Greetings from J-List January 24, 2003

Hello and "Happy Weekend" from all of us at J-List.

An era in Japanese Sumo history has ended, with the retiring of Takanohana, one of the most popular wrestlers in the history of Japan's national sport. The son of a popular wrestler who is now the stablemaster of Futagoyama Stable (for some reason, the dojos that train Sumo wrestlers are translated as "stables" in English), both he and his older brother Wakanohana have had spectacular careers in the sport, attaining the highest rank of Yokozuka (Grand Master). Unfortunately, age and constant leg injuries had taken too much out of Taka, who made the decision to quit the sport after suffering a crushing defeat by Asashoryu, an up-and-coming wrestler from Mongolia, this week. Takanohana's retirement leaves just one wrestler with Sumo's highest rank, Hawaiian wrestler Musashimaru.

It's college entrance exam season in Japan, as students finish their year of intense studying and take tests that will determine much of their future happiness. Students will generally select a first choice university and one or more easier schools (called "suberi-dome" schools, a word that means "stop the slide"). Students usually go to jukus (evening prep schools) and study for their university exams for all three years of college, but the last year is when they really hit the books. It all pays off when they wake up early and go to their university one cold February morning and look for their number on the board indicating if they've passed the test. If they don't get into a school, they have to be a "university ronin" (a word originally meaning "masterless samurai") and try again next year. Japan's "test wars" are quite interesting, and the drama of taking the most important test of your life are often captured in TV dramas, and in anime like Maison Ikkoku or the Orange Road Movie.

High school students going to college aren't the only ones who have to study for entrance exams -- junior high school students must also take an entrance exam to go to high school, since high school is not part of compulsory education in Japan. Students choose the school they think they can get into and take that school's test. In some cases, students who aim too high don't get into a school and become "high school ronin," fifteen year olds who don't go to school for a year, although it's rare. Japan has a problem with students who choose not to go to high school at all, the equivalent of a high-school dropout, although high school is optional here -- these people are called "chu-sotsu" in Japanese, which means "only graduated from junior high school." As Japan's population of children drops, many new pressures are being applied to Japan's unique education system, including decreased competition to get into popular schools.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for fans of the super-cute Kubrick figures, we've got in more cute To-Fu Kubricks, characters whose heads are block of tofu
  
• Through an error, the Hamster Club blankets weren't posted on Wednesday -- sorry about that. We've posted these beautiful and very soft blankets for you today
  
• Also, we've gotten the new 2003 Hello Kitty large blankets, very colorful and incredibly soft, and in stock for you now
  
• For fans of Japanese candy and snacks, we've got new items in, including more tasty Gravel Choco, tasty Fujita chocolates that are sold only in winter, delicious pork ramen snacks, and more
  
• Also, one of our favorite items, delicious curry flavored Curl (but this is special "Lucky Curl" specially made to help you pass your college entrance exams
  
• Also, we've got a great Hamtaro plush bag filled with snacks, the very cute Ribbon-chan from the TV anime
  
• Look for cute sticker items, including glow in the dark stickers that you can use to label things in your home, as well as dynamite Hamster stickers and more
  
• We've got great items for your kitchen, including very stylish and easy-to-use wooden chopsticks, new Pop Animal cute items, fun dishes for kids to use, fresh stock of bento boxes and more
  
• For Godzilla fans, an extremely rare and cool item -- a rubber Godzilla base don the 1954 original, but with a Medicom Combat Joe figure inside, with dozens of points of articulation
  
• We love Hello Kitty and rare Sanrio items only sold in Japan, and have some nice items for you, including Kitty puffy stickers, a Kitty pencil sharpener that's really well designed, and more
  
• Finally, look for various new and restocked health and beauty items from Japan, including unique Japanese ear cleaners, more furikake and other Japanese food items, cute pencil cases with French on them, and more
  

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

• First, a truly dynamite item for Jun Kusanagi fans, a magazine/photobook devoted entirely to her, with all-new photos
  
• Also very cool, two extremely beautiful huge photobooks that capture lovely Japanese models in great photographs -- but these are all uncensored, and extremely, ahem, detailed
  
• For fans of high school uniforms, we've got fresh stock of the popular Pictorial Pocket Book series for you
  
• For fans of Japan's excellent hentai manga, we've got some great items in for you, including a new offering from Kazuki Kotobuki and several new erotic anthology comics, which compile the works of dozens of artists around a central theme
  
• Also, fresh stock of many popular titles, including Wholesome Hentai Girl and Jet Boss
  
• If you love erotic doujinshi, we've got the excellent Kinpatsu Ace Gold, an all-adult Mobile Suit Gundam hentai comic that's fantastically detailed
  
• Also, from the excellent "Androgynous only circle," enjoy the new Elixir CD-ROM, which wonderful erotic artwork graphics and Flash movies for you
  
• If you love DVD, we've got a bunch of great items in stock for you today, starting with Shy Super Cup, featuring three hours of the best AV performances of three AV queens including Nao Hirosue (region free)
  
• For fans of the old Immoral Angel video series, we've got a great compilation DVD with 180 super minutes of erotic AV for you (region free)
  
• We love the beautiful Ran Asakawa, one of the hottest adult video idols in Japan today, and you can see her in great new erotic DVD from Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• From SOD's IEnergy, explore the word of anal sex with eleven beautiful Japanese amateurs (region free)
  
• For fans of Akira Watase, we have her parody on Drunken Master 2, creating a new fetish for erotic, lewd women who are drunk off their asses (region 2)
  
• Look for another fabulous lesbian DVD from the famous U'K, a new exploration of tender, erotic lesbian love for you (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for fresh stock of many DVD items, including items included in our "buy 4 get 25% off" January Sale. Newly stocked are Bukkake Angel, Anna Ohura's lovely DVD, a great work by Mirai Hoshizaki, and more!
  

J-List carries two excellent region-free DVD players that allow you to watch DVDs from around the world, regardless of their region code. For those who want a great player with all the features you want, including region free playback and "VCR friendly" DVD viewing, we recommend the small-footprint OITO Technologies player, which is made of very high quality materials for years of satisfying DVD playback. For bargain hunters, we recommend the very solid Sampo DVE612, which supports very solid features at a great price (including "VCR friendly" viewing via a firmware hack). Both players are fully compatible with media like Video CD and SVCD, MP3 and audio discs, and more, and support both PAL and NTSC discs. We stock these great players in our San Diego office and ship daily for your ordering convenience.

At J-List, we're proud of the unique range of great products we sell. Remember that we offer price matching on certain items (photobooks, manga, doujinshi). If you see identical items sold on a Japan-based site that sells to customers outside of Japan, please let us know and we'll gladly match their price. See our "How to order" page for more info.

