The Japanese are Good at Humility

I write often about the concept of 国民性 kokumin-sei, a word which can be translated as "national character," and one thing I like about the Japanese is their tendency towards 謙遜 ken-son (pronounced with a long second syllable, rhyming with "bone"), meaning "humility." I've been rushing to get through the previous anime season because a new one is starting already, and one show I wanted to finish was Outbreak Company, about the discovery of a doorway that leads from Japan to a fantasy kingdom in another dimension, and the government of Japan's attempts at winning over the hearts of the people there by introducing them to otaku culture. In one scene, the half-elf maid Myucel, also known as "the main reason to watch Outbreak Company," says to the main character, "I'm really stupid and have no education or culture...but I know that you are a kind person, Master." I don't know about your country, but I haven't met many in the U.S. who were capable of describing themselves as being stupid or lacking intelligence, despite occasionally strong evidence to the contrary. I have, however, encountered quite a few Japanese (students, friends, etc.) who went out of their way to describe themselves as baka (stupid) and apologize ahead of time for any inconvenience their stupidity and slow-wittedness might cause me. This tendency for the Japanese to be self-effacing and humble is one of the most unique things about living in Japan, though it takes a little getting used to.

The Japanese are very good at humility.

Back from the Philippines

My family and I are back from our trip to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. We had a great time, snorkeling in warm waters and recharging our batteries sitting by the pool doing what's known in Japanese as ゆっくりする yukkuri suru, meaning "take it easy and do as little as possible," which is always a good thing to do if you can get away with it. We learned many things about the Philippines, including that they enjoy playing Christmas music until February, and we discovered many unique foods such as chicken inasal, spam, egg and grilled cheese sandwiches plus something called "banana ketchup." Last year we visited the island of Penang in Malaysia, which is a Muslim country, so naturally we were prepared to see things like women wearing headscarves. We didn't particularly expect to see religious imagery in the Philippines, which is why I was surprised when the store we were in (the department store inside the SM City mall) played the Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary over the store speakers at noon, which would be quite surprising in the U.S. Anyway, Cebu was great fun, and we recommend it if you're looking for a wonderful vacation destination in Asia.

As usual with visiting another country, there's more to see than just the country itself, and I found myself having fun people-watching the other tourists, which included visitors from Australia, Northern Europe and Russia along with Japan and South Korea. I was surprised to see quite a few people swimming in the pool while wearing long-sleeved hoodies and hats, something I'd never noticed before. "They are Koreans," my wife explained. "Maintaining perfectly white skin is really important in Korea now, and they're making sure they don't get any sun at all, even while at the pool or beach." Because there were visitors from so many different countries, the hotel offered a wide range of cuisine, including local Filipino dishes, kimchee (spicy Korean pickled vegetables), Indian curry and flatbread and Vietnamese noodles. It was hard finding room for it all.

We had lots of fun relaxing in Cebu, the Philippines.

Mountain Dew Cheetos and More from Japan

At J-List we use the phrase "a wonderful toybox of things from Japan" to describe out little company, and we think it sums up what J-List is pretty well: a magical portal where random things from Japan will pop out without warning. Some of these things are delicious, like the rare flavors of Japanese Kit Kat, Japanese Oreo cookies or Japanese Doritos we stock. The biggest hit product to come along in a while is Mountain Dew Cheetos from FritoLay Japan, which manage to taste exactly like that. We've been selling about 500 per day, so if you want to try some hurry and get your order in, lest they disappear like good old Morning Rescue did. Click to browse the top Japan snacks, as ranked by our intelligent, attractive customers.

Happy New Year from J-List

Hello and ake-ome to all of us from Japan. This is a fairly recent slang way to say 明けましておめでとう akemashite omedetou, or Happy New Year, since even Japanese find their own syllable-based language unwieldy at times.

As usual, we had a nice quiet holiday here in Japan, eating the traditional New Year's bento called osechi ryouri as we looked through the nengajo New Year's Greeting cards we received. Sending New Year's Cards is a fun tradition that helps keep open certain connections that might disappear otherwise. Nengajo are sent in late December and delivered by the post office on the morning of January 1, and it's always fun to see how many you get. Not everyone can receive a nengajo card however: families that have had a death that year are officially in a state of mourning and can't receive them, so you have to be careful who you send the cards to lest you make a social faux pas. (The worst time to have a family member die is in the last days of December when friends have already sent their New Year's Cards to you.) I've been posting examples of moe-kei New Year's Cards from Pixiv on the J-List Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook feeds -- most featuring art from Kantai Collection, since that game is the most popular thing in Japan these days -- if you want to "like" or follow.

