Greetings from J-List September 5, 2003

Hello and TGIF from Japan!

Although you may think of certain foods as sushi, sashimi, tempura and sukiyaki as popular Japanese dishes, the national food of Japan has got to be curry, or as the Japanese call it, curry rice. Curry spread to Britain during the 1700s and from there went all around the world. In Japan, curry is eaten on steamed white rice, and became popular at the start of the 20th century -- and now it's eaten more than any other kind of food. Japanese curry is thicker than the soup-like Indian curry, and many companies here compete to make the best blend of curry to appeal to consumers, making products with names like House The Curry, Vermont Curry, and Java Curry. Although Thai food is quite popular in parts of America, it's not very common here in Japan -- but Indian restaurants are always seem to be packed.

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, too, to give students goals to attempt and clear as they progress in learning the sport. 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. I think the test is a great way for anyone studying Japanese to set a goal to work towards each year. For information on the Nihongo Noryoku Shiken, see http://www.jpf.org.au/slc/proficiency/proficiency.htm

We love the popularity our wacky Japanese T-shirts have enjoyed with J-List customers. In addition to the standard men's size T-shirts we carry in all sizes (S through 3XL), which are all printed in the U.S. on 100% cotton, standard-size shirts, we also have some great fitted baby doll T's for girls. One design we think is really cool is "Koguaru" (kogal), a tribute to Japan's spoiled bad girls, who dress so fashionably and who would never be seen without their keitai (portable phones). We've added a great new color of Koguaru shirt, allow you to choose between three great colors. See all our shirts on the site now!

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

• First, for fans of Hayao Miyazaki's films, we've got some great new items for you, including a Castle in the Sky Laputa deck of cards that's beautifully printed and a deluxe set of fabulous handmade Totoro stamps
  
• For fans of our unique Japanese snacks, we've got some new varieties, including seaweed and potato flavored pretzel sticks (they're good!), Japanese custard cookies, chicken in a can and Japanese-style worcester sauce
  
• Also, fresh stock of several delicious treats from Japan including Gummi Sushi (fruit-flavored sushi on marshmallow rice), Wata-Pachi (exploding pop rocks inside cotton candy), March of the Koalas chocolate-filled cookies and more
  
• We love to find cool Japanese toys for you, and one of our favorite series are the Kubrick toys by Medicom Factory -- see the fun Ponkikies bizarre toys we've got in stock for you, with full sets available!
  
• Got small electronics you want to protect? We've got some very handy soft foam cases that will protect just about anything from your iPod to a PDA and more
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we've got some great new items, including a plush tissue box cover that will Kittify any living room, and cute Kitty reflective bracelets that are stylish and cute
  
• Another thing we love to sell are the very detailed die-cast Tomica cars -- see two cool colors of Mazda's RX-8, very cool!
  
• To beat the summer heat, why not get a folding fan in Ayumi Hamasaki-style leopard skin?
  
• We love Japanese bikini models, and one of our favorites is the lovely Megumi -- see a new photo magazine dedicated to this lovely girl
  
• Also, look for a great photobook featuring Hikaru Kawamura, the famous idol and Race Queen
  
• For fans of extremely cool miniature toys from Japan, we've got fresh stock of the Amazing Weapons series, featuring bizarre weapons invented during World War II (w/ full sets in stock)
  
• Also, fresh stock of the popular Japanese Summer Festival miniature series, so very cool
  
• For fans of high-quality anime statues from Japan, we've got a positively dynamite 1/6 scale pre-painted statue of Morrigan from Vampire Saviour, which stands a massive 13 inches high and is incredibly beautiful to behold
  
• For our female customers, we've added a cute new color of "Koguaru" (Kogal) T-shirts in a great fitted style that will make you look great -- a super item for girls who want to show off sexy
  
• Finally, sleep well with "minus ion" sheets for your pillow, more sushi makers and bento related items, cute Hello Kitty plastic bags, more funny Japanese signs, unique Japanese ear cleaners, and more!
  

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

• For fans of amateur sex in love hotels, we've got the new issues of "I'll Give Myself to You" and the perfect-bound issue of "I Want You To Look At Me" (love those Japanese names)
  
• Also, we've got the new issue of DVD Explosion 10 Hours, a great color magazine that features two 5-hour DVDs with a whopping ten hours of great sexual samples and quickies (region free)
  
• If you love big, glossy Japanese photobooks featuring beautiful women, why not check out the new photobook of Kyoko Fujikawa
  
• Also, we've got other great photobooks, including a selection of nudes by real "soap girls" who work in Japanese soaplands, where a man can get a pretty girl to wash his body
  
• For hentai manga fans, we've got some great new works for fans of bukkake, nurse fetish, dick girl and other classic erotic Japanese themes
  
• If you love dick girl and hentai game girl themes, we've got a great item for you: a new CG collection from Rebis, the "Androgynous ONLY circle," featuring extreme hentai artwork of your favorite video game gals
  
• For yaoi fans, we've got a new story of the exploration of love between friends, as well as fresh stock of several popular yaoi works
  
• For our DVD customers, rejoice: Aoi Sora stars in a great new release of the Contrary Soap Heaven series, in which beautiful AV idols go to be serviced by men instead of the other way around (region free)
  
• Then from SOD, enjoy a fun "penis study" release in which four beautiful rich girls study the male member in front of the camera (region free)
  
• From SOD's Chujitsudoh ("Hall of Sincerity"), we have a superb selection of bukkake and sweet sex featuring Mio Asakura (region free)
  
• Then for fans of the Soft on Demand Outlet, where you can find older titles at great prices, we've got the delicious seaside sex of Ruri Ayase, in her Virtual Venus release (region free)
  
• Then from Moodyz, we've got a great new bukkake with four delightfully erotic chijo (slut fetish), who explore bukkake and lesbian sex and more (region 2)
  
• Then enjoy a beautiful Dream Shower release featuring Nao-chan, the hot new indies AV star who's growing in popularity because she's so beautiful (region 2)
  
• Finally, we've added fresh stock of several popular DVDs, including cat right (girls slapping the shit out of each other), lesbian titles, black men and Japanese girl fetish, and more great titles by Asuka Sawaguchi, the clean sex idol from Japan.
  

Remember that J-List carries great collections of CG images from famous Japanese doujin-soft artists, who publish CD-ROMs of their computer artwork in lieu of comic-book format doujinshi. We especially love the Creamy Angel series, which features excellent hentai artwork with famous and original characters, as well as Dream World 2, featuring beautiful erotic images based on Evangelion. All art is uncensored, and images are included in full size so you can print them out, use them as desktop wallpaper, and more.

Also remember that J-List carries that great symbol of Japanese wacky pop culture, the Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager, which is of course intended as massager for your neck and shoulders, although some would call it a Hello Kitty vibrator (imagine!). A licensed Sanrio item sold only in Japan, the unit features high and low massage modes, and a beautiful image of Kitty and her rabbit friend. It looks just great, in or out of case -- display it as a wonderful pop culture icon. Why not get a few, and give them out as gifts? (If you get 3 or more you get a 15% discount through the J-List shopping cart.) We're down to a few hundred of these left, so whether they will be in stock or not by Christmas is very doubtful.

Greetings from J-List September 3, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where an athlete is a "sportsman," a still photographer is a "cameraman" and an employee at a company is a "salaryman."

Well, I'm safely back in Japan after an eventless 14 hour flight. I had to give up the extra day I'd gotten for free when going to the U.S., and jumped from Monday morning to Tuesday afternoon in a single plane ride. Happily, jet lag is not too bad coming back to Japan, since you arrive more or less at bedtime and can get to sleep right away.