Greetings from J-List October 24, 2003

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Greetings from J-List January 22, 2003

Hello again from your friends in Japan!

Well, darn it all. When we fixed the site after the downtime on Sunday, the script that updates the individual J-List product pages each hour wasn't properly restarted. This means that all the great products we posted on Monday didn't actually show up on the product pages (although they did if you clicked the "show all products updated within the last three days" link, or used the search feature). Some customers were confused -- where were all the new products we'd posted on Monday? Well, everything is fixed now, and with today's newly added items, there are twice as many great new products for you to check out.

Japanese as a language has many elements not found in English, which can be challenging to students of the language. One of these areas is the Japanese system of polite language (keigo), which is used occasionally in extremely formal situations and in business speech. There are two basic functions of keigo: to raise the level of the person you're talking to (called "exalting" speech); and to lower your own level (called "humble" speech). There are actually different verbs to use depending on the subject in a polite sentence, so if you said, "What will you eat, Sensei? I'm going to eat sushi," you'd use different verbs for the two occurrences of "eat" depending on the subject of the sentence. There's a complex version of this used in business speech. If someone from an outside company calls, asking to speak to your boss, you'd use exalting speech to refer to the caller, but humble speech to refer to your boss, as he's a part of your "uchi" or in-group, compared with the person calling from outside.

Related to Japanese polite speech is the honorific "o" that goes in front of some words, to give them a higher status. Words like money (okane), relationships like mother or grandmother (okaasan, obaasan), and so on -- it could be translated as "honorable" in English, but of course it's never translated blatantly like that (thank God). It's interesting to notice the patterns of words that take this "o" -- words having to do with death or Buddhism tend to take it (otera = temple, okou = Buddhist incense), yet words related to Japan's Shinto religion usually don't. English loan words never get the special "o" prefix, either. Adding the honorific "o" to words sort of "softens" the word, so words related to children or babies tend to take it (omaru = child's toilet, omutsu = diapers, oshiri = a cute word referring to a person's rear end). Men often put the honorific "o" on the word for the female sexual organ, which is the only "bad" word in Japanese (e.g., the only word they wouldn't let you say on TV). The word is "manko," and in "honorific" form, "omanko."

Transliteration is the act of translating a word from one writing system into another, and due to differences in English and Japanese, this can be a challenge. For one thing, there are long and short vowels in Japanese (the last syllable in Kyoto is the short vowel "to" but the first syllable in Tokyo is a long vowel, "toh"). Because writing extra letters in translated names and words only cause confusion to English speakers, the long vowels are often ignored when the word is written in English. For example, instead of writing the first name of Panasonic founder Kounousuke Matsushita with all letters, you could get away with writing "Konosuke" and it wouldn't make a difference how the name was pronounced by anyone. The Japanese dating sim games we sell at J-List are called "bishoujo games" which means "pretty girl games." Should this word be transliterated as "bishoujo" or with a short vowel, e.g. "bishojo"? There's no difference in pronunciation in English, and shorter words are easier for people to remember, and yet "bishoujo" is the more common spelling. The name of Yuka, the popular swimsuit idol who has turned into one of Japan's most famous celebrities, would be more accurately written "Yuuka" (since it's a long vowel). Which is better? If accuracy is what's important, we have to all start writing Tokyo as "Toukyou" and Osaka as "Oosaka," but no one wants to do that, I'm sure. Incidentally, the J-List search engine is "smart" and will bring up results whether you search for, say, "yuuka" "yuhka" or "yuka" -- the search engine maintains a list of "search synonyms" and checks against that list when you perform a search for products.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for fans of Fist of the North Star, we've got a splendid PVC figure for you of Shin by Kaiyodo, with 27 points of articulation, very cool!
  
• Also great, we've got stock of the super-cool Studio Ghibli plush keychain characters, two sets of six great plush toys from Mr. Miyazaki's movies
  
• If you love anime on DVD, enjoy vol. 2 of She, The Ultimate Weapon, a positively wonderful anime series from Japan (region 2)
  
• Also for fans of anime DVD, we've restocked our Hayao Miyazaki films (Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Laputa) along with restock of the wonderful Japanese release of Akira -- and all DVDs are fully subtitled/dubbed in English (region 2)
  
• For fans of traditional Japanese beautiful things, find a super bamboo chopstick holder with chopsticks, and a great set of miso soup bowls, and more
  
• J-List carries over 100 kinds of Japanese snack, food and gum, and we've got new items for you today, including delicious corn and rice snacks, onigiri mix, traditional Japanese hard candy, miso soup, and more!
  
• For lovers of Yu-Gi-Oh, something that's very popular in Japan right now -- cool set of the cards for the Official Card Game that comes in a fabulous metal tin to hold your cards
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, find several cool items, including a Kitty purse that's just too cute, a set of super Sanrio character stamps, a super pouch with "British Kitty" on it, and more
  
• And another popular item, fresh stock of one of the best-selling products in J-List history, the Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massager
  
• If you like Hamtaro, we've got some great items in, including the very popular "Hamtaro Cutting Note" (little notes that are perforated, you can pull one off easily)
  
• Finally, look for other great items, like cute kitchen timers, new funny signs in Japanese
  

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

• For fans of extremely high-quality Japanese nude magazines, enjoy the new Bejean, an oversized magazine with superb photos and famous models like Mai Hagiwara and Misa Nishida
  
• We've got other magazines too, including Hip de H! (all-anal magazine) and fresh stock of low-cost discounted magazines, too
  
• For fans of Japanese bondage and bold photography, enjoy the very sexy Akira Watase in EX Gachiire
  
• Also for photobook collectors, you won't want to miss Love Hearts, a "pictorial magazine of so cute and so lovely girls" as well as Race Queen Toshimi Horiguchi's super sexy first photobook offering
  
• Also, from Shin Yamagishi, the fabulous sexy photographs of Kaori Ohara, taken with extremely sexy and bold camera angles
  
• We love AG, the manga magazine of "art, sex and CG culture" that features erotic Japanese manga faithfully translated to English (including hentai stories by Shiwasu no Okina, one of our favorite artists). See vol. 6 of AG in stock on our site now!
  
• If you love doujinshi, we've got two great new ones for you from the "Androgynous Only Circle" that makes the Great Works of Alchemy, all dick-girl hentai books
  
• Also, we've got a huge offering of positively wonderful erotic manga from Angel Comics, Plaza Comics, Fujimi and more
  
• We've gotten in fresh stock of several popular comics, too, including Celamic Garden, Nami SOS, and the Yui Shop series -- note that stock is limited on some of these items
  
• Also, a very romantic and erotic yaoi comic in stock
  
• For fans of Japan's erotic DVDs, enjoy several great new offerings, starting with the best of Million vol. 2, with 240 minutes of their most erotic works on one disc (and the price is great) (region free)
  
• Also very cool, see Akira Watase as the erotic female teacher in a super fantasy of sex education (region free)
  
• For fans of extremely erotic lesbian AV, enjoy "Le-zu-bian," a superb offering from the famous U and K (region 2)
  
• We've still got a huge selection of items in our 25% off January DVD sale. Choose four of these items and get 25% off when checking out. There are over 300 items you can choose from, and you can find them all by searching for "January sale" on the J-List site
  
• Finally, Tomo has added a bunch of restocked DVDs to the site for you. Please check out all the new items we've got for you!
  