Now my family is off on a vacation to Cebu in the Philippines. It's part of a region that was badly damaged by Typhoon Haiyan in November, and we'll be happy to spend lots of tourist dollars and help them recover. While we're gone the J-List staff will diligently fill all orders and keep the site updated. See you all in a week!

Osechi-ryouri is a traditional bento for eating on New Years Day. Moe girls sold separately.

The Source of Engrish

One of the more well-known linguistic issues related to Japanese is its lack of L/R sound differentiation, which is where a lot of that cute and amusing "Engrish" comes from. In Japanese the sounds らりるれろ ra ri ru re ro exist, but the actual pronunciation is somewhere in between the L, R and D sounds in English. This issue is the reason my daughter snickers while reading user-submitted fan fiction websites that ask you to click the "clap" button (to show that she liked the story), though they write it "crap" most of the time, or why a Japanese friend of mine refuses to discuss politics because she knows she'll eventually need to use the word "election" and she's terrified of getting the L/R sounds mixed up. Of course, all languages have features that are challenging for learners from other countries, whether it's gender for nouns in French and Spanish or tonal pronunciation in languages like Chinese. Some of the challenges English speakers face when learning Japanese include internalizing the difference between long and short vowels (少女 shoujo, with a long first vowel, means "girl," while 処女 shojo with a short vowel, is "virgin"), or getting used to the mechanics of how information like formal/informal, past tense, conditional and passive voice can all be encoded into the form a verb takes. Remember, if you want to learn a little Japanese or a lot in 2014, J-List can help!   

I feel sorry for the Japanese. English is frigging hard.

A Girls and Panzer New Years...

One of the joys of being an anime fan in Japan is visiting the real places seen in your favorite anime series, which is known as 聖地巡りseichi meguri in Japanese, lit. "making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land." My first visit to a real place in anime was in Shinjuku, standing in front of the hallowed Studio Alta TV from Megazone 23 then exploring the station to find the City Hunter "xyz" blackboard. (Yes, I rock my anime old school.) These days most every anime are set in real locations for added realism, and if you should want to eat taiyaki in front of the train station from Kanon, walk up the sakura tree-lined road from Clannad or enjoy a pleasant afternoon of boating on the lake from Please Teacher/Please Twins and the final scenes from Ano Natsu de Matteru, it's possible to do so. One of the most popular places for otakus to ring in the new year this year was Oarai, Ibaragi Prefecture, the setting for the popular moe tank anime Gals und Panzer, and many fans traveled there to see the first sunrise of the new year.

Many Gal-Pan wishboards were hung at the temple in Oarai.

Thanks for making our Christmas great!

Thanks again for making Christmas 2013 the best-ever in the history of J-List. We promise to work hard to bring you tons of awesome products in 2014, from awesome anime figures to 2D artbooks and calendars to the English release of Steins;Gate, while remaining a bridge between Japan and the rest of the world.

Some Good Economic News from Japan

Japan has been getting some good news on the economic front lately, with a key price index that showed strong growth indicating that the "three arrows" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" -- increasing the money supply, creating new stimulus through public works projects and embracing de-regulation in order to encourage growth -- might actually be working a little. It might seem odd for a government to try to induce inflation, which makes it harder for people to buy what they need, but Japan's been trapped in a deflationary spiral since 1998 and drastic action was called for. On the other hand, Japan just posted its largest-ever budget for 2014, 96 trillion yen ($921 billion), chock full of money for useful things like construction money for Japan's aging freeway system, dubious things like shinkansen lines to Hokkaido, plus increased defense spending so Japan can continue its silly posing war with China. Japan's conservative government also raised taxes to 45% (55% including prefectural and city taxes) for the highest earners.

Shinzo Abe, the man who makes our anime cheaper.

