Greetings from J-List February 22, 2003

Hello from Japan, where a steak made with ground beef is a "hamburg" and a frankfurter out of its bun is a "frankfurt."

Although cities like Tokyo have excellent train and subway systems, in most parts of Japan the only way to get around is a good old car. Japan's version of "car life" is a little different from what is found in the U.S., though. First of all, there are almost no independent car dealers, and virtually all new cars are sold through retail locations operated directly by Japan's auto makers. You never drive away with a car the day you go in to buy it, but instead "order" it, and it's made to your specifications at the factory and delivered three weeks later. They drive on the left side of the street, which is difficult to get used to at first, but is not so hard as long as you just look at other cars and drive on the same side of the street they're on. In the U.S., some drivers leave their headlights on for safety during the day, but it's never done here, and Japanese will follow you to tell you that you've left your lights on if you keep them on during the daylight hours. While honking a horn at another driver can cause road rage in the U.S., here a short "beep" is the universal way of saying thanks and good-bye as you pull away here in Japan. Most drivers turn off their car's headlights at intersections (often leaving the parking lights on), as a courtesy to drivers who might be blinded by their lights on the other side of the intersection. In Tokyo, where drivers drive with consideration for others (unlike Gunma, where we live), a two-second flashing of the hazard lights is the correct way to say "thank you" to the car behind you when he lets you in front of him. In Japan, traffic lights have a 3 second delay between when one light changes to red and the next one changes to green. By unwritten rule, Japanese drivers universally make use of this time to speed their car through the intersection, despite the red light, since they know they've got several seconds before the other cars will be moving. For a poorly-understood reason, the color for "green" (as in a green light) is "blue" in Japan -- all Japanese use the word "ao" (AH-oh) for the color of a green light, although this word really refers to the color blue.

For one reason or another, some phrases in English have burned themselves on the collective consciousness of the Japanese, and are quite famous here. When an American named Dr. Clark (universally known as "Clark-hakase" HA-KA-say) went to Sapporo to help establish what would become Sapporo University, he left the following advice to his Japanese hosts: "Boys, be ambitious!" (i.e., strive to achieve excellence in all that you do). These three words are studied by all Japanese, and somehow manage to pop up all over the place in one form or another. (There's a manga and anime called "Boys Be..." that is based on this phrase.) When pop singer Momoe Yamaguchi retired from singing, she sang a song to her fans that went "Thank you for your kindness...thank you for your tenderness" and as a result, virtually all Japanese over 30 know this famous phrase. Famous speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln ("Government for the people, by the people, and of the people") are studied in school the same way we studied Shakespeare in the U.S., too.

"You've been in Japan too long when you're speaking English with your gaijin friends, but all references to money are in Japanese." This is a funny phenomenon, but true: even when speaking English, gaijin living in Japan will tend to use Japanese for numbers and yen money amounts. The reason is that the Sino-Japanese numeric system, which came from China, is clunky when converting to the Arabic numeric system. The number system used in Japan revolves around the unit 10,000 ("man," pronounced "mahn"), rather than 1,000; thus, the number 10,000 is "1 man" (ichi mahn), 20,000 yen is "2 man" (ni mahn), 100,000 is "10 man" (juu mahn) and so on. The conversion from one numeric system to the other is just frustrating enough that most foreigners will be happy to leave their numbers in Japanese, as long as the person they're talking with understands the words. Thus a gaijin living in Japan is likely to say, "I bought a new cellular phone, but it cost me 2 mahn en" (20,000 yen), or, "My car broke, and it's going to cost 10 mahn en to fix it" (100,000 yen).

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

• First, for anime and toy fans, we've got a great figure in the Super Excellent Series, Cammy from Street Fighter II
  
• Also, a super cute character keychain set for the One Piece TV animation
  
• Japan's toy maker Tomy has a great line of die-cast cars, and we've got a limited edition set of three classic Toyota cars in a cool package for you (including the popular Prius)
  
• Also very cool, a series of Choro-Q cars and figures for Lupin III fans
  
• For bento fans, look for two great new bento boxes that come with their own chopsticks and secure straps, along with some great all-purpose bamboo chopsticks that are extra-easy to eat with
  
• If you love Gundam and robots, don't miss the excellent Tokyo Robot News, featuring tons of fan information and artwork for fans of all robot anime
  
• For fans of our Japanese snacks, look for many new items, including delicious rice cracker and fish snacks, crunchy Japanese almonds, and two great new flavors of Pretz (spicy curry and hotcakes n' syrup)
  
• For Sanrio fans find many cool items, including a Kitty photo album and Kitty bath salt, for an authentic hot springs experience
  
• We love Hamtaro, and have been selling cool Hamtaro goods for years -- see a deck of Hamtaro character cards in stock, now
  
• We've got fresh stock of some popular items that had been sold out, including cool Totoro items, Edward Scissorhands Kubricks, and only-sold-in-Japan Hot Wheels
  
• Also, don't forget to check for fresh stock of the popular Studio Ghibli music boxes, which are of very high quality and fun to collect -- we've got Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke and other music boxes in stock
  
• Also, for fans of our very soft and warm My Neighbor Totoro blankets, we've gotten the last of the stock we'll have this winter
  
• Finally, find many cool "Wacky Things from Japan" including an all-purpose soft case, a great Japanese wind chime, more dissolving onsen tablets for your bath, and the best toilet brush you've ever seen!
  

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

• For fans of beautiful Japanese nudes, we've got the new Bejean, the oversized magazine that is filled with beautiful adult video actresses, like Mai Hagiwara, Maiko Kazano, and many more
  
• Also, the new issue of Aishite Ageru, or "I'll Love You," a great hardcore magazine featuring real couples in love hotels
  
• Also very lovely, the new issue of Panst Best, featuring 45 lovely, leggy girls including the sizzling Akira Watase
  
• For fans of huge, beautiful photobooks enjoy the great hardcover offerings of Sachi Asaoka as well as the huge glossy photobook of Kaori Shimamura
  
• For fans of Japan's unique hentai comics, we've got some great new volumes in stock for you, including a super all "cute ears" anthology manga featuring lovely girls with cat ears, Chobits-type ears and more
  
• For Sailor Moon hentai fans, enjoy a major restocking of the Paradise Lost doujin anthologies, which parody the characters of this great anime
  
• For yaoi fans, we've got a great 2-volume yaoi work of science fiction that's beautiful to look at
  
• Also for fans of the excellent hentai doujinshi of Okachimentaiko, we've got a great new book in stock
  
• For fans of Peach Princess's bishoujo games, we have fresh stock of the excellent Yuri of the Imperial City wall scroll
  
• For DVD collectors, some great items, starting with a really "natsukashii" (nostalgic) 3-in-1 by Mari Misato, the former AV legend from the late 80's and mid-90's (region free)
  
• From the excellent Dogma and director Tohjiro, see a "Lewd Women Battle" between Ran Asakawa and Kurumi Morishita -- just beautiful! (region free)
  
• The lovely Rina Takase stars in The New Secret Semen Club, in an elegant bukkake release from SOD (region free)
  
• See the lovely Ai Nagase enjoy a little "reverse soap" as she becomes the client at Tokyo's most famous soaplands, on the receiving end of the fun this time (region free)
  
• A new "inexperienced girls penis study" concept from Moodyz, enjoy the new "Clothed Female Naked Male" DVD release! (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for various newly restocked items for DVD collectors and fans!
  