Remember that J-List carries all the legendary Viper games that have been translated into English, and we've got them all in stock in our San Diego location, ready to go out to you. The Viper games are unique because they feature full flowing on-screen animation, which adds much to the game play. The excellent titles by Hobibox Europe we've got you are include Viper M1, Viper M16, Viper Limited Edition (shooting game with uncensored pictures), Viper Paradice (cool 3D board and card game), and more!

Greetings from J-List October 22, 2003

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Greetings from J-List January 20, 2003

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Greetings from J-List October 20, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where a popular dessert is "coffee jelly" (coffee flavored gelatin), one of my personal favorites.

Languages deal with new vocabulary words in different ways. In Chinese, when a new concept comes along like the computer, they express the word in kanji characters ("calculating table"). In Japan, they have a choice: import the kanji-based word from China, such as the word for "operating room" ("hand-technique room"), or more frequently, import the word from Western languages (usually English) and write it in the katakana syllable system, which is used exclusively for writing foreign loan words. Katakana is very useful -- any foreign name can be written easily, unlike with kanji characters, which have multiple readings. Certain types of words tend to be written using foreign loan words -- anything having to do with cars or computers or the Internet, and the names of many occupations (engineer, illustrator), for example. The problem is that more and more words are written in katakana these days, which creates a "comprehension gap" between young and older Japanese, with people over 40 not understanding much of what is being said around them. The problem is so bad that there are actually "katakana dictionaries" you can buy in stores, which help explain what these strange words mean. (Several of the Wordtank electronic dictionaries that J-List sells also have katakana dictionaries built into them.) Just as some English speakers throw a dash of French into their writing to show off their intelligence, Japanese businessmen and news commentators love to pepper their speech with English words like "consensus" and "manifesto" and "Initiative" which can cause plenty of confusion.

Yes, it's quite common for Japanese speech to contain words borrowed from other countries, and there are two grammatical aides that allow Japanese to plug these words into Japanese grammar easily. The first are is the adjective particle "na" which allows an adjective to be used without any tense. This makes it great for using English adjectives in Japanese, and you do hear words like "kyuuto na hanii" (cute honey, perhaps a term for one's boyfriend or girlfriend), "chiipu na oto" (a cheap sound coming out of your stereo), and "torendii na dorama" (the latest trendy soap opera on television). Then there's the catch-all verb "suru" which means "to do" and can be used with English words to easily plug them into a Japanese sentence. Words you often hear are purei suru (to play a game), doraibu suru (to go for a drive), and of course, sekkusu suru (to have sex). The staff at J-List uses lots of English in their Japanese, too, and you can hear terms like sukyan suru (to scan something), pikku suru (to pick products in preparation for shipping) being used everyday.

It's 2004 Calendar Season right now, a special time of the year when J-List is a-buzz with lots of beautiful anime, idol, JPOP, character and other fun calendars sold only in the Japanese market. We got a shipment of calendars in over the weekend, and have added the new items to the J-List site -- lots of great ones in stock, and no waiting!

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, we've got more wacky Domo-kun handtowels for those who want to really make an impression on guests!
  
• For fans of beautiful anime girls, we've got a limited edition series of "shokugan" figures by Megahouse, that are very detailed and very cool
  
• Then, for collectors of Kubrick and Blythe toys, we've got the perfect crossover -- Blythe Kubrick figures. They're eerily compelling!
  
• Also, for those who wish they could paint garage kits like the pros, we've got a beautiful cold cast pre-painted figure from Comic Party that would look great on your desk
  
• We love Japan's sexy swimsuit idols, and one of our favorites is Chinatsu Wakatsuki, whose new photobook features removable poster pages that you can hang up in your room
  
• Also, enjoy a super cute new photobook by Aiko Ito, who will charm you with her beauty and cuteness
  
• Yuko Ogura fans will enjoy the delightful new idol DVD, Peach, featuring the superb Japanese idol who has captured the hearts of so many
  
• For Final Fantasy VIII traditionalists, we've got a super art-and-data-book with over 500 pages of information and visuals from the game and its world
  
• Keep cool with our wacky "fruit fans" which can be used as tabletop or portable fans just about anywhere
  
• When I was a boy, I loved Micronauts almost as much as I loved Star Wars figures -- we've got limited stock of some of the cool re-issued Micronauts (the good ones from Japan, not the awful Palladium toys)
  
• We've got some cool wooden Buddhist beads that you can use as a religious item, or to make you look fashionable
  
• Like Crayon Shinchan? We've got a cool plush toy for you then
  
• Hello Kitty fans, enjoy a cute portable phone strap/charm that is really cool, and other interesting Kitty items sold only in Japan
  
• Also, make you portable phone even cuter with a plush "happy face cover"
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, we've got tasty fruit candy from Fujita's Peko-chan world, real tart Japanese "ume-boshi" plums, super minty mints, and more
  
• Also, for people who don't get enough vegetables in their diets, we've got more "Green Vegetable Pretz"
  
• We've got a handy wallet from japan with a cute panda on it, that will serve you for many years
  
• Also, for fans of Japan "minty eyedrops" (and you know who you are), we've got some cool eyedrops just for contact lens users, as well as fresh stock of several popular other items
  
• We've got a dynamite illuminated message board that shows your notes in vibrant color, very cool
  
• Finally, look for a wacky "open" sign from Japan, more bento boxes and other items for your kitchen, and more!
  

