Hello again from J-List!
First of all, a full hard drive caused a dozen or so orders received over the weekend to show as incomplete on our end -- we received the orders but not the email addresses or names of the people who made them. If you ordered something through the J-List website on Saturday or Sunday and haven't received the second email from us, please contact us so we can get your order processed properly.
We had a fun weekend. Our kids don't get out enough since we're so busy with J-List, so we took them to beautiful Yokohama to show them the city, hitting such famous sites as Chinatown and the Gaijin Graveyard and Yokohama Marine Tower in Yamashita Park, the tallest lighthouse in the world (I've wanted to see it since I saw episode 15 of Robotech back in high school). Yokohama is a fabulous place, steeped in history and international culture, and I've always felt drawn to it -- maybe that's because my hometown of San Diego is similar in many ways, and in fact, Yokohama and San Diego are sister cities. We took the kids to have some fun at Hakkejima Sea Paradise, an amusement park and excellent aquarium located on an artifically created island in Yokohama Bay. We loved riding the rides, but had the most fun in the aquarium, a very well-designed system of tanks and windows that allow you to get inches away from some amazing marine life, and meet eyes with beluga whales, dolphins, penguins and more. There's also an escalator that goes up through a massive tank of aqua life, so that there are fish on all sides of you and above you. It was pretty cool.
In Yokohama we stayed in a Western hotel, one of the high-rise hotels popular in the major Japanese cities known as "city hotels." Staying in a city hotel is a totally Western experience -- everything from the beds to the bathtubs to the food in the restaurants is based on a slightly exaggerated ideal of what a fine hotel in America or Europe would be, as seen through Japanese eyes. It was actually a bit of a culture shock for my family and I -- we're so used to the rhythm of a Japanese-style inn, with tatami rooms, futons, cotton yukata and large communal hot spring baths, that the city hotel took some getting used to.
At the amusement park there was an Anna Miller's restaunt, which we happily ate at. Anna Millers' is a famous chain of "Boston style" family restaurants that's really good, and their pies can't be beat. But Anna Miller's is famous for another reason: their sexy waitress uniforms, which feature very short skirts and, er, support for various parts of a woman's anatomy. As part of the general Japanese boom in "cosplay" (costume play, i.e. dressing up in various uniforms or costumes), the Anna Miller's sexy waitress uniforms have become famous throughout the country, and are as recognizable to Japanese as the Playboy Bunny is to Americans. To see what the uniform looks like, just search for "waitress" on the J-List site and see what comes up -- the bishoujo game Viper V16 also features a girl wearing this famous costume on the cover. Supposedly, the best place to experience Anne Miller's is the restaurant in Meguro, Tokyo -- the girls are supposed to be the prettiest there, according to Tomo, who is an expert. If you're ever in Tokyo and want to experience some delicious food and pretty waitresses, just go to the Meguro or Ebisu train stations on the Yama-no-te loop line and take a taxi to the restaurant.
Now I'm at Narita Airport, about to make the leap from Japan to California again. I'll be attending the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas from Jan 8-12. If you'll be at the show and want to stop by and say hello, we'd love to see you! For more info on the show, see http://adultentertainmentexpo.com
For the new update, we have a whole lot of new items for you, from magazines to photobooks to doujinshi/manga to DVDs to anime toys to wacky things from Japan and more -- a great volley of new items for you to browse and enjoy! Also, look for freshly restocked items from Japan from our extensive selection of unique products from Japan for you. We hope we can serve you in some way!
Remember that J-List carries thousands of cool things from Japan, including the really cool miniature "candy toy" (called this because you usually get some ramune or other candy in the box). Our favorites include the full sets of Street Fighter II replica figures, the excellent Urusei Yatsura figures, and the replicas of famous foods found in Japan, like sushi, traditional Japanese dishes and miniature bento boxes sold in train stations all around Japan. Because we want you to be satisfied with these great toys, we go the extra mile for you and create full sets that you can buy -- so there's no need to buy two dozen toys and throw away all the duplicates. Please note that these candy toy items are all out of production, and no more will be available -- so if there's something you want to get, we recommend you get it before our stock runs out.
Monday, January 05, 2004
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Greetings from J-List October 4, 2004
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Thursday, January 01, 2004
Greetings from J-List January 1, 2004
"Akemashite omedetou" from all of us in Japan, where convertibles are known as open cars.
Before starting J-List in 1996, I taught English as a Second Language to Japanese students, usually children or high school kids. I had quite an extensive collection of ESL textbooks, vocabulary cards, and various games I would play in class. One such game was "English baseball" in which teams of students would get "hits" if they answered questions using English. Another is the popular Japanese game "fruits basket" in which you put, say, ten chairs in a circle and put one child in each chair, with one more standing in the center. This child must ask a question like "Do you like bananas?" and all kids who like bananas must change seats as quickly as they can. The one left in the center is "it" and must ask the next question to the group. I recently found another great tool for learning English, which I discovered with my kids: Mad Libs, the classic zany word game. My kids love to make up Mad Libs, and it makes them apply their language and vocabulary skills in ways that are amazingly effective. They're kids, so they have a tendency to want to choose words like "stinky underpants" but it's still a lot of laughs, and it helps their English.
If you're going to travel to Japan, you'd better bring your suitscase, and make sure you wear a clean shirts and a nice suits. My favorite sports is soccer, and my favorite anime show (and children's game) is Fruits Basket. Sound odd? For some inexplicable reason of Japanese phonetics, some English words are imported into Japanese in their plural forms. The word for a suit in Japanese is "suits," even though you may only be talking about one suit, and a can of fruit juice is "fruits juice." Japanese don't mind these words, although the misuse of English grammar tends to give English natives the heebie jeebies at first. Then you get used to the strange words, and the next thing you know, you're accidentally using them in English while talking to your mother on the phone -- how embarrassing. Sometimes the words are used in their plural forms to make them easier for Japanese to pronounce or write, and other times to keep two words from sounding the same in Japanese. Because "fruit" and "flute" would have the exact same pronunciation when written in katakana, the writing system used for expressing foreign loan words, the musical instrument became "furu-to" and the edible stuff became "furu-tsu." Other Japaneseified English words include peanuts butter, nutsmeg, and Kellogg's newest addition to the Japanese cereal market, Fruits Loops.
Driving in Japan can be different from what you might be used to. The Japanese drive on the right side of the road, like the British. Most drivers turn off their car's headlights at intersections (leaving the parking lights on), as a courtesy to drivers who might be blinded by their lights on the other side of the intersection. 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. In Tokyo, where drivers drive with consideration for others (unlike our prefecture, where drivers are very rude), a two-second flashing of the hazard lights is the correct way to say "thank you" when another car lets you in in front of him. Gaijin are always confused by the Japanese use of the word blue (aoi) to refer to green traffic lights -- they look green to us, but for some mysterious reason, they Japanese use the word blue to describe them. Finally, in Japan, there's a three second delay between the time when one traffic light turns red and the next turns 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 start moving.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, including fresh stock of dozens of our popular anime, toy, wacky, DVD, Japanese snack, hentai and other products for you. We still have 80+ fantastic 2004 calendars, and prices have been knocked down yet again to help you help us reduce our inventory. Please browse the over 2000 excellent Japanese products we have available for you!
At J-List, we sell just about everything from cool Japanese items for your kitchen to rare anime toys to wacky T-shirts you don't know you need until you see them. We feel we have a mission to bring all forms of contemporary Japanese pop culture to our customers all over the world, and we love doing what we do. One item we've wanted to sell for many years are the squeaking shoes that Japanese parents buy for their children. Children love having shoes that squeak as they walk, and parents will enjoy knowing exactly where their child is at all time, from the sound of the squeaking. When our own children were small, they wore these shoes when we took trips to the U.S., and we got many comments about what a great idea these shoes were. So we're happy to be able to bring them to you!
Before starting J-List in 1996, I taught English as a Second Language to Japanese students, usually children or high school kids. I had quite an extensive collection of ESL textbooks, vocabulary cards, and various games I would play in class. One such game was "English baseball" in which teams of students would get "hits" if they answered questions using English. Another is the popular Japanese game "fruits basket" in which you put, say, ten chairs in a circle and put one child in each chair, with one more standing in the center. This child must ask a question like "Do you like bananas?" and all kids who like bananas must change seats as quickly as they can. The one left in the center is "it" and must ask the next question to the group. I recently found another great tool for learning English, which I discovered with my kids: Mad Libs, the classic zany word game. My kids love to make up Mad Libs, and it makes them apply their language and vocabulary skills in ways that are amazingly effective. They're kids, so they have a tendency to want to choose words like "stinky underpants" but it's still a lot of laughs, and it helps their English.
If you're going to travel to Japan, you'd better bring your suitscase, and make sure you wear a clean shirts and a nice suits. My favorite sports is soccer, and my favorite anime show (and children's game) is Fruits Basket. Sound odd? For some inexplicable reason of Japanese phonetics, some English words are imported into Japanese in their plural forms. The word for a suit in Japanese is "suits," even though you may only be talking about one suit, and a can of fruit juice is "fruits juice." Japanese don't mind these words, although the misuse of English grammar tends to give English natives the heebie jeebies at first. Then you get used to the strange words, and the next thing you know, you're accidentally using them in English while talking to your mother on the phone -- how embarrassing. Sometimes the words are used in their plural forms to make them easier for Japanese to pronounce or write, and other times to keep two words from sounding the same in Japanese. Because "fruit" and "flute" would have the exact same pronunciation when written in katakana, the writing system used for expressing foreign loan words, the musical instrument became "furu-to" and the edible stuff became "furu-tsu." Other Japaneseified English words include peanuts butter, nutsmeg, and Kellogg's newest addition to the Japanese cereal market, Fruits Loops.
Driving in Japan can be different from what you might be used to. The Japanese drive on the right side of the road, like the British. Most drivers turn off their car's headlights at intersections (leaving the parking lights on), as a courtesy to drivers who might be blinded by their lights on the other side of the intersection. 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. In Tokyo, where drivers drive with consideration for others (unlike our prefecture, where drivers are very rude), a two-second flashing of the hazard lights is the correct way to say "thank you" when another car lets you in in front of him. Gaijin are always confused by the Japanese use of the word blue (aoi) to refer to green traffic lights -- they look green to us, but for some mysterious reason, they Japanese use the word blue to describe them. Finally, in Japan, there's a three second delay between the time when one traffic light turns red and the next turns 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 start moving.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, including fresh stock of dozens of our popular anime, toy, wacky, DVD, Japanese snack, hentai and other products for you. We still have 80+ fantastic 2004 calendars, and prices have been knocked down yet again to help you help us reduce our inventory. Please browse the over 2000 excellent Japanese products we have available for you!
At J-List, we sell just about everything from cool Japanese items for your kitchen to rare anime toys to wacky T-shirts you don't know you need until you see them. We feel we have a mission to bring all forms of contemporary Japanese pop culture to our customers all over the world, and we love doing what we do. One item we've wanted to sell for many years are the squeaking shoes that Japanese parents buy for their children. Children love having shoes that squeak as they walk, and parents will enjoy knowing exactly where their child is at all time, from the sound of the squeaking. When our own children were small, they wore these shoes when we took trips to the U.S., and we got many comments about what a great idea these shoes were. So we're happy to be able to bring them to you!
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 31, 2003
Hello and "yoi otoshi o" from all of us in Japan!
Well, 2003 is at an end, and we're all ready for our final J-List update before turning our faces to the coming year and all that it holds. Japanese usually spend New Years Eve quietly, with the family gathering to enjoy a special night of TV. Virtually all of Japan's famous singers, comedians and other "talents" (a word the Japanese use as a catch-all for television performers) appear in Kohaku (lit. "red-white"), a great year-end variety show in which the male singers battle the female singers to see which group is more talented. Japanese eat soba, or buckwheat noodles, which supposedly helps you live longer (because the noodles are long) and wait for the New Year to commence. At 15 minutes before midnight, Kohaku winds down, and NHK broadcasts quiet, solemn images of shrines, temples and churches all around Japan, lit up to allow eager visitors to get their New Year's prayers in as early as possible. The bells in shrines and temples ring out 108 times, to purify the 108 delusions that humans are supposed to be subject to, and to ring out hope for the coming year. Then, without any fanfare or countdown, the clock on NHK's video feed flashes 0:00, and the new year is here.
