Cool Products Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	'Seeking a Certain Japanese Girlfriend' Shirt First, a message that's become a J-List standard over the years gets a fresh, fun look. We hope you'll love this new "girlfriend" design like we do!
	Miku Hatsune Anthology Comic 1 & 2 If you're a Miku fan you've come to the right place -- these two brand new anthology comics pack in all the Vocaloid manga you can handle.
	Dead Master Figma, Demonbane Figure The villain from the Black Rock Shooter anime is here in Figma! Also see moe Demonbane heroine Al, now in stock.
	Nozomi Akiyama, Mercedes Figures In Stock New figures as well from free-to-play eroge Se Kirara, and the fairy Mercedes from popular console game Odin Sphere.
	Nene Anegasaki Nendoroid Figure ~ Love Plus Nene is not only mai waifu, she's also a really cute Nendoroid that we have in stock now.
	Evangelion AT-Field Umbrella In Stock It may not protect you from the Third Impact, but this umbrella will keep harmful LCL (or rain) from getting you down. In stock now!
	Restocked 2011 Anime, Other Calendars Some of our 2011 calendars have already sold out in preorder, so we're happy to announce we've got restocks of Bleach, Osamu Tezuka, and more.
	Even More 2011 Calendars Also: we got some other new calendars in today, including Studio Gibli's Arietty, an amazing look at the castles of Japan, and much more!
	Bamboo Charcoal Shoe Deodorizer Remove unwanted smells the natural way with this traditional charcoal-bamboo insert for shoes or other pungent locations.
	Compact PenType Scissors ~ Black Is it a pen, or scissors? It looks like the former but actually these are a slim, sharp, classy pair of scissors, good for any crafts application.
	Rabbit Bunny Girl Headband A great classic cosplay item! You can count on these bunny ears to make you the life of the halloween party or anime convention.
	Kamakura Daibutsu Castanet Keychain These castanet statues modeled after the Great Buddha statue in Kamakura make a great, unique keychain in a traditional Japanese style.
	Meltykiss, Hello Kitty Candy and More! Super awesome Japanese snacks, including the new Meltykiss fudge chocolates for 2011, Watering Kiss Mint Gum and Hello Kitty "throat candy"!
	New Onigiri Flavor Mix / Furikake Spice up your onigiri rice balls with these great flavors of Japan -- mouth-wateringly good! Also, furikake restocked today.
	'NONBIRI ' Hiragana Lacquered Bento Box A great new bento box with a message of taking it easy at your own pace, sure to make a great companion at mealtimes for you with this classy look!
	Miso Soup Cup with Lid In the line of traditional, simple Japanese beauty and elegance comes this great miso soup bowl and lid set. Perfect for your table or display!
	Everyday Home Dishes ~ Mainichi Ouchi Teishoku An elegant, glossy cooking magazine that easily teaches you the basics of authentic Japanese cuisine. Great for helping with bento or any meal.
	Revoltech No.098 Jigen ~ Lupin *Preorder* Jigen is the master marksman of the Lupin the 3rd series, preorder now available for his high quality Revoltech action figure form!
	Revoltech Jack Skellington Santa *Preorder* The spooky Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's stop motion masterpiece comes alive in this Revoltech version -- preorders open now.
	3D Mousepads Angel Beats *Preorder* A new concept in mousepad technology, the image on this Angel Beats pad appears displayed in 3D (though not actually contoured).
	Rin Suzuki x Mousatsu Rin Suzuki's pouty good looks work great with the daring "page tear" reveals in this sexy gravure photobook. Check it out!
	YONE x SOD ~ momi ero The sounds of ecstasy fill this DVD to the brim with some of the most extreme erotic moments we've seen from SOD's creative division -- a must see!
	Bakumatsu Samurai Sword Umbrellas Back in stock for you today, the epic legends of the samurai come to life with these stylized sword-umbrellas themed after some of the most famous figures in Japanese history.
	Hard Case for iPhone 4 with Stand Finger Strap A great case for the iPhone 4 from Elecom! It comes with an attachable stand/finger strap which makes it easy to hold the phone. Also: the popular Scope Note mice are restocked!
	Sakura Tight Sealed Bento Box Set A delightful new "vertical style" bento box that comes with everything you need: two large sections for your rice and the rest of your lunch, plus bento bag, belt and more.
	Random Hello Kitty Bento Items In case you need any Hello Kitty shaped onigiri rice balls, J-List has your back, since we always carry fun and cute Sanrio bento products you can't find easily anywhere else.
	Shinkansen Chopsticks SAKURA Next we have Shinkansen chopsticks for you today, made in the image of Japan's most famous bullet trains. Restocked today!
	Gathers and Lace Gothic Lolita Dress From our new fashion pages, all you need to get started in the gothic lolita look with this stylish black and white dress. Also, super cool Popteen Shibuya 109 Happy Room Wear.
	Restocked Cosplay Outfits See a great restocking of fun cosplay items for Halloween, including the popular K-On! school uniforms, the Red Scarf High School Uniform, plus epic Japanese Gymnastics Uniform Red Bloomer Sets.
	'SHIMAPAN' Culture from Japan We also have...more of those delightful striped anime pantsu that add just the right amount of fan service, including size 5L. You can also carry your stuff around in the cute Shimapan themed bags we have.
	GATSBY ~ Men's Hair Wax Whether you're a "herbivore man" or just want to have that awesome Johnny's Agency-esque ikemen look, the hair wax products from Gatsby are the best in the world. Click to see the restocked items today.
	Fresh Stock of BUB Fizzing Bath Tablet On our new "bath and bathing" page, you can see the great items we have back in stock such as this super-fresh, pore-cleansing and awakening sour yuzu-scented bath tablet with scrubbing bubbles that wash up around you.
	Restocked Traditional Things from Japan J-List always stocks cool traditional items from Japan that you never expected to find, like the gorgeous sushi-themed chopsticks which come in an attractive box.
	More Epic Pens from Japan Super cute Japanese pens and related items today include the Mameshiba Mascot Ball Point Pen, the Deluxe Eraser W ("double"), Pentel Vicuna pen and more.
	Kyoto Candy, Other Snacks Restocked Many snacks are back with fresh stock today, including a selection of treats made and found historically in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto. Taste the delicious sweet flavors of a Japanese tradition today!
	Various Restocked Artbooks See a big restocking of awesome anime artbooks from Japan, including the Nitroplus game Jingai Makyou, "Moe Moe" Encyclopedia, Girls Girls Girls! plus Student Council P.E. Limited Box. All quite awesome.