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

• For fans of beautiful Japanese kogals, the young, sassy and stylish girls from Japan, we've got the new issue of Urecco Gal, and this one is really lovely
  
• For fans of Ryoko Mitake (ME-tah-KAY), enjoy a super new Diva Mook, featuring nothing but lovely nude photographs of this fantastic AV star from Japan
  
• Then enjoy the super sexy Erika Ogawa, who shines in her super sexy hardcover photobook
  
• Don't miss the new nude photobook of Akira Watase, who shows you everything about her erotic body and sex
  
• Also, look for great restocked adult photobooks, including the best-selling Kaoru offering by Akira Gomi, European Fairy Tale, Moe Yoshizawa's hit photobook, Akane Souma wonderful erotic offering and more
  
• Also, for art book fans, we've restocked the dynamite Yui Shop 3, by master hentai artist Yui Toshiki
  
• For hentai manga fans, enjoy some great new erotic books, including "reverse lesbian" play with Takeshi Matsuzawa, erotic fantasy and "furry" sex by Hot Milk, a superb new erotic manga by MEE-kun and more
  
• Also, fresh stock of many great hentai manga, including Your Eyes Only, Urushihara's hentai masterpiece Dark Crimson vol. 1 and 2, Slight Fever Prince, The Ties That Bind and more
  
• For doujinshi fans, we've got some great new ones, including Gundam Seed and more
  
• Adult DVD fans can enjoy many new items today, starting with a new No Cut!! release giving you three full video releases on one low-priced disc, enjoy the dynamite Haruka Tsukino (region free, 3 hours)
  
• Then, Hitomi Hasegawa shows you her sweet sex in a new "4 HOURS of Hitomi Hasegawa" release by Million, with lots of "virtual sex" shot from the point of view of the actors (region free)
  
• The lovely Reika Yoshizawa must endure 24 hours of "anytime and anywhere sexual intercourse," in which she is called upon to service men at all hours of night and day (region free)
  
• From Deep's, a great "2 in 1" release featuring the sultry leg fetish and low-angle photography of Rumiko Hasegawa and Sara Akigawa, great for fans of Japan's stocking and mini-skirt fetishism (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the delightful Asuka Sawaguchi in a great release from Waap in which she performs sex and fellatio in a great array of sexy costumes (region free)
  
• Then, we've got some great restocked DVDs, including Kurumi Morishita and Nao Oikawa's superb Forest in Nude, more fun sex with Russian and Swedish girls, great bukkake with Kokoro Amano, Asuka Sawaguchi's oh-so-lovely No Cut!! release, anime cosplay sex, and more!
  

Remember that we're having a "free shipping sale" on select DVDs on top of our regular "buy 4 get 15% off" discount. It's a great excuse to buy a bunch of quality DVDs from Japan and save some money. Search for "free DVD special" to find the DVDs included in the discount.

Greetings from J-List January 17, 2003

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Greetings from J-List October 17, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where the "@" mark in email address is called "at-mark."

Because English has been taught in schools in Japan since the end of World War II, most Japanese do have a basic functional understand of English, even if they can't always communicate in it. This causes English to seep into the Japanese language in many ways, creating words like "rinse in shampoo" (shampoo with cream rinse in it) and "soft cream" (soft serve ice cream). Since most Japanese can understand at least a little of the language, movie titles are often left in English, but are "reduced" so they're easier to understand. "You've Got Mail" was released here as "You got mail" -- essentially the same, just a little easier for Japanese to remember. "Aliens" became "Alien 2," "Ms. Congeniality" was reduced to "Dangerous Beauty," and "The Sum of All Fears," was reduced to "Total Fears." Currently playing in Japan is "League of Legend" (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

The Japanese language has a great many kotowaza or old proverbs, recounting the wisdom of past generations. It's fun for gaijin to study these proverbs, because no one expects a foreigner to know archaic Japanese sayings. One of my favorite kotowaza is "ningen banji saiou-ga-uma" which means "All things are like Saiou's horse." This refers to an old Chinese story about a man named Saiou whose horse broke his leg -- making everyone say how unfortunate he was. Because he had no horse, though, he didn't have to go off to battle to be killed, so this was a good thing. The moral of the story is, when something good or bad happens, no one can say for sure if it is truly a good or bad thing in the end. Another proverb you hear a lot is "ishi no ue ni mo san-nen" which is translatable as "Three years sitting on a stone makes it comfortable." In other words, if you're going to try something new, keep at it for at least three years before you give up. Also: "suki koso mono no jozu nare" which means "What one likes, one does well," or, you become good at doing things you actually like doing, so choose your career based on your interests. If you want to see more Japanese proverbs, here's an interesting page: http://www.ite.ie/proverbs/jproverb.htm

Announcing free shipping on select adult DVDs! J-List stocks over 800 DVD titles from Japan, and sometimes it's a little difficult to manage all our stock. To help us move out some older titles, we're giving free shipping on select titles. (Free shipping is SAL -- if you order DVDs by Airmail we'll give you half price on the shipping for those items). Enjoy the discounted DVDs! These titles still fall under our normal "buy 4 or more, get 15% off" discount.)

Brave Soul is coming! The long-awaited hentai RPG by Peach Princess is going to ship soon. Unfortunately a last-minute delay with the manuals is pushing things back another two weeks or so, but we do plan to have the game back soon. Brave Soul is a fully interactive scrolling RPG for adults that features a fantastic fantasy world to explore, and beautiful female companions to lead into battle. Preorder for free shipping when it's ready!

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for fans of our Seibun educational toys from Japan, which offer fun learning opportunities to kids of all ages, we've added additional items, including the
  
• For Domo-kun fans, we've got a deluxe larger hand towel for you, great for sports, or keep them out for guests to use (they will be impressed)
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we have the ultimate apron -- a beautiful all-pink Kitty apron that will really make you feel special
  
• For fans of Kubrick's unique block toys, we've got limited stock of the Reservoir Dogs toys, so very cool
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, we've got new authentic "black candy" from Okinawa, new delicious miso soup with onion and seaweed in it, and a unique traditional treat, Hello Kitty Ringo Ume
  
• Also for Kitty fans, a great Kitty "fan strap" that looks like a traditional Japanese fan, as well as a deluxe set of Kitty Onigiri molds to make rice balls that look like Kitty and her friends
  
• Kitty is cute, but Doraemon is also very popular in Japan -- enjoy a cool Doraemon "PET bottle strap" that you can use to take drinks anywhere with you
  
• For those who want whiter teeth, enjoy sugarless Whiteen gum (it's sugarless)
  
• We've added fresh stock of the best-selling miniature sushi and famous dessert replicas from Re-Ment, incredibly detailed as only the Japanese could make
  
• Finally, look for additional wacky things from Japan, like herbal hot springs bath powder, a wacky notepad that could only have come from Japan, and more!
  