One thing that took some getting used to when I first got to Japan was the sharp distinction between this year and the coming year in the Japanese language. In the U.S., a New Year's Party is something you throw on December 31st, to ring in the new year with friends and champagne. But in Japan, it's not the "new year" until January 1st, and so a party with friends is a "bounen-kai" (Forget-the-past-year Party) if it's in December, and a "shinnen-kai" (New Year Party) if it's in January. In December, you wish someone a Happy New Year by saying "Yoi otoshi o" (YOH-ee oh-TOH-shi oh, lit. "have a good year"), but on or after Jan. 1st you can say "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu" (ah-kay-MAHSH-tay oh-meh-deh-toh go-za-ee-mass, lit. "congratulations on opening the new year"). New Year's is the most important holiday in Japan, and most businesses are closed for the first few days in January as everyone takes a rest. But one group of people are busier than ever: Japan's postal workers, who must sort and deliver millions of Japanese New Year's greetings cards, the sending of which is a huge custom in Japan.
The past year has been a phenomenal one for all of us at J-List. We found dozens of great new ways to bring fun and bizarre things from Japan to our customers who are not fortunate enough to live here, and helped spread interest in the country that we love to tens of thousands of people -- including the 50,000+ readers of our regular J-List update emails. Thanks to the warm support of all of you, we've been able to be an even better "wonderful toybox of things from Japan" this past year. From all the staff of J-List in Japan and in San Diego, we thank you for your support, and hope you'll let us serve you in 2004!
For the new update, we've got an extra-special update for you. The new items include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
J-List carries dozens of top-quality Japanese dating-sim games for you, with virtually every English-translated interactive game in existence available for immediate order. We've gone through and updated some of the pictures and descriptions to our games so you can get a better view of how beautiful the characters and graphics are in these insanely great games from Japan.
Remember that J-List stocks the incredible detailed classic food replica items from Re-Ment and other companies, which recreate famous food of the world -- sushi, Japanese traditional dishes, desserts of the world, Chinese food from Yokohama's Chinatown -- in such detail you won't believe they're not edible (you even get little silverware/chopsticks). All of the food replica items we have in stock right now are out of production, so the stock we have will be our last. We hope you'll consider picking several of these unique items up -- full sets are available so you don't have to buy lots of duplicates!
Well, 2003 is at an end, and we're all ready for our final J-List update before turning our faces to the coming year and all that it holds. Japanese usually spend New Years Eve quietly, with the family gathering to enjoy a special night of TV. Virtually all of Japan's famous singers, comedians and other "talents" (a word the Japanese use as a catch-all for television performers) appear in Kohaku (lit. "red-white"), a great year-end variety show in which the male singers battle the female singers to see which group is more talented. Japanese eat soba, or buckwheat noodles, which supposedly helps you live longer (because the noodles are long) and wait for the New Year to commence. At 15 minutes before midnight, Kohaku winds down, and NHK broadcasts quiet, solemn images of shrines, temples and churches all around Japan, lit up to allow eager visitors to get their New Year's prayers in as early as possible. The bells in shrines and temples ring out 108 times, to purify the 108 delusions that humans are supposed to be subject to, and to ring out hope for the coming year. Then, without any fanfare or countdown, the clock on NHK's video feed flashes 0:00, and the new year is here.
One thing that took some getting used to when I first got to Japan was the sharp distinction between this year and the coming year in the Japanese language. In the U.S., a New Year's Party is something you throw on December 31st, to ring in the new year with friends and champagne. But in Japan, it's not the "new year" until January 1st, and so a party with friends is a "bounen-kai" (Forget-the-past-year Party) if it's in December, and a "shinnen-kai" (New Year Party) if it's in January. In December, you wish someone a Happy New Year by saying "Yoi otoshi o" (YOH-ee oh-TOH-shi oh, lit. "have a good year"), but on or after Jan. 1st you can say "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu" (ah-kay-MAHSH-tay oh-meh-deh-toh go-za-ee-mass, lit. "congratulations on opening the new year"). New Year's is the most important holiday in Japan, and most businesses are closed for the first few days in January as everyone takes a rest. But one group of people are busier than ever: Japan's postal workers, who must sort and deliver millions of Japanese New Year's greetings cards, the sending of which is a huge custom in Japan.
The past year has been a phenomenal one for all of us at J-List. We found dozens of great new ways to bring fun and bizarre things from Japan to our customers who are not fortunate enough to live here, and helped spread interest in the country that we love to tens of thousands of people -- including the 50,000+ readers of our regular J-List update emails. Thanks to the warm support of all of you, we've been able to be an even better "wonderful toybox of things from Japan" this past year. From all the staff of J-List in Japan and in San Diego, we thank you for your support, and hope you'll let us serve you in 2004!
For the new update, we've got an extra-special update for you. The new items include:
- 2003 has been the Year of Shirow Masamune, and we've got a very special item for you: the Intron Depot Figure Series 2, featuring six incredibly detailed sexy characters from the mind of Japan's foremost artist. Full sets are in stock -- there's no need to buy many duplicates to get the items you want!
- Then for Nausicaa fans, we've got a very special item: a highly detailed PVC replica of Nausicaa on her Meve flying wing, an incredible item for any fan's display area
- Also for Miyazaki fans, we've got a very soft, high-quality Jiji plush from Japan's famous Sun Arrow toy company, and fresh stock of Makkuro-Kurosuke (er, Soot Sprites)
- The Japanese film Battle Royale has become a cult classic, and for collectors, we've got the very special Battle Royale II Requiem Special Edition Box, loaded with cool things for you
- Every summer and winter, tens of thousands attend the Comic Market, an underground convention where fans can buy doujinshi, or fan-created comics -- we've got some really cool "doujin cosplay photo CD-ROMs" in stock for anyone in love with high-quality anime cosplay
- We carry tons of cool Hello Kitty items from Japan -- enjoy a great Kitty pocket tissue holder that will hold J-List tissue as well, great Hello Kitty art kits for making watercolor and sand paintings, and more
- We have a great new Japanese fude pen, a brush-writing pen that allows you to write as if you were using a Chinese ink brush
- We've done a major restocking of Japan Hot Wheels, sold only in the Japanese market (Knight Rider, Speed Race, Back to the Future Delorean), as well as some new Tomica die-cast cars (including the popular Prius)
- For your kitchen, various new bento and chopstick related items, great for fans of Japan's boxed lunch culture
- Also, bizarre new Japanese pin badges for people who love strange things from Japan
- We have two bizarre "head puppets" from Japan that are great for parties or to amuse your friends with
- We have more cool dictionaries of Japanese proverbs, 4-character compound words and more, fun for anyone studying the language
- We have some cool English-language manga and DVD items shipping out of our San Diego office, take a look at them
- We have some amazing snack items for you, including a cool Japanese good luck charm (daruma, lucky cat, etc.) with chocolate cookies
- Also, a huge update of restocked items, including Men's Pocky, our world-famous Gummi Sushi, Hello Kitty Strawberry Pretz, Dice Caramel, and more
- Finally, we've got some authentic Japanese "zabuton" or sitting pillows, which make it comfortable to sit on the floor like the Japanese do.
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- First, we have the delicious new issue of Urecco Gal, the super magazine of stylish pro and amateur kogal nudes, with some of the boldest and most erotic photography found in Japan
- From Soft on Demand, we've got a very special item: SOD's special magazine, with a 2 hour sampler DVD, at a great price!
- For photobook fans, enjoy the wonderful nude photographs of female pro wrestler Noumi Kayo
- Also, the super-sexy Momo-Mune Musume ("Peach Breast Daughter") Hiroko Akamatsu's first sexy hardcover photobook
- Then see the lovely bondage play of Japanese adult video star Rin Tomosaki, captured in a high-quality photobook for you
- Doujinshi fans, rejoice: we've gotten a bunch of great new erotic doujinshi books for you, fresh from Comic Market 65, which was held yesterday -- enjoy all the great new underground comics posted for you, however stock is limited...
- We have some great new erotic manga for you, including the delightful Slave Need Pleasure by the famous hentai artist Hindenberg, a new issue of Tende Freeze and more
- We've also got the new issue of Electric Love Princess, featuring super erotic anime parody doujinshi, collected into a perfect-bound manga volume for your manga collection
- For our DVD customers, we've got some fabulous items in stock for you, starting with an exploration of the eros of stewardesses, with top names like You Natsuki, Ran Asakawa and Ryoko Yada (region free)
- Then get ready for the luxurious sex of Sora Aoi, aka Sola Aoi, in her fantastic new release from Alice Japan (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, a new project from Hajime, the wacky Japanese adult video director -- see amateurs from all around Japan showing their beautiful breasts to the camera (region free)
- Then it's time for the "Ernest Lesbian Play & Deep Kiss with Semen" from Waap, an extra-special 2-disc work featuring the last performance of the erotic Nao. and Kirari Koizumi (region 2)
- Kyoko Ayana gives you her "Big Breast Fruits" in an erotic new release from SOD's Princess label, a great offering for fans of extra-voluptuous girls from Japan (region free)
- Finally, we've got more freshly restocked DVDs, along with even more of our popular free shipping adult DVDs -- check them all out!
J-List carries dozens of top-quality Japanese dating-sim games for you, with virtually every English-translated interactive game in existence available for immediate order. We've gone through and updated some of the pictures and descriptions to our games so you can get a better view of how beautiful the characters and graphics are in these insanely great games from Japan.
Remember that J-List stocks the incredible detailed classic food replica items from Re-Ment and other companies, which recreate famous food of the world -- sushi, Japanese traditional dishes, desserts of the world, Chinese food from Yokohama's Chinatown -- in such detail you won't believe they're not edible (you even get little silverware/chopsticks). All of the food replica items we have in stock right now are out of production, so the stock we have will be our last. We hope you'll consider picking several of these unique items up -- full sets are available so you don't have to buy lots of duplicates!
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 27, 2003
Hello again from all of us at J-List!
Everyone is getting ready for 2003 to wind down. In Japan, one of the year-end traditions is "oh-souji" or Big Cleaning -- cleaning your home from top to bottom so you can get a fresh start on the new year. Today the J-List staff put their other work on hold and gave J-List a thorough cleaning, pulling out all computer wires and wiping away the past year's worth of dust and dirt everywhere. It felt great to take stock of everything while we cleaned, and now everything is spic and span. We're ready for the new year! Japanese also buy new toothbrushes so they can start the year extra fresh and clean.
One of the big changes to take place during the decade-long Japanese recession has been the de-Japanification of several industries as foreign companies innovated their way into Japanese markets. Toys R Us has wrought massive changes in the domestic toy industry here, Mazda is mostly owned by Ford, and Nissan has a gaijin president -- the widely respected Charles Ghosn, who has worked miracles with the formerly-bloated company. One way foreign companies have found success is by actively going against accepted norms in Japan, a place where companies seem to compete by trying to be as similar to other companies in their industry as possible. Starbucks, for example, has done well in Japan by not changing the format that worked for them in the U.S. Here, for example, Starbucks employees greet you informally ("konnichiwa") instead of using the more stiff greeting usually reserved for customers in retail shops ("irasshaimase"). Japanese probably felt odd being greeted in a friendly manner the first time they go into a Starbucks, something that just isn't done here, but after a while it started feeling warm and pleasant to them. Toys R Us also brought the concept of pricing products at 999 yen instead of 1000 yen, which was never done here before they entered the toy market (companies always set prices so that they'd be in nice, even numbers when tax was added).