Anime Books @ J-List

One of the more popular features of the J-List and JBOX websites is our wishlist feature. If you want to remember some cool product you see on the site for later, just add it to your wishlist and you can review it later to see if you want to purchase it. You can optionally set your wishlist to be publicly viewable so friends, family and/or random people on the Internet can see what you're adding and maybe get it for you. There's even an RSS feed for newly added J-List wishlist items that I like to scan, to see what products our customers are checking out. Note: Comments for wishlist items were broken over the weekend but we have fixed the link now, very sorry for the inconvenience.

We at J-List are huge fans of gorgeous artbooks from Japan, and we carry hundreds of them for you. In addition to fabulous works by masters of the genre like Range Murata or Shunya Yamashita, we carry all the works of Shirow Masamune plus those beautiful Queen's Blade artbooks, too. The popular Japanese website Pixiv has become "the" place to find amazing art from Japan, and we're happy to carry the gorgeous official artbooks as well as that super 2011 Pixiv calendar, which we've have in stock. See all the artbooks J-List carries here, or click here to view the most popular artbooks on the site.

Fun with Japanese Expressions

The Japanese language is very expressive, and there are some interesting phrases one encounters from time to time, which I thought I'd share with you. When discussing something that's very small in amount such as money, the phrase suzume no namida (su-zu-meh no nah-mi-da) is often used, literally meaning "the tear of a sparrow" which is probably very small indeed. Similarly, if you have a small house you might apologize to guests for living in a "house that's as small as the forehead of a cat" (neko no hitai). The way to express flattery in Japan is goma-suri, lit. to grind up someone's sesame seeds for someone, and if you laugh at your boss's jokes too loudly he might tell you to "stop grinding up my sesame seeds!" The word Adam's Apple comes from the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, but the name in Japanese is nodo-botoke (no-doh boh-toh-keh), or "Buddha of the Throat."

