totoro light, which casts a beautiful orange glow when you turn it on
  
• Also: the very nice glossy artbook of Ken-ichi Sonoda, featuring all of his best works printed in a beautiful book
  
• We've got some great new "The Dog" plush toys in stock, including a whole new series (The Doggie Mascot 2nd), with Longhair Chihuahua, Shetland Sheepdog, Maltese, and more!
  
• Also, we've made full sets available of the "The Dog Small Size" plush toys, the super-small and cute plush doggies -- so you can buy the whole set and save
  
• Look for some cool Hello Kitty items, including a new (less expensive) Kitty Wall Clock that is really cool, Hello Kitty fans in time for summer, delicious Hello Kitty snacks, and more!
  
• If you've got kids who are into Pokemon, we've got a deluxe Pokemon play house, which comes with cute little Pokemon figures, a great item for any little 'un
  
• We have a big update of delicious new snacks from Japan, including peanuts and rice crackers, delicious red salmon furikake, Strawberry and Coconut Pocky, more chocolate filled banana candy, and a great new item: a gummi tree that has all the signs of the zodiac on it for you to eat
  
• Also: the super-spicy sugarless caffeine gum Xylish Hyper Cool is a hit, and we ran out, so we get more in stock for you to order!
  
• For those who want to be in sync with Japan's lovely female culture, we've got limited stock of the new Girl Pop
  
• If you love Japan's Race Queens and other sexy idols, check out the new offerings on the Idol DVD and More page
  
• Also very cool: Morning Musume Bottle Mascots, cute little Mo-Mus characters you can put on any standard bottle
  
• Finally, see a fun map puzzle of Japan, more Japanese chopsticks, and more!
  

J-List carries many interesting products, and one of our favorites are the "bishoujo games" (which means "pretty girl games") from Japan. These are basically interactive love-simulation games for Windows (a few are for Macintosh), in which you play through an interesting story, interacting with pretty anime girls to reach one of several possible game endings. In one game- X-Change, you play a boy who is changed into a girl through a chemistry accident, and it leads to some rather interesting adventures. You can see all the bishoujo game products we carry under the Bishoujo/Hentai Game link on our site.

Greetings from J-List May 6, 2002

Hello again from your friends in Japan, J-List!

We're right in the middle of Golden Week here in Japan, and yesterday, we re-learned the rule that you should never try to go anywhere in Japan during Golden Week. We decided to take the kids to a small town in the mountains of Gunma famous for flying huge koi-nobori fish kites, so we set out in our Mazda Bongo Friendee. Well, this seemed like a great idea to about 500,000 other people, mostly from Tokyo, and we all ended up sitting in one long, unpleasant traffic jam on mountain roads so narrow you couldn't turn around. We stuck it out for a while, but in the end decided to find a nice mountain stream where the kids could splash around instead. Whenever making plans to visit Japan, be sure to avoid the last week of April/first week of May!

In Japan, there are often concepts that are very difficult for Westerners to grasp. One measurement of beauty here is related to the number of creases in a person's eyelid when their eyes are open -- one crease ("hitoe" hee-TOE-eh), two creases ("futae" fu-TAH-eh) or three ("mie" MEE-eh). (As always, there's no silent 'e' in Japanese, or magic 'e' as they call it here.) Single-creasers have slender, traditionally Asian eyes, while those with more creases have larger eyes that look European to the Japanese, and getting plastic surgery to change the appearance of your eyes is quite popular among TV stars. I have to admit, I'd never considered that people had different numbers of creases in their eyelids until coming here -- it was a totally alien concept to me, and I still can't tell how many creases a person's eyes have, even today. Another measure of beauty, having a "high nose" is an important feature for anyone who wants to enter modeling. I never really thought of noses as anything other than "big" or "small" before coming here, but apparently there is more to a person's nose than meets the eye.

In case you were wondering what the Japanese use to estimate the size of a person's privates, well, we'll tell you. For a man, the size of his nose in relation to his face supposedly indicates whether or not he is well endowed. So if you've got a large nose and come to Japan, you may find yourself popular (your mileage may vary). In similar silly Japanese fashion, the area inside a woman's ear (the little cavity formed by the bottom of the "S" shape) supposedly indicates the general closeness of her womanhood. And in case you wanted to know, a popular slang word for the genitals of men and women are "son" (musuko) and "daughter" (musume).

We've got some nice items for you tonight, with newly restocked and posted manga, magazine, photobook, DVD, Hello Kitty and other fun pop culture items. J-List carries nearly 2000 products at all times (this really bowls us over, too), so if you browse our site by category or search for items you're interested in, we're sure you can find some cool things from Japan either for yourself or as great gifts for others.

Greetings from J-List May 3, 2002

Hello again from Japan! Today is the first day of the string of Japanese holidays known as Golden Week, so things are quiet around here. But Tomo, Yasu and myself are here, working hard to bring you more interesting stuff from Japan.

One thing I can say about Japan: I really love the food here. It would be quite difficult to live here for nearly ten years if I didn't. Just as Japan has taken elements from various other countries as it modernized itself over the past century, the Japanese palette has been influenced by many parts of the world. Some of the most common Japanese food, such as ramen and one of my favorite foods of all time, gyoza ("pot stickers"), are really from China. If the Japanese have a single staple food that everyone eats, it has to be "curry rice" which is a mild, thick curry based on British versions of Indian curries. Spaghetti from Italy is popular, of course, and yakiniku (Korean Barbecue) is another popular food. The Japanese also imported many dishes from Europe (since the Japanese secretly wish they were a part of that continent), including doria, gratin, and hamburg steak (which we'd call Salsbury steak in the U.S.). Other foods, such as udon, sushi and sashimi, are completely "made in Japan."