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

• First, we've got the new issue of Gal's Dee for you, filled with supremely beautiful Japanese gals of D cup or larger, including the delicious Marimo Asoh
  
• We love the "Karami" series of magazine/photobooks, which are basically full color magazines dedicated entirely to a single famous idol -- the new issue features everything you could want to know about the sweet Manami Yoshii
  
• For photobook fans, enjoy several new offerings, including the sweet nude of Yui Kawai and a great new "Imoto" hardcover photobook photographed by Garo Aida
  
• Also, enjoy the delightful nude of Kim Mizuno, Japanese AV star who was featured in America's Playboy -- something that really makes Japanese people beam with pride
  
• There's a great "gouka-book" format photobook that shows you the "hairless sex" of 17 different amateurs, something interesting to see
  
• Also, not one but two new pocket-sized photobooks that let you enjoy the lovely Miku Ishida and Yuko Ogura
  
• Also, fresh stock of some great photobook items, including LCC Gold (love those Romanian nude gymnasts), the delightful Straddle, and Maria Takagi's erotic hardcover photobook
  
• Also, we're big fans of the Japanese erotic photographic style we've come to call "girls in Underoos" -- beautiful amateurs photographed in stylish and inventive ways which transcends erotica. See a great example of this in Hibiki Tokiwa's "GirlFriends"
  
• We have some great erotic manga for you too, including an erotic rendition of Crime and Punishment (very nicely done), fun with sexy raccoon girls, and anal-and-bukkake festival by Ando Hiroyuki
  
• Also, a major restocking of hentai manga, including all volumes of Blue Eyes, Nudist 2, Wild Dance of Lewd Breasts and more
  
• For doujinshi fans, we've got great new parody comics for you too, including a super parody of Gundam, an erotic maid fetish offering and more
  
• For our DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with the High-Grade Soap 4-Hour Special, featuring the best "soapland" sex by Million (region free)
  
• For fans of Minori Aoi, one of the most lovely AV starlets of the past few years, we've got a new release featuring her dynamite sex (region free)
  
• Then, there's a new Deep Kiss release from Soft on Demand, in which female friends are scouted on the street, and asked to come into the Magic Mirror bus and experience lesbian kissing for the first time (region free)
  
• One of the most popular themes in manga in Japan is "dick girls" -- now experience this thrill in Shonen A, a unique new hermaphrodite adult DVD from SOD's new Hibino label (region free)
  
• Manga artist Tatsuya Egawa, creator of Golden Boy and Tokyo University Story, fulfills his dream of being with the lovely Ai Kurosawa in his debut as an AV film star, "My Yearning Office Lady" (region free)
  

Then, enjoy the best forbidden lesbian sex from the U&K company in Lesbian Best Complete 2 (vol. 2) (region free)!

The "top 5" list has been updated for the past week, making it easy to see what products other J-List customers are buying. Click the links to bring up the top ten products in each category.
Remember that J-List carries the famous Japanese gum Black Black, a caffine-laced gum that will wake up you and keep you awake. Black Black was recently written up in Wired magazine, complete with a link to J-List (thanks, guys!). And as with most of our gum and snack items, if you buy 10 or more you get a 15% discount at checkout.

Greetings from J-List January 15, 2003

Hello from Japan, where if you cut your fingernails at night, you won't be able to be with your parents when they die.

A person's perception of various things changes when you live in Japan. I am a fan of William Gibson's novels, and they read really differently when you've lived here a while, and see things he describes in his books everyday (like Black Black caffeine gum). As you learn Japanese, you pick up on little errors of misconceptions the outside world has about Japan. You learn that just because a name is Japanese-sounding doesn't mean it's Japanese. Mr. Sulu, of Star Trek fame, has a name that doesn't actually exist in the language, and doesn't even follow the rules of Japanese pronunciation. It must have "sounded Japanese" to Gene Roddenberry back in the 1960s. In Minority Report, Tom Cruise gets his eyes replaced with those of a man named "Mr. Yakamoto," but this name doesn't exist in Japanese, either (there's no way to write "yaka" in kanji). Living here also makes it fun to identity the elements in Star Wars that have been "inspired" by Japan, too!

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), Genmai Flakes, 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 similar product here.

Japan's interactive love-sim games (known as bishoujo games or hentai games) are part of a long tradition in Japanese gaming, going back to the earliest computers with color displays, NEC's PC98 series. Japanese love-sim games are a huge part of the Japanese software market nowadays, so much that over 25% of the software produced in Japan are these interactive dating simulations, and virtually every computer store has a massive area dedicated to these game titles. We've been involved in translating these games into English since we started out, back in 1996, and are extremely pleased with the huge selection of English translated games we're able to make available through J-List. Remember, you can get 20% off any four or more of our bishoujo game titles (currently shipping titles only) -- just add them to your cart and the discount will be applied at checkout.

We're very happy with how popular the new limited-edition camouflage "American Devil" and silver-augmented "Sexual Power" T-shirts are proving! We're glad everyone likes the new designs! Our San Diego staff ships shirts out daily, and all sizes are in stock, so let us know how we can serve you!

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for Star Wars fans, we've got the limited edition soft vinyl Clone Trooper Commander large figure, a truly beautiful item for any Star Wars collector (and sold only in Japan!)
  
• J-List carries monthly magazines by "reserve subscription" in which we send you the current issue of that magazine each month until you ask us to stop. We've got two great new magazines available for subscription, Cosmo, a great magazine for fans of all things cosplay; and Dengeki Games, dedicated to hard-core fans of the hottest games for Playstation 2, X-Box, Gamecube and Gameboy Advance
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, some cute items, including "Mug Cup and Mascot Key Holders" that would look great on your desk
  
• For fans of wacky Japanese interior items, a super-giant pineapple that hides a box of tissue -- a great conversation piece for your room
  
• For Hamtaro (Hamutaro) fans, we've always got lots of great authentic items from Japan -- see a new Hamtaro handbag that's filled with Japanese snacks
  
• Speaking of Japanese snacks, we've got more of them for you, including delicious Morinaga Koeda almond chocolate, a chocolate-filled cookie called Collon, Japanese "nabe" stew mix, and more
  
• Also, fresh stock of miso soup, various furikake, a major restocking of our famous "Gravel Choco" and more
  
• For Totoro fans, a dynamite soft Nekobus toy that will surely be a hit
  
• For your kitchen, a set of two "character frying pans" that allow you to make cute pancakes, eggs, and more
  
• For anyone with a "keitai" (that is, a cellular phone), we've got the ultimate cute phone holder from Japan
  
• For fans of traditional Japanese items, enjoy fresh stock of soup and rice bowls, chopsticks, and other items
  
• Also, fresh stock of our cute sushi makers, so fun!
  
• Finally, look for more Hello Kitty frosted flakes, more funny signs with messages like "Do Not Enter" in Japanese, a cute way to remove oil from your face, and more!
  

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

• For Japanese adult magazine fans, we've got the great new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, which feature only Japanese girls photographed in beautiful Penthouse style!
  