We love bringing you the most wacky Japanese T-shirts imaginable. Our shirts are all 100% cotton and are printed in the USA, and all sizes are full U.S. sizes. We carry a full range of sizes, from size small all the way up to 3XL, to serve nearly any customer. And now, we're happy to offer 4XL sizes for our black and white shirts (which we call our "Yokozuna Special"), for those customers who should need the larger size.

Do you love the anime films of Hayao Miyazaki? Remember that J-List stocks all the excellent region 2 DVD releases for Studio Ghibli movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky Laputa, Princess Mononoke and his Lupin III classic, The Castle of Caliostro. These DVDs are released in Japan directly by the studio and include many features that make them great for collectors. All discs feature English subtitles and/or dubbed tracks and are great for fans who want the definitive versions of these anime classics overseen by Mr. Miyazaki himself. The only catch is, you need a region free DVD player to watch them -- and J-List humbly recommends the two excellent units we currently sell.

Did you used to watch Land of the Lost? We found landofthelost.com to be quite an interesting website. Check it out!

Greetings from J-List February 22, 2003

Hello from Japan, where a steak made with ground beef is a "hamburg" and a frankfurter out of its bun is a "frankfurt."

Although cities like Tokyo have excellent train and subway systems, in most parts of Japan the only way to get around is a good old car. Japan's version of "car life" is a little different from what is found in the U.S., though. First of all, there are almost no independent car dealers, and virtually all new cars are sold through retail locations operated directly by Japan's auto makers. You never drive away with a car the day you go in to buy it, but instead "order" it, and it's made to your specifications at the factory and delivered three weeks later. They drive on the left side of the street, which is difficult to get used to at first, but is not so hard as long as you just look at other cars and drive on the same side of the street they're on. In the U.S., some drivers leave their headlights on for safety during the day, but it's never done here, and Japanese will follow you to tell you that you've left your lights on if you keep them on during the daylight hours. While honking a horn at another driver can cause road rage in the U.S., here a short "beep" is the universal way of saying thanks and good-bye as you pull away here in Japan. Most drivers turn off their car's headlights at intersections (often leaving the parking lights on), as a courtesy to drivers who might be blinded by their lights on the other side of the intersection. In Tokyo, where drivers drive with consideration for others (unlike Gunma, where we live), a two-second flashing of the hazard lights is the correct way to say "thank you" to the car behind you when he lets you in front of him. In Japan, traffic lights have a 3 second delay between when one light changes to red and the next one changes to green. By unwritten rule, Japanese drivers universally make use of this time to speed their car through the intersection, despite the red light, since they know they've got several seconds before the other cars will be moving. For a poorly-understood reason, the color for "green" (as in a green light) is "blue" in Japan -- all Japanese use the word "ao" (AH-oh) for the color of a green light, although this word really refers to the color blue.

For one reason or another, some phrases in English have burned themselves on the collective consciousness of the Japanese, and are quite famous here. When an American named Dr. Clark (universally known as "Clark-hakase" HA-KA-say) went to Sapporo to help establish what would become Sapporo University, he left the following advice to his Japanese hosts: "Boys, be ambitious!" (i.e., strive to achieve excellence in all that you do). These three words are studied by all Japanese, and somehow manage to pop up all over the place in one form or another. (There's a manga and anime called "Boys Be..." that is based on this phrase.) When pop singer Momoe Yamaguchi retired from singing, she sang a song to her fans that went "Thank you for your kindness...thank you for your tenderness" and as a result, virtually all Japanese over 30 know this famous phrase. Famous speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln ("Government for the people, by the people, and of the people") are studied in school the same way we studied Shakespeare in the U.S., too.

"You've been in Japan too long when you're speaking English with your gaijin friends, but all references to money are in Japanese." This is a funny phenomenon, but true: even when speaking English, gaijin living in Japan will tend to use Japanese for numbers and yen money amounts. The reason is that the Sino-Japanese numeric system, which came from China, is clunky when converting to the Arabic numeric system. The number system used in Japan revolves around the unit 10,000 ("man," pronounced "mahn"), rather than 1,000; thus, the number 10,000 is "1 man" (ichi mahn), 20,000 yen is "2 man" (ni mahn), 100,000 is "10 man" (juu mahn) and so on. The conversion from one numeric system to the other is just frustrating enough that most foreigners will be happy to leave their numbers in Japanese, as long as the person they're talking with understands the words. Thus a gaijin living in Japan is likely to say, "I bought a new cellular phone, but it cost me 2 mahn en" (20,000 yen), or, "My car broke, and it's going to cost 10 mahn en to fix it" (100,000 yen).

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

• First, for anime and toy fans, we've got a great figure in the Super Excellent Series, Cammy from Street Fighter II
  
• Also, a super cute character keychain set for the One Piece TV animation
  
• Japan's toy maker Tomy has a great line of die-cast cars, and we've got a limited edition set of three classic Toyota cars in a cool package for you (including the popular Prius)
  
• Also very cool, a series of Choro-Q cars and figures for Lupin III fans
  
• For bento fans, look for two great new bento boxes that come with their own chopsticks and secure straps, along with some great all-purpose bamboo chopsticks that are extra-easy to eat with
  
• If you love Gundam and robots, don't miss the excellent Tokyo Robot News, featuring tons of fan information and artwork for fans of all robot anime
  
• For fans of our Japanese snacks, look for many new items, including delicious rice cracker and fish snacks, crunchy Japanese almonds, and two great new flavors of Pretz (spicy curry and hotcakes n' syrup)
  
• For Sanrio fans find many cool items, including a Kitty photo album and Kitty bath salt, for an authentic hot springs experience
  
• We love Hamtaro, and have been selling cool Hamtaro goods for years -- see a deck of Hamtaro character cards in stock, now
  
• We've got fresh stock of some popular items that had been sold out, including cool Totoro items, Edward Scissorhands Kubricks, and only-sold-in-Japan Hot Wheels
  
• Also, don't forget to check for fresh stock of the popular Studio Ghibli music boxes, which are of very high quality and fun to collect -- we've got Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke and other music boxes in stock
  
• Also, for fans of our very soft and warm My Neighbor Totoro blankets, we've gotten the last of the stock we'll have this winter
  
• Finally, find many cool "Wacky Things from Japan" including an all-purpose soft case, a great Japanese wind chime, more dissolving onsen tablets for your bath, and the best toilet brush you've ever seen!
  

