Cool Products Wednesday, April 4, 2012

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.

	B's Log May 2012 A new issue of B's Log is here, and it's loaded with hot guys from the best games and anime around, plus interviews with Japan's coolest voice actors. You also get tons of exclusive merchandise, including four beautiful posters for you to hang on your walls! There's no better magazine for fans of Japan's vibrant otome and fujoshi culture. View products »
	Afternoon May 2012 True manga connoisseurs know that Afternoon is the magazine for top-quality series like Blade of the Immortal and Vinland Saga. Pick up the latest issue today.
	Nyanpire Face Kinchaku Bag Pack around anything want in this cool pouch featuring the face of Nyanpire, the vampire cat. For your bento or school work, it is a wonderful item.
	Fun Fashion Magazines from Japan J-List carries great fashion magazines from Japan like the new issue of "mini," which are give you great fashions to check out as well as free fashion accessories!
	Fun Japanese Fashions Restocked Harajuku girls, they've got wicked style. We like they way they are, we are their biggest fans! See our Tour Bus T-shirt restocked, plus other fun items.
	Sake Shizuku Moisturize Face Mask ~ 2 Sheets Revitalize your face's skin with the soothing and restorative powers of Japanese rice (sake), to protect against wrinkles and dry skin.
	Fun J-List T-shirts We've got dozens of fun J-List T-shirts in stock in San Diego, and one we like a lot is this tribute to Hachiko, the most loyal dog in Japan. Great design!
	Guilty Crown Inori iPhone 4/4S Cases Don't feel guilty about not being able to choose a new case for your iPhone -- so many awesome ones are available, like these sporting beautiful art of Guilty Crown's Inori.
	Gackt Enjoy access to tons of JPOP songs from iTunes Japan, like great Gackt hits, or browse the best Sakura songs for spring.
	Kawaii Japanese Pencil Cases We have a class 1 kawaii warning: J-List has restocked our cutest plush pen cases, including Rilakkuma, Kutsushita Nyanko, Totoro and more.
	More Japanese Pens & More Because life is too short for boring writing utensils, J-List carries great pens & mechanical pencils like the Pentel "SHAKE" and Zebra TECT series.
	Let's Make Eraser with Microwave Restocked Speaking of wacky microwave products, we've restocked the awesome Japanese craft set that lets you make your own erasers shaped like ice cream.
	Re-ment Hello Kitty Japanese Sweets Then: a project J-List was born to sell, extremely detailed traditional Japanese cakes and candies called wagashi, designed with a Hello Kitty theme. Wow!
	Big Restocking of Totoro Plush Toys For the inner Ghibli fan in all of us, check out the toys we got back in stock today. Because we all need more Totoro plush toys in our lives.
	Ghibli Blu-ray w/full Subtitles Restocked See fresh stock of gorgeous new Ghibli film The Borrower Arrietty in region free Blu-ray disk with full subtitles & dubbed tracks. Laputa & Howl, too!
	Wasabi Gumballs, Lip Balm? The spicy sting of wasabi with be on the lips of your friends when they try one of these products that are infused with wasabi flavor.
	WASABI Mayonnaise, O-Hot! Pepper Miso Also see amazing flavors that you can only experience from Japan, like these WASABI mayonnaise, hot sauce for your ramen and more.
	Fun New Japanese Candy & Drinks from San Diego A big restocking of San Diego-based drinks and snacks, including new Ramune, Street Fighter and Donkey Kong energy drinks and more.
	Morinaga Nama Ramune (Set of 3) A very cool new snack from Morinaga, one of the top candy makers of Japan, that features a ramune flavor that is mind-blowingly soft and fluffy.
	Sakuma Drop Candy in Emergency Tin When you runaway, make sure to be carrying a bottle of Sakuma Drops, the candy that is now designed for portability in extreme situations.
	Awesome Furikake to Sprinkle Over Rice Add some spice to your boring rice with some furikake (flavoring), like wasabi, beef, fish egg, chicken and more. Great on bento, too!
	Other Restocked Snacks We have awesome Meiji Choco Banana, one of my favorite foods ever, plus Wata Pachi exploding cotton candy gum, Salad Pretz, Neri Ame liquid candy and more!
	Tons of Japanese Kit Kats for You Try one of Japan's many unique flavors of Kit Kat, such as Green Tea, Hot Cake, and Orange. All chocolate is removed in May due to summer, so don't wait!
	TEMARI Ball 2 Tier Bento Box w/Elastic Band  A very cool bento, just in time for April's bento box sale, that features an elegant sakura design. A beautiful new bento for spring!
	Great Bento Boxes Restocked Plus other great bento boxes are now back in stock too. Get 2x points for buying something you already know you want.
	More Great Chopsticks, Other Traditional Items A fun restocking of popular chopsticks and other fun items for your kitchen, including the cutest Lucky Cat chopstick rests and more. We love Japan.
	Fun Chocolate Molds Restocked Plus we've got a plethora of silicon molds of popular characters and designs, like Star Wars and Rilakkuma.
	Genuine Tsuge (Boxwood) Comb ~ Sakura A great gift with a flare of Japanese traditional elegance -- a Tsuge wood comb that crafted by skilled artisans in Japan.
	Other Fun Restocked Products See our Cup Noodle coffee cup, great for enjoying coffee or noodles, plus the wacky harisen fan for hitting people in a comedic way.
	HoiHoi-san Plastic Kit *Preorder* Strike fear into the hearts of insects everywhere with a scale figure of bug killing maid robot HoiHoi-san. Fully paintable, so it's great for model enthusiasts.
	Nano Shinonome Nendoroid ~ Nichijo *Preorder* Nano is the lovable robot girl from the popular Nichijo anime series. Now you can have her wacky antics all to yourself with this Nendoroid figure.
	PIECES 8 ~ Wild Wet West ~ Masamune Shirow * preorder * Shirow Masamune is a legend in the manga world. His sexy girls and awesome mecha, as seen in Ghost in the Shell, have amazed fans for decades. Enjoy the latest volume of his famous PIECES artbook series, in which he unveils his unique vision of the Wild West. Needless to say, you can expect plenty of hot, half-naked girls with guns! View products »
	Ryofu Housen 1/4.5 Cast off Figure ~ Ikki Tousen XX *Preorder* An amazing figure from the killer series Ikki Tousen XX, featuring the very sexy Ryofu Housen in amazing 1/4.5 scale. Making this an even more epic item, every part of clothing is removable so you can bask in the glory of Ryofu's gorgeous body. View products »
	GLAMOUROUS BUTTERFLY ~ AI Now isn't this the cutest vibrator you've ever seen? Glamorous Butterfly's new heart-shaped stress relief toy will definitely get you in the mood.
	Other Innovative Stress Toys from Japan Browse the "Other Toys" page of our popular stress toys section for some really awesome ideas, like the T-Back Remote Control Egg Toys which we love.
	Awesome 'Oreimo' Parody Toys Too Celebrate the announcement of the second season of Ore no Imouto through the thrilling experience of one of our anime inspired relation toys.
	K-On! and Amagami Stress Toys, Too Plus we've got tons of other stress toys, now recently restocked for you as well. Like always, your favorites are represented in cool parody form.
	Natsu no Ame - Summer Rain Experience tender romance with four memorable girls in this acclaimed visual novel by cube. Features beautiful art by Kantoku and Kanekiyo Miwa.
	Awesome Games from Manga Gamer, Too Remember that we carry the great games from MangaGamer in physical package form, with no DRM on the games. Click to see today's top sellers.