Adam and Eve, as seen through the eyes of the Japanese.

China [doesn't heart] Japan

There's trouble brewing in China again as demonstrators in several cities protested against Japanese businesses, smashing the windshields of Japanese cars and attacking Japanese department stores. The Chinese demonstrations were in response to a (peaceful) demonstration against China by a large group of right-wing protestors in Tokyo who weren't happy about what they saw as China's encroachment on what has been Japanese territory since 1895. The islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyutai in China are claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan, who all want access to the rich oil reserves near the island. It's unknown how the mess will ever get sorted out. Even Google is finding itself caught in the crossfire between Japan and China -- when the Japanese government demanded that they delete the Chinese name from Google Maps, the search company politely declined.

Another wave of anti-Japan fervor in China, lovely.

19 Years in Japan...

Today happens to be the 19th anniversary of my arrival in Japan, and this seemed like a good opportunity to reflect on how the country has changed over the last two decades. I came to Japan way back in Heisei 3, er, 1991, a time before the Internet had seeped into the consciousness of the public at large. The Tokyo land bubble -- which saw Japan's capital become more valuable than all the land in the United States on paper -- had officially burst a few years before, but the Japanese hadn't really begun the slow process of coming to grips with the changes they now faced. Japan at the time was very much closed to new ideas, and finding exotic foods from home like Doritos, Pringles or root beer would have been unthinkable. (I'd been inadvertently prepared for doing without familiar foods by living in New Zealand for a year in the 1970s, back when there was one channel on TV and one Pizza Hut in the entire country.) Of course, Pringles and root beer are not important at all, though you'll crave them if you can't get them. No, it was general attitude of Japan as being resistent to outside ideas that was hard to deal with, but when the Internet showed up a few years later, all that started going out the window. Now, things are much more open and international, and many more ideas and products and services flow in from the outside. And now there are many interesting flavors of Doritos made just for the domestic market, including the new pepper bacon flavor...?

19 years ago there were no bacon-flavored Doritos in Japan.