One of my favorite things about Japan are public baths and hot springs, and I take my kids to the bath at least a couple times per week. Public baths (sento) are a holdover from the old days when people didn't have baths in their homes, and had to go to a community bathing place. There are usually several different kinds of baths, including herbal baths, very hot baths, jet baths, and quite often an electric bath, which carries a low electric current. There's usually a sauna and a cold bath, too, to cool off if you get too hot. Hot springs are also very popular in Japan, and there are famous towns throughout the country where people come just to take a bath in the volcanically heated water. Japan is often known for having baths in which men and women bathe together, but this is actually very rare -- I've only found a mixed-bath once in all my years living in Japan. More common are "family baths" where a family can reserve a large bath for an hour and bathe together. Westerners are sometimes a little shy about getting naked in front of twenty other men, but no one thinks anything of it here in Japan. However, one thing that can be embarrassing is when you go to a bath which is cleaned by women, who come into the men's bath or sauna to take away old towels or straighten the buckets up. It's a little unnerving to have a group of women descend on you while you're naked in a bath, although like all things, you can get used to it. Public baths frown on customers with full-body tattoos (which in Japan means yakuza, Japan's mafia), so there are always signs informing customers "you can't take a bath with your tattoo." We liked these signs so much, we immortalized them on an original J-List T-shirt.

Beer is the preferred drink for Japanese after a hard day of work, and the Japanese beer market is always a busy place, with market leader Kirin defending strong challenges by Asahi and Japan's smaller breweries. The market has undergone many changes since the emergence of happo-shu, a low-malt beverage that tastes like beer but technically not beer. Because the taxes on happo-shu are much lower than on beer, it's much cheaper for consumers, and this has sparked a price war that has brought the prices of virtually all alcoholic beverages down to as much as half what they were a few years ago, contributing to Japan's ongoing problem of deflation. Every few months a new "limited" beer is released, like Sapporo's "A Winter's Tale" beer (sold only in the winter) or Kirin's "Sakura Beer" (supposedly brewed specially for enjoying flower-viewing in the spring). Now that Autumn is starting to show its face, the limited-edition Aki-Aji (Taste of Autumn) beers have started to appear in stores.

We're great fans of the films of Hayao Miyazaki, the most famous creator of animation in Japan, and we've had the honor of bringing many hundreds of cool Studio Ghibli toys, books, and DVDs to our customers. We're extremely happy to announce the preorder availability of the DVD release of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Three different sets will be released: the 2-disc DVD complete with English subtitles and many extras; a figure set, which includes a limited-edition figure of Nausicaa; and a deluxe collector's set which adds a replica of an Ohmu insect and a beautiful painting by Mr. Miyazaki. The last time Studio Ghibli released limited-edition sets like this, we had over a hundred people clamoring to buy the last Laputa boxed sets we had, so we recommend that you get your order in early if you want one of the limited sets. Both of the limited sets will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis in case not enough are available. The figure + DVD set is already sold out throughout Japan, so we expect it to be especially hard to stock.

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

• First, for fans of Gamera and other classic Japanese monsters, we've got a cool series of candy toys (Japanese figures that come with candy) recreating the best moments of the Gamera universe -- very cool!
  
• Also, for those who love Domo-kun, we have a deluxe phone strap (also useful as a key holder or camera strap) of Domo-kun and his TV set (watching NHK, of course).
  
• If you love Totoro, we've got some very unique and special hand-made plush toys that are crafted from chirimen, the fabric kimonos are made from
  
• For bento fans, we've got two great new bento sets, which feature everything you need to enjoy authentic Japanese boxed lunch, just like they do in anime'
  
• Also, enjoy cold drinks with you wherever you go with a 1.5 liter PET bottle cooler, great for picnics with your bento
  
• For fans of beautiful Japanese idols, enjoy the photobook of Manami Ozawa, a sweet and pretty swimsuit idol from Japan who you will want to protect and love
  
• Then, we've got some unique new Japanese snacks for you, including onion soup, delicious doria sauce, Curl brand potato sticks, and frozen matcha ice that's very tasty
  
• For fans of cool DVDs from Japan, we've restocked the excellent 2-disc release of My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, which feature many extras from Mr. Miyazaki, as well as Samurai Fiction, OH! Mikey vol. 1, and more (all region 2)
  
• Bamboo is the best material for making chopsticks, and we've got some great extra-long chopsticks for you, with special ends that keep food from slipping -- great for cooking or eating
  
• Japanese minty eyedrops wake you up and keep you alert, and they're very popular all over the world -- see fresh stock of several brands added today
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, we've got some nice items, including a handy Kitty mesh holder that you can use to store anything in, as well as freshly restocked Kitty items
  
• If you love the miniature Japanese food toys, including famous desserts and traditional Japanese foods, we've restocked both on the site now (full sets are available too)
  
• For anime fans, see the cool Jiji Pencil Case and Nausica/Laputa Fox Squirrel plush toys from Sun Arrow
  
• Also, we've added fresh stock of several of the popular Hot Wheels toys, including the Speed Racer Mach 5, the Delorean from Back to the Future I and III, and more
  
• For those who like wacky Japanese around them, we've got some cute new Japanese sign plates for you
  
• Finally, find wacky Japanese notebooks with funny English on them, more furikake to sprinkle over your rice and miso soup, delicious Shike-Kix "hard gummi" candy, useful things for your room, and more!
  

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

• For fans of hardcore magazines from Japan, we've got the new issue of Do-Up!, which always shows you great sex by couples in love hotels
  
• Also, we've got the new issue of Yo!, which features dozens of Japanese amateurs and kogals getting it on for the camera
  
• For fans of married women, which is a big fetish in Japan, we've got the new Bizuma Hacker, featuring beautiful mature women aged 23-32
  
• For photobook fans, enjoy the beautiful body of Aki Hoshino, who poses in a super cute see-through school uniform for you, and a superb hardcover photobook by Haruka Nishimoto, a beautiful nude idol from Japan
  
• For manga collectors from Japan, we've got some excellent new titles for you, including The Fleshy Toilet of the Female Teacher, Inui Sekihiko's incredible kemono manga Fiesta, the incredible Temptation hentai manga by Keppi, and many more
  
• Also, for yaoi fans, check out the new erotic comic by Hanko Kagurazaka about male/male love in the workplace
  
• For DVD fans, we've got some great items for you, starting with a great bukkake work by the famous Kazuhiko Matsumoto, the AV director who single-handedly invented the category of bukkake in the 1990's -- his great new work is "totally fresh for you" (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the sex of office lady sex in a new work from Soft on Demand -- see the prim and proper female office workers (OLs) get it on after hours (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the excellent lesbian kissing fetish of SOD's Martian Devil label, with superb lesbian kissing, sex and more (region free)
  
• Then, enjoy superb "hip & leg" with a panty stocking club, featuring great leg, panty and panty stocking-fetish, from Waap Entertainment (region 2)
  
• Then, also from Waap, enjoy the "private face and sexual habit" of the beautiful natural gokkun girl, Nao, who cheerfully accepts bukkake from dozens of men (region 2)
  
• Finally ,we have some great new DVD titles for you, including various new Deep's and SOD titles, fresh stock of Aoi Sora's hardcore DVDs, and more!
  

J-List loves the DVD video format, and we stock over 800 DVD titles from Japan for you. While most of the adult DVDs from Japan are region free (meaning you can play them in any DVD player), anime and some high-end indies titles are zoned for region 2 only (including the new Nausica DVD release, mentioned above). To view these discs, we recommend a region free DVD player, such as the two we sell: the portable size Lasonic DVB-8092, and the full-featured Cybrhome DVD CH-500 deluxe player. Both players play DVDs from anywhere in the world, including PAL discs, MP3 and music CDs, CD-R and DVD-R media, and Video CDs. They also offer "set and forget" region free operation -- just access the secret menu with the remote control and the player is ready to go, forever. Also, we've lowered the price of the Lasonic player to just $98, making this an incredible deal, too!

Greetings from J-List September 1, 2003

Hello again from J-List!

The show has come to an end and Yasu and I are very tired. We've had a great time at BAAF, and also enjoyed seeing the sights of New York, but now it's time to go home. Tomorrow I leave for Japan, laden with many omiyage (oh-MI-ya-gay) for J-List staff and family. Yasu is going to take a few days off to visit Philadelphia, where he attended university, since he's in the neighborhood. We met a lot of great people at the convention, including many J-List customers who came by to say hello. Thanks to everyone!