One unique aspect of Japan are the "love hotels" that pop up here and there throughout the country. Because Japanese young people usually live with their parents into their 20s (or indefinitely, if they're the oldest son or daughter), it can be difficult for couples to find time for privacy. So they go to a love hotel, where they can enjoy "rest" (2 hours of privacy) or "stay" (all night). Formerly known as "motels," which causes some confusion when Japanese go to the U.S. and see motels there, the rooms inside love hotels have everything couples might need -- exotic baths, romantic beds, toothbrushes, even a condom on the pillow (although Tomo says it's dangerous to use this condom, as couples who used the room before might have poked a small hole in it for the next couple, as a joke). Many love hotels are organized around a theme, such as the Queen Elizabeth (a giant hotel that looks like a ship) that happens to sit in the middle of our own city, or rooms that look like the Forbidden City in Beijing. The most famous love hotel in Gunma is called The Rock, and everything in the rooms is based on Alcatraz -- but it's so popular, you have to wait outside for hours to get in. Another popular hotel in Tokyo is a haunted house -- while couples go to their rooms, dozens of scary things jump out at them to scare them. Since couples going to a hotel want privacy, the hotels make sure they never need to see anyone -- at some places, you can check out by phone, and put your money in a tube that will be delivered to the front desk.
J-List still has a huge number of beautiful 2004 poster calendars in stock, even after selling hundreds of our popular large-format calendars this Christmas season. If you're looking for a unique piece of Japan to put on your wall, we recommend you check out the amazing calendars we've still got left -- more than 90 fantastic JPOP, anime, contemporary and classic Japanese art, photographic and other calendars. We've slashed prices on these unique calendars, allowing you to get a fantastic deal on something that won't be available ever again. Enjoy a very special year with a beautiful Japanese calendar -- or four!
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, including fresh stock of dozens of really cool items, from Groomy plushes to Japanese snacks and more. J-List currently has more than 2300 individual products in stock for you, from cool toys to rare anime items to unique character goods. Please come by and see all the great products we've got for you!
Remember that for the rest of 2003, J-List is having a special $1 shipping sale on all Japanese bishoujo games, e.g. the English-translated dating-sim games for Windows PCs. Awareness of these interactive dating-sim games has really blossomed in the past year or two, and we now have more than 40 different full bishoujo games and related hentai CD-ROM products in stock for you. Remember, order 4 or more and get 20% off the total, in addition to the $1 shipping sale. All products ship daily from San Diego.
Everyone is getting ready for 2003 to wind down. In Japan, one of the year-end traditions is "oh-souji" or Big Cleaning -- cleaning your home from top to bottom so you can get a fresh start on the new year. Today the J-List staff put their other work on hold and gave J-List a thorough cleaning, pulling out all computer wires and wiping away the past year's worth of dust and dirt everywhere. It felt great to take stock of everything while we cleaned, and now everything is spic and span. We're ready for the new year! Japanese also buy new toothbrushes so they can start the year extra fresh and clean.
One of the big changes to take place during the decade-long Japanese recession has been the de-Japanification of several industries as foreign companies innovated their way into Japanese markets. Toys R Us has wrought massive changes in the domestic toy industry here, Mazda is mostly owned by Ford, and Nissan has a gaijin president -- the widely respected Charles Ghosn, who has worked miracles with the formerly-bloated company. One way foreign companies have found success is by actively going against accepted norms in Japan, a place where companies seem to compete by trying to be as similar to other companies in their industry as possible. Starbucks, for example, has done well in Japan by not changing the format that worked for them in the U.S. Here, for example, Starbucks employees greet you informally ("konnichiwa") instead of using the more stiff greeting usually reserved for customers in retail shops ("irasshaimase"). Japanese probably felt odd being greeted in a friendly manner the first time they go into a Starbucks, something that just isn't done here, but after a while it started feeling warm and pleasant to them. Toys R Us also brought the concept of pricing products at 999 yen instead of 1000 yen, which was never done here before they entered the toy market (companies always set prices so that they'd be in nice, even numbers when tax was added).
One unique aspect of Japan are the "love hotels" that pop up here and there throughout the country. Because Japanese young people usually live with their parents into their 20s (or indefinitely, if they're the oldest son or daughter), it can be difficult for couples to find time for privacy. So they go to a love hotel, where they can enjoy "rest" (2 hours of privacy) or "stay" (all night). Formerly known as "motels," which causes some confusion when Japanese go to the U.S. and see motels there, the rooms inside love hotels have everything couples might need -- exotic baths, romantic beds, toothbrushes, even a condom on the pillow (although Tomo says it's dangerous to use this condom, as couples who used the room before might have poked a small hole in it for the next couple, as a joke). Many love hotels are organized around a theme, such as the Queen Elizabeth (a giant hotel that looks like a ship) that happens to sit in the middle of our own city, or rooms that look like the Forbidden City in Beijing. The most famous love hotel in Gunma is called The Rock, and everything in the rooms is based on Alcatraz -- but it's so popular, you have to wait outside for hours to get in. Another popular hotel in Tokyo is a haunted house -- while couples go to their rooms, dozens of scary things jump out at them to scare them. Since couples going to a hotel want privacy, the hotels make sure they never need to see anyone -- at some places, you can check out by phone, and put your money in a tube that will be delivered to the front desk.
J-List still has a huge number of beautiful 2004 poster calendars in stock, even after selling hundreds of our popular large-format calendars this Christmas season. If you're looking for a unique piece of Japan to put on your wall, we recommend you check out the amazing calendars we've still got left -- more than 90 fantastic JPOP, anime, contemporary and classic Japanese art, photographic and other calendars. We've slashed prices on these unique calendars, allowing you to get a fantastic deal on something that won't be available ever again. Enjoy a very special year with a beautiful Japanese calendar -- or four!
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, including fresh stock of dozens of really cool items, from Groomy plushes to Japanese snacks and more. J-List currently has more than 2300 individual products in stock for you, from cool toys to rare anime items to unique character goods. Please come by and see all the great products we've got for you!
Remember that for the rest of 2003, J-List is having a special $1 shipping sale on all Japanese bishoujo games, e.g. the English-translated dating-sim games for Windows PCs. Awareness of these interactive dating-sim games has really blossomed in the past year or two, and we now have more than 40 different full bishoujo games and related hentai CD-ROM products in stock for you. Remember, order 4 or more and get 20% off the total, in addition to the $1 shipping sale. All products ship daily from San Diego.
Friday, December 26, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 26, 2003
Hello again from all your friends at J-List!
In my general overview of the Japanese language and collection of advice for anyone interested in learning Japanese, one thing I touch upon is "find what floats your boat"-- to find interests that relate to Japanese which help move you forward a little bit each day. Learning Japanese is incredibly difficult, so you need hobbies and interests related to Japanese in order to succeed. I got a lot out of reading Japanese manga, such as Touch (a famous baseball comic), Fist of the North Star, and Orange Road. Reading manga for enjoyment really helped teach me a lot, and gave me a constant stream of new vocabulary words. I also learned that karaoke was a fun way to learn Japanese, and I memorized several songs to sing at karaoke bars and restaurants in San Diego. Japanese always love it when foreigners sing songs in Japanese, so I got a lot of positive feedback, too. I've seen friends get into Japanese through martial arts, and leaning Japanese by playing RPGs in the original language is another interesting hobby to have. To see my general advice for anyone wanting to learn Japanese, see my personal homepage at http://www.peterpayne.net .
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, while in college in the 80's, and wondering why they always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, it's believed that you can tell a lot about a person's personality and character traits from his blood type. Type A people are neat, tidy, and plan things meticulously, almost to a fault. Type B are "going my way" (as the Japanese say), meaning that they do their own thing without worrying about the opinions of others, and don't plan things out in advance. They can be messy, and tend to act on impulse (I am type B, and my wife is always commenting on why do some things I do based on my blood type). Type O people have a private world inside their minds, supposedly, and they're quick to become passionate about something, but then change to something else just as easily. Type O people have the ability to lead others. Finally, AB people have "two faces," one that they make in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. Like the various beliefs that are related to Buddhism (such as, you're not supposed to sleep with your pillow facing north, as this is reserved for the dead before cremation), the Japanese blood type beliefs are hard to get used to at first, but when you live in Japan long enough, you start thinking there might be something to them after all...
For the new update, our hardworking staff has posted many new items for you, including:
Remember that J-List offers many magazines via subscription, including our best-selling subscriptions like Urecco, Bejean, Best Video, Video Boy, Gal's Dee and more. These are available by 6- or 12-month subscriptions, and you get 1 or 2 free issues with each subscription.
Also, Remember that J-List is the only place you can get the excellent and authentic high school uniforms from Matsukameya of Nagoya. These are extremely well made uniforms that are famous all over Japan, and they're just beautiful. They're not cheap, unfortunately, but we know that you will be totally satisfied with the high quality of Matsukameya's products.
In my general overview of the Japanese language and collection of advice for anyone interested in learning Japanese, one thing I touch upon is "find what floats your boat"-- to find interests that relate to Japanese which help move you forward a little bit each day. Learning Japanese is incredibly difficult, so you need hobbies and interests related to Japanese in order to succeed. I got a lot out of reading Japanese manga, such as Touch (a famous baseball comic), Fist of the North Star, and Orange Road. Reading manga for enjoyment really helped teach me a lot, and gave me a constant stream of new vocabulary words. I also learned that karaoke was a fun way to learn Japanese, and I memorized several songs to sing at karaoke bars and restaurants in San Diego. Japanese always love it when foreigners sing songs in Japanese, so I got a lot of positive feedback, too. I've seen friends get into Japanese through martial arts, and leaning Japanese by playing RPGs in the original language is another interesting hobby to have. To see my general advice for anyone wanting to learn Japanese, see my personal homepage at http://www.peterpayne.net .
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, while in college in the 80's, and wondering why they always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, it's believed that you can tell a lot about a person's personality and character traits from his blood type. Type A people are neat, tidy, and plan things meticulously, almost to a fault. Type B are "going my way" (as the Japanese say), meaning that they do their own thing without worrying about the opinions of others, and don't plan things out in advance. They can be messy, and tend to act on impulse (I am type B, and my wife is always commenting on why do some things I do based on my blood type). Type O people have a private world inside their minds, supposedly, and they're quick to become passionate about something, but then change to something else just as easily. Type O people have the ability to lead others. Finally, AB people have "two faces," one that they make in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. Like the various beliefs that are related to Buddhism (such as, you're not supposed to sleep with your pillow facing north, as this is reserved for the dead before cremation), the Japanese blood type beliefs are hard to get used to at first, but when you live in Japan long enough, you start thinking there might be something to them after all...
For the new update, our hardworking staff has posted many new items for you, including:
- First, now that Christmas is behind us, it's time to think about New Year's, a very important holiday in Japan -- enjoy the authentic Japanese New Year's decorations we've posted today
- For fans of anime on DVD, we've got the excellent Japanese DTS release of Akira, the famous anime film by Katsuhiro Otomo, with many extras and full English subtitles and dubbed tracks (region 2)
- If you love Hello Kitty, look for several nice items, including great things for babies, a fun Kitty notebook, fun "puffy" stickers, and more
- For fans of Lupin III, we've got a great line of Choro Q "super deformed" vehicles and characters that are just too cool
- Also in the "very cool" department, new plush items by Sun Arrow, the high-quality toy maker that is the official licensor of Totoro toys -- the items we've posted today are extremely cool
- We've got fresh stock of the best-selling Three-Colored Cat Mirror, a beautiful and very Japanese item for your room
- The Hyper Godzilla sets are proving very popular, so we've posted some more sets for you today
- Parody items are popular in Japan, products that parody other products. Look for some cute parody items in stock today
- For lovers of Tokyo Mew Mew, the super cute show that out Sailor Moons Sailor Moon, we've got a high-quality Japanese pencil case with many pockets and features
- If you're a Star Wars fans looking for something really cool, check out the Jango Fett soft vinyl figure we've got -- made by Kotobukiya and only for the Japanese market
- Another really cool item, Heroes of the Sengoku Period, feature figures of real Japanese historic persons from Japan's "Country at War" period, really nice.