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

• For fans of beautiful Japanese nudes, we've got the new Bejean, the oversized magazine that is filled with beautiful adult video actresses, like Mai Hagiwara, Maiko Kazano, and many more
  
• Also, the new issue of Aishite Ageru, or "I'll Love You," a great hardcore magazine featuring real couples in love hotels
  
• Also very lovely, the new issue of Panst Best, featuring 45 lovely, leggy girls including the sizzling Akira Watase
  
• For fans of huge, beautiful photobooks enjoy the great hardcover offerings of Sachi Asaoka as well as the huge glossy photobook of Kaori Shimamura
  
• For fans of Japan's unique hentai comics, we've got some great new volumes in stock for you, including a super all "cute ears" anthology manga featuring lovely girls with cat ears, Chobits-type ears and more
  
• For Sailor Moon hentai fans, enjoy a major restocking of the Paradise Lost doujin anthologies, which parody the characters of this great anime
  
• For yaoi fans, we've got a great 2-volume yaoi work of science fiction that's beautiful to look at
  
• Also for fans of the excellent hentai doujinshi of Okachimentaiko, we've got a great new book in stock
  
• For fans of Peach Princess's bishoujo games, we have fresh stock of the excellent Yuri of the Imperial City wall scroll
  
• For DVD collectors, some great items, starting with a really "natsukashii" (nostalgic) 3-in-1 by Mari Misato, the former AV legend from the late 80's and mid-90's (region free)
  
• From the excellent Dogma and director Tohjiro, see a "Lewd Women Battle" between Ran Asakawa and Kurumi Morishita -- just beautiful! (region free)
  
• The lovely Rina Takase stars in The New Secret Semen Club, in an elegant bukkake release from SOD (region free)
  
• See the lovely Ai Nagase enjoy a little "reverse soap" as she becomes the client at Tokyo's most famous soaplands, on the receiving end of the fun this time (region free)
  
• A new "inexperienced girls penis study" concept from Moodyz, enjoy the new "Clothed Female Naked Male" DVD release! (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for various newly restocked items for DVD collectors and fans!
  

We love bringing you the most wacky Japanese T-shirts imaginable. Our shirts are all 100% cotton and are printed in the USA, and all sizes are full U.S. sizes. We carry a full range of sizes, from size small all the way up to 3XL, to serve nearly any customer. And now, we're happy to offer 4XL sizes for our black and white shirts (which we call our "Yokozuna Special"), for those customers who should need the larger size.

Do you love the anime films of Hayao Miyazaki? Remember that J-List stocks all the excellent region 2 DVD releases for Studio Ghibli movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky Laputa, Princess Mononoke and his Lupin III classic, The Castle of Caliostro. These DVDs are released in Japan directly by the studio and include many features that make them great for collectors. All discs feature English subtitles and/or dubbed tracks and are great for fans who want the definitive versions of these anime classics overseen by Mr. Miyazaki himself. The only catch is, you need a region free DVD player to watch them -- and J-List humbly recommends the two excellent units we currently sell.

Did you used to watch Land of the Lost? We found landofthelost.com to be quite an interesting website. Check it out!

Greetings from J-List February 20, 2003

Good evening from Japan, where calories are always corrected labeled as "kikocalories."

First of all, sorry for the problems with our mailing list. Due to a glitch with our ISP, the list went out a day late. Also, the non-adult list contents were sent out to the 18+ list members, making some think that they were on the wrong list. Sorry about that!

No study of Japan is complete without mention of two major themes, tatemae and honne (TAH-tay-MAH-ae and HON-neh). These are two difficult concepts, which are woven into the fabric of Japan as a nation. Tatemae could be translate as the ideas expressed in public or the way we pretend society is, while honne is the way we really feel, or the way the world really is. Often tatemae are the things you say to people in certain social situations, even though you don't feel that way inside. When I see my wife, who has mastered English and lived in the U.S., talking with the other mothers in the neighborhood who have never been outside of Japan, I can see some tatemae in action: she has to hold her own real opinions back much of the time. Tatemae can also exist in the society at large. For example, gambling is illegal in Japan, so you win "prizes" at Pachinko parlors, which you "sell" for money at small shops located conveniently next door. Prostitution is also illegal, yet there are "soaplands" where a beautiful girl will give you a "full body wash" in a bath (including one in Shibuya, located right behind a police station). And on Tokyo's busy Kan-Nana Bypass, the speed limit is a meager 40 kph (24 mph), but anyone actually going that speed would surely cause an accident -- so everyone speeds along at 90 kph (55 mph).

As time goes by, younger Japanese become more and more dissatisfied with the "little white lies" of tatemae around them. They become more direct and less subtle, which causes frustration in the generation of older Japanese who like their social relationships to be a little fuzzy. Japanese students, who learn six years of English while in school, often have a fixation about English speakers, that they "always say exactly what they think, no matter what." In a situation where you might reply in a very vague manner in Japanese, you'd often reply with a straight "yes" or "no" in English, and they think that directness applies all the time. The truth is that we have plenty of tatemae in English too -- times when it's improper to say something to someone even though it may be the truth. My wife has a Japanese friend living in Los Angeles who really goes overboard, always saying whatever's on her mind no matter what, including comments on the weight and eating habits of people she hardly knows. We don't invite her over very often.

It is the winter of our discontent in Japan right now, with roads everywhere blocked by sudden road construction that materializes around this time of year. Japan's fiscal year ends on March 31st, and as in the U.S., government bodies that have money left in their budgets have to give it back at the end of that time, so they work hard to spend the money instead. It's said that the construction industry is to the Japanese government what the military is to the U.S. -- construction of roads and housing is core of the Japanese economy, and most Japanese don't have a problem with road crews tearing up perfectly good roads to fix a pipe that wasn't broken, if it's for the common good. Throughout the past decade of off-and-on recession in Japan, the government has embraced public works as a way to kick-start the economy, spending endlessly on roads and bridges that are largely unnecessary, spending enough to build the Panama Canal each year. This deficit spending has not helped the economy and has only succeeded in lowering Japan's credit rating with Moody's (not Moodyz) to below that of Botswana.