Cool Products Monday, October 18, 2010

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	GELATIN ~ Color Original Comics 2010 Autumn First up, the spiritual successor to Wani Books' ROBOT manga collection, packed with more full color moe than you can handle!
	New Monster Hunter 2011 Calendar Then, one of the most epic calendars of 2011 -- gasp in amazement at this monster-sized collection of vivid beasts from Capcom's famous series.
	2011 Calendars In Stock, Too! See some amazing views of Japan with the new calendars in today, including the Joy of Bento, Japanese cats, the Wacky Desktop Calendar and more.
	The Desktop Lucky Cat Calendar, Too Also in stock: the awesome Lucky Cat desktop calendar, with that awesome traditional art showing lazy, lucky cats from Japan.
	Maritan's English Drill (Naughty Ver.) The moe mascot Maritan will teach you English in the most harsh yet bizarrely cute phrases that a drill sergeant might use. Explicit language warning.
	Hello Kitty HIRAGANA Practice Notebook Practice your Japanese writing in the company of Kitty's encouraging gaze with this handy grid-ruled notebook to assist in line placement and spacing.
	Sexy Ribbon Lace up Mini Skirt Maid One Piece Wow, look at this great maid outfit! A super new addition to the lineup of cosplay fashion goods we sell.
	Bomb Oct 2010 Fans of Japan's tasteful and tempting bikini models will love this issue of Bomb, packed full of glamorous photos for your to enjoy.
	New Sandwich Shapers from Japan Eliminate bread crusts and show your love with the two Japanese Sandwich Shapers we are posting today. They are tons of fun!
	Deluxe TAIKO Drum Add the sound of traditional Japanese drumming to your next performance, or use it as a display of authentic Japanese culture, this is one sweet drum!
	New Japanese Snacks Today we're posting Glico Pofun chocolate + marshmallow, Pucca in Sweet Potato, Bacon Doritos and Sweets Gum. Know Japan through its snack culture!
	Make Money ~ Japanese Food Drops If you've ever wondered what making money tastes like, instead of sucking on your local currency try out these great new food drops!
	Nendoroid Nanoha & Fate *Preorder* A great new set of petit Nendoroid figures showing the memorable ending of the Nanoha 1st movie, preorder open. Fate-chan kawaii!
	Sci-Fi Revoltech No.018 Alien Queen *Preorder* An amazing addition to Kaiyodo's Revoltech action figure lineup -- the queen from Aliens is just like you remember her from the movie.
	Revoltech No.097 Lupin the Third *Preorder* I really love this new figure by Revoltech, which includes tons of extra props! Oops, looks like Lupin is up to no good again! Restocked today.
	LEGO Block Style 2 tier Bento Boxes Fuel your imagination and need to build along with your appetite, with these great 'brick' Lego bentos back in stock today. For anyone with fond memories of Lego, or your kids!
	Restocked Onigiri Shapers, Other Bento Items If you've ever been frustrated pressing rice into just the perfect shape for your onigiri, these tools are just the thing you need. Other cute bento 'shaper' items back in stock today too!
	Hello Kitty Bento Accessories Why are you still eating normal hard boiled eggs when yo could enjoy awesome 3D Hello Kitty eggs with the egg shaper we restocked today. Also: the Hello Kitty Cooking Ring for making fried eggs or pancakes in "Kitty-chan" shape.
	Kawaii Things by San-X Then make your dinner table more kawaii with the Rilakkuma ("Relax Bear") soy sauce bottle, one of my favorite items.
	Hello Kitty Ningyo Yaki Maker Another fun item we're restocking today is the Hello Kitty ningyo yaki maker for making the fun cakes that are famous in Asakusa, Tokyo. Make them in a microwave!
	Hetalia, Touhou Artbooks Restocked On a different side of cute, we have artbooks from the popular Hetalia series back in stock, and the Touhou girls never looked as charming as in the manga we have in again today.
	Totoro China Tea Cup Restocked What's the single most awesome Totoro item J-List sells? While opinions will differ, my vote might just be for the high quality Totoro china plates and cups from Noritake, made in Japan. We're posting the dual coffee cup set again today!
	Totoro & Ponyo Toys Restocked See restocked Totoro items, too, including the oh-so-fun Totoro no Sanpo (Talking a Walk With Totoro) plush toys with tails you can pull to make them actually walk. Also the Ponyo Swimming Wind-up toy is restocked.
	Learn Japanese with your Nintendo DS Help your Japanese skills with the Nintendo DS. Today we've restocked Beautiful Kanji Training which comes with a fude pen stylus, plus Perfect Kanji vol. 1 & 2 and Kanji DS Test 3.
	More Unexplored Train Station Photobooks We have fresh stock of those awesome photobooks documenting lonely rural and haikyo (modern ruins) train stations, a great series, showing you a side of Japan you can't easily see.
	Big Beer Strap One thing you learn early on in izakaya bars is that beer comes in chu or medium and dai or giant-sized. The beer strap is restockd today!
	Bee Kawaii Earphones Those darling bee-shaped earphones are back in stock, too. They're fully compatible with any music player you may have, and are cute as heck -- even the tube-shaped package they come in is kawaii.
	Restocked Japanese Traditional Stuff Restocked today: our cool sword keychains, which you can remove from the scabbard and cut down little ninjas who attack you, plus the TAKE-TOMBO bamboo helicopter toy, Happy Message Lucky Cat Strap, a magical ukiyoe towerl with a surprise, and more.
	Awesome New Japanese Snacks Sweet! A huge restocking of some very cool J-snacks, including Lotte Doraemon Kawarinbo traditional candy, Glick Original Pocky in the new package, Meiji Lemon Gummy, Ta Pasta snacks you can eat as is, plus Ramune Caramel Corn (?) and Lotte Rich Toppo ("Nagasaki Honey Castella" -- wow).