April Fool 2012: K-List!

Sunday was April 1st, and we had a bit of fun, transforming the J-List front page into K-List ("you've got a friend in Korea!") for a day, your source for Korean products. We stocked all the finest kimchee, Korean knockoff versions of Pocky and Kit Kat, photobooks of beautiful Dokdo/Takeshima (the islands disputed by both Japan and Korea) and the official drink of Starcraft players, and teased them over their love of arguing with Japan over which country originated this-or-that. We were kind of doki doki (nervous) as we made the page, since Koreans can be a very passionate people -- its part of their kokumin-sei, or national character, just as it's the nature of Japanese to avoid unpleasant confrontations whenever possible -- and they might not like a little good-natured razzing. Happily we received no angry emails and no Taepdong missiles through our windows. To me, the sign of a mature nation is the ability to endure the mocking of its institutions without exploding, the best example being the existence of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and as South Korean culture grows in importance in the world, we hope to see them continue to mellow like other nations. If you missed our April Fool's joke, here is the archived version.

J-List became your "Friend in Korea!" for a day.

Stereotypes of Foreigners in Anime

I really enjoyed the Haruka arc of Amagami SS+, especially all the jokes related to foreigners, which were hilarious and pretty accurate. In one scene, Junichi imagines his younger sister Miya as a blonde gaijin wearing a cowboy hat (seen as the traditional outfit of Americans, as kimono are for Japan) and speaking overly-inflected Japanese while using the word ne too much, something we foreigners do sometimes. Seen from the point of view of proper, strait-laced Japanese, foreigners can come off as cheeky, insensitive and "about" (a word the Japanese use to mean vague or imprecise). In one scene, Haruka's British relative Jessica meets Junichi for the first time, saying, "Just like Haruka told me, you're very cute" as she gives him a "greeting" kiss on the cheek (which they don't actually do in Britain, I'm pretty sure). When Haruka takes offense at this, Jessica casually says, "Ah, sorry, ne." This was great, and very accurate. I commonly make minor errors or social foibles in Japan yet am usually happy to whisk them all away with a quick apology, which frustrates my Japanese wife. According to her my trademark phrase is "whatever," though I'm not aware I'm saying it that often.