• Enjoy the excellent hardcover nude photobooks of Japan, with Jun Nada's super-erotic first offering and a very sexy swimsuit photobook by Nanami Kaoru
  
• Japan's leg and stocking fetish photobooks are world famous, and we've got the new Super Leg's 2003, filled with beautiful glossy pages and pull-out posters
  
• If you love Japanese hentai manga, we've got more excellent items for you, including hentai comics by Plaza Comics, Mujin, Angel and more
  
• Also, another excellent volley of erotic doujinshi that are all brand-new -- but please check out our stock quickly, as stock is extremely limited
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got a great volley of new erotic titles for you, starting with Nao Oikawa Special, a great 2-for-1 DVD from Alice Japan (region free)
  
• The "Blue File" DVD series brings you a whopping 4 hours of white hot AV on a single disc -- enjoy the best works of Ruri Ayase in the latest Blue File release! (region free)
  
• Fans of the lovely small-bodied Miyuki Hourai will enjoy her new DVD by Dogma, which features her erotic sex and lots of "cock socks" (region free)
  
• Enjoy the "Semen Fundamentalism" of the "Seven Semen Samurai" in a new bukakke special release by Soft on Demand (region free)
  
• Then see the best and most erotic lesbian sex in the history of SOD, featuring their most lovely stars! (region free)
  
• Then, for fans of great Indies sex, enjoy the erotic body and lovemaking of the busty Eri Yukawa in a great bondage-themed work from Wanz Factory (region 2)
  
• There's been a big restocking of adult DVD titles, with Hitomi Hayasaka's great works. more Black Semen in L.A., Ran Asakawa's very popular Exciting Molestor Land (just love the wacky titles they come up with...), the busty Kimiko Matsuzaka's great DVD and more!
  
• Remember that our 25% off January DVD sale is half over! If you haven't taken advantage of this great time to pick up a bunch of great DVD titles, now is the time. To help you out, we've added another dozen or so titles to the sale!
  

J-List carries many delicious snack items, and one of our favorites is Pocky. Pocky is basically a straight pretzel stick covered with delicious chocolate, strawberry, whipped green tea cream, or just about anything else. It was introduced by the Glico food company in the 1960s and is a major "category killer" in the Japanese chocolate-covered pretzel market, often imitated but never bested. J-List carries an excellent selection of Pocky flavors for you to enjoy, so please see our excellent selection (if you buy 10 or more boxes of one type, you get a 15% discount). Please note that we can't carry Pocky and similar chocolate products in the summer, due to the heat and humidity in Japan, so buy some now, while it's cold!

Greetings from J-List October 15, 2003

Hello again from your friends in Japan!

Halloween has come early to J-List. At various times during the year, my mother sends me a care package of goodies from the States, things that she knows we miss like Easter candy and Girl Scout Cookies. Now Halloween is approaching, and my mother sent some American Halloween candy for the staff here in Japan, which has me feeling quite "natsukashii" (NATS-kah-SHEE), a Japanese word meaning "nostalgic" which comes up in anime quite a bit. While some of the American candy -- the caramel with coconut inside, the waxy Tootsie Rolls, and the rock-hard Bit-o-Honey -- was a little odd to the Japanese staff members, they tried everything like good sports (although only Daisuke liked the candy corn). If you're looking for something for your Halloween (either the unique costume or candy items J-List offers), there's still plenty time to get items to you from Japan by EMS shipping.

With the poor economic performance of the past decade in Japan, many industries have been brought down as some others flourish. When companies go bankrupt and vacate buildings, they are often replaced by the bright signs of "sara-kin," the high-interest loan companies (some would say loan sharks) that have taken hold in debt-ridden Japan. Everywhere you look are signs for companies like Acom and Yen Shop and Lake, which lend money to individuals -- perhaps Scott Adams would call them "induhviduals" -- at up to 30% per year. These companies spend millions on advertising on late-night TV to get consumers to borrow money, and anyone can borrow up to $3000 with just a drivers' license. They're incredibly good at what they do, too. Some customers are embarrassed by the need to borrow money, so they set up automated "cash corners" (like ATMs but they bankrupt you) which let you borrow from a faceless machine. Other companies promote the fact that you can come in and talk to a real human being -- in the TV commercials, usually a pretty idol -- about the best way to borrow money. In the New Japanese Economy, the growth of these high-interest loan companies has been incredible, and many company founders top the roles of Japan's wealthiest businessmen.

One area that I'm glad to see booming are Japanese hot springs and public baths, a uniquely Japanese way to enjoy yourself. With the opening last year of Yura no Sato ("Land of Hot Water and Comfort"), I now have three great hot springs within 10 minutes of my house. Yura no Sato sports at least twenty different indoor and outdoor baths, several saunas, a traditional Japanese "pot bath" (tsubo-buro), and more. I take my kids there every Friday evening.

Anyone with inquisitive kids knows that it's as much fun to take apart and put together toys as it is to play with them. J-List is happy to announce the availability of new "Tech Toys" from Seibun, a Japanese company well-known for its science-based educational toys and other products. For starters, we've got a great Solar Mars Crawler and Hovercraft kit that you and your kids can put together, as well as 'Hinoki' Soft Wood Clay, a fantastic clay that kids can do anything with -- but it's so light it floats. (My kids play with stuff every day in Japan.) See the new Educational Toys page for these items. For your ordering convenience, these items ship out of San Diego. They're great for Christmas, too!

In addition to Credit Card, check or money order, Western Union, and check/money order (or cash sent carefully through the mail), J-List accepts Paypal for payment of non-adult orders. Unfortunately we've had a temporary problem with our Paypal account, which has made it impossible for us to accept payments for a couple of days. We'll have it fixed soon -- sorry for any delay!

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, I'm a big fan of NASA and the space program, and am therefore proud to be able to sell the Royal Museum of Science, a series of miniature "shokugan" toys celebrating the best years of space (as always, we've got full sets available for purchase, with no duplicates)
  
• For Domo-kun fans, we've got a really cool item: Domo-kun hand-towels that
  
• For photobook fans, we've got more lovely swimsuit idols and Race Queen offerings for you, including the delightful hardcover photobook of Airi Mita
  
• Also, cute star Mayumi Ono became a hit when she put her cute smile on the late-night TV commercials for Acom, a high-interest finance company -- see her super-cute photobook
  
• We've got some cool Hello Kitty items, including a deluxe sold-only-in-Japan alarm clock, a cool leather Kitty coin purse and more
  
• If you've got foot pains, try the power of tree sap (?), a Japanese product that cools and relaxes your feet
  
• We've gotten in more wacky notebooks with funny English, a deluxe new version of our "Times too simply..." cool notebook
  
• For fans of delicious Japanese snacks, enjoy more tasty miso soup ("raw type," the good stuff), delicious salmon onigiri mix, peanuts and rice crackers, and more
  
• Also, tasty "green tangerine" flavored Hi-Chew soft candies from Morinaga, as well as fresh stock of Choco Banana candy and yakiniku (Korean barbecue) Pretz
  
• For fans of Hayao Miyazaki's anime films, we've got fresh stock of a favorite of mine and Daisuke's: Ocean Waves, the simple story of love and growing up in rural Japan
  
• For anime fans, enjoy two great figures of Astro Boy that would look great on any desk -- they come with cases too
  
• For fans of uber-cute, we've got fresh stock of the Kabaya "Nyanko Restaurant" keychain cookies -- they are so cute you won't believe it!
  