Do you know what year it is? I often don't. In additional the Western calendar, the Japanese have a unique system of counting years based on the reign of the current emperor. The current era is the 14th year of the Heisei era (Heisei means "peach and prosperity"), when the Emperor Hirohito died and was succeeded by his son, so this year is Heisei 14. Before Heisei was the Showa era (from 1925 to 1988), before that was Taisho, and Meiji, and so on -- Japanese students have to memorize them all. Incidentally, the current Emperor of Japan is 125th in an unbroken line of emperors going back 2000 years. His name is Akihito, but since he's always called "Emperor Heisei" in Japan, it's quite common for Japanese to not know the name of their own emperor (Yasu didn't when I just asked him).

J-List carries unique anime, manga, fashion, JPOP and other magazines by "reserve subscription," allowing you to get the current issue each month sent to you automatically, until you tell us to stop. We're happy to report that we've gone through and lowered our prices for all of these magazines, allowing you to get the fun and unique magazines you want each month and save some money, too. And we've added three new magazines: Model Graphix, the excellent magazine of anime models and toys that is a real treat to read each month; Dengeki G's, a magazine that follows all the pretty girls from Japan's bishoujo games and anime; and S Cawaii, a new Japanese fashion and kogal culture magazine for those who want to follow Japan's fashion trends.

For the pre-weekend update, we've got some great items for you, including:

• First, we've got some nice new magazines, including the new issues of amateur and kogal magazines such as Mini Teen, Yo! and the bukkake magazine I'll Love You
  
• Also: more discounted magazine items for those looking for bargains, although our stock is always selling out fast
  
• For fans of indies AV, check out the new issue of MPEG Indies, a spiffy magazine that comes with not one but two Video CDs full of sample AV for you to watch -- a great bargain!
  
• We've got several beautiful new photobooks in stock for you, including Akane Souma's wonderful sexy photobook, a new offering from Queen of the Race Queens Fumika Suzuki, and a great new hardcover photobook from Yoshino Sally!
  
• We've got several nice issues of Japan's newest adult comics for you, including the excellent "Immoral Maria"
  
• Also, a restocking of some classic comics, including the popular Electric Fighting Daughters series (all hentai game girl comics), as well as (limited) fresh stock of the damned-cool "Irodori"
  
• We have some great new DVD offerings for you today, starting off with a first for J-List and Japan: Korean adult video, published by Deep's to commemorate the upcoming Japan/Korea hosted World Cup -- it's as different from Japanese AV as Japanese is from American, and very beautiful to see (region free)
  
• Also from SOD, we've got a fantastic new erotic performance by Sally Yoshino, as she hunts down male virgins and steals their cherries (region free)
  
• We've got another volley of the fast-disappearing SOD Memorial DVDs, including bondage, under-skirt fetish, "first lesbian" and more (region free)
  
• We've got a beautiful new soft porn offering from Bauhaus, with a powerful lineup of lovely stars: Aoi Minori, Sally Yoshino, Rio Sannomiya, Rin Tomosaki and Akira Watase! If you buy no other Japanese cosplay DVD this year... (region free)
  
• Finally, for region 2 collectors (including J-list customers who have purchased the region free players we now sell), the lovely Airi Niiyama's 180 minute erotic performance "The Idol" (region 2)
  
• As mentioned up, see the great new magazines available by revolving subscription: Model Graphix, G's Magazine and the super-cute Super Cawaii!
  
• Also, a great new direction for J-List, we're going to start carrying the beautiful "character clocks" by citizen, and we've got a cute dancing Hello Kitty wall clock and one of the coolest items I've ever seen, a deluxe Totoro Cockoo clock that is truly amazing. Our initial stock of these clocks is limited but more are on order already
  
• Another great new category of item at J-List, we now carry inexpensive Japanese fans which are both beautiful to look at and useful for keeping yourself cool this summer!
  
• For Japanese snack and food fans, look for some nice new items including a smooth and delicious coffee candy from Japan, new "raw type" miso soup mix, plum flavored sesame seeds (which taste better than they sound), Sakuma mint candies, and fresh stock of the popular Japanese Mugi-cha (barley tea) that's great for summer
  
• We've got some nice Hello Kitty items for you, including Hello Kitty cookies, a nifty tiny tupperware container,
  
• J-List customers tell us they want Maneki Neko, the cute "inviting cat" who invites good luck, love and money into your life, so we've obliged with several new items
  
• If you're a fan of our Japanese Race Queen and idol items, be sure and see what we've got in stock for you today!
  
• We've gotten in fresh stock of the Spirited Away color film comics, for fans who want to collect these beautiful all-color anime books, by Hayao Miyazaki
  
• Finally, look for more wacky stickers from Japan, a useful took for cutting your children's hair, a super all-purpose canvas bag with many uses, and more!
  

J-List customers tell us that word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends is the #1 way they've heard of us. This makes us very happy. If you've got a friend who might appreciate the unique Japanese pop culture and "slice of life" we bring you from Japan, please tell them about us!

Well, that's all for now -- we hope you have a very nice Golden Week, and we'll see you on the web!