- Finally, for fans of Japanese snacks, we've got new items, including delicious Japanese calcium snacks, Lotte "Ghana" chocolate, grape gummi treats that are fun to eat, a large restocking of Pocky and other popular treats we sell, and more!
Remember that J-List offers many magazines via subscription, including our best-selling subscriptions like Urecco, Bejean, Best Video, Video Boy, Gal's Dee and more. These are available by 6- or 12-month subscriptions, and you get 1 or 2 free issues with each subscription.
Also, Remember that J-List is the only place you can get the excellent and authentic high school uniforms from Matsukameya of Nagoya. These are extremely well made uniforms that are famous all over Japan, and they're just beautiful. They're not cheap, unfortunately, but we know that you will be totally satisfied with the high quality of Matsukameya's products.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 24, 2003
Well, Christmas is upon us all -- another year older and hopefully wiser. Christmas is a bit different in Japan than it is in the U.S. It's mainly a fun time of year when Japanese have a Christmas Party with friends, complete with firecrackers, Christmas cake and a brightly decorated Christmas tree. No Christmas Party would be complete without a real live gaijin Santa Claus, dressed from head to toe in bright read "Santa wear." This year I was asked to play Santa by my daughter's English school, and I was happy to oblige, handing out gifts to all of them with a ho-ho-ho and being careful not to speak Japanese so as not to break the mood. Besides being a fun time for kids, Christmas in Japan is second only to Valentine's Day as a day for young lovers, and all across Japan tonight, boyfriends and girlfriends will be exchanging gifts. All of Japan's love hotels have been sold out for weeks.
With movies like The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation and Kill Bill, this certainly has been a year for Hollywood to reflect on Japan and its culture, and for a gaijin whose lived a third of his life here, it's been especially interesting. My wife and I went to see The Last Samurai the other night, and I was impressed by the polish and quality of the film. The writers wove together various real historical events into an entertaining fictional story, and they actually made an effort to avoid over-flowery crap words when dealing with the subject. The story of an American who comes to help train soldiers in Meiji Era Japan was completely fictional, but there was a foreigner who had a great effect on the political events of the day. A British diplomat named Ernest Satow, who was one of the top Japanese-bilingual foreigners of his age, was stationed in Japan during the tumultuous years before the Meiji Restoration. Taking an interest in the conflict between the Bakufu (Shogun's government) and regional warriors, he wrote in a letter stating that what the country needed to do was modernize and form a parliamentary constitutional government. His words were translated into Japanese and were widely read, and this became a rallying point for samurai like Saigou Takamori, on who the character in the Last Samurai was based, a close friend of Satow's. Saigou forced the Shogunate to return power to the Emperor and helped form the first Meiji government. He later rebelled against the rapid changes happening in Japan, and when the rebellion failed he committed seppuku. (We do still have some figures of Saigou Takamori and Matthew Perry in stock, if you want something really esoteric to display on your shelf.)
We've got a great Christmas gift for Yulia fans: announcing the debut of Yulia Nova on DVD! Yes, after a long wait, the first three Yulia Nova DVDs are available for her fans for preorder (estimated shipping March 2004). These discs are totally remastered and each features approx. 30 minutes of never-seen-before footage. Customers who preorder will get a real photograph of Yulia (while supplies last) and will also be entered in a raffle to win a T-shirt signed and worn by Yulia-chan.
Every hour, more of our popular anime, JPOP, idol and traditional photo calendars sell out and disappear from the J-List site. We've still got 100+ different calendars in stock for you, but many are down to their last stock. Several calendars that had been sold out have reappeared on the list, as orders which didn't go through are cancelled, so why not browse the calendars and see what you'd like to get before they're gone?
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
That's all for now. We sincerely wish all you the very warmest of holiday wishes from Japan! Merry Christmas from all of us at J-List!
With movies like The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation and Kill Bill, this certainly has been a year for Hollywood to reflect on Japan and its culture, and for a gaijin whose lived a third of his life here, it's been especially interesting. My wife and I went to see The Last Samurai the other night, and I was impressed by the polish and quality of the film. The writers wove together various real historical events into an entertaining fictional story, and they actually made an effort to avoid over-flowery crap words when dealing with the subject. The story of an American who comes to help train soldiers in Meiji Era Japan was completely fictional, but there was a foreigner who had a great effect on the political events of the day. A British diplomat named Ernest Satow, who was one of the top Japanese-bilingual foreigners of his age, was stationed in Japan during the tumultuous years before the Meiji Restoration. Taking an interest in the conflict between the Bakufu (Shogun's government) and regional warriors, he wrote in a letter stating that what the country needed to do was modernize and form a parliamentary constitutional government. His words were translated into Japanese and were widely read, and this became a rallying point for samurai like Saigou Takamori, on who the character in the Last Samurai was based, a close friend of Satow's. Saigou forced the Shogunate to return power to the Emperor and helped form the first Meiji government. He later rebelled against the rapid changes happening in Japan, and when the rebellion failed he committed seppuku. (We do still have some figures of Saigou Takamori and Matthew Perry in stock, if you want something really esoteric to display on your shelf.)
We've got a great Christmas gift for Yulia fans: announcing the debut of Yulia Nova on DVD! Yes, after a long wait, the first three Yulia Nova DVDs are available for her fans for preorder (estimated shipping March 2004). These discs are totally remastered and each features approx. 30 minutes of never-seen-before footage. Customers who preorder will get a real photograph of Yulia (while supplies last) and will also be entered in a raffle to win a T-shirt signed and worn by Yulia-chan.
Every hour, more of our popular anime, JPOP, idol and traditional photo calendars sell out and disappear from the J-List site. We've still got 100+ different calendars in stock for you, but many are down to their last stock. Several calendars that had been sold out have reappeared on the list, as orders which didn't go through are cancelled, so why not browse the calendars and see what you'd like to get before they're gone?
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for anyone who loved the classic anime Uchu Senkan Yamato (Star Blazers), we have two very cool cold-cast statues of Yuki Mori (Nova), a really special item for fans of Leiji Matsumoto's classic
- For fans of the delightful idols of Morning Musume, so hard to resist, we have a special photobook featuring great shots of these lovely girls
- For Japanese snack fans, we've got some great items for you, including Nabisco chocolate-filled cookies, soft rice crackers, and a unique taste we all fell in love with: yudofu (boiled tofu) flavored pretzel sticks -- guaranteed to be something you've never had before
- Also, we've made a major restocking of snack items, with Milk and Hot Chocolate Pretz, Potato Nori Shio Pretz, Poifull fruit jelly beans (yum!), Oreo Choco Sticks, and March of the Koalas back in stock for you
- For bento fans, we have some great bargain-priced bento boxes that are great for anyone wanting to try authentic Japanese boxed lunch
- For Hello Kitty fans, we've got a really fun hair dryer for kids, which they can really use to play beauty shop
- We have an interesting way to hold your CD-Rs: a cute Usagi Label rabbit that securely holds them for you, a wacky item from Japan
- If you love Japan's super cute JPOP idols Morning Musume, we've got limited stock of one of their most popular card series
- Then check out the very cool temporary tattoos we've got in stock for you, with beautiful kanji designs that will make you look so cool
- We've gotten in more wacky Japanese message pins, with funny designs and meaningless messages in Japanese -- also see fresh stock of several popular items
- Studying Japanese? We've added stock of our J-E and E-J dictionaries, good for people who want a portable dictionary (and who already have some Japanese down)
- We've stocked many cool toy items that were devastated by Christmas shoppers -- see the cool Panda Z toys, Bastard!! deluxe figures, and more
- Also, fresh stock of popular Tomica die-cast replicas of Japanese cars, Japan Hot Wheels, and more
- Finally, look for wacky Japanese erasers shaped like delicious food, a wacky item that could only come from Japan!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of the stylish nude photography we've come to call "Girls in Underoos," we have the new issue of Smart Girls, a perfect bound photobook filled with the most stylish nude idols in Japan
- Then enjoy the new issue of Bachelor, which presents beautiful, busty women from Japan, Russia, Eastern Europe, the U.S. and more
- We've got some great erotic photobooks from Japan, including Mai Sato's first delightful photobook, which you will love
- Then enjoy the First H (first sexual photographs) of Miri Hanai, a lovely new sexy idol from Japan
- Also, we've got the very stylish sexy shots of lovely model Chika, shot in the American Southwest
- See the eros of beautiful women of South America, photographed by famous Japanese photographer Meisa Fujishiro
- For fans of Japan's erotic manga, we've got a super volley of new books for you, starting with the stylized devilry of Tatsuya Kamishima, Rintaro Mitsuki's ass-fetish manga offering, the lovely forbidden sex of Kitsune Yamano, and more
- For our DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with a great erotic DVD by the super-buxom Marina Matsushima, the queen of breast-play in Japan (region free)
- For fans of "sentai" or fighting TV shows like Power Rangers, we've got another erotic parody: Super Lightning Dangerin, starring the beautiful Mai Haruna as the erotic Defender of Justice (region free)
- From Soft on Demand's Deep's label, enjoy the best tekoki (hetero hand job) fetish ever, with 20 "hand shake numbers" for you (region free)
- Then see the Very Best Jukujo (mature women) Lesbian works from Total Media Agency, with 4 hours of seasoned, mature ladies getting it on big time (region free)
- Then delight at the super-erotic adult star Alice Ogura in a great DVD that promises "3 deep hours of pure naughtiness and cuty" (region 2)
- From Audaz Japan, the lovely Shuri Himesaki is your personal erotic secretary, fulfilling her duty with pleasure and professionalism (region 2)
- We've got a big update of DVD titles for you too, including fresh stock of several of Aoi Sora's erotic DVDs, Mayu Koizumi having sex with 100 men in a 24 hour period, more great erotic Pro Wrestling, fresh stock of Masterpiece Concentration titles and more!
That's all for now. We sincerely wish all you the very warmest of holiday wishes from Japan! Merry Christmas from all of us at J-List!
Monday, December 22, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 22, 2003
Hello again from Japan, home of the Sharp Fappy, the Fax Machine that Makes you Happy.
Judo star Ryoko Tamura, who won the gold medal for judo at the Sydney Olympics, has walked the "virgin road" with -- i.e., she got married to -- baseball star Yoshitomo Tani, in a beautiful ceremony in Paris. Tamura, nicknamed Yarawa-chan after the 1980's judo manga and anime, is the darling of all Japan for her efforts to compete in judo in the world stage. The wedding reception, held on Saturday in Tokyo, was the biggest event in Japan's sports world in years, and the 2000+ member guest list was second only to Japan's end-of-year Kohaku television special in the number of top stars present. Anyone who was anyone was there, from retired sumo wrestler Takanohana to Tokyo Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima to father of modern enka Saburo Kitajima, each giving speeches wishing Yawara-chan all happiness. Japanese weddings are very structured affairs, with "aisatsu" (a long, drawn-out greeting speech) by representatives of the groom and the bride, many speeches or performances by friends, the bride and groom disappearing several times to change into beautiful new clothes, and at the end, a tear-filled speech by the bride to her parents, thanking them for raising her and promising to be happy with her new husband. While Japanese weddings often feature extravagant cakes that are just for show -- they're usually made of plastic -- Yawara-chan's wedding featured a giant cake shaped like the Earth that everyone got to eat.