• We've got fresh stock of the cute Cat Bus Mini Mascot, for Totoro fans, and fresh stock of the oh-so-popular miniature Japanese food toys
  
• It's getting cooler, so we've reduced the prices of our authentic Japanese tatami sandals, which are a stylish way to cover your feet in any season
  
• Finally, enjoy a great way to keep your toilet smelling fresh, a neat all-leather coin purse
  

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

• For fans of Japan's great professional adult magazines, we've got the new issue of Gokuh, featuring superb Japanese stars like Alice Ogura, Kana Aoyama, Yumi Kobayashi, a giant pull-out poster, and more
  
• The Digi + Girls photobook series presents incredibly beautiful Japanese girls posing in bold "fashionable nudes" for you -- enjoy these great photos, which are so lovely to look at that these books are marketed to women in Japan
  
• Then enjoy the sweet nude of Hitomi Kurosawa, age 19, a delightful offering for photobook fans, followed by the erotic "Flexible" photobook of former gymnast Ayuri Iisaku
  
• Also, enjoy hardcore cosplay performances by five erotic AV stars including Shinobu Kasagi, as well as some limited stock of the Yellows photobooks
  
• For fans of the very cute, affordably-priced pocket-sized photobooks from Japan, we've got two great new ones too, capturing the loveliness of several superb Japanese ladies
  
• We love Japan's unique hentai manga, and have some great works in stock for you, including super maid fetish as only the Japanese can convolve of, a great "sweat and sperm" comics by Plaza Comics, and one of the most incredible "dick girl" mangas we've ever seen
  
• For doujinshi fans, we've got two great new works by Okachimentaiko, the famous circle that's been making quality erotic parody comics for a decade, as well as fresh stock of two of their popular works
  
• For our DVD customers, we've got some excellent new titles in stock for you, starting with a new Stars!! release featuring 150 minutes of sweet sex by Makoto Imajuku, age 19 (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the silky, sexy trio of Nao Oikawa, Hitomi Hayasaka and Ran Monbu in a new offering from Million (region free)
  
• Bunko Kanazawa looks as good as ever in her new release, a 180 minute presentation of her best sex ever, by HRC (region free)
  
• Then enjoy The Greatest Fudol Battle, in which "fuzoku idols" (fudols, also known as soap girls) complete in an erotic contest of Turkish bathing (region free)
  
• "Senzuri" is a Japanese word which means "one thousand strokes" and is a euphemism for masturbation -- see the lovely Mai Haruna in a superb erotic work from SOD's Chujitsudoh label in which she assists your own masturbation (region free)
  
• Ran Asakawa is a beautiful Japanese AV star -- see some of her best-ever sex in her hot new production, by Moodyz (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've restocked some great erotic DVDs, including Ran Asakawa's Endless Semen, more erotic fighting girls, fresh stock of OL fetish DVDs, fresh stock of Black Black sugarless caffeine gum, and more!
  

Remember that J-List offers revolving subscriptions to some of Japan's most popular magazines, including anime magazines (Animage, Newtype), toy magazines (Hobby Japan), manga magazines (Coro Coro and Afternoon), and more. Some of these are very cutting edge and cool to read, such as Japanese street fashion magazines Fruits and Egg, and don't forget to check out Megami Magazine, loaded with posters and stickers and other cool things. These magazines will be sent to you as soon as they're available each month, before they're even sent to the newsstands here in Japan, and you can cancel your subscription any time. See the magazine subscription pages for more information.

Also, remember that J-List offers you discounts for buying multiple items. Want to get some great bishoujo games? Pick up 4 or more and get 20% off. Looking for hentai manga? Get 4 or more books and get 15% off. You can also get 15% off 4 or more DVDs. All discounts are calculated automatically at checkout.

Greetings from J-List October 13, 2003

Hello from your friends at J-List! We're safely back in Japan after a marathon trip from Germany -- 7 hours waiting at the Frankfurt airport for our flight, followed by 13 hours in the air, 6 more hours waiting in Seoul, 2 hours back to Japan, and a 3 hour train ride to our home in Gunma. Although we had lots of fun, we're quite happy to stay home for a long time.

While in Europe we saw many wonderful things, and some familiar things too, like Yakult yogurt drinks in supermarkets in Frankfurt, lots of Nissan Marches (called Micra in Europe), and just about any manga series you could want translated into German and Italian. We were also impressed with the need to take a second look at our children's language education. Many Japanese have a very strange idea of language learning, which I have a hard time understanding. In Japan, the only language that exists other than Japanese is English, which all Japanese study for six years (or up to ten if they go to college). They endlessly study the grammar and vocabulary of English without ever trying to put it to some actual use -- hence the Japanese insistence that "English" (grammar and vocabulary) and "English conversation" (using English in a communicative setting) are two completely different concepts. In my mind, it's much better to go out into the world with imperfect language skills and fumble to get your point across than endlessly studying grammar until the day when everything all magically comes together. My kids are bilingual in English and Japanese, but clearly this is not enough -- I hope to teach them at least one more language before they reach college age.

If you ever go to Narita Airport, the international airport serving the Tokyo area, you might not be surprised by security personnel who check your passport carefully before letting you into the airport. But these tight security measures weren't in response to September 11 -- they've been in place for 30 years. Back in 1966, when the Japanese government announced that the tiny village of Narita, Chiba Prefecture, about 30 km from Tokyo, would be the site of the grand new airport, locals were totally surprised -- no one had consulted them on the matter. Over the next decade, the farmers who lived on the land where the airport was to be built organized staunch resistance, refusing to be evicted from their land and getting help from the student movement of the late 60s and early 70s. The violent clashes between the demonstrators and Japanese police claimed several lives, naming the conflict "Japan's Vietnam," and lead to fears of urban terrorism by Chiba farmers, which is why the security measures were put in place. To this day, the final runway at Narita has yet to be completed, all because the last eight families refuse to sell their land to the government.

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for fans of the delightful Japanese idol Yuka, a very special item: a collection of actual color slides and a special viewer that allow you to see Yuka-chan in 3-D, as if she were right in front of you -- a very special collectors' item!
  