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

• First, for we've got some great Sanrio and Hello Kitty items that are only sold in Japan
  
• If you love Japan's anime video game world, we've got a super art book of .hack // TheWorld, a smash hit fantasy video game featuring all the anime and characters of the Playstation 2 game
  
• We love Shirow Masamune's great manga works, and we're happy to have stock of the *bilingual* manga to Ghost in the Shell, which features both English and Japanese text as well as beautiful full color printing
  
• I am a big fan of Ultraman and am happy to be able to sell a new toy + candy series, featuring the famous monsters of the original Ultraman series, each very detailed and complete with base for displaying and ramune candy inside
  
• Also very cool, we've got a new Large and Medium Totoro keychain from Sun Arrow
  
• For fans of Blythe, the eerie but fascinating-looking doll from Takara, we've got more Pucchi Blythe figures, fashionable and really fun to collect
  
• For fans of cute anime girls, enjoy the Figure Maniacs soft vinyl figure of Mei Uzuki from Gao Gaiger Final
  
• Sailor Moon fans have something special: a super-cool Sailor Moon headset with microphone, so you can sing karaoke just like a Japanese idol singer (comes with a video too)
  
• For fans of our unique Japanese snack foods, we've got delicious Meiji "Precious Milk" chocolate squares, fun Anpan Man chocolate lollipops, some really funky (but delicious, trust us) dried squid, and for Kitty fans, delicious filled marshmallow balls that are really fun to eat
  
• Also, some delicious strawberry chewing gum with Xylitol, an ingredient popular in Japan that aids the health of your teeth and fights cavities
  
• Look for restocked items, such as miso soup (always a hugely popular item at J-List), furikake (food which you sprinkle over white rice), and more
  
• For anyone looking for something wacky from Japan, enjoy "gum erasers" that erase pencil marks normally, but they're soft like chewing gum and smell great -- we've got cola and jasmine in stock
  
• We love Japanese pens and stationary, and are happy to have some really handy Japanese pens in stock -- they come in beautiful color and the pens look like crystals when you write
  
• For those who like wacky Japanese messages, we've got some nice wooden signs with amusing messages on them
  
• Finally, look for super-cute Japanese happy face reflective stickers, a great way to relieve stress from your feet, more cool Hamtaro dress-up dolls, Japanese origami paper, and more!
  

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

• First and foremost, we've got the dynamite new issue of Urecco, chock full of positively beautiful Japanese gals like Akira Watase, Kaede Matsushima, Ryoko Mitake as a cosplay angel, and lovely covergirl Masa Sato
  
• For fans of lovely hardcover photobooks, see the erotic offering of Shien (photos by Seiichi Nomura) and the lovely pure nude photobook of Yui Asahina, with the odd title of "Shoot Up!"
  
• Also, another "Chinkame" format photobook, which features incredibly sassy photos of kogals in true Tokyo style
  
• For lovers of erotic manga, find many new excellent books, including the fantastic "A Married Woman as Mitsue" and Fujimi Comics' "Shiri-Chiri" that is just incredible
  
• For DVD lovers, we've got more dynamite European girls for you, with two new titles featuring French and Russian girls -- this is an incredible series that we really love (region free)
  
• The Adult Video Wrestling series by Kings Video features really excellent and realistic action in the ring, with real dedication shown by all participants towards putting on a good show -- enjoy a new 2 hour AV pro wrestling release today (region free)
  
• Japan's fetish for "panty stockings" (known as "panst" in Japanese) is quite famous -- see a delightful all stocking, leg and toe fetish DVD for you (region free)
  
• We love Kuki's No Cut!! series, which gives you 3 hours of superb AV action on one low-price DVD -- enjoy the super sex of Sakurako Kaoru (region free)
  
• For fans of extremely high-end Japanese lesbian DVDs, we hope you'll try out the new offering from the Le-Zu-Bian series, featuring a memorable performance by Yukari Kano and Yuka Kato (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for fresh stock of other DVD titles including the sold-out Czech and Hungary DVDs, sure to be runaway hits, as well as Mourning Dress Sisters, Endless Lesbian, All Nude Challenger, Akira Watase's Lewd Woman Kiss & Sex, and more!
  

Remember that J-List stocks many items for fans of "cosplay," the Japanese hobby of dressing up like your favorite anime or other character. From actual items you can buy and wear (including the line of excellent high school uniforms from Nagoya's Matsukameya, sold exclusively through J-List) to a full line of comics, DVDs and dating-sim games that cater to cosplay fans, we know we've got something for you.

Recently overheard: "I am the Lorax. I speak for Hello Kitty for Hello Kitty has no mouth."

Greetings from J-List February 12, 2003

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Greetings from J-List February 10, 2003

Greetings from J-List!

Want to know a Japanese joke? In Japanese, the word for Prime Minister is "sohri," which sounds like the English word "sorry" -- kind of like the English phrase "don't touch my mustache" sounds like "dou itashimashite" (you're welcome) in Japanese. "Sori," a similar-sounding word, means razor. Japanese kids say stupid things like, "I'm sorry, hige sori [beard razor], jori jori [the sound of rough, unshaven whiskers]." The word for Prime Minister is also sohri (written with different characters, of course, but the pronunciation is the same), so you can add the name of Japan's current PM, Koizumi-sohri. If you're ever talking to a Japanese person, and they apologize to you for something, come back with "Koizumi-sohri, hige sori, jori jori!" and watch them jump out of their shoes. (Pronunciation is koi-ZOO-me SOH-ree, hee-GAY SOH-ree, JOE-ree JOE-ree.)

Has a Japanese ever told you are "good head"? If so, it's a complement, although it might not sound like one. In Japanese, the phrase for "smart" (intelligent) is "good head" (atama ga ii), which sometimes gets carried over into English by Japanese still learning the language. The English word "smart" is used in Japanese to mean slender, well proportioned (as in, "That girl is very smart and stylish"). Other words are used in English in interesting ways. For example, when a man wants to win a woman's love, he prepares to "attack" her -- the English word attack is used to mean "to go out and win the love of another" and doesn't carry the violent connotations it can in English.

In Japanese, the word "sake" (SAH-kay, remember never to say "saki") refers to all alcohol, as well as the famous rice wine from Japan. Alcohol is a big part of Japanese society, a lubricant that allows people to remove stress and deal with the pressures of this vertical society (with many levels above and below you). The Japanese have some great unwritten rules when it comes to alcohol, too. For example, if you're out with your co-workers drinking, it's perfectly permissible to get anything off your chest about your boss, and be critical of him -- if you overstep the normal bounds of what is okay to say, it's dismissed the next day because alcohol was involved. If you make a fool out of yourself in front of your female co-workers, it's also generally forgiven the next day, too.

We've added a new toy category for J-List, for Kubrick toys (those cute figures that are so popular), Blythe and other dolls from Takara, and also the small toy + candy items we sell, such as the Godzilla figures that come with delicious ramune candy. You can also check out all toy items with the "View all toys" category too, of course.