Studying the names of Japanese companies can be interesting. For example, I'll bet you never knew that Kyocera is short for "Kyoto Ceramics." The number one car company in Japan is Toyota, which is located in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture (near Nagoya) -- but the company came first, and the city changed its name later because the company was based there. The number two Japanese car company is Honda, founded by Soichiro Honda to make motorcycles after the end of World War II. Mazda, which is largely owned by Ford, is really called Matsuda in Japan. Datsun's name has an interesting story -- DAT were the first letters of the names of three founders, and they considered the company they were founding to be their son, thus DATSON. However, "son" (with a long vowel, so that it rhymes with bone), means "loss" or "disadvantage" in Japanese, so they changed it to "sun," a much more cheerful word. Datsun was later bought out by one of its distributors, Nissan (which means "Made in Japan"). Several Japanese companies grew out of Japan's "zaibatsu" (trade cartels) which had existed for hundreds of years, the three biggest being Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo.

Although Sumo wrestling is the official national sport of Japan, receiving special status from the Japanese government, the hearts of Japanese sports fans belongs to good old American baseball. There are twelve teams in Japan, organized into the central and pacific leagues. Teams often carry the names of the companies that own them, such as Yomiuri Giants (owned by the Yomiuri Newspaper Company), the Seibu Lions (Seibu is a department store that has a big sale when their team wins), and Yakult Swallows (Yakult is a popular yogurt drink). The strongest team in Japanese baseball is the Giants, which was led by the most famous man in Japanese baseball history, Shigeo Nagashima, until he retired in 2001. If you go to a Japanese baseball game, you might be surprised to see how organized the fans are. At Swallows games, fans bring a blue umbrella and do a traditional dance called the Tokyo Ondo at the bottom of the 7th inning. At Tigers games in Osaka, fans blow up balloons and release them into the air at the same time, also at the bottom of the 7th. Japanese teams hire foreigners (usually scouted from minor leagues in the U.S.) to help their teams, but they're only allowed to play two foreigners in any game, a limit that maintains the "Japaneseness" of the sport here. Although Baseball was imported from the USA, it was considered "unpatriotic" to use English during World War II. As a result, virtually all the terms used in baseball are written with archaic kanji derivatives (i.e. "one death" in place of "one out"), although the English words are also used when speaking the terms out loud.

For the big new update, the J-List staff has added dozens of great new products to the site for you. They include wacky Buddhist prayer beads that you can wear, cool Hello Kitty items including Kitty calculators, more Totoro stamps, more snacks and food items, cool Dragonball figures, Japanese cute erasers that look like fruits, the rare Macross 1/48 scale Max Jenius version fighter, and more wacky items from Japan. For adult customers, we have many new products on the site, too. Please see them if you are over 18.

J-List carries over 2000 unique products from Japan, a lot of products for you to check out. You can always view all products using the handy "view all products" link in the upper left hand corner of every page. All products are displayed, with the most recently added or updated products showing at the top, cascading down in order. It's a great way to check out everything that's new at J-List!

Greetings from J-List August 29, 2003

Hello again from J-List, this time in beautiful New York, New York.

First of all, we're sorry that the J-List server was down for a few hours on Thursday night, U.S. time. The server hit a rough patch and went down, but was brought back up safely. Sorry if you were trying to view the site during that window.

We're enjoying our time in New York so far, and have gotten in quite a lot of sightseeing and shopping done despite being busy setting up for the convention. Although the Yankees lost their game on Wednesday, it was thrilling to be there and see Matsui-senshu (senshu is a suffix that athletes get in Japanese -- it just means "player"), and we were pleased to see many of his fans at the game. The convention hotel is in a great location: we walk out the door and we're in the heart of Times Square, with lots of cool stuff to see, so we know we won't be bored here at all. Remember, if you are able to make it to this convention, it looks like it's really going to be a lot of fun. See http://www.bigappleanimefest.com for info on the show.

Going on a trip in Japan means one thing: you must make sure to buy lots of "omiyage" (oh-mee-yah-gay), souvenirs for those who didn't get to go with you. Be it a trip to Fukushima, in northern Japan, famous for its ramen, or to Hawaii, land of macadamia nuts and Kona coffee, whenever you go somewhere you must bring back lots of gifts with you. Much of our roaming around New York today was to look for just the right omiyage gift for J-List staff members and family, most of it related to Hideki Matsui, of course.

When I was studying at SDSU, I wanted to prepare myself to teach English as a Second Language, so I got a certificate on the theory and practice of teaching ESL. One thing I learned is that there are many approaches to learning a foreign language -- the Army method (stresses memorizing base sentences), the Grammar Translation method (understanding of the target language through its grammar), the Communicative method (try to encourage learning by communicating with others, usually ignoring grammar), and the Natural approach (try to copy how children learn language, stressing listening comprehension first). Another approach to learning a foreign language is the "get attention" method, which I'll label the Social Feedback Method to give it a cool-sounding name. Basically, you learn whatever vocabulary and phrases that will make you the life of the party among your new linguistic group, be it innovative ways to begin conversations with cute Japanese girls, or bizarre phrases to amuse people in your host country. I've seen this method work very well over the years, and have put it to use more than a few times myself. A friend who worked with me in Japan learned how to say "What's your hobby?" in Japanese ("Shumi wa nan desu ka?" in case you were curious), and through that one phrase made many friends during his stay in Japan.

For the new update, the J-List staff has added dozens of new products to the site, including great new toys (including Kubrick figures, Studio Ghibli toys, and more), character goods (new Domo-kun items!), art books (Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball anyone?), new Hello Kitty items, and more. For our adult customers, we've also got many great new items added. See them on the site if you are over 18.

In addition to the new items posted, we're happy to announce a great convention special for all J-List customers who aren't able to attend the show: free shipping (US/Canada, half price for int'l) on all English-translated bishoujo games, resulting in a huge savings to you -- especially since you can still take 20% off the total if you get 4 or more games. Now is a great time to get some of the great Japanese dating-sim games we've got for you, like those Peach Princess or G-Collections games you've been hesitating on -- so what are you waiting for?

Well, that's all for now. If you'll be at the convention, we'll see you there tomorrow. If not, we'll see you on the web!

Greetings from J-List August 22, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where it's considered good manners to turn your car's headlights off at stoplights (to avoid blinding the other driver across from you).

Although Japan is a modern, safe country, and Japanese are usually kind and helpful to foreigners, there are some things you have to get used to if you're going to ever live here. Seafood pizza, crowded trains, drunk men on those same crowded trains, bank cash machines that close at 7 pm, having a naked girl sandwiched between articles in a news magazine -- they're all part of life in Japan. One minor frustration I always had was getting used to the habit of Japanese shops and restaurants closing on a set day of the week, their "teikyubi" or regular weekly holiday. Whether you're going to the local department store to shop for new shoes you need, or heading to your favorite ramen shop, chances are you'll go there on the day it's closed, and have to make other plans. Japanese don't do this -- they have some latent knowledge about which stores are closed on which days, but gaijin aren't so lucky.

It's quite interesting to analyze how Japanese name their cars. First of all, names given to Japanese cars must sound "kakko ii" (cool, good style), and since nothing sounds cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words -- like Honda Life, or Nissan Bluebird, or Mazda 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 words. Car names like Carolla, Tercel, Soarer, Sylphy and 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, bad style) -- 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 "kanmuri," which means crown in Japanese -- which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan in Japan called Toyota Crown, and has sold a car called Corona in the past, too. (Incidentally, the Camry is not popular at all in Japan -- it's just too generic to be popular with Japanese drivers.) In the CLAMP anime Rayearth, virtually all the characters and place names were taken from cars -- Presea, Ferrio, there was even a character named Geo Metro.