Japanese stereotypes of foreigners are fun to explore.

Anime Signs in Tokyo: Not Just for Otaku Anymore

Over the weekend I went down to Tokyo to meet with some friends and have Osaka-style kushi-katsu, which is meat and vegetables on wooden skewers that are breaded and deep-fried then dipped in this heavenly sauce before eating. Walking around Tokyo, I was amazed at the number of anime-related advertisements that jumped out at me, promoting everything from the domestic Blu-ray releases of AnoHana and PapaKiki to music CDs by famous anime voice actresses [iTunes link]. Obviously if you're in Akihabara you expect to be bombarded with moe imagery -- the hotel I stay at in Akiba hires anime voice actresses to record their recorded wake-up call greetings, which is quite popular with guests -- but I was seeing these advertisements in "normal" parts of Tokyo, like Shinjuku and Shibuya. Of course it's been years since otaku culture could really be considered "underground," since it's been embraced by the media in a big way, and many TV variety shows feature interesting "talents" who specialize in demonstrating esoteric knowledge of anime, manga and video games for the amusement of viewers.

Signs advertising anime are everywhere in Tokyo.

New Bento Sale and...Tenga Eggs?

Spring is here, and J-List has some good news for you: a new sale on our entire selection of awesome bento boxes from Japan. There's nothing quite like having a picnic with bento in the Spring, and J-List gives you a great reason to browse our entire selection of bento boxes and grab one now. Of course we're continuing our EMS shipping sale -- get $10 off a $100 order, or $25 off $200 or more when you order from Japan with EMS. We have other products for Easter too: Our popular "Bunnies" eroge set has been reduced by $10, and we're having a sale on Tenga Eggs too.

Cool Products Monday, April 2, 2012

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.