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

• First, for fans of the incredibly popular Shirow Masamune in particular and great Japanese manga in general, we've got a "reserve subscription" available for Young Magazine Uppers, which often includes extremely rare posters and other items inside
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we've got one of the coolest things you'll ever see -- five beautiful Kitty statues in a classic kimono, performing a dance
  
• If you love Japanese film on DVD, we've got a new one for you: Battle Royale, a hilarious story of a fight to the death among Japanese junior high school students (region 2, subtitled in English)
  
• Also, fresh stock of the excellent Ghost in the Shell vol. 2 and The Color of Life, which features incredibly bold Japanese TV (including Oh! Mikey).
  
• If you love Chobits, the popular manga of a future in which the PCs of the future are beautiful girl-robots, we recommend the new Kodansha Bilingual Comics that we've got in stock now
  
• Takara's popular Blythe dolls are really getting popular -- we'd sold out of all the ones we posted last week. Now we've got some cool new ones for you!
  
• Also for fans of rare toys, we've got a super figure of Lupin III with a Laputian robot from the famous episode of the show directed by Hayao Miyazaki -- really cool, and really rare
  
• Parody goods are popular in Japan right now, and we love to carry them -- see a parody of Canada Dry band-aids, some authentic cigarette erasers, and more in stock now
  
• For fans of Japanese snack foods, find Meiji's delicious Fran chocolate sticks, two kinds of great furikake, and more
  
• Also, fresh stock of popular items such as Choco Q (the delicious chocolate eggs with meticulously sculpted plastic animals inside), more popular Lotte chewing gum including Black Black, more miso soup, and more
  
• For students of Japanese, we've got a cool rewritable kanji practice notebook, with many easy characters for you to learn
  
• For fans of bento and related items, we've got a great two-tiered bento box, a set of high-quality disposeable chopsticks, and more
  
• Finally, look for an authentic Japanese abacus, a super pin set for Tokyo Mew Mew fans, Hello Kitty business card holders, and more!
  

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

• If you love Japan's erotic love-sim games, aka "hentai games," we've got a special treat for you: Tsuki ~ Possession, a great new title from G-Collections, is available for ordering now! (remember you get 20% off 4 or more games, too)
  
• For fans of rare Japanese adult magazines, enjoy some rare titles, like the lovely Senningiri ("Over 1000 Men"), a nice magazine for fans of jukujo and married women, and more
  
• Also, a great magazine + 4 hour DVD item, we've got the great Good DVD 4 Hours, featuring tons of famous AV stars performing in quickies for you
  
• For fans of Japanese photobooks, we've got some great items, including the "Finale" of the lovely Kaori Shimamura, a delicious all-leg fetish photobook with 40 models in it, and more
  
• Also, we've got a new "chinkame" format small photobook with ten positively lovely AV stars in a book you can carry with you anywhere
  
• For fans of Japan's highly developed "new half" (aka Mr. Lady) photography, we've got a new "sexy shemale" photobook in stock
  
• For hentai manga fans, enjoy excellent erotic new offerings from Tsukasa Comics, Hit Comics, and more, including an erotic ghost story from Tomohiro Kouda, Triple Sunshine
  
• Also, fresh stock of many popular hentai manga works, such as the popular Cat Life, Change, and Jet Boss
  
• Also, we love the excellent AG, the magazine of "art, sex and CG culture" and have restocked several backissues for you -- they're all in stock in our San Diego location
  
• Also, another volley of great doujinshi for you, all very new releases with great artwork (but they will go fast, as always...)
  
• For collectors of Japan's adult DVDs, we've got some new items that will knock your socks off, starting with Ran Monbu (whose name sounds like the French dessert Mont Blanc when you say it in Japanese name order) in a wonderful *4 hour* erotic offering from Million (region free)
  
• Enjoy the erotic lesbian kissing of real Japanese amateurs in a new work from SOD's AV director Hajime (region free)
  
• Yukari Sakurada is a beautiful, experienced woman who appeals to fans of "jukujo" (more mature women) themes -- enjoy 2 hours of her best works in a new DVD release (region free)
  
• Enjoy traditional themes of bondage, lesbian sex and mature women themes, in a new release from Cinemagic (region free)
  
• For fans of bold erotic Indies AV, enjoy a super erotic performance by Miyuki Hourai, featuring lots of fun cosplay (including Anna Miller's uniforms), bondage play and more (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for more restocked DVDs, including fresh stock of the "How to Perfect" series by Wanz Factory (one of my favorites), more lesbian kissing and other DVDs, and more!
  

Are you a fan of Japan's love-sim games? If so we hope you've preordered JAST USA Memorial Collection and Milky House Memorial Collection, two excellent sets of three complete game products which will be shipping soon. We're especially proud of the JAST Memorial, which accurately recreates the original three JAST USA games Three Sister's Story, Season of the Sakura and Runaway City in perfect detail, but with many extra features and compatibility with modern Windows. Preorder now and get free shipping, as well as previous $5 off if you've bought one of the originals before (via mail-in coupon). Both games are golden master and are on their way to the duplicator's now!

Remember that J-List carries a full line of Japanese snack foods, with many rare cult favorites in stock for you, like Pocky (all flavors), Black Black caffeine gum, and also the delicious and popular Felix the Cat bubble gum, which is famous all the world over (we're not sure why, but based on the mails we get from customers, it is). Remember that all chocolate and Pocky items are only sold in the cooler months -- they melt in the summer so we can't carry them at all. If there's something you'd like to get, we've probably got it in stock for you!

Greetings from J-List February 7, 2003

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Greetings from J-List February 5, 2003

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Greetings from J-List February 3, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where "UFO" and "VIP" are pronounced as words, not spelled out (e.g." you-foh" and "vipp").

All Japan was shaken by the terrible tragedy of the Space Shuttle Columbia. I happened to hear the news right after it broke, jacking into a talk radio station in Atlanta (what would we all do without the Internet?). The Japanese are very proud of their participation in the Shuttle program, and of the three Japanese astronauts, Mamoru Mouri, Koichi Wakata and Chiaki Mukai, who have flown into space. Mukai-san, the Japanese astronaut who flew with John Glenn some years ago, happens to hail from Gunma Prefecture, right down the road from J-List, and we've taken our kids to the Prefectural Space Museum in her hometown that's dedicated to teaching Japanese young people about space. Among the many thousands of people that receive J-List's updates is a friend of ours, NASA's liaison to Japan's space agency NASDA, who would have known all the astronauts who died in the tragedy. Our hearts go to out to everyone involved in the exploration of space in this sad time.