Do you have a cat's tongue? If so, it means that you can't eat hot food or drink hot drinks, just like a cat. The Japanese say that anyone who avoids hot food has a cat's tongue (neko jita). What is you have lazy eye? If so, then you are "rom-pari" which is Japanese for "Rome, Paris" -- i.e. one eye is looking at Rome and the other is looking at Paris. If you're thinning on top, you might have "bar code hair," as the Japanese say. Opening a bag of chips along its spine, so that the bag is spread out with the chips sitting on top, is called "manko ake" (MAHN-ko AH-kay), which literally means "to open so that it resembles the female genitalia." And if you sneeze, the Japanese say that someone must be gossiping about you (this comes up in anime quite often).

It's always fun to watch American politics as seen from outside the U.S., and the California governor's race is no different. Japanese are all very familiar with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is universally known as "Shuwa-chan" here, and having him in the race makes it extra interesting for Japanese viewers. Although I don't live in the U.S., I vote in most elections through the absentee ballot system. I personally plan to vote for Georgie Russell, a candidate who's smart and pretty, and who knows Unix. If you're in California and don't have a candidate in mind already, I recommend her. See her official site at http://www.georgieforgov.com

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

• First, we've got a very special item for fans of Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service: a super-deluxe Jiji the Cat plush toy from Sun Arrow, the high-quality toy maker and licensor of Mr. Miyazaki's creations
  
• Also for Miyazaki fans, we've got a set of really cute Totoro "teacher stamps" that are great for Totoro fans, as well as fresh stock of several of the popular Bou plush toys from Spirited Away
  
• Also, we've restocked the oh-so-cool Totoro cuckoo clock, which will be a treasure in your home for many years
  
• For fans of cute and wacky toys from Japan, enjoy full sets of the To-Fu Kubrick toys from Medicom, including Angel Tofu, Fake Tofu, British Tofu, and more
  
• We've got the new issue of Dengeki Gao, a superb monthly manga magazine that features a whopping 450 pages of great pages for you, and many fun extras
  
• If you love to worship Japanese pretty idols, we've got a nice hardcover photobook featuring swimsuit idol Nana Katase, which comes with a great DVD too
  
• Also, fresh stock of the much-requested Deluxe Bomb Marugoto Cosplay, which features 15 top-name idols like Yuko Ogura in super-cute anime and other costumes
  
• Also, enjoy a great photo magazine of Sayaka Isoyama, the cute and lovely bikini idol who is very popular in Japan these days
  
• For Shirow Masamune fans, don't miss the great new Ghost in the Shell TV series on DVD, featuring episodes 17 and 18 of this incredible high-budget series
  
• If you want a really unique Harry Potter goods, we've got a great Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets bento box and matching spoon/fork/chopstick case
  
• For fans of our Japanese snack foods, enjoy tofu miso soup that comes in Styrofoam bowls, more Teddy Cookies, and furikake for kids or adults
  
• Also, enjoy herbal "throat candy" which lubricates your mouth and helps it function
  
• For the businessman or traveller, we've got a great all-purpose carrying case that can hold many things -- and it gives off "minus ions" (negatively charged ions) which supposedly gives you a feeling of well-being
  
• Just for the summer, some new wind chimes that are very nice and very Japanese
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, a cute all-purpose Kitty case for carrying many things
  
• Also, a major restocking of Hello Kitty items available only in Japan, including Kitty pachinko, Sanrio ice cube trays and the smash hit Columbus rolling egg toys (e.g. Weebles)
  
• We've restocked many fun parody and traditional Japanese goods, including toilet paper to help you learn Japanese, funny Japanese tattoo shirts, Safety Soldier condoms, and Japanese headbands
  
• For fans of popular Japanese fashion dolls, we've got a really cute Jenny doll, by Takara, dressed in her high school uniform
  
• We've restocked our popular Hello Kitty toilet paper, which makes a great gift for that Kitty-loving (or -hating) friend at work
  
• We've got even more wacky signs from Japan, more maps of Japan, chopsticks and other items for your kitchen, more "The Dog" stickers, fresh stock of Pocari sweat powder and loose socks glue, and more -- check them all out!
  

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

• For fans of Urecco, the #1 magazine at J-List, we've got a great new issue, featuring beautiful nude and sexy idols, kogals, top AV stars, cosplay bunnies and more
  
• For fans of hardcore magazines, enjoy the new issue of Desire, which features voluptuous Japanese amateurs having sex all over the place
  
• For photobook lovers, enjoy the sweet nude of "Subaru" (which is the Japanese name for the Pleadies, not just a car company), the delightfully erotic photobook of Nozomi Fujikawa, and more
  
• Also, a superb photobook featuring the "large breast and beautiful leg" of ten top AV gals, including Nao Oikawa, Ami Ayukawa, Maria Yumeno and Bunko Kanazawa
  
• Yulia Nova fans really let us know of their love for the popular Russian nude idol this week -- now we've added some new merchandise, two cute Yulia tote bags and a printed ceramic photo tile that's "signed" by Yulia
  
• For hentai manga fans, we've got a great new selection of adult comics, including a superb large-breast manga by Yukio Shijima, the cute little Devil Daughters, Lewd Play Machine, and more
  
• Also, a major restocking of popular adult comics, including Nami SOS, Tears from the Hell, Pururun Sisters, Drop Dead Sisters, and the very popular dick girl extravaganza "Tousaku - Delusion" by Gura Nyuto
  
• We've restocked several popular vibrators and other adult toys, including all sizes of the Japan Rotor (the most popular vibrator with Japanese women), Mr. Pink, and the Magical Mitten
  
• Also, we've got fresh stock of super erotic Hitomi Hayasaka Love Pillow (aka Dutch Wife), and the slipper and fun Japanese Soapland Kit
  
• For our DVD customers, enjoy a 3-hour collection of the great hardcore sex of the new AV star "EL," with three complete video releases compiled onto one bargain-priced DVD for you (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand, a great new "Kiss Battle Royale" featuring AD Haruna, the lesbian assistant director who performs "lesbian kiss and fack" on ten of Japan's most beautiful professional AV starlets (region free)
  
• For fans of our popular SOD Outlet page, we've got not one but two great DVDs in the Private Venus series -- see the lovely and erotic Juri Wakabayashi perform sweet idol frolicking and hardcore sex by the sea (region free)
  
• For fans of the bold indies erotica of Wanz Factory, enjoy a great "best selection" offering" with the sexiest and slinkiest leg, stocking and panty fetish you've ever dreamed of (region 2)
  
• Finally enjoy fresh stock of several popular titles, including Ryoko Mitake's "Taboo," Aoi Sora's very erotic "Illegality Violate Tits," and more copies of the popular "The Lingerie vol. 1."
  

Remember that J-List carries authentic Japanese "loose socks" in two different sizes, and also carries "socks glue" which you can use to glue your socks to your legs to hold them up. Worn by virtually all Japanese high school girls (except those who go to strict schools where they are forbidden), they are similar to the leg warmers worn in the 1980s in the U.S., and look great when bunched up just so. Enjoy a little slice of Japanese fashion culture courtesy of J-List -- they also go great with the authentic high school uniforms we sell, too! Great for cosplay at anime cons.

On the "odd things Japanese come up with" front, we've got an interesting tutorial on rope bondage. See it here: http://www.flabber.nl/img/bondage.how-to.jpg

Greetings from J-List August 18, 2003

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Greetings from J-List August 15, 2003

Hello and Happy Friday from all of us in Japan!

First of all, the J-List image server, which serves up product images for the site, was down for about 90 minutes today, due to a router upgrade issue. Sorry if you were trying to view the page at that time. Everything is fixed now though!

My daughter is back from her month stay in the U.S., and once again, we're utterly floored by the ability of the human brain to assimilate a second language in an incredible short amount of time. While Rina was in San Diego she made many friends at Girls Scout girls and actually was more comfortable with English than with Japanese, amazing since she uses Japanese 99% of the time while she's in Japan. When she told us all of how she went to Disneyland and rode Splash Mountain, everyone was amazed at her perfect American pronounciation. Due to Japan's difficult syllable-based phonetic system, the Japanese say "su-pu-RA-sshu ma-OOn-ten."