	NyanType May 2012 Hot on the heels of Megami magazine comes a fresh new issue of NyanType, the moe-lover's best friend. Enjoy 18 new pinup posters of your favorite anime girls from series like Nanoha, Strike Witches, Queen's Blade, and Another. Plus, a very special omake for fans of the transforming heroines of Nanoha Force. Don't miss it! View products »
	Dengeki G's Magazine May 2012 Enjoy this latest issue of Dengeki G's magazine, the 'media mix' magazine packed with everything bishoujo anime, manga, and games. Free Madoka gift.
	Comic Rex May 2012 Grab the latest issue of Comic Rex for over 650 pages of the hottest new manga, with plenty of action, fanservice, and moe comedy.
	Humania Glasses Holder Keep your glasses safe from wear by resting them on this cute and useful stand. The latest in the Humania line of stylish accessories.
	More Touhou Project Games Touhou games are great because of their quality design, awesome music, and cute characters. See Phantasmagoria of Flower View and Shoot the Bullet in stock.
	J-List T-shirt ~ I Love Shimapan When all variety of stripes remind you of wonderful Japanese shimapan, then it is time to show the world your love with this cool new T-shirt were producing. This will be the most awesome shirt at the summer anime conventions this year. Best of all, it's a shirt that you can wear in public since most people won't know what "shimapan" means. View products »
	New Shimapan in Several Colors, Too And while you're at it, how about some actual shimapan? We stock several different colors and styles, like Mint Green, Sky Blue, and Pink.
	'Dot Stockings,' Panda One Piece, Other Fashion Items Show off your legs with our dot stockings and striped kneesocks, or be the envy of your friends with our panda one piece. These and more, now restocked.
	Restocked Anime Earphones, Headphones J-List is always happy to help our audiophile friends by stocking awesome anime-themed earphones and headphones. Eva type restocked today.
	New Anime Songs on iTunes Japan Fun anime apps from iTunes Japan: a "Railgun" alarm clock with Mikoto to wake you up, and Mahjong Girls, with a picture of a girl that's revealed as you play?
	Wonderful Totoro Products A big restocking of cute Totoro products, from our Totoro Doll Collection to the Totoro Wooden Music Box for storing your important stuff.
	Kawaii Pen Cases, Notebooks from Japan Ne, shitteru? Did you know? J-List has restocked our cute Mameshiba pen cases plus popular notebad and kanji practice notebook.
	The 'Sex Style' Coffee Cups, Sake Bottles and More In Japan, there are 48 traditional ways a sumo wrestling bout cam be won, called shi-ju-hatte, literally meaning "the 48 hands." The Japanese also have 48 traditional body positions for couples making love, which are illustrated on these wacky "Sex Style" coffee and tea cups and sake bottles. So much fun, and guaranteed to be a conversation starter! Best of all, the names of the positions are written in English so they're easy to pronounce. View products »
	Nestle Kit Kat World Variety Set Chocolate lovers, rejoice! Now you can taste Kit Kat flavors from all over the world with this special edition snack. Also helps the rebuilding of Tohoku!
	Kracie Puchitto Fruit Soft Candy ~ Orange Puchitto is a favorite among our candy-loving customers, because it's fun to eat and tasty too! Now in delicious and tangy orange flavor.
	Great Snacks Restocked Wow, a big update of J-Snacks, including Green Tea Oreo Cookies (!), Puccho Ball Ramune, Glico Cheeza Camembert Cheese snacks, and "Hot" Yakisoba!
	Popin' Cookin' Oekaki Gummy ~ Paint with Gummy! Make your own yummy and colorful gummy snacks with this easy-to-use kit from Popin' Cookin'. Fun for the whole family.
	Hello KITTY Sealed Bento Box Set Here at J-List, lunch is a time to enjoy kawaii characters like Hello Kitty. Show your love for Hello Kitty with a new bento lunchbox.
	Traditional-Modern Bento Boxes Restocked Big restocking of several bento boxes today, including the WAON Traditional + Modern plus Sakura bento boxes for spring!
	HAKOYA Black Thermal Bento Bag  Don't you hate when your lunch gets cold? Keep your delicious meal warm on the go with this high-tech thermal bag from Hakoya.
	Deco 3D Cookie Cutters, Other Bento Items Get creative with your homemade snacks! J-List offers all the tools you need to make fun and artistic meals, like 3D cookie cutters from Deco.
	Traditional Miso Soup Bowls, Chopsticks Our favorite Sakura Lover's Miso Soup Bowl and Chopstick Set in Gift Box is back, along with other great chopsticks for you to browse.
	Popular Microwave Rice, Spaghetti Cookers Now you can steam food in the microwave! These innovative cookers let you make rice, spaghetti, and more with maximum speed and convenience.
	Japanese Cookbook, Bilingual Books Restocked Learn how to cook Basic Japanese Meals and what Annual Events to see when you visit Japan with our cookbooks and bilingual guidebooks, now restocked.
	Fun Lucky Cat Products Restocked Lucky Cat (Japanese name maneki-neko or "inviting cat") brings good luck into your home, and we've restocked some fun products, including "Ganbare Nippon."
	Revoltech Queen's Blade Figures *Preorder* Fans of the sexy treasure hunter Alice should check out these drop-dead gorgeous action figures from Revoltech. Comes with clothing damage!
	Sci-Fi Revoltech No.038 Bumble Bee *Preorder* We also have this awesome Revoltech action figure of transforming robot Bumblebee. You won't believe the level of detail!
	Milla Maxwell 1/8 Figure ~ Tales of Xillia *Preorder* For fans of Namco's Tales series, here's a stunning figure of Xillia heroine Milla Maxwell. You'll spend hours admiring her fantastic beauty.
	Meryl Action Figure ~ Metal Gear Solid *Preorder* The Japanese love strong and sexy women like Metal Gear Solid's Meryl Silverburgh. Check out this amazing Meryl action figure.
	Dengeki Hime May 2012 Next, check out the great new issue of Dengeki G's, the magazine for all your bishoujo game needs. Lots of great games are on the horizon, and Dengeki G's is here to bring you the latest news and moe art. Comes with a Hatsuyuki Sakura mousepad and a special treat for fans of Littlewitch artist Ooyari Ashito. View products »
	Gorgeous Ero Photobooks from Japan Browse J-List's hand-picked selection of adult photobooks featuring only the most beautiful Japanese girls. There's a girl waiting just for you.
	GLAMOROUS BUTTERFLY Massagers For a new female pleasure sensation, try these high-tech massagers from Glamorous Butterfly. Pocket-sized and dildo versions available.
	Air Dutch Dolls & Related Fun Products Enjoy fun "Air Dutch" (apologies to our friends in The Netherlands), with several dolls restocked, along with "Sweat Scent of Virgin Spray" if you like.
	DX Onahole Toys Restocked Amazing stress toys restocked, including the Elly Akira toy with *4* ways to play, plus Eririka's Perfect Pussy Replica and Mirai no Meiki, from the future.
	Personal Lotion, Awesome Related Products Get the most out of your stress toys with some fantastic lotion based on your favorite characters, like Anzu Nyan Pero Pero and Sweat Scent of Virgin.
	Your Diary Fans of top moe artist Kantoku should check out this romantic visual novel, guaranteed to warm your heart with its beautiful characters.
	Do You Like Horny Bunnies? 1 & 2 A great pair of games from G-Collections, translated into English for the enjoyment of eroge fans. We like them a lot, how about you?