The Japanese do love tests. In addition to their world-famous college entrance exams, the Japanese have standardized tests for just about everything, with levels that are similar to the belt colors in karate and judo. Just about every subject, from abacus to waapro (word processing) to accounting have national tests that students and adults are encouraged to study for and take. The most famous standardized test in Japan is Eiken, also known as the Step Test, a series of tests that Japanese students take over the course of their lives -- level 3 while in junior high school, level 2 while in high school, and level 1 if they really want to try a challenging test after college. There are standardized tests for Japanese brush writing, penmanship, and even a test for calculating rapidly and accurately with a calculator. All sports have their own various standardized tests, including skiing -- my son, who recently started to ski, will be taking his first tests next year. For gaijin like you or me, there's a test for learning Japanese called the Nihongo Noryoku Shiken or the Japanese Ability Test, taken each December at various cities around the world. Level 4 tests basic kana and kanji, levels 3 and 2 are progressively harder, and level 1 is a really difficult test required for all students who want to enter a Japanese university. Japan's test mania may seem odd, but it is a good way to motivate people to study and better themselves.

What color are your eyes? All Japanese people have brown eyes, although if you ever ask them what color their eyes are, they'll tell you "black" (because the center of the eyes are black, as opposed to the iris). Japanese are often interested in the eyes of foreigners, since they come in different colors, something totally unknown in Japan (although they do have color contact lenses here). When I tell Japanese that my eyes change color depending on what I'm wearing, ranging from green to hazel to blue, they usually don't believe it's possible. My wife and I are studying Spanish, and recently I was asked by my teacher, a Japanese who grew up in Peru, if I saw the world through a blue or green tint because of the color of my eyes.

We've had some bad news on the Hello Kitty massager front -- the factory that makes these has stopped production, and we've been told that our current stock is all that will be available. If you're looking for the ultimate Japanese pop culture item, we recommend the Hello Kitty vibrators, which are cool on so many levels. Also, buy 3 or more of these great items and get 15% off!

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

• First, if you love Macross/Robotech, we've got stock of the very rare blue and red Super Valkyries from Yamato -- fully transforming and perfectly detailed
  
• For fans of great Japanese film on DVD, we've got the original Japanese release of The Ring, for fans of the U.S. film who want to see the terrifying original (region 2, Japanese dialogue only)
  
• For fans of Japanese Race Queens, see a great photobook featuring the lovely Ran Enoki, as well as fresh stock of the popular Gal's Paradise card series
  
• If you love rare snacks from Japan, enjoy the new items we've got for you, including Caplico (ice cream you can eat anywhere), delicious chocolate 5 yen coin candy, delicious egg furikake, and squid
  
• Camouflage is definitely "in" this year in Japan -- we've got a handy camouflage room organizer that you can use to store anything
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, many items, including a cute Kitty silk purse, a hand-knit Kitty mascot that's so cute, and a rare set of Kitty finger puppets!
  
• For fans of the only-released-in-Japan Hot Wheels, we've got a new vehicle for you from a classic anime
  
• Enjoy a new keychain set for fans of One Piece, the famous Jump anime and manga
  
• For Totoro and Sun Arrow fans, enjoy several new items, including a cute Mei doll, fresh stock of the dynamite tin toy items
  
• For Ultraman fans, we've got a cool item -- a rubber Ultraman mask
  
• We've got lots of fun Hamtaro items, including the Hamtaro drawing set, fresh stock of Hamtaro Hiragana notebooks and more
  
• J-List loves to carry "parody goods" from Japan, such as the Bandage Memo (post-its that look like band-aids), fresh stock of the wasabi lighting keychain and more
  
• Finally, enjoy puffy carriers that protect your possessions (great for laptop computer), a neat dish-drying rack for your sink, fresh stock of bento boxes and chopsticks for your kitchen, fresh stock of stylish Blythe dolls, and more!
  

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

• For lovers of fine Japanese adult magazines, we've got the new Gokuh, the delightful and bold magazine of erotic photography from Eichi Publishing
  
• We've got the new issue of the extremely popular Gal's Shower, a wonderful all-bukkake magazine for fans of this unique Japanese fetish
  
• Don't miss Mini-Skirt Sexy DVD, featuring 180 minutes of beautiful and erotic Japanese Race Queen sexy ladies and a full color magazine
  
• We've got some great photobooks for you as well, including a very authentic first nude photobook by a nurse at a famous Tokyo hospital, and a superb nude featuring the lovely Natsuki Abe
  
• Japan as a country is very fond of dressing up in costumes, which is called "cosplay" -- now you can dress up as an erotic maid with a new item we've got for you
  
• For hentai doujinshi fans, we've got another selection of top-notch erotic underground comics, although we have only limited stock -- so check quickly!
  
• Also, for fans of more convention Japanese hentai "wide" manga, enjoy a super two volume set by Masayoshi Mukai and EX Comics
  
• Also, a new item: two "eComics" which are complete hentai comics on two great card-sized CD-ROMs that are beautifully printed, a very nice item for collectors
  
• For fans of adult DVDs from Japan, we've got a great lineup for you today, starting with a new Adult Video Wrestling special, 120 minutes of the finest realistic sexual pro wrestling we've seen (region free)
  
• We love the pure beauty and girl-next-door looks of Hikari Kisugi, and now you can see enjoy her erotic loveliness in a Blue File release, 3 hours of her best work on one disc! (region free)
  
• Mirei Asaoka was one of the queens of 1990's adult video, and she shines again in a great new 4-hour release from Alice Japan (region free)
  
• Enjoy two girls with wonderful "exploding breasts" (as they say in Japanese) -- Maria Yumeno and Ryo Aihara team up in a new "coupling" DVD from SOD (region free)
  
• The sultry, burning eros of Airi Niiyama is captured in a new offering from Wanz Factory, a great erotic DVD for fans of Japanese bondage play (region 2)
  
• Finally for fans of highly developed Japanese lesbian performances, see a new Le-Zu-Bian offering from U and K!
  

Remember that J-List makes dozens of magazines available through our "reserve subscription" system. Basically, we'll pre-reserve the current issue of each month's magazine for you and have it in the mail to you by the time it's in bookstores here in Japan -- a few days earlier, actually, since we get our stock earlier than most bookstores. We've got many different anime, toy, JPOP/JROCK, idol and other magazines available, we just know there's something you'd love to get each month. See the magazine subscription pages on our site for more information.

Greetings from J-List October 31, 2003

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Greetings from J-List January 30, 2003

Hello again from all of us in Japan!

When Japanese think of foreigners, they think of overly tall, blonde Americans with huge feet, trying to find their way to the right subway line. In actuality, the vast majority of foreigners living in Japan are not Westerners, but are from both Koreas, Brazil, Peru, and China. Officially, 1% of Japan's population are resident foreigners, although that number doesn't take into account people who are here illegally, so the number is probably higher. Isesaki, the city we live in, has a much higher foreign population (3%) due to a lot of factories based here. The area with the highest percent of foreigners in Japan is just down the road: the town of Oizumi boasts a population of 30% Brazilian and Japanese of Brazilian descent, and they have a really fun Carnival festival in the summer.