When a person learns a foreign language they actually develop a second personality, which takes over when they're speaking that language. In Japanese, my personality is very different, and I'm often surprised at how different both halves are. Japanese tend to be humble, and in Japanese you often use the word "sumimasen" (excuse me) where Americans would say "thank you." My wife is much more assertive in English than she is in Japanese, since English is built that way -- you always say the subject of sentences and use "yes" or "no" to clearly indicate your opinion, unlike in Japanese where meanings are often more vague and nuanced. It's been very interesting watching the development of an "English personality" in my children, too. In English, Rina is very cute and feminine, since she usually plays with other girls in English, but in Japanese, she's a pure tomboy, even using the male first person pronoun ("boku," used by boys, instead of "atashi" which is used by girls).

Have you ever wondered who's on Japanese money? Well, we'll tell you. The Japanese 1000 yen note features the famous 19th Century novelist Souseki Natsume, who wrote such famous books as "I am a Cat" and "Kokoro." As part of the Japanese education system, the first sentence of famous novels is memorized by students, and nearly all of his novels are famous (his face adorns one of our funny Japanese T-shirts, too). The 5000 yen note sports the face of Inazo Nitobe, one of the "forefathers" of modern Japan, and among the first Japanese to become fluent in English (he was a student of Professor Clark, an American who founded Sapporo University, and left the famous words "Boys, be ambitious"). Nitobe toured Europe and the U.S. to observe how the government and military worked, for later incorporation into modern Japan. The 10,000 note, pretty much the "basic" unit of currency in Japan (roughly equal to a $100 bill), features Yukichi Fukuzawa, another modernizer in the Meiji Period, and founder of Keio University.

Since our son got to go to Kyoto while Rina was in the U.S., now it's her turn to take a special trip, and this weekend we're going to Fukushima, a prefecture in Northern Japan. Fukushima is famous for many things, including ramen, hot springs, and in the winter, lots of snow. It's also the home of Licca-chan Castle, a small theme park dedicated to Licca, the cute fashion doll made by the Takara toy company. My wife collects Licca dolls and we've always wanted to see what Licca's Castle was like. We'll tell you when we get back!

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

• First, just in time for the potential political career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, we've got a very detailed series of Terminator 3 miniature toys for you, with full sets available!
  
• We've got a superb item we've wanted to carry for years: Japanese happi (sometimes called "happy coats"), small cotton kimonos that are worn in the summer festivals in Japan -- we've got several in stock, including some that are quite large for our big gaijin customers
  
• For bento fans, we've got two deluxe bento boxes in stock for you, both featuring large compartments for holding delicious rice and "okazu" (the word for whatever you eat with your rice), built-in eating utensils, and more
  
• If you like our fun Japanese snack foods, enjoy newly posted items, grape and blueberry milk candy, tasty miso-stewed fish, yum
  
• Also for the summer, we've got some cool adhesive pads that relieve the pain of sunburn
  
• If you've got a cool car, make it cooler with a fuzzy gear shift cover from Japan -- we've got some in stock
  
• See small things close up with a cool miniature magnifying glass, which can be attached to objects to make it easy to work with
  
• Kitty fans should enjoy the cute Hello Kitty Cubys phone mascot, which blinks when your cellular phone rings (works with 1.5 GHz phones)
  
• Then enjoy a really cool item, a high-quality PVC anime statue of Mizuho from Please Teacher, a beautiful item that comes with metal framed glasses and her trademark Pocky candy
  
• For Domo-kun fans, a pair of really cool printed notebooks for you, which capture all the cuteness that is Japan's most famous monster
  
• Then, for fans of "The Dog" items, which have recently spread from Japan to the U.S., we've got some great doggie stickers for you
  
• Finally, look for cute bento related items, delicious new Japanese tea and miso soup products, fresh stock of Lotte No Time gum which brushes your teeth and Blue Toppo baked pretzels, and more!
  

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

• For fans of high-quality Japanese magazines, we've got the new Bejean, the oversized magazine that has been one of the top adult magazines in this country for years -- this month's issue is really spectacular!
  
• Then enjoy the new issue of Aishite Ageru ("I'll Love You"), a great hardcore magazine featuring real amateur Japanese girls in love hotels
  
• For photobook fans, we've got the wonderful lingerie photo magazine of Sayaka Isoyama, and the very erotic "Sexual Desire" photobook offering of Miyoshino
  
• Also, explore the erotic world of onanism, with the beautiful Kaede Matsushima in her new glossy photobook, followed by the sweet sexy photographs of Ami Ishii's "Kiss"
  
• For our hentai manga collectors, see some great new erotic books for you, including Fujio Okamoto's High-Leg Venus, Shamefull Princess by Toen Comics, and the excellent erotic Fight for Justice, by MEE-kun
  
• Also, look for several restocked manga books, including the best-selling Colors Anthology Comic (with great hermaphrodite fetish), a superb "wide manga" work
  
• Also, we've gotten the newest issue of the very erotic Bootleg, featuring super hentai artwork and a Tohru Nishimaki Blue Eyes special!
  
• For yaoi fans, enjoy some really cool yaoi trading cards -- they are so cool! -- as well as various freshly restocked yaoi manga for you
  
• Enjoy some great new erotic DVDs from Japan, starting with the new 3-hour No Cut!! release of Mizuho Asahi, a lovely and small-bodied AV star from Japan (region free)
  
• The five lovely Million Girls -- Nao Oikawa, Hitomi Hasegawa, Saori Kamiya, Hitomi Hayasaka and Ran Monbu -- go on an erotic "Million Mystery Tour" that fans will not want to miss -- 210 minutes of action! (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the excellent Lestcha 2, which features the tender lesbian kissing and sex of two beautiful lesbian idols (region free)
  
• Then explore the world of "Perfect Anal," featuring anal sex and ass-centric fetish with ten beautiful AV stars (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the "Bukkake, Nakadashi and Anal Fuck" of Ami Nakamura, a beautiful Tokyo girl who does it all for you, including having sex with a bunch of guys on a fishing boat in Tokyo harbor, a first in Japan's adult video world (region 2)
  
• Then enjoy great fresh stock of some of our most popular erotic DVDs, including Campaign Gal Party 7.5 Hours (great for Race Queen fans), Anna with a Change of Costume (Japan's bustiest AV star), 24 Hours Bukkake Semen, Gokkun Bazooka with Kokoro Amano, and Yui Kayama's great bukkake title "Mydol Semen."
  

Remember that J-List stocks virtually every English-language Japanese dating-sim game available, with great games from Peach Princess, G-Collections, Hobibox, and JAST USA. You can also preorder some of the great games that aren't shipping yet but will be available for preorder, such as the upcoming Brave Soul, a fabulous action RPG world in which you form parties and go on quests with beautiful companions who fight alongside them. We've updated the descriptions and graphics for Brave Soul, so preorder it now for free shipping when it ships!

Greetings from J-List August 13, 2003

Hello again from your friends at J-List!

It's mid-august in Japan, and to millions of Japanese sports fans that means -- high school baseball! High school baseball is really big in Japan, and teams from each of Japan's 47 prefectures try all year long to win the right to go to Koshien Stadium near Osaka, where the national championships are held. To go to Koshien is the dream of every high school baseball player, and the fact that there are dozens of manga and anime series about high school baseball tells you that a lot of people find the subject romantic and interesting. The creator of Touch, most famous baseball manga of the 1980's, was born in Isesaki, where J-List is based, and baseball fans here seem to have an extra keen affinity for Koshien, reliving their youth while they watch the games that are broadcast on national television. They're also watching for the professional stars of the future -- Hideki Matsui gained national attention while he was at Koshien a decade ago, when he was walked every time he got up to the plate by pitchers who feared his powerful swing, creating a public outcry. This year Gunma Prefecture is represented by Kiryu Daiichi High School. Go team!