I like to think back on what Japan was like when I first got here, in 1992. Although the Tokyo land bubble had officially burst two years before, the halo of Japan's long period of rapid economic growth still pervaded the country. Employment was high, and everyone had plenty of money to buy silly things like toilets that wash and dry your butt, complete with remote controls -- why anyone would need a remote control for a toilet seat I can't say, but I've seen them with my own eyes. There was actually too much employment here. I once went into an ice cream shop in Tokyo Disneyland to find no less than eleven employees, wiping down counters and ready to serve me eagerly, although I was the only customer in the store. It was a magical time, when companies could make profits without asking themselves hard questions about how they were serving their customers, and consumers consumed what was placed in front of them without any fuss. Gaijin living in Japan just took it for granted that a meal at McDonald's would cost $2-3 more than it would have cost in the U.S., and paid it.
How things have changed. In the old days, American companies complained about their inability to get a toehold in Japanese domestic market, but in the New Japan, industries from toys (Toys R Us) to beverages (Coca Cola has 90% of the cola market here) seem to march to the beat of U.S. companies. McDonald's Japan found itself in the red for the first time ever, and now works hard to give customers new choices, like the ability to substitute a salad for of french fries, and interesting new foods like shrimp & chicken mcnuggets. Most of the deflation going on in Japan is caused by increases in efficiency and competition as well as the desire by consumers to make smart choices and not pay too much for the things they need. Japanese still save a lot -- the average household has $110,000, usually in cash accounts bearing less than 1% interest -- but younger Japanese have gotten into the habit of going into debt, borrowing from high-interest loan companies like Acom, Lake and Aiful. When businesses in town go under, all too often they're replaced by more automated "cash machines" where anyone can get money from these companies at 30% interest. I don't like seeing these loan sharks put their gaudy signs all over my city, but they're better than some of the alternatives that are also flourishing in the New Japan, including pachinko parlors and men's establishments like pink salons and lingerie pubs.
For fans of Japan's interactive dating-sim games, we've got a great new addition for you: Virgin Roster, a dark and fascinating game of sexual lust from G-Collections. Faithfully translated into English and fully uncensored, this game is a great voyage to a world of eros. In stock and shipping now! Remember that we're having a great $1 shipping sale this month -- get any dating-sim game shipped to you for just $1 (US/Can.). Also, get 4 or more bishoujo games and get 20% off automatically. We think these multi-scenario, interactive games are a great way to touch a little piece of Japan, and we recommend them!
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
J-List carries over 2000 unique products from Japan, from full sets of cool miniature toys from Japan, to unique Totoro and Hello Kitty products to cool Shirow Masamune collectibles, we've got something for everyone. But there's one reality about Japan: although you may have heard that Japanese businessmen are long-range thinkers, in reality virtually all of the products we sell have very limited production runs. Most items can't be ordered through our distributors once the initial stock is gone, which invariably causes frustration for customers who waited to get the item they wanted. Our advice is when you see something cool on our site, get it before it disappears. Similarly, we're always closing out our popular wacky Japanese T-shirts so that we can make room for new designs. If you've got your eye on a T-shirt or three, don't wait to get them!
Judo star Ryoko Tamura, who won the gold medal for judo at the Sydney Olympics, has walked the "virgin road" with -- i.e., she got married to -- baseball star Yoshitomo Tani, in a beautiful ceremony in Paris. Tamura, nicknamed Yarawa-chan after the 1980's judo manga and anime, is the darling of all Japan for her efforts to compete in judo in the world stage. The wedding reception, held on Saturday in Tokyo, was the biggest event in Japan's sports world in years, and the 2000+ member guest list was second only to Japan's end-of-year Kohaku television special in the number of top stars present. Anyone who was anyone was there, from retired sumo wrestler Takanohana to Tokyo Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima to father of modern enka Saburo Kitajima, each giving speeches wishing Yawara-chan all happiness. Japanese weddings are very structured affairs, with "aisatsu" (a long, drawn-out greeting speech) by representatives of the groom and the bride, many speeches or performances by friends, the bride and groom disappearing several times to change into beautiful new clothes, and at the end, a tear-filled speech by the bride to her parents, thanking them for raising her and promising to be happy with her new husband. While Japanese weddings often feature extravagant cakes that are just for show -- they're usually made of plastic -- Yawara-chan's wedding featured a giant cake shaped like the Earth that everyone got to eat.
I like to think back on what Japan was like when I first got here, in 1992. Although the Tokyo land bubble had officially burst two years before, the halo of Japan's long period of rapid economic growth still pervaded the country. Employment was high, and everyone had plenty of money to buy silly things like toilets that wash and dry your butt, complete with remote controls -- why anyone would need a remote control for a toilet seat I can't say, but I've seen them with my own eyes. There was actually too much employment here. I once went into an ice cream shop in Tokyo Disneyland to find no less than eleven employees, wiping down counters and ready to serve me eagerly, although I was the only customer in the store. It was a magical time, when companies could make profits without asking themselves hard questions about how they were serving their customers, and consumers consumed what was placed in front of them without any fuss. Gaijin living in Japan just took it for granted that a meal at McDonald's would cost $2-3 more than it would have cost in the U.S., and paid it.
How things have changed. In the old days, American companies complained about their inability to get a toehold in Japanese domestic market, but in the New Japan, industries from toys (Toys R Us) to beverages (Coca Cola has 90% of the cola market here) seem to march to the beat of U.S. companies. McDonald's Japan found itself in the red for the first time ever, and now works hard to give customers new choices, like the ability to substitute a salad for of french fries, and interesting new foods like shrimp & chicken mcnuggets. Most of the deflation going on in Japan is caused by increases in efficiency and competition as well as the desire by consumers to make smart choices and not pay too much for the things they need. Japanese still save a lot -- the average household has $110,000, usually in cash accounts bearing less than 1% interest -- but younger Japanese have gotten into the habit of going into debt, borrowing from high-interest loan companies like Acom, Lake and Aiful. When businesses in town go under, all too often they're replaced by more automated "cash machines" where anyone can get money from these companies at 30% interest. I don't like seeing these loan sharks put their gaudy signs all over my city, but they're better than some of the alternatives that are also flourishing in the New Japan, including pachinko parlors and men's establishments like pink salons and lingerie pubs.
For fans of Japan's interactive dating-sim games, we've got a great new addition for you: Virgin Roster, a dark and fascinating game of sexual lust from G-Collections. Faithfully translated into English and fully uncensored, this game is a great voyage to a world of eros. In stock and shipping now! Remember that we're having a great $1 shipping sale this month -- get any dating-sim game shipped to you for just $1 (US/Can.). Also, get 4 or more bishoujo games and get 20% off automatically. We think these multi-scenario, interactive games are a great way to touch a little piece of Japan, and we recommend them!
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for of our unique Japanese snack products, we've got several new items, including black sesame rice crackers, traditional Japanese hard candy, tasty potato-and-mayonaise snacks and more
- Fans of Hello Kitty, we've got a really cute Hello Kitty Bento Box, that's got lots of bizarre English on it
- Medicom Toy is one of Japan's premier toy companies, known for the Kubrick and Be@rbrick toys -- now we've got a cool Bearbrick bath toy, an egg that dissolves in the bath, revealing a random toy inside
- We have some interesting Buddhist beads from Japan, which can be used as prayer beads or worn fashionably
- We love to promote the study of Japanese, and we carry various study aids -- we've restocked our popular kanji, 4-word, katakana and Japanese proverb dictionaries for you
- For all those embarrassing moments when you don't have enough chopsticks, we've got some great long bamboo cooking chopsticks, as well as more fun disposable chopsticks with your fortune (in Japanese) inside the wrapping
- We've also got a great hardcover photobook for fans of BoA, the fantastic (and beautiful) Korean singer who is so popular in Japan
- Being from San Diego, I don't like the cold weather in Japan, and if you're the same, you can do what I do, and beat the cold with Japanese pocket warmers, which keep you toasty for up to 18 hours -- see fresh stock added today!
- For anyone who loves Totoro, we've got a perfect stuffed Totoro from Sun Arrow, maker of quality toys for nearly a century
- For fans of anime trading cards, we've got a new series of Sister Princess cards featuring great images from the popular bishoujo anime
- Want something wacky in your room? We've got more metal plates with wacky messages on them
- Finally, look for a Japanese way to separate egg white from yolks, fresh stock of various Domo-kun plush toys, and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For big breast fans, we have the brand new issue of Gal's Dee, featuring beautiful Japanese girls of "D" cup and larger
- Then enjoy a very private time with Harumi Nemoto and her great "photomook" 3P, featuring some of the most erotic photographs ever released, shot by three different professional photographers
- For fans of our bargain-priced Japanese magazines, we've got more great items at overstock prices, starting at just $5
- For photobook collectors, we've got some great new items in for you, including the delightful hardcover photobook of Hiroko Sato
- Next enjoy the delightful and erotic photobook offering of Yoko Kumada, the top sexy swimsuit idol in Japan today
- Alice Ogura is a wonderful adult video idol, and you'll love her erotic photobook + softporn DVD
- For hentai manga fans, we've got a fantastic large-format manga featuring the erotic artwork of Magaki Ryohota in a super deluxe format
- Then enjoy other fabulous erotic comic offerings, including a superb erotic work from Tenma Comics and a superb "dick girl" manga from Sena Youtarou
- We've also restocked various hentai manga, including Equation of the Immoral, the Ties that Bind, A Supper Drop, Michael Plan and more -- more yaoi manga in stock too!
- For our erotic DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with Mika Kitagawa's super Stars!! release -- 150 minutes of her smooth sex for a great price (region free)
- For our adult DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with a super Memorial DVD of Akira Watase, with 3 hours of the energetic and lively sex that has won her so many fans around the world (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, a great sequel to the first "yaoi" release of Sayaka Kusunoki, a beautiful female AV idol who plays an effeminate boy having his first experiences in a mysterious world (region free)
- Then enjoy the erotic all "tekoki" (female to male handjob) fetishism of the Tekoki Clinic, vol. 3, a great treat for fans of the Japanese fetish (region free)
- Then see the superb lesbian sex of Aki Tomosaki and Mayumi Kusunoki, in a great release from Big Morkal (region free)
- Then, delight in the erotic bukkake works of Waap Entertainment, with a DVD that features the best of their 5 years as one of Japan's premier indies adult video studios (region 2).
Finally, we've got a big selection of restocked items, including Miki Komori's erotic Straddle, Gymnastics Girls, Beauty Legs of Office Ladies, The Leg Best Beautiful 4 Hours, great Tekoki and Oral Sex, and more!
J-List carries over 2000 unique products from Japan, from full sets of cool miniature toys from Japan, to unique Totoro and Hello Kitty products to cool Shirow Masamune collectibles, we've got something for everyone. But there's one reality about Japan: although you may have heard that Japanese businessmen are long-range thinkers, in reality virtually all of the products we sell have very limited production runs. Most items can't be ordered through our distributors once the initial stock is gone, which invariably causes frustration for customers who waited to get the item they wanted. Our advice is when you see something cool on our site, get it before it disappears. Similarly, we're always closing out our popular wacky Japanese T-shirts so that we can make room for new designs. If you've got your eye on a T-shirt or three, don't wait to get them!
Friday, December 19, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 19, 2003
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 17, 2003
Hello again from your friends in Japan!
As you probably know, the Japanese take their shoes off when entering homes and some businesses, including J-List. To the Japanese, there's nothing dirtier than shoes, and so homes here have a "genkan" or low area near the front door where shoes are left (we built one of these into our home in San Diego). When inside the house, Japanese usually wear slippers, however there's one problem: although the Japanese excel at many things, the slippers sold here are nearly always too small for big gaijin feet. Thus when visiting a friend's home, we quietly forget to put on the offered slippers, hoping they won't notice.
As December moves on and the weather gets colder, Japanese start to think about eating -- mikans! Mikans, or mandarin oranges, are wildly popular in Japan in the winter, and all stores are well stocked with large and small bundles of mikans for customers to buy. In December, Japanese give winter gifts to people they want to show thanks to, such as teachers, bosses and so on. Businesses also give year-end gifts to the companies they do business with, exchanging special boxed sets of coffee, canned juice, foods from a special part of Japan. This year J-List received an extra special gift from one of our suppliers: a large box of delicious mikan oranges from Shizuka Prefecture, and we've all been savoring the sweet delicious taste of them all week long while we work. (See "Local Gift Goods" set on the J-List website for detailed miniature versions of these gift items, including the mikans we received.)