The largest group of foreigners in Japan, the Koreans, are very interesting because many of them were born and raised right here, and often don't even speak Korean unless they attended one of the Korean-only private schools that pepper the country. To an American like me, it's odd that these people would not be considered Japanese, as all children born in the U.S. get to be American citizens automatically. But the relationship of Korea and Japan is a very complex one, and more or less by mutual agreement of both sides, Koreans often live for generations inside Japan, never allowing themselves to become culturally assimilated. Or is it the Japanese who keep the Korean population from truly becoming part of Japan? I couldn't possibly say for sure. On the one hand, it's not difficult for anyone (even white-boy gaijin me) to get Japanese citizenship as long as he meets certain reasonable requirements. Japan is always very sensitive to possible accusations of racism, so there are no groups that aren't "allowed" to become Japanese citizens. Many Koreans object to the Japanese requirement that all persons wanting to become naturalized must take a Japanese name, e.g. Taro Yamada. Koreans living in Japan make sure they only hang out with other similar-minded Koreans (e.g., South with South, North with North), lest questions arise about their loyalties. There is, unfortunately, a lot of organized crime related to North Koreans, everything from making North Koreans born in Japan pay protection money to "support" relatives back home, to the highly refined manufacturing of cocaine for import into Japan.

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

• First, for fans of the classic anime Cobra, we've got a rare treat: Cobra action figure toys, and we've got full sets available, too (but only two)
  
• For anyone who loves Hot Wheels, we've got the only-released-in-Japan Hot Wheels Delorean from Back to the Future III, incredibly well detailed and very cool
  
• We've got nice items for fans of Japanese idols and Race Queens, including a beautiful all-idol magazine and the lovely hardcover photobook of Aiko Itoh
  
• If you collect Japanese CD singles, we've got the perfect case for you to organize them with
  
• We've got some nice new Hello Kitty items, including Kitty envelopes that are so cute, as well as fresh stock of several popular items
  
• Also, if you love Hamtaro, we've got some supremely cute Hamtaro items including a great character scarf for when it's cold out
  
• For fans of Japanese snacks, enjoy delicious Ochazuke, a kind of dried food containing green tea, nori, and rice crackers which you pour over rice, then pour boiling water over the whole thing and eat it
  
• We've also got, delicious Hi-Soft caramels from Morinaga ("Healing you softly with an Angel's Heart," delicious Japanese green tea in tea bags, and Kiss Mint gum
  
• Also, an item that's selling incredibly well, thanks to a mention in the most recent Wired Magazine: Black Black, Lotte's original caffeine gum that wakes you up
  
• We've got a super cute camouflage hat for anyone who wants to emulate what's stylish right now in Japan
  
• Finally, there's a cool large envelope to protect your documents, some "high sense creation" keychain/phone straps,
  

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

• For fans of dynamite erotic photography, enjoy the fabulous Ultimate Heroines, filled with incredibly bold and sassy photos
  
• Also very cool, the new issue of Do-Up, filled with super amateur girls aged 19-22, performing with their boyfriends in love hotels
  
• We love Japanese photobooks, and Hiroko Suto has a fabulous and very high-quality glossy one for you
  
• We've got more issues of Up! You, which is "the world's beauty catalog" and features many rare lovelies Russia, Europe and more
  
• We've got excellent erotic manga for you to today, with several all-new volumes by Tsukasa and other studios, including the excellent "Flesh Bride"
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got more excellent items, starting with Gymnastics Girls, a superb DVD for fans of leotards and the slender bodies of Japan's famous AV idols (region free)
  
• For fans who love their women more solid, we've got a great Big Breast Body Doll featuring Sakura Sena, a girl with a fantastic 101 cm K cup (region free)
  
• For fans of the lovely Eri Yukawa, that busty and sexy AV star, we've got a super 2-DVD bukkake fetish offering from Moodyz that you won't want to miss (region 2)
  
• For lovers of fine hentai anime on DVD, we've gotten in the boxed sets of Immu Seisen vol. 1-3, ready to ship out to you
  
• Look for freshly updated DVD titles, including Mizuho Kano Special (featuring the lovely Jun Kusanagi, her AV name), Eri Yukawa's erotic bondage DVD, and Sally Yoshino's Indecent Beast City, and new DVDs by Ami Ayukawa
  
• Finally, the J-List January DVD Sale is still going strong, although January is at an end -- if you want to take advantage of our buy-4-get-25% off sale, hurry! We've got hundreds of DVD items included in the sale for you, so look for something before the sale ends!
  

J-List carries many great funny Japanese T-shirts, with many funny messages on them like "I want to be Japanese" and "Dirty American Devil." Please note that we're always closing out our current shirts to make room for new ones, so that the shirt you are planning on getting next week might not be there when you to back for it. We're EOLing some shirts, such as Philosophy of Hentai, Men Over Women, the yellow Mother shirt and others, and no more will be printed. Since we invariably get a lot of customers who ask to buy this shirt or that when the last of them are gone, we recommend you get the shirts now, while the size you need is in stock. Get 3 or more and get 10% off!

Are you using Paypal? Paypal is a very convenient system for paying for things securely online, and is a great way to pay for just about any purchase. J-List gladly accepts Paypal for orders (you can choose "Paypal" as the payment method when checking out and we'll send you a link to click on to make payment), in addition to other payment methods such as secure credit card payments, check/money order, and in extreme cases, cash through the mail. Paypal is especially handy for our customers in Europe, since payments may be made in Euros or British Pounds. As this convenient service attains more and more "critical mass" we hope customers who have need of this convenience will use it.

The Top 5 list has been updated so you can see what items have been selling well over the past week. Click the link to bring up the items, too.

That's all for now -- have a great weekend!

Greetings from J-List October 29, 2003

Hello again from your friends in Japan!

We're extremely relieved to announce that everything is fine with both our home and the J-List San Diego office. The deadly Cedar Fire that has destroyed more than 1000 homes came within a hair of the Tierrasanta area of San Diego, where our U.S. home is located. Happily, the elementary school that sits behind our house saved us -- the large areas of asphalt robbed the fire of fuel and stopped the spread, although ten homes in another part of Tierrasanta were lost. All is well at the J-List office, too, and our staff is all safe and back at work, ready to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Shipping of orders for T-shirts, games and DVD players will resume today. We're happy to have been spared great hardship, but with so many having lost so much, it's still very sobering. As I write these words, the lovely mountain town of Julian, where San Diegans go to see snow in the winter and eat apple pie in the summer, is threatened by the flames.