• We've got two new How to Draw Manga books for you too, for anyone wanting to learn to draw Japanese comics like the pros do
  
• Also, enjoy the lovely photobook of Yuki Ishikawa, a delightful Japanese swimsuit idol who looks great in her new photobook offering, as well as fresh stock of the dynamite Jelly-B photobook
  
• We've got some great items for Ultraman fans: deluxe plush toys that look great, and capture the super power of Japan's most famous rubber-clad television hero -- and the eyes glow in the dark!
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, we've got some great items, including traditional Japanese-style candies, Astro Boy Ochazuke, sugarless breath mints from Japan, and delicious "soft grape candy"
  
• For our Totoro loving fans, we've got two new "Totoro Present Keychain Mascot" sets, which are really cute
  
• For Kitty fans, various new and restocked items, including a great Kitty gift bag
  
• We've got a cute Nico Nico Club brand travel toothbrush and cup, sure to bring a smile to your face
  
• For bento fans, a nice set of three disposable bento trays with lids and chopsticks, great for any outing
  
• For fans of the Hello Kitty massagers, which we recommend as excellent Christmas gifts, we've managed to restock the Deluxe Massager, the larger massager used for relaxing your shoulder -- the smaller Hello Kitty vibrating massager remains out of production and our stock is very low
  
• We've got fresh stock of the popular minty eyedrops from Japan, very cool!
  
• For anime fans who want something very special in their rooms, we've got a great 1/8 scale cold cast figure of Miyuki Kobayakawa from You're Under Arrest
  
• Finally, look for a great way to measure any part of your body, a great cloth bag that you can carry anything in, and other wacky things from Japan!
  

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

• First, we've got the new issue of the oversized adult magazine Bejean, filled with beautiful top-name Japanese stars including Alice Ogura, Sola Aoi, Sakura Shiratori and more
  
• Also, enjoy a deluxe new issue of Sennin Giri, the excellent kogal magazine featuring girls who have allegedly had sex with more than 1000 guys
  
• We've also got the new issue of Aishite Ageru ("I'll Love You"), featuring lovely amateur Tokyo girls in love hotels -- this issue specially focuses on girls who like to do it with virgin guys
  
• Our $5 magazines are always a popular item, and we've added some new stock for you to check out -- see magazine page 3 for the discounted items!
  
• For photobook lovers, enjoy the Erotic Photo Session with Eri Kitajima, photographs by Shin Yamagishi, as well as fresh stock of Alice Ogura's sweet nude photobook
  
• For hentai manga fans, we've got some great new books for you, including a great erotic work by Tachibana Seven, the all-girl/girl Lesbian Excellent, Tsukasa Comics' excellent Dogma 666, and more
  
• Also, a great restocking of popular manga volumes including Punky Night, Radical Vector, The Equation of the Immoral, Midara and more
  
• For our DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with the bargain-priced re-release of Super Kibire Declaration by Mizuho Kanou, aka Jun Kusanagi (region free)
  
• Then, Aika Miura is back in a great bondage-themed erotic DVD (region free)
  
• Happy amateur Japanese girls experience their first bukkake, allowing men to blow their wads on their faces, bodies and even feet (region free)
  
• Then, from SOD's Chujitsudoh label, Asuka Sawaguchi will satisfy your curiosity in a great bukkake, cosplay, lesbian and anal sex offering for her fans (region free)
  
• From the excellent U&K Collection Series, we've got Lesbian Best Complete 2, another mind-boggling selection of the best lesbian sex from Japan's premier all-lesbian studio (region free)
  
• Then, the lovely Ai Nagase will be your virtual girlfriend, pleasing you in twelve different situations filmed with you in the point of view of her lover (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've got a bunch of restocked and price-reduced DVDs, including Anna Ohura's superb Tease Fetish Angles in Huge Boobies (um, love those titles the Japanese come up with for the DVDs), Lesbian Night, as well as anal, bukkake, all-lesbian, and other great DVDs for you!
  

Remember that J-List has hundreds of dynamite large-format 2004 calendars available, either in stock (for the calendars that have started to come in stock already) or for preorder. With so many fantastic anime, JPOP, swimsuit idol, actress, kanji, traditional and nude calendars to choose from, we know that you can find a fantastic 2004 calendar for your wall. And they make great Christmas gifts, too! To help you help us make calendar season a success this year, you get 15% off 4 or more calendars, too, along with free mailing tubes!
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Greetings from J-List January 12, 2003

Hello again from San Diego. I head back to Japan tomorrow, but I'm outside in my backyard, enjoying the warm weather, able to work remotely courtesy of Apple's Airport.

If you spend any time in Japan, you're likely to notice that the Japanese really love florescent lights. Because they're very bright, and because they use less power than normal lights, the Japanese use florescent lights for almost any kind of lighting, even in residential homes -- quite different from how lights are used in the U.S. When you build a home in Japan (you almost always build a new home rather than buying a "used" house that someone else has lived in), a lot of the fun is going through the National/Panasonic lighting catalog and choosing what kind of lighting to install in each room. When the Japanese put their minds to designing something beautifully, they really go all out, and the quality and variety of lighting you can choose from is great. The long-life florescent bulbs for normal lamps, which have been getting popular in the States, have been around in Japan for 15 years or more.

It's quite interesting to analyze how Japanese name their cars. First of all, names given to Japanese cars must sound "kakko ii" (cool), and since nothing sounds 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, or Mazda's Roadster (aka the Miyata, although all Japanese think it means "road star" just as they think Pizza Hut is really "Pizza Hat"). 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 Soarer 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 was 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 in Japan called Toyota Crown. (Incidentally, the Camry is not popular at all in Japan -- too boring.) 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").

For the new update, the J-List team has added another large volley of new products to the J-List website. We have many new products for our adult customers (18 and up). We've also got cool new "traditional" Japanese items including stylish chopsticks and dishes, new Japanese snack items including delicious soft, shreaded ika, new Morning Musume cards, Hello Kitty and Hamutaro items, fresh stock of Godzilla items, more Buddhist Prayer Beads, and a restock of the positively beautiful extra-large cold cast "completed figure" of Urd from Ah My Goddess and Love Hina SkyLuv Project toys.

At J-List, we have a great selection of DVDs from Japan. Nearly all our DVDs are "region free," meaning you can play them on any DVD player in the world, but an increasing number of "Indies" DVDs, as well as all anime and "hentai" DVDs released in Japan, are encoded for region 2 (Japan and Europe). The simplest way to view region 2 DVDs is to buy a region free DVD player, and we recommend the Sampo DVE-611 (which can be made region free via a simple hack). And we found a source for these players for just $109 -- we've bought two ourselves. Since you need a region-free player to view many of the recent Indies DVD releases, and all anime DVDs from Japan (including the Miyazaki films, which will all be released in 2002), it's our sincere hope that everyone will get one of these players and oppose the anti-globalists who thought of the DVD regions in the first place. The link to the $109 Sampo players is here.

Are you interested in learning Japanese? Our friends over at YesJapan (http://www.yesjapan.com) have such a good online course, allowing at-your-pace study, thousands of audio files, and an "ask-a-teacher" service, that we wanted to plug them on the list. We think this is a great way to learn Japanese and we hope you'll give them a try.