Whenever you learn a language, one of the first things you generally learn are the "bad" words -- that's just plain human nature. Most students of Japanese are surprised to find that there are almost no really bad words in the language -- if you define bad as in, words that kids aren't allowed to use. "Kuso" (the "s" word) is used regularly on children's anime in Japan, and most kids use it normally while playing with nary a word from their parents. "Baka" (stupid) is the catch-all insult, used in almost any situation (Japanese from the Kansai region say "aho" instead). Variations on the above two words include "baka-jijii" (stupid old man) and "kuso-babaa" (sh--ty old woman). The various applications of the "f" word don't translate into Japanese at all -- the word doesn't exist in Japanese, although virtually all Japanese know the English word, along with the English word "sekkusu." The only really "bad" words in Japanese is "manko" (referring to a woman's reproductive organ) -- a word as embarrassingly close to "mango" as election/erection is for Japanese speakers of English. This word is so bad, it's usually written with a circle or "X" or a circle in place of the middle letter. As always, exercise caution when using these words so that you don't offend any Japanese around you. For more information on Japanese terms, see the glossary.
Do you hear that sound? It's the sound of another unique 2004 calendar selling out, never to return. Because J-List wants to foster interest in all forms of Japanese pop culture, from anime to JPOP to Japanese's culture of worshipping sexy swimsuit idols, we carry hundreds of 2004 calendars every year. Now calendar season is winding down, but we've got hundreds of really fun large-format calendars that would look great on your wall, or on the walls of friends and family members (they make great gifts). The glossy printing on Japanese calendars is beautiful to behold, and the large calendars showcase the photographs beautifully. Why not browse our extensive selection of Japanese calendars and see which you'd like to get? Order 4 or more and get free mailing tubes and a 15% discount.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that J-List carries over 2000 unique products from Japan. One of the most unique ever is the Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massage, a licensed Sanrio item that has been one of the best-selling products at J-List for two years. Sadly, the massagers are totally out of production and will never be made again. We've got the last stock of these unique items in all Japan, but our stock is rapidly being depleted as a dozen or so sell every day. If you want to own a really bizarre piece of Japanese pop culture, get yours before we run out for good! If you get 3 or more, you get an automatic 20% off at checkout.
As you probably know, the Japanese take their shoes off when entering homes and some businesses, including J-List. To the Japanese, there's nothing dirtier than shoes, and so homes here have a "genkan" or low area near the front door where shoes are left (we built one of these into our home in San Diego). When inside the house, Japanese usually wear slippers, however there's one problem: although the Japanese excel at many things, the slippers sold here are nearly always too small for big gaijin feet. Thus when visiting a friend's home, we quietly forget to put on the offered slippers, hoping they won't notice.
As December moves on and the weather gets colder, Japanese start to think about eating -- mikans! Mikans, or mandarin oranges, are wildly popular in Japan in the winter, and all stores are well stocked with large and small bundles of mikans for customers to buy. In December, Japanese give winter gifts to people they want to show thanks to, such as teachers, bosses and so on. Businesses also give year-end gifts to the companies they do business with, exchanging special boxed sets of coffee, canned juice, foods from a special part of Japan. This year J-List received an extra special gift from one of our suppliers: a large box of delicious mikan oranges from Shizuka Prefecture, and we've all been savoring the sweet delicious taste of them all week long while we work. (See "Local Gift Goods" set on the J-List website for detailed miniature versions of these gift items, including the mikans we received.)
Whenever you learn a language, one of the first things you generally learn are the "bad" words -- that's just plain human nature. Most students of Japanese are surprised to find that there are almost no really bad words in the language -- if you define bad as in, words that kids aren't allowed to use. "Kuso" (the "s" word) is used regularly on children's anime in Japan, and most kids use it normally while playing with nary a word from their parents. "Baka" (stupid) is the catch-all insult, used in almost any situation (Japanese from the Kansai region say "aho" instead). Variations on the above two words include "baka-jijii" (stupid old man) and "kuso-babaa" (sh--ty old woman). The various applications of the "f" word don't translate into Japanese at all -- the word doesn't exist in Japanese, although virtually all Japanese know the English word, along with the English word "sekkusu." The only really "bad" words in Japanese is "manko" (referring to a woman's reproductive organ) -- a word as embarrassingly close to "mango" as election/erection is for Japanese speakers of English. This word is so bad, it's usually written with a circle or "X" or a circle in place of the middle letter. As always, exercise caution when using these words so that you don't offend any Japanese around you. For more information on Japanese terms, see the glossary.
Do you hear that sound? It's the sound of another unique 2004 calendar selling out, never to return. Because J-List wants to foster interest in all forms of Japanese pop culture, from anime to JPOP to Japanese's culture of worshipping sexy swimsuit idols, we carry hundreds of 2004 calendars every year. Now calendar season is winding down, but we've got hundreds of really fun large-format calendars that would look great on your wall, or on the walls of friends and family members (they make great gifts). The glossy printing on Japanese calendars is beautiful to behold, and the large calendars showcase the photographs beautifully. Why not browse our extensive selection of Japanese calendars and see which you'd like to get? Order 4 or more and get free mailing tubes and a 15% discount.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Domo-kun lovers, we've gotten in fresh stock of some of the most popular Domo-kun items, including the deluxe plush toy that can stand anywhere
- Macross fans, we've got a great treat for you: fresh stock of the cool Macross Battroid and Gerwalk figures released by Arii
- For fans of our unique Japanese snacks, we've got some great new items for you, including a limited edition of Morinaga Choco Ball candies sold only in the winter -- enjoy new Caramel Macchiato and Cheesecake flavors!
- Also enjoy delicious rice crackers from Kameda, the #1 maker of rice crackers in Japan, as well as the very cool Dice Caramels, sold in Japan for decades
- We've added stock of many snack items too, including White Cocoa Melty Kiss, Baby Star Ramen, wonderful Pocari Sweat powder, and our best-selling sake candy
- Macross fans,
- Want something unique from Japan? We've got some really cool Finding Nemo character toys sold only in Japan -- two cute characters per bag
- Morning Musume fans, we've restocked some popular Mo-Musu photobooks which are very hard to find -- get them before they're gone!
- For anyone taking medication, we've got a very handy and compact weekly pill case from Japan
- For Tomy car fans, we've got a cool replica of the Panasonic Toyota F-1 racing car, a very cool toy from Japan
- We've got two great new issues of Figure Maniacs, beautiful perfect-bound photobooks which capture the incredible detail of Japanese anime figures and sculptures
- Want to make some really unique ice cubes? We've got some fun ice cube trays from Japan for you
- We have some more wacky Japanese signs, this time metal signs with funny pictures and Japanese messages printed on them
- We have a super Japanese "carpet roller" that you can use to keep your carpet or clothes free of dirt and hair, a very handy item
- We've restocked our world-famous Hello Kitty toilet paper in both pink and green, and added fresh stock of the Poop Aid toilet paper which helps you go to the bathroom
- Other wacky items we've restocked: more Japanese headbands, our cool tattoo shirt that makes you look like a yakuza, and more
- Also, for bento box fans who are also hearty eaters, we've restocked our popular large-size Wimbledon Bento Box
- We love to bring you seasonal items from Japan, and we've got a great one for you: Hello Kitty hagoita boards which you can use to play hanetsuki, traditional Japanese badminton that's played around New Year's Day
- Finally, look for even more wacky chopsticks from Japan, a very unique Japanese way to clean your ears, more beautiful Japanese "congratulations envelopes," even more Japanese New Year's stamps, and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japan's incredible adult magazines, we've got the new Bejean (bijin = beautiful woman in Japanese), a great oversized magazine featuring Japan's top adult and sexy idols
- For lovers of Japan's "gouka-bon," square-backed all-color fetish photobooks, we've got a new item for fans of New Half, aka dick girls
- For fans of Japan's incredible photobooks, enjoy the solemn and beautiful nude of Nagisa Ohsaki
- Then a special item for you, we've got a Flash Special photobook that features seven of Japan's all-time most popular adult stars, including Sora Aoi, Nao Oikawa and Ran Asakawa -- see their wonderful nude photographs coupled with beautiful poetry in Japanese
- Then see the delightful sexy photographs of Yui Ichikawa, the beautiful swimsuit and sexy idol from Japan
- Then see the charming Chiharu Kazuki (I always have to laugh at her name, since my wife's name is Chiharu and my son's name is Kazuki), her bright, exciting hardcover photobook
- J-List carries unique adult toys sold only in Japan, and we've restocked our popular Japan Rotor, Mr. Pink and Vibrating Ecstacy Brush
- For hentai manga fans, we've got some more great items for you, including the hopelessly cute and erotic Bluesky Melody, Nyanko MIC's Addicted to Flesh, and fun peach-colored breasts from Action Comics
- We've also got a big restocking of adult manga titles for you, including more than a dozen books -- Stripper Mai, Shell, Miku's Sexual Diary, and more
- Hentai gamers, enjoy a rare trading card set of Desire, the popular game from Himeya, which we've got in stock now
- For our DVD customers, we've got some great items for you, starting with the Masterpiece Concentration of Sayaka Tsutsumi, featuring her best sex compiled onto a great low-price DVD for you! (region free)
- Then see 4 hours of all-lesbian action from Big Morkal, with plenty of strap-oon dildo lesbian fucking, oral sex and more (region free)
- For fans of Japan's highly-developed leg, stocking and up-skirt fetishism, we've got a new Flare & Right Skirt fetish DVD, with a hefty dose of sexy high heels and even tall boots -- wow! (region free)
- Enjoy an all-lesbian soapland DVD, featuring the beautiful Yui Asahina in her first all-female experience (region free)
- For fans of sexual cosplay, we've got ten lovely adult video stars who wear super sexy costumes, from the Budweiser Girl to sexy maid to glasses-clad OL and more (region free)
- For indies fans, enjoy the super-erotic new Face release from Audaz, featuring the beautiful face and sex of Shuri Himesaki (region 2)
- Finally, find many restocked DVD titles, including Lesbian Ecstasy Best vol. 1 and Lesbian Kiss, various Mai Hagiwara DVDs, and more!
Remember that J-List carries over 2000 unique products from Japan. One of the most unique ever is the Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massage, a licensed Sanrio item that has been one of the best-selling products at J-List for two years. Sadly, the massagers are totally out of production and will never be made again. We've got the last stock of these unique items in all Japan, but our stock is rapidly being depleted as a dozen or so sell every day. If you want to own a really bizarre piece of Japanese pop culture, get yours before we run out for good! If you get 3 or more, you get an automatic 20% off at checkout.
Monday, December 15, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 15, 2003
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Friday, December 12, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 12, 2003
Greetings and salutations from Japan and J-List!
You know what the funniest thing about Japan is? It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same stuff here they got in the U.S., it's just a little different. Want some examples? They got beer in movie theatres and mayonaise for your french fries at some restaurants. They have KFC here, but they don't serve mashed potatoes, and each KFC has a plastic Colonel Sanders outside to greet you. There are other differences too. My daughter is in the Japanese Girl Scouts, and when I took my kids there, we all got ready to enjoy an American treat: s'mores, which are toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers, for any readers who might know what they are. The Japanese simplify the name to some-more, which sounded to my kids and me like "sanma," a delicious fish that's really good stewed in miso -- so we thought were were going to cook fish, but it turned out to be s'mores instead. They were really good, but for the fact that there are no graham crackers in Japan. So we made them using Saltine crackers instead.