To see some pictures of the area around our house during the fires and of the fires area as of yesterday, here are some URLs for you:

http://www.laurapientka.com/pcr/fire/picts.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/fires/images/031028fierypaths.html

When you come to a country like Japan, you realize that words don't always mean what you intend for them to mean. When I was working as an English conversation teacher, I had a confusing moment when a pretty female student talked about going shopping over the weekend with "lover." The word she meant to use was boyfriend, but because the Japanese word is koibito (literally "love person"), she got confused, causing me to sweat for the rest of the class. It happened again when we were talking about her dog, and I happened to ask what sex it was. The Japanese use the English word "sex" but only to describe the famous act, not to denote male or female -- and confusion reigned again.

Simple concepts like "you" and "I" can get quite complicated in Japanese, too. The basic word for "I" is "watashi," and this is what is used in formal settings (also pronounced "watakushi"). Girls get a cute version of this word -- "atashi" -- and good boys are supposed to use a boy's word for referring to one's self, "boku." Rough and tough boys, as well as men who want to project their manliness, will use the men's word "ore" (oh-rey) for "I" -- Kenshiro, of Fist of the North Star, uses this term exclusively. For "you," the formal word is "anata," but "kimi" (a familiar word for use among friends) and another rough man's word, "omae" (oh-MAH-eh), are also used depending on the situation. A person's choice of what first- and second-person pronouns he choose to use reveals much about his personality and self-image. A cute little girl will use the term "atashi" or "watashi" and play with Licca-chan dolls; a girl who is a rebellious tomboy might use the boy's word "boku" to the disdain of her parents; and young boys, such as my son, will rebel against his parents by using the word "ore."

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

• First, for Domo-kun fans we've got two high-quality all-purpose Domo-kun pouches, which you can keep just about anything in -- they feature sturdy strings to close the bags, too
  
• We've got some really cook "shokugan" figures in (small toys with candy inside), a series of figures from the eerily beautiful anime Utaware Mono (full sets in stock)
  
• Then, for Blythe fans, we've got a super fun new Pop-up World Blythe figure featuring a luxurious doll with stand and accessories
  
• The Nyanko Restaurant series presents famous Japanese dishes, but instead of food, super cute plush kitty cats are inside -- this could only have come from Japan. See the new Nyanko Nabe (pot-based cooking) in stock
  
• Like Japanese snacks? We've got traditional Japanese mizu ame (water candy, er, it's really sticky and fun to play with), unique Japanese tea, and fun "choco crayons" that you can really eat
  
• Also, the newest flavor of Toppo, the baked pretzel stick with chocolate inside -- taste the delicious bitter chocolate, made with real cocoa powder, as well as a major restocking of our delicious Pocky
  
• Another favorite of ours, Hi-Chew, a delicious "chewing candy" by Morinaga -- we've got in stock of the "secret flavor" (we're not allowed to tell you what the flavor is)
  
• For fans who love the wacky mannequin drama OH! Mikey, we've got a great PVC keychain of Mikey, really cool and hard to find in Japan
  
• For those who love the aesthetic look of kanji, we've got a nice wood signboard with a beautiful message written on it
  
• For Kitty fans, we've got a cute Hello Kitty all-purpose plastic pouch, great for storing many things -- also, fresh stock of other great only-sold-in-Japan Hello Kitty items
  
• Also, some really nice balsa-wood chopsticks that are great for giving to guests when they come over to eat
  
• For Miyazaki fans, we've restocked the dynamite kitsune-risu (fox-squirrel) from Nausica and Laputa, Bou Nezumi from Spirited Away
  
• Also, fresh stock of the really cool large-scale Evangelion Mass Production Model toys
  
• Finally, look for other items, including wacky accessory pouches that kogals in Japan use, more wacky Japanese notebooks with funny English on them, and more!
  

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

• For those who love shapely, beautiful Japanese AV stars, we've got the new issue of Dela Beppin, the deluxe Beppin that overflows with top names from japan including Aoi Sola
  
• Then we've got a special deluxe Mook (a cross between a magazine and a book) version of Gokuh, with super glossy pages filled with lovely erotic angels from Japan, all for you
  
• For fans of hardcore sex magazines, we've got the new issue of Do-Up (which sounds like bukkake dripping in Japanese, e.g. dwapp!!)
  
• For photobook lovers, we've got some great new hardcover offerings for you, including Nami Ichinohe's dynamite new photobook, and the sexy Erotic Revolution photobook of Noriko Namimatsu
  
• Also, see the fantastically bold photobook of Kanako Ishikawa, Feeling K, showing her in all her loveliness
  
• Akira Gomi's "Yellows" series of photobooks document the beautiful female bodies of hundreds of girls from Japan -- we've got limited stock of his photobooks for you now
  
• For hentai manga collectors, enjoy an excellent offering of new books, including cat girl fetish, extreme hentai, and a beautiful work of erotic love by Hiro Suzuhira
  
• Restocked manga and doujinshi include Aero, Cheeky Petite Angels, and fresh stock of Elixir, the excellent dick girl CG collection by Androgynous ONLY Circle Alsenoteris
  
• Also, for yaoi fans, we've got a great new anthology for you, featuring great works by famous m/m artists, as well as fresh stock of other really nice comics
  
• For our DVD customers, we have some great items for you, starting with the Masterpiece Concentration of Nozomi Momoi, the tragic AV idol from Japan (region free)
  
• From Alice Japan, we've got a superb cosplay fetish DVD featuring the erotic sex of Sola Aoi, aka Sora Aoi, aka Blue Sky, for you (region free)
  
• See four lovely female teachers from Japan in the very sexy "female teacher army corps" (region free)
  
• Enjoy the Super Idol and Gokkun Debut in which Riho Nanase teachers two new stars all about bukkake, jizz-swallowing and more, in a great release from SOD's Natural High label (region free)
  
• The popular hentai manga Nami SOS! by master illustrator Chataro is now an anime! We've got the great erotic hero anime for you on DVD (region 2)
  
• Then Manami Suzuki, the sultry former Race Queen, stars in a great bukkake and gokkun release, in which she allows many a lucky actor to blow on her face, then she drinks it all down (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've restocked many excellent erotic DVDs, including Penis Venus (Kurumi Morishita pretending to be a boy with a penis in a yaoi production), Anna with a Change of Costumes (classic busty Anna), 4 Hours of Ran Asakawa, The High Grade Soap 4 Hours Special, and Beautiful Leg Queen (vol 1 & 2 combo). Enjoy then all!
  

Do you love Hello Kitty? J-List does, and we stock nearly a hundred unique Hello Kitty items that are only sold in Japan. From Hello Kitty toilet paper to Kitty chopsticks to the world-famous Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massage, which is out of production and will disappear from J-List within a few months, we've got some great items for you. To find them all, just search for "kitty."