Japan's has two religions: Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan which worships spirits (kami) in natural objects; and Buddhism. Showing their usual skill at adapting concepts from outside Japan and rearranging them to suit their needs, Shinto and Buddhism were fused together so that the two could coexist peacefully without war or conflict. One of the major themes to religion in Japan is that Japanese turn to Shinto for events that have to do with life (weddings, baby christenings, wishing for good fortune in the coming year), and Buddhism for events that deal with death (funerals, ceremonies for remembering past loved ones). So invisible is the line between Shinto and Buddhism that many young Japanese don't really understand the difference between a Shinto shrine ("jinja" in Japanese) and a Buddhist temple ("otera").

The most important day of the year to Japanese is January 1st, which is the day most Japanese head to their favorite Shinto shrine to pray for good luck in the coming year. But the second most important time of the year to Japanese is the Obon holidays, which runs from August 13-15. Ostensibly a kind of "homecoming day" for the souls of deceased family members, it's a time when Japanese usually return to their "real home" (jikka), i.e. their parents' home, and get together as a family, eat, drink -- not unlike Thanksgiving in the States. Like the anniversary of a person's death, Obon is a time to visit the graves of family members, to clean them with water, light an incense stick, leave fresh flowers, and update the deceased on family events, so they know they haven't been forgotten. There's a big rush out of Tokyo during this time of year, as everyone tries to leave the city early so they can avoid the packed trains -- and in a few days they'll all be coming back.

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

• First, for fans of Japan's highly developed gothic fashion culture, we've got a great anthology of all that is Goth, from manga artwork to clothes to articles on the influences of gothlife from around the world
  
• We love the tacky Japanese miniature toys that are so popular these days, and we've got a new series for you: Amazing Weapons, featuring recreations of the bizarre funny inventions of World War II
  
• For fans of kogal street fashion, we've got the super cote photobook of Hitomi Saito, a very cute contemporary Japanese girl, and the super cute swimsuit loveliness of Yurina Sawatari
  
• Then enjoy fresh stock of CG Mag, the great magazine devoted to Cam Girls, which is really another word for Race Queens...
  
• If you love Japanese comics, we've got the new issue of Dengeki Gao, a great 450 page manga that's filled with great stories, as well as fun extras for you to collect
  
• For fans of our delicious Japanese snacks and food items, we've got several new things for you, including fresh watermelon juice powder (great for the summer), mentaiko spaghetti sauce (don't ask what mentaiko is, trust us), vegetable furikake, delicious caramel popcorn from Japan, and more
  
• Also, a major restocking of delicious Pretz baked pretzel sticks from Japan, including Crispy Pizza Pretz, Tomato Pretz, and one of our favorites, Spicy Chicken Beer Pretz, which goes great with beer
  
• We've got a very highly refined all-purpose canvas case for you, which holds documents, pens, electronic devices, you name it -- very cool, and it even gives off "minus ion" (negatively charged ions) for a feeling of well-being
  
• Also for those interested in Japan's minus ion craze, we've got a spiffy pass case that allows you to organize all your cards, money, train pass etc, by Dr. Ion
  
• For fans of traditional things from Japan, we have some great "his and hers" chopsticks featuring famous images from Kyoto
  
• For Kitty fans, we've got some great Sanrio items for you, including beautiful Kitty stickers, a plush Kitty bean-bag toy, and a great spoon and straw combination item
  
• Play the Japanese game of Go anywhere with a cool magnetic portable Go set we've got for you - if you don't know how to play, we provide a link to a complete guide for you!
  
• Then for fans of funny English, we've got a great all-purpose canvas bag that says "communicating a hot affection"
  
• For Disney fans, look for fresh stock of the very cool Steamboat Willy black and white Kubrick figures, a true collectors item
  
• Also, we've restocked the Studio Ghibli PVC complete figures from Totoro and Khakis Delivery Service, very cool and very detailed
  
• Also, we've restocked the ultra-realistic miniature Sushi toys from Re-Ment, with both full sets and individual items available
  
• We have more items for your kitchen, including delicious Ikari Sauce, which is called "tonkatsu sauce" or just "sauce" in Japanese -- but it's one of the most delicious things the country has to offer!
  
• We've posted the very cool Showa Enamel Signboards in full sets -- the full sets had not been posted on Monday, sorry about that
  
• For fans of Hayao Miyazaki's excellent films, look for fresh stock of The Cat Returns and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagllostro, two excellent films that are provided with full English subtitles (region 2)
  
• Finally, check out fresh stock of soy sauce fish bottles for bento, more ear cleaners with lights built into them, new varieties of miso soup, more authentic Japanese chopsticks, fresh stock of our popular bento boxes and onigiri makers, and more!
  

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

• For fans of beautiful Japanese girls with big busts, we've got the new issue of Gal's Dee in stock, bursting at the seams with hot girls from Japan, including Aoi Sora, Cocolo, and the busty and erotic Kyoto Ayana
  
• Also, we've got the new issue of "I Want you to Look at Me," which features incredibly cute Japanese amateurs age 18-20 having sex in love hotels
  
• For photobook fans, enjoy the superb glossy photobook of Hikaru, a new and super-cute nude idol from Japan
  
• Also, for fans of Japan's famous sexy idols, we've got a super new issue of Sabra Girls, featuring the best idols from the pages of Sabra -- Yuko Ogura, Megumi, Chisato Morishita, Chinatsu Wakatsuki, and more!
  
• For our DVD customers, we've got some great new titles for you, starting with 230 minutes of the best sex of Mio Nishino, a beautiful star from the late 1990's who is retired now (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the Gokkun Debut of Umino Shinju (whose name means "Pearl of the Sea"), who does it all in a great bukkake release from SOD and Natural High (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the best sex of Soft on Demand, with 27 great scenes featuring their best AV stars, with a focus on wet female orgasms ("female gushing") (region free)
  
• From Moodyz, enjoy a re-release of the "Mission of Lesbian" of bright AV star Devi, who takes on many beautiful and tender Japanese amateurs for her "first time lesbian" (region 2)
  
• Then enjoy the great new Dream Woman release featuring our current fave Asuka Sawaguchi, who really fucks up a storm in this great bukkake special (region 2)
  
• Finally, look for fresh stock of many DVD titles, including Zenra (all nude) Volleyball, more fun in the Magic Mirror Boxcar, and Semen Beauty Treatment.
  

Remember that J-List carries cool Japanese shoes and footwear, including great "tatami sandals" that are made out of the material tatami mats are made from. We also carry an item I personally feel all parents of young children should buy, Japanese shoes for children with squeakers inside -- when children walk, their shoes make a fun squeaking noise that they love, and it allows parents to always know exactly where their children are in a crowded store. It's a wacky but very useful thing from Japan which we've wanted to make available for years.

Greetings from J-List August 11, 2003

Hello again from Japan, where the American shampoo Pert is marketed under the product name Rejoy.

With my wife and both of my kids at our home in the U.S. right now, I'm having the time of my life, as only a married man in an empty house can. Every night I'm free take myself to the sento (public bath), come home and run the air conditioner at full blast, enjoy an extra beer from the liquor shop downstairs, go to bed at 4 am, you name it. It's fun!

When I came to Japan in 1991, I was extremely motivated to learn Japanese, since there's no such thing as learning a language automatically, just by living in a country. I took advantage of every opportunity to advance my study, listening JPOP music and watching Japanese dramas, which are great fun to watch and full of new vocabulary words to learn. Outside of my English classes, I made sure I spoke only Japanese with the people around me. Then one day I was in Tokyo, looking for a coin locker to put my bags in -- a middle-aged Japanese salaryman who was clearing his out said "Please use this one" to me in English. I responded, thanking him in fluent Japanese, but after that I realized that I'd done him a disservice. This man would probably have only have a few chances to use his English each year, and yet I had spoke to him in Japanese -- so I resolved to make myself use more English with Japanese people who wanted to speak it to me. Yesterday, I was swimming when a elderly man swam up to me, wanting to talk in English about swimming in the U.S. compared with Japan. I pretended not to speak Japanese, and he seemed very happy to be able to use his English with a real life gaijin.