In my single days, I trekked around Japan from Hokkaido to Hiroshima, hitchhiking or using the "seishun 18 ticket," a special train ticket that lets you ride anywhere for about $20, but only using the (slow) local lines -- thus, it takes about 14 hours to get from here to Osaka. I've stayed in youth hostels, which are great places to make friends from all over the world, but I've also stayed in several dozen capsule hotels. A uniquely Japanese experience, capsule hotels are normal hotels where you sleep in a small, long cubbyhole -- long enough to lay down in comfortably but not quite spacious enough to sit up in. The capsules have everything you need -- TVs and radios with alarms, and they're quite cozy, and there's no other way to stay in the middle of a large Japanese city for $30 a night. Another unique kind of budget accomodation I've made use of are "saunas," which are ostensibly public baths with saunas which you can pay to use. They have "resting rooms" where patrons can have a beer and relax, watch some TV, or if it's late, curl up on the floor and sleep until morning. It's quite fun, if you can put up with the snoring of dozens of middle-aged Japanese men. My wife is a mirror image of me: while I was traveling around Japan, she was in the U.S., and she's seen much more of my own country than I have (and vice-versa).
Near our house, we can see the Sphinx, the Statue of Liberty, and many other interesting wonders of world. These are pachinko parlors, a major source of entertainment for many Japanese men and women in Japan. An kind of "vertical pinball" which I don't pretend to understand, you basically buy a bucket of balls for $50, then sit for hours trying to hold a controller in just the right position to make most of the balls go into certain holes in the pachinko machine. Since "gambling" is illegal in Japan, except for certain events like horse, boat and bicycle racing, you don't win money if you get more balls than you started out with -- you get valuable prizes which you redeem for cash at a shady building next to the pachinko parlor. Pachinko is quite a competitive business to be in, and operators (who always seem to be getting involved with some crime or another) work very hard to bring in the newest machines in -- with little video screens or cute anime-style characters printed on them, for example. They have interesting names to attract customers, Win or Fever, or one named Al Pacino. Despite the efforts of the pachinko Pachinko has strong underground ties to North Koreans living in Japan. Proceeds from Pachinko are a major source of funding for North Korea, and the drugs that are manufactured in North Korea for sale in Japan often find their way here through the Pachinko networks.
We're happy to announce that all the 2004 calendars we'd ordered have come in. We've lowered prices on virtually all our still-vast stock of Japanese calendars, from anime to JPOP to idols to traditional Japanese images to tasteful nude photographic calendars and more. Every day another half dozen or more calendars sell out, never to return, and our stock is already dwindling. Time is running out! Take a look at our excellent calendars and see what you'd like to get! The 20% discount on 4-or-more calendars still applies, too.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that J-List is having a $1 shipping sale (US/Can) on all bishoujo games, making this a great chance for you to pick up some great English-translated dating-sim games and save -- get 4 or more and get 20% off the total, too. We're also having a spcial buy-4-or-more-get-20%-off on all photobooks, so we hope you'll browse our extensive supply of Japanese photobooks and see what you'd like to get.
You know what the funniest thing about Japan is? It's the little differences. I mean, they got the same stuff here they got in the U.S., it's just a little different. Want some examples? They got beer in movie theatres and mayonaise for your french fries at some restaurants. They have KFC here, but they don't serve mashed potatoes, and each KFC has a plastic Colonel Sanders outside to greet you. There are other differences too. My daughter is in the Japanese Girl Scouts, and when I took my kids there, we all got ready to enjoy an American treat: s'mores, which are toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers, for any readers who might know what they are. The Japanese simplify the name to some-more, which sounded to my kids and me like "sanma," a delicious fish that's really good stewed in miso -- so we thought were were going to cook fish, but it turned out to be s'mores instead. They were really good, but for the fact that there are no graham crackers in Japan. So we made them using Saltine crackers instead.
In my single days, I trekked around Japan from Hokkaido to Hiroshima, hitchhiking or using the "seishun 18 ticket," a special train ticket that lets you ride anywhere for about $20, but only using the (slow) local lines -- thus, it takes about 14 hours to get from here to Osaka. I've stayed in youth hostels, which are great places to make friends from all over the world, but I've also stayed in several dozen capsule hotels. A uniquely Japanese experience, capsule hotels are normal hotels where you sleep in a small, long cubbyhole -- long enough to lay down in comfortably but not quite spacious enough to sit up in. The capsules have everything you need -- TVs and radios with alarms, and they're quite cozy, and there's no other way to stay in the middle of a large Japanese city for $30 a night. Another unique kind of budget accomodation I've made use of are "saunas," which are ostensibly public baths with saunas which you can pay to use. They have "resting rooms" where patrons can have a beer and relax, watch some TV, or if it's late, curl up on the floor and sleep until morning. It's quite fun, if you can put up with the snoring of dozens of middle-aged Japanese men. My wife is a mirror image of me: while I was traveling around Japan, she was in the U.S., and she's seen much more of my own country than I have (and vice-versa).
Near our house, we can see the Sphinx, the Statue of Liberty, and many other interesting wonders of world. These are pachinko parlors, a major source of entertainment for many Japanese men and women in Japan. An kind of "vertical pinball" which I don't pretend to understand, you basically buy a bucket of balls for $50, then sit for hours trying to hold a controller in just the right position to make most of the balls go into certain holes in the pachinko machine. Since "gambling" is illegal in Japan, except for certain events like horse, boat and bicycle racing, you don't win money if you get more balls than you started out with -- you get valuable prizes which you redeem for cash at a shady building next to the pachinko parlor. Pachinko is quite a competitive business to be in, and operators (who always seem to be getting involved with some crime or another) work very hard to bring in the newest machines in -- with little video screens or cute anime-style characters printed on them, for example. They have interesting names to attract customers, Win or Fever, or one named Al Pacino. Despite the efforts of the pachinko Pachinko has strong underground ties to North Koreans living in Japan. Proceeds from Pachinko are a major source of funding for North Korea, and the drugs that are manufactured in North Korea for sale in Japan often find their way here through the Pachinko networks.
We're happy to announce that all the 2004 calendars we'd ordered have come in. We've lowered prices on virtually all our still-vast stock of Japanese calendars, from anime to JPOP to idols to traditional Japanese images to tasteful nude photographic calendars and more. Every day another half dozen or more calendars sell out, never to return, and our stock is already dwindling. Time is running out! Take a look at our excellent calendars and see what you'd like to get! The 20% discount on 4-or-more calendars still applies, too.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Star Wars fans, a real treat: series 2 of the totally cool Star Wars Kubrick line from Medicom Toy: ultra-detailed super-deformed figures of a Sandtrooper, Han Solo, the Cantina Band player, Obi Wan Kenobi, Greedo and a Tuskin Raider -- stock is very limited but full sets are available!
- Just in time for Christmas, we have some fabulous soft acryllic Hello Kitty blankets from Japan, which look great as a Christmas decoration for your home, or just a bright, cheerful blanket to keep warm with
- We've gotten in another dozen or so really cool Japanese New Years' stamps, with beautiful messages in kanji and hiragana, great for those who want to have a little of Japan's New Years' fun this year
- For fans of Japanese Race Queens, we've got fresh stock of Kira Kira, featuring Miho Yoshioka, Yoko Matsugane, Sakura Mizutani and many other top-name idols from Japan
- We have some limited-size T-shirts posted to the site, including a limited edition yellow version of "Don't Commit Seppuku," along with various version of our "Looking for a Japanese Boyfriend" shirts for girls
- For Hello Kitty fans, we've got some great things for you to eat, including Kitty Tripical Mints, a Kitty lollipop, Kitty soft candy and more
- Also, a really cool Hello Kitty sign board, which you can give along with gifts, and the last stock we'll be getting of the Hello Kitty Dancing Santa (there's still time to get it by Christmas)
- We've restocked our Hello Kitty mayonaise cups, which are little cups that Japanese use to carry condiments with their bento lunches -- but these handy cups have many uses!
- For fans of Japan's stick snacks, we've got some tasty Butter Pretzel snacks from Kabaya
- Also, a major restocking of snack items for you, including Coconut Pocky, Tiramisu Cafe snacks, Mogi Mogi gummi fruit trees, seaweed & salt pretz, and tastey Crunky chocolate from Japan
- For fans of our traditional Japanese kitchen items, enjoy more Japanese soupbowls and bento boxes
- For fans of OH! Mikey, the totally hilarious comedy drama that's performed with mannequins, we have fresh stock of all the DVDs (they are fully subtitled in English) and the 2004 calendar
- For Totoro fans, we've got fresh stock of the super-cute Totoro's Present Keychain Mascot, super cute plush toys that come with presents for you
- Also a really neat Totoro lunchbox that will be a prized item for collectors
- For fans of the dynamite swimsuit idol Yuka (aka Yuuka), we've got some collectible trading cards in stock
- We've restocked the super-cute Groomy Black Labrador plush pet, a high-quality doggie with a soft chamois bottom to keep your computer monitor clean
- Finally, enjoy a way to keep your car's windows clean, more onigiri makers, fresh stock of sushi erasers (God we love Japan!), and more!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- First, we've posted the newest English-translated dating-sim game from G-Collections for preorder now, Virgin Roster, which features a psychologically complex erotic storyline, animation and more
- For Sora Aoi fans, we have a great new magazine-photobook filled with her beautiful pictures and erotic poses
- Enjoy hardcore sex of amateurs in love hotels in Taisetsu ni Shite ne, which translates as Please Treasure me
- We've added fresh stock of Japanese adult magazines from just $5, with several items that had been sold out
- See hardcore sex in Japan's "urabon" style in Harenchi Musune, very erotic and enjoyable
- For fans of Japan's dynamite erotic photobooks, hardcover bound and printed with fabulous glossy pages, we've got the first photobook of Chiaki Kyan, a delightful sexy idol from Japan
- Moe Sakurai's delightful photobook Tight Rope goes beyond eros with its fantastic photos
- Enjoy the lovely nudes of Shinobu Rei in a great new photobook for you, shot in traditional Japanese style
- For fans of Japan's long-standing tradition of erotic manga art, we have some great items for you, including Daydream Everyday by EX Comics, the ultra-erotic How to Make a Widow, an exploration of "chikan" themes, and a great dick girl manga by Bijogi Junction
- Also, we've got a major restocking of popular erotic manga including Beautiful Wife, An Equation of the Night, Wild Dance of Lewd Breasts, dick girl fun with Total Bio Chemical Lab and more
- For adult DVD collectors we've got some great offerings for you, starting with the sweet erotic lovemaking of Maria Takagi, one of the top stars in Japan today (region free)
- See the very best leg, stocking and mini-skirt fetish in a new 240 minute DVD from Big Morkal, presengint eh luscious legs and sex of nine adult video gals (region free)
- From Soft on Demand's director Hajime coms more exploration of lesbian masturbation, with cute kogals asked to step inside the Magic Mirror Bus and try it themselves (region free)
- Then see the wet orgasms of nine beautiful college students in a new offering frmo Deep's, who show their whale-spouting to the camera (region free)
- For fans of our SOD Outlet page, where you can find great SOD titles at special prices, we've added the new Saint Roshutsu starring Yuuna Akimoto, a great item for fans of Japanese outdoor nude fetish (region free)
- Then from Moodys, enjoy the anal sex of Kirari Koizumi, who shows you her first anal and so much more (region 2)
- Finally, look for various fresh stock of adult DVDs, including The Other Side of COCOLO, the Yokohama Drifters, Ai Nagase's bargain-priced Masterpiece Concentration, and the dynamite Nao Oikawa anime cosplay parody Cosplay Beautiful Breast Idol.
Remember that J-List is having a $1 shipping sale (US/Can) on all bishoujo games, making this a great chance for you to pick up some great English-translated dating-sim games and save -- get 4 or more and get 20% off the total, too. We're also having a spcial buy-4-or-more-get-20%-off on all photobooks, so we hope you'll browse our extensive supply of Japanese photobooks and see what you'd like to get.
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Greetings from J-List December 10, 2003
Hello again from Japan, home of cars with names like Suzuki Joy Pop Every Wagon.