However, one thing gaijin who attain fluency in Japanese can attest to, is that some doors close the more Japanese you learn. Japanese often think of foreigners as very fun to be around, and part of that fun flows from both sides not being able to understand each other perfectly. If you go out to karaoke with Japanese, they'll enjoy themselves more if you sing a ridiculous version of "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire than if you're able to belt out the latest enka hit by Hiyoshi Hikawa. At bars and clubs, too, there's a certain "English factor" at work, which can make people who don't speak Japanese more popular than gaijin who can read all 1945 characters of the "joyo kanji" (the characters designated for "general use" by Japan's Ministry of Education). Perhaps it has to do with the mystique of foreigners -- if they are able to communicate easily in Japanese, that mystique isn't present. In academic settings, too, sometimes you can know too much Japanese. I've got an American friend who's a professor at a university in Kyushu. He wants to take level 1 of the Japanese Ability Test, the highest level gaijin can attain, but most of the professors he works with haven't passed the same level of the corresponding English test, the Eigo Kentei Shiken. Since he doesn't want to appear to be putting his superiors down by getting a higher level than them, he's decided he won't try for level 1 of the Japanese test.

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

• First, for Hello Kitty fans, we've got some cute items you can't find outside of Japan -- look for a cute all-purpose container made of PVC plastic, and a great metal coin purse that makes a great accessory -- also metallic Kitty stickers too!
  
• If you love fun snacks and food items from Japan, we've got many items for you, including a chocolate-filled baked cookie from Meiji, delicious salmon and cream spaghetti sauce, funky Doritos from Japan, and cute animal-shaped candies that have been enjoyed in Japan for decades
  
• The Japanese are fans of replicas of items from the postwar era, and J-List carries many cool miniatures recreating things from those days -- now we've got a series of nostalgic enamel signs advertising popular products that are as famous in Japan as Normal Rockwell is in the States
  
• If you're interested in the famous game of Go (also called Igo in Japanese), we've got a deluxe Go board and piece set for you!
  
• Want a funny item from Japan? How about a denim wallet that comes complete with a pocket?
  
• For fans of funny erasers, we've got some nice ones in stock -- including a cute set of sea creature erasers in stock today
  
• Domo-kun fans, be sure and check out the pocket tissue we've got for you, featuring Domo-kun, Usajii (Old Man Rabbit), and the cute Ta-chan
  
• For fans of the excellent Gothic & Lolita series, which J-List sells through our "revolving subscription" system, we have fresh stock of the popular Homemade G&L pattern book, so you can make the clothes at home!
  
• For fans of super-realistic Japanese miniature food toys, we've restocked the Puchi Sample Series from Re-Ment, with the Japanese dessert and Chinatown series
  
• Also, we've posted fresh stock of the cute photobooks that show Japan's popular high school uniforms, great for cosplay fans
  
• Finally, see more great chopsticks from Japan, sushi makers, wasabi powder (many uses for this) and kim chee flavored furikake, and more -- check out all the items we have for you!
  

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

• For fans of Japanese magazines, we've got a great treat: the new issue of Dela Beppin, featuring top stars from Japan, sexy OLs (Japanese for "office lady" or female office workers), tons of erotic cosplay photos, and more
  
• For fans of beautiful Japanese girls and ass-centric erotic photos, we've got the new issue of Anal Shower in stock for you
  
• For photobook fans, we've got some great new items for you, including the delicious sexy photobook of Yoko Mitsuya, Megumi Osawa's erotic 2nd photobook, and a wonderful snapshot of Rubi Aiba's super first nude photobook
  
• Restocked photobook items include Minori Aoi incredibly popular "Beyond the Blue Sky," Nao Oikawa's hardcover "NAO" photobook, Yuko Ogawa's "Love Heart" and more
  
• Also, don't miss the great items we've got the Yulia Nova fans -- two different sets of incredibly lovely Yulia postcard sets, highly recommended for collectors!
  
• We've got a great combination hentai manga and erotic magazine for you: the new issue of Hip & Lip, loaded with beautiful girls and sexy manga
  
• For fans of hentai manga, we've got a special oversized item for you: the superb Hermit Health Method by Misakura Nankotsu, loaded with beautiful color pages
  
• Also, look for newly posted normal hentai manga, including the very sex Slave Girl Week, and more
  
• Look for fresh stock of several popular hentai comics, including Married Woman Mitsue, Bomber Girl Crush, World of Cat Ears, and fresh stock of the popular Paradise Lost erotic Evangelion comics -- also fresh stock of dynamite Psikyo Visual Arts Poster Book
  
• For yaoi fans, we've got the new issue of Love Come, which is short for Love Comedy, as in "The Story Love Comedy that your heart is tickled" -- fresh stock of sold-out items too!
  
• If you love Japan's bishoujo games, we've restocked the Viper GTB Official Fan Art Book, as well as the excellent Tokimeki Check in and X-Change art book as well
  
• For fans of Japan's unique professional AV, we have the delicious and dynamite No Cut!! release of Aya Mizuki, with 3 hours of her sweet sex for you (region free)
  
• Then enjoy the bukkake and gokkun of Sonan, the girl who starred in her first adult film one second after her 18th birthday arrived, in a new work from SOD (region free)
  
• Also from Soft on Demand, see superb lesbian kissing fetish, including slow kissing and lesbian kissing while in the nude (region free)
  
• The Dream Woman series from Moodyz features "gorgeous actress meets semen shower" -- see the dreamy bukkake action of Senna Kurosaki (region 2)
  
• Then see the super willing sex of Mai Haruna, the lovely and busty AV star who will fulfill your every erotic wish -- you are her little king, darling! (region 2)
  
• Finally, Tomo has added fresh stock of some popular titles to the DVD pages and reduced the prices of others -- check out all that we've got in stock for you!
  

Remember that J-List gives you great discounts on buying multiple items. Want to pick up some manga? Buy 4 or more and get 15% off automatically. Want to pick up some great photobooks? You get 15% off if you get 4 or more. How about the excellent English-translated Japanese dating-sim games we carry? Get 4 or more and take 20% off! Discounts are taken off automatically at checkout.

Also, remember that almost all of the DVDs that J-List carries are zoned for "all" regions, meaning that you can view them on any DVD player in North America, or on any computer with a DVD drive in it. The exceptions to these are anime DVDs issued in Japan (such as the Studio Ghibli DVDs of Spirited Away), Japanese films released in Japan, and most "indies" adult DVD titles by companies like Moodyz and Wanz Factory. If you wish to view Japanese region 2 DVDs in the U.S., including European region 2 PAL titles, we humbly suggest the feature-packed region free DVD players we carry in San Diego.

Greetings from J-List August 8, 2003

Hello and TGIF from all your friends in Japan!

First, we had a slight problem with the server that hosts the image files for the J-List site. A renegade server process was making images load slowly, but it's been fixed. Also, the image server went down for around ten minutes during the day -- sorry if you were viewing the site during that time, wondering why the product images weren't showing up.

Japanese government employees, called "komuin" (KOH-mu-in) in Japanese, are an interesting part of society here. A huge caste of ultra-conservative individuals who work at Japan's city and prefectural offices, they are a massive non-political bureaucracy that are responsible for administering Japanese laws, collecting taxes, granting permits for various activities, and generally making Japan run smoothly. Unlike the private sector, where companies must work hard and show results, Japan's public employees enjoy incredible stability, and theirs is the last segment of society to enjoy de facto lifetime employment in Japan. Young people who want the comfort of the stablest possible job and a long, steady climb up the social ladder aspire to pass the difficult national test that allows you to work as a public employee, although of course, if your parents are friends with your local city councilman he may be able to get you a job even if you haven't passed the test -- Japan can be very flexible that way. More so than in the U.S., government employees here are defined as a single group, and some professions that you don't normally think of as a lifetime government job are described with the "komuin" term (such as police and firemen). While Japan's public employees provide a solid white-collar backbone of stability for the country, there are a lot of complaints about lack of fiscal restraint in Japan's public sector. For example, despite the decade-long recession in Japan, our prefecture found the money to build a 32-story skyscraper-style prefectural office that cost hundreds of millions to erect yet does nothing but provide government employees with a beautiful view.

Before I started J-List I was an ESL teacher, teaching English conversation to a variety of students, from children all the way up to retired Japanese looking to acquire English in their newfound free time. I taught English for a total of five years, and while I wouldn't recommend considering ESL as a long-term career for most people, it was a great experience overall. After leaving the school I taught at for four years (which went out of business after I left, unfortunately), I had another good experience: working in the city office of my local city and trying out the life of a Japanese public employee. Every city in Japan has at least one bilingual foreigner working there, called the Coordinator for International Relations (CIR), whose job it is to do official translations for the city, assist the city office with English-related jobs, help the mayor if he meets with foreign guests, and so on. The CIR who worked that year went home early, breaking his contact, and so I was asked to work the rest of his time. I got to work as a real Japanese city official, wearing a tie and dark slacks, greeting my co-workers every morning (for some reason they always shorten "ohayo gozaimasu" to "oh-ss") and drinking green tea while sitting at my desk. Although I have to say I prefer my life at J-List to the stable life of a city employee, my months there were fun and gave me much insight into the country I love.

To further promote great Japanese pop culture around the world, including Japan's adult products, J-List has special relationships with famous Japanese adult video makers like Soft on Demand. Because we're blessed with so many great customers who love Japan's unique AV culture, we've been allowed by Soft on Demand to create a special "SOD Outlet" through which we'll make available popular titles by the company which are being closed out -- allowing you to buy them at great prices! Check out the new SOD Outlet category, open now!

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

• First, for fans of the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, we've got one of my favorite films: Umi ga Kikoeru ("I can hear the sea", although the official English title is "Ocean Waves"), a 2-disc release which comes with many extras, including optional English subtitles
  
• Also great for Totoro/Ghibli fans, we've restocked many of our plush toys, music boxes and more
  
• We finally have the long-awaited Macross figures in stock, however we're sorry to say that we've only got limited stock, due to the incredible popularity of this series -- we currently have 4 full sets in stock, although we'll hope against hope that we can get more
  
• We love the cool miniature toys from Japan, and have a great new series for you: highly detailed replicas of the stalls at Japanese summer festivals, which sell everything from tako-yaki (fried balls of batter with octopus meat inside) to cold ramune soda to "catch the goldfish" games -- and as usual, J-List goes the extra mile for you, making pre-created full sets available
  
• For Domo-kun fans, we've restocked the popular medium sized Domo-kun plush toy, which was in danger of selling out even though we posted 60 to the site last week -- we've gotten in another 100 for everyone
  
• Also for fans of traditional Japanese images, we've got a real Japanese "omamori" (OH-mah-moe-ree), a traditional good-luck charm -- this one is special, though, as it contains a condom inside
  
• For fans of Chobits, the great manga and anime from CLAMP, we've got their superb new art book, featuring incredibly beautiful artwork of Chii
  
• For fans of our Japanese snacks, we've got some great new items, including delicious strawberry milk candy that's been enjoyed by Japanese kids for decades, more curry in "retro" packaging, and delicious Japanese desserts you can make at home
  
• Also, kiwi fruit flavored Hi-Chew, as well as a general restocking of traditional Japanese foods that are very healthy
  
• For those who like burning fragrant incense, we've got a great "incense pig" that helps ward off disease and sickness
  
• The "Onyanko Restaurant" series of plush cats baked into famous Japanese dishes is just too cute for words -- you have to see it to believe it, so check the site
  
• For fans of cute Japanese signs and stickers, we've got more wacky items in stock for you
  
• For Hello Kitty fans, a cute Kitty shopping bag that is very sturdy, to last through many shopping trips
  
• Also, fresh stock of the very popular Kitty in summer festival yukata plush toys
  
• For lovers of Japan Hot Wheels, sold only in the Japanese market, we've got more stock of the AirWolf helicopter and the Knight Rider K.A.R.R. car
  
• If you love the beautiful artwork from Please Teacher, be sure and see the fresh stock of the official fanbook
  
• Then enjoy a cute wooden cup called a "masu," used for measuring rice or sake, but you can put all kinds of things in it
  
• Finally, enjoy camouflage hats, which are popular in Japan this summer, some great chopsticks made out of bamboo (the only thing to make chopsticks out of), more onigiri makers, and more!
  

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

• For fans of great adult magazines from Japan, we've got the new Yasashite Shite ne, a great hardcore magazine about love and sex and bukkake
  
• Then for fans of Yulia Nova, we're happy to announce the new Bachelor, featuring many incredibly beautiful women from Eastern Europe and Russia, including the sweet Yulia Nova, featured in a great selection of photos including a pin-up
  
• We've got a great new hardcover photobook from Aida Garo's popular Imoto series, this time with the lovely Ami
  
• Then enjoy some other hardcover photobooks, including the great Ruri Anno hardcover photobook from SOD, fresh stock of the popular "Minx" and photobooks my Nao Oikawa, Yuko Ogura and Harumi Nemoto
  
• Fans of real hermaphrodites and shemales, a fetish known as "new half" in Japanese, will enjoy the great new photobook we've got for you
  
• Then for manga collectors, see the new works we've got for you, including Dirty Kaleidoscope, a collection of famous hentai manga from Dirty Matsumoto, and the erotic See Through Angel, featuring incredible "naughty tentacles" from the creator of the Vaginass series
  
• Also: fresh stock of over a dozen great comic works, including The Equation of the Immoral by Azuki Kurenai, the incredible Sex Friend by artist MoMo, and the excellent Saint Costume Play
  
• Also: we've created a handy value pack of the English Blue Eyes hentai comics, vol. 1-5, to allow fans of Tohru Nishimaki's superb busty hentai works to buy the whole set and save!
  
• For yaoi lovers, we've got a great new manga for you too, a great story of classic yaoi themes
  
• For DVD fans, we've got some superb items for you today, starting with Rino Kizaki's 4-hour special -- 240 minutes of the best hardcore of this sweet AV star from Japan (region free)
  
• Then enjoy Anal Fuckers, a bold new release from SOD, featuring the first anal sex of some of the cutest AV gals at the company (region free)
  
• If you love the smooth and silky Akira Watase, the lovely bad girl of the Japanese indies scene, enjoy her new Digital Mosaic by Moodyz, with super-fine detail for your total enjoyment (region 2)
  
• Also from Moodyz, a super new release -- an erotic "All Nude Sports Day" in which beautiful Japanese girls engage in a variety of fun nude sports (region 2)
  
• For those interested in our new Soft on Demand Outlet category, enjoy bargain priced versions of Assistant Director Haruna's erotic lesbian kissing, with Japan's top AV stars; the First Time Lesbian of Juri Wakabayashi; and the cute and erotic Sayaka Hijiri "Private Idol" featuring sex on the beach in Okinawa
  
• Finally, look for many restocked DVDs, including several of the bargain-priced "A Masterpiece Concentation" series, Super Zoom Up Erotic Parts, Semen Bank, Gold Bird, and Eri Yukawa's oh-so-erotic Super Bukkake Special
  

Remember that J-List carries a wide variety of snacks from Japan, with about 100 different items in stock at all times, with everything from Pocky (popular chocolate covered sticks) to Shigekix (super-sour "hard gummi") to Japan's famous spicy caffeine gum, Black Black. Because J-List is based at the source, right there in the heart of Japan, we've got hundreds of cool and fun items that have never made it out of Japan, which you can order. All items have a "freshness date" printed on the packaging, and we unconditionally guarantee that all the items we sell are within the date when the items are sent to you. So check out our fun snacks section!

Greetings from J-List August 6, 2003

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Greetings from J-List August 4, 2003

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