Living for many years away from your home country would change anyone, and living in Japan is no different. For those working as ESL teachers, the long hours of talking with Japanese students of English can lead to embarrassing changes in your own language skills -- you actually end up speaking English too clearly and carefully. Since there are no personal checks in Japan (everything is done with cash or direct bank transfers), gaijin living in Japan lose the ability to write checks when they go home -- it takes me several tries to get one written when I'm in the U.S. Japanese roads generally don't have names, which forces your brain to remember roads spatially, rather than memorize places locations by street names. Also, since the Japanese language uses the katakana writing system to express foreign words, foreigners sometimes lose the connection with how words are spelled in English. The other day, I was enjoying some wine and camembert cheese with my wife, and I realized I had never seen the word camembert written in the Roman alphabet, and had no idea how to spell it. (I had to look it up.) Ditto for fashionable handbag maker Louis Vuitton, which rules the hearts of Japanese consumers -- I'd never seen the company's name written in anything but katakana so I had no idea how to write it. Australian swimming star Ian Thorpe has many fans in Japan, but for the longest time I wondered what a strange name "Ian Soap" was -- I'd only seen his name mentioned on Japanese television, and thus got his name wrong.
Japan has plenty of fast food, from U.S. chains like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken to home-grown outfits like Freshness Burger, First Kitchen and MOS Burger. But the original fast food of Japan is "gyu-don," or beef bowl, basically a bowl of rice with steamed beef and onions on top (it's really good with raw egg, too). Yoshinoya is most popular popular chain of beef bowl restaurants, although there are several others that are serve identical food. Head into any beef bowl restaurant and you'll no doubt see lots of salarymen and male "freeters" (young people who work part-time jobs, freely switching from job to job several times a year) enjoying their beef bowls, but almost never any women. There's some unwritten social rule that says women can't go into beef bowl restaurants in Japan, and it's usually filled with male customers. Japan's beef bowl industry became a symbol for deflation in Japan when they lowered the price of a standard serving from $4.50 to $2.50 two years ago. You can enjoy Yoshinoya in the U.S., too, if you want to try some. Yoshinoya's English website is here: http://www.yoshinoya.com/en/index.html
Do you know what year it is? I often don't. In additional the Western calendar, the Japanese have a unique system of counting years based on the reign of the current emperor. The current era is the 15th year of the Heisei era (Heisei means "peace and prosperity"), when the Emperor Hirohito died and was succeeded by his son, so this year is Heisei 15. Before Heisei was the Showa era (from 1925 to 1988), before that was Taisho, and Meiji, and so on -- Japanese students have to memorize them all. Incidentally, the current Emperor of Japan is 125th in an unbroken line of emperors going back 2000 years. His name is Akihito, but since he's always called "Emperor Heisei" in Japan, it's quite common for Japanese to not know the name of their own emperor (Yasu didn't when I just asked him).
Are you a fan of Japan's dating-sim games? Curious, but don't know much about them? Well this is a great time to pick some up, because we're having a $1 shipping sale right now. All games are just $1 for shipping (for US Can.) or just $3.50 for international, as our way of saying thanks for your support over the past year. You can couple this shipping sale with our buy-4-get-20%-off sale, making this the best time ever to pick up dating-sim game or four. These story-based interactive games are translated into English, are fully uncensored and run great on English Windows computers. Feel free to email us for recommendations if you're not sure which to get.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
Remember that J-List now sells warm hoody versions of several of our popular Japanese T-shirts, with long sleeves and pull-over hoods, great for keeping warm in these cold months. We also make available long-sleeved sweatshirts as well as fitted shirts for girls, that accent all the right curves. For our normal men's shirts, we offer a great selection of sizes, from small all the way to 3XL for most colors. Not sure what your size is? Click the handy size link in the description of each shirt and see all measurements in inches and centimeters.
Living for many years away from your home country would change anyone, and living in Japan is no different. For those working as ESL teachers, the long hours of talking with Japanese students of English can lead to embarrassing changes in your own language skills -- you actually end up speaking English too clearly and carefully. Since there are no personal checks in Japan (everything is done with cash or direct bank transfers), gaijin living in Japan lose the ability to write checks when they go home -- it takes me several tries to get one written when I'm in the U.S. Japanese roads generally don't have names, which forces your brain to remember roads spatially, rather than memorize places locations by street names. Also, since the Japanese language uses the katakana writing system to express foreign words, foreigners sometimes lose the connection with how words are spelled in English. The other day, I was enjoying some wine and camembert cheese with my wife, and I realized I had never seen the word camembert written in the Roman alphabet, and had no idea how to spell it. (I had to look it up.) Ditto for fashionable handbag maker Louis Vuitton, which rules the hearts of Japanese consumers -- I'd never seen the company's name written in anything but katakana so I had no idea how to write it. Australian swimming star Ian Thorpe has many fans in Japan, but for the longest time I wondered what a strange name "Ian Soap" was -- I'd only seen his name mentioned on Japanese television, and thus got his name wrong.
Japan has plenty of fast food, from U.S. chains like McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken to home-grown outfits like Freshness Burger, First Kitchen and MOS Burger. But the original fast food of Japan is "gyu-don," or beef bowl, basically a bowl of rice with steamed beef and onions on top (it's really good with raw egg, too). Yoshinoya is most popular popular chain of beef bowl restaurants, although there are several others that are serve identical food. Head into any beef bowl restaurant and you'll no doubt see lots of salarymen and male "freeters" (young people who work part-time jobs, freely switching from job to job several times a year) enjoying their beef bowls, but almost never any women. There's some unwritten social rule that says women can't go into beef bowl restaurants in Japan, and it's usually filled with male customers. Japan's beef bowl industry became a symbol for deflation in Japan when they lowered the price of a standard serving from $4.50 to $2.50 two years ago. You can enjoy Yoshinoya in the U.S., too, if you want to try some. Yoshinoya's English website is here: http://www.yoshinoya.com/en/index.html
Do you know what year it is? I often don't. In additional the Western calendar, the Japanese have a unique system of counting years based on the reign of the current emperor. The current era is the 15th year of the Heisei era (Heisei means "peace and prosperity"), when the Emperor Hirohito died and was succeeded by his son, so this year is Heisei 15. Before Heisei was the Showa era (from 1925 to 1988), before that was Taisho, and Meiji, and so on -- Japanese students have to memorize them all. Incidentally, the current Emperor of Japan is 125th in an unbroken line of emperors going back 2000 years. His name is Akihito, but since he's always called "Emperor Heisei" in Japan, it's quite common for Japanese to not know the name of their own emperor (Yasu didn't when I just asked him).
Are you a fan of Japan's dating-sim games? Curious, but don't know much about them? Well this is a great time to pick some up, because we're having a $1 shipping sale right now. All games are just $1 for shipping (for US Can.) or just $3.50 for international, as our way of saying thanks for your support over the past year. You can couple this shipping sale with our buy-4-get-20%-off sale, making this the best time ever to pick up dating-sim game or four. These story-based interactive games are translated into English, are fully uncensored and run great on English Windows computers. Feel free to email us for recommendations if you're not sure which to get.
For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we have a big volley of 2004 calendars in stock for you, which we've just gotten in -- anime, JPOP, lovely idol and beautiful traditional Japanese art calendars
- For fans of Japanese swimsuit models, we've restocked the excellent Hyper Product Revolution which features all the cutest and most popular sexy idols from Japan
- Also, look for a restocking of photobooks, including JPOP legends like Gackt and Morning Musume, body very cool
- For Hello Kitty fans, a super cool Kitty alarm clock that will brighten your room and make morning more fun
- Also, look for various restocked items, including the Hello Kitty shampoo bottle, ice cube tray, ceramic coffee mug and one of our favorite items, the Kitty Hub Mascot, a USB hub in which Hello Kitty copies your typing movements as you work at your computer
- Then we've got a rare "gashapon" (capsule toy) item: a set of super-realistic replicas of Japanese ramen, complete with little chopsticks, from all around Japan
- We have some great items for Japanese-style New Year's, including another variation of kadomatsu decorations, and a variety of rubber stamps that have fabulous New Years' greetings on them, for making Japanese New Years' cards (stock is limited)
- Want some delicious snacks from japan? We've got Maple Custard Pretz sticks, a fantastic treat from Japan
- Also in stock, find delicious Lait Chocolat from Glico, sold only in the winter in Japan, tasty wasabi furikake, and delicious ochazuke, one of my own favorite foods, as well as a general restocking of various popular items
- We've got fresh stock of the delicate and beautiful Congratulations Envelopes, which are used by Japanese when giving money gifts (but you can find many uses for them)
- We've gotten in fresh stock of the Cup Noodle coffee cup, which looks like a ramen but is a really unique cup from Japan (makes a great gift)
- Finally, for fans of our unique anime toy items, we've made a major restocking of items including the Cat Bus knapsack, various Ghibli plush keychains, Totoro stamps that are really fun to use, and plush Totoro and other toys of all sizes -- check them all out!
For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of delicious Japanese kogals, we've got the new issue of Cho Very Good (e.g Choberigu), featuring many lecherous Japanese Tokyo girls aged 18 to 21
- Then enjoy lesbian and bukkake play in love hotels with Deep Kiss, a new hardcore amateur gal's magazine
- For fans of Japan's beautiful hardcover photobooks, enjoy the extremely erotic and flexible nudes of Reina Shinto
- Nana Yanagisawa is a fabulously beautiful swimsuit idol from Japan, and you'll love her newest photobook
- be amazed at Zokkon, the super sexy hardcover photobook of Aya Shiozawa, a sexy TV idol in Japan who delights in showing you her sexy body
- Then enjoy Fairy Tale, a look at the most beautiful nudes of the Showa era in Japan, as well as various restocked photobooks (including the popular Yasuko Project)
- Enjoy a fabulous crossover between erotic maid hentai artwork and super erotic cosplay -- everything you ever wanted to know about maids!
- For hentai manga fans, we've got some great items for you: a new Explosive Breast Nurse manga by Hiroshi Kawamoto, super hentai with Capcom game characters in a great perfect-bound manga form, and ultra-experienced women who want to do it with virgins
- Look for several restocked manga including the excellent Nami SOS First Battle, premium dick girl with the Fetish Doll and TS I Love You series, the erotic Sweet Wife, and more
- Also for hentai fans, we've got trading cards from Alice Soft's Rance game, super sexy and fun to collect
- For our DVD customers, we have some great erotic DVDs, starting with a super all tekoki (hand job) and oshaburi (blow job) collection from Big Morkal (region free)
- Then enjoy the lovely sex of Sola Aoi (aka Sora Aoi), who dresses in some fantastic costumes as she fulfills your erotic fantasies (region free)
- For leg, stocking and panty fetish lovers, we've got a new erotic DVD featuring fantastic low-angle filming of beautiful, leggy models (region free)
- For fans of "soapland" sex, where men go to get professionally cleaned and serviced by a "soap girl," we've got a new erotic offering from Izumi Hasegawa -- her debut in adult video! (region free)
- Tamakeri is the Japanese fetish of ball-kicking -- see a great new penis-teasing production from SOD for you
- Then from Momotaro, we've got the excellent lesbian sex of Hitomi Hasegawa, who performs with vigor and grace for you (region 2)
- Then enjoy a huge restocking of our popular adult DVDs, with several No Cut!! (3 hour) productions, the very popular Gold Bird and Euro Angels, Lesbian Heaven 4 Hours Special, Super Angle of Breasts, and several more high-quality leg fetish titles for you!
Remember that J-List now sells warm hoody versions of several of our popular Japanese T-shirts, with long sleeves and pull-over hoods, great for keeping warm in these cold months. We also make available long-sleeved sweatshirts as well as fitted shirts for girls, that accent all the right curves. For our normal men's shirts, we offer a great selection of sizes, from small all the way to 3XL for most colors. Not sure what your size is? Click the handy size link in the description of each shirt and see all measurements in inches and centimeters.
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