Looking Back on 2013 From Japan

New Year's Eve is a good time to look back and remember the events of the past year. For Japan, 2013 included many happy events, including Mt. Fuji's official registry as a World Heritage Site, Tokyo's winning of the 2020 Olympics, and some hopeful signs that Japan might actually be starting to emerge from 15 years of deflation. There was sadness, too, including the ten Japanese engineers who were killed in the Algeria hostage crisis, the death of Anpanman creator Takashi Yanase, and the suicide of Fuji Keiko, mother to singer Utada Hikaru. According to Yahoo Japan's annual search term ranking, the most talked-about subjects throughout the year included Abenomics, the hit game Puzzles and Dragons and the ongoing boom of yuru-chara, the creepy-cute giant plush characters that promote the various regions around Japan. The most talked-about people in 2013 included half-Japanese, half-French news anchorwoman Takizawa Crystal, who won the Olympics for Japan with her charm and beauty, and also by being the only Japanese person fluent in French, Miyazaki Hayao, who "retired" from filmmaking for the 37th time, and super sexy model Mitsu Dan, who was everywhere this year.

Some of the people who did stuff in Japan in 2013.

Year End Post 2013

Well another year has come to an end. We at J-List would like to thank our wonderful customers all over the world for making this our best year yet, and for helping advance our plot to cover the Earth in Sailor Moon figures, Japanese Kit Kat and shimapan!

One big cultural difference between Japan and the U.S. is that the roles of Christmas and New Year's Eve are reversed: in the U.S. Christmas is usually a quiet, solemn event event spent with family, but it's a fun excuse for a loud party complete with firecrackers here in Japan. Similarly, while the countdown to a new year is a loud and exciting time in the U.S., here it's common to stay home and watch the Kouhaku year-end JPOP concert while eating 年越しそば toshi-koshi soba or "crossing into the new year noodles," which are said to make you live longer. While my family is usually together as we cross into the new year, this year my son will be out with friends at a "countdown live" concert held by fripSide, the anime band that sings the A Certain Scientific Railgun songs, the lucky guy. The way to wish someone a Happy New Year in Japanese while it's still December is よいお年を yoi o-toshi o which means "[please have a] good crossing into the New Year." Once January 1st arrives, you greet people formally using 開けましておめでとう akemashite omedetou, which translates as "congratulations for opening a New Year," or just "Happy New Year" if you want to be less literal.

We're ready to cross into a new year, Japan-style. Thanks for an awesome 2013!

Don't Forget to Get a Fuku-bukuro Grab Bag

Every year we spend several months accumulating extra stock for our popular fuku-bukuro grab bags, thinking that surly this year we'll have enough. And every year we're amazed at the massive number of anime/toy, bento/kitchen and "ultimate hentai" grab bags we sell. You'll probably be able to grab a grab bag through the middle of January or so, but note that they'll be removed early as stock of the bags sells out. We'll be removing the Japanese snack grab bags on Friday, too, so grab one if you want one...and while our EMS sale is still on.

Our EMS Sale is Almost Over

Remember, you can get $25 or $50 in store credit when ordering $125 or $250 worth of cool stuff via EMS, but the offer finallly ends January 3rd. EMS is ridiculously fast, comes with insurance included and is also fully trackable. The sale ends soon, so why not get in one more order? Get shopping now!

The Japanese Government Decides to Support the Anime Industry

I saw a report on Bloomberg that talked about anime as "Japan's most influential export" in the 21st century, as well as new efforts by the Japanese government to subsidize the industry with $700 million in public funds to help create growth. It's a laudable goal, but there are some issues I don't think they're thinking through completely. Back in the 90s the export market for anime was huge -- it cost $70,000 to license Sailor Moon for the U.S. per episode, and that's just one country out of many -- but all this came to an end with the bursting of the anime licensing bubble, the bankruptcy of most anime retail shops (anyone remember Suncoast Video?) and the general rise of the Internet. Spending public money to try to recapture those days seems ill-advised, at best. Promoting popular culture from the top down can be ineffective, as South Korea learned when it spent millions trying to create brand awareness for manhwa, Korea's version of manga, which basically went nowhere. Finally, if the Outbreak Company anime has taught us nothing, it's that Japanese politicians and civil service workers have no business meddling with something as complex as our collective perceptions of what is "cool" about Japan and its anime culture.

A shot in the arm for anime as a business? We hope so.

The Japanese Concept of "Aisatsu" (Greetings)

All around our city there are these metal plates put up by our local PTA on which are written interesting no-nonsense slogans for raising happy children, like 弱気な子は過保護から yowaki na ko wa kahogo kara meaning "weak-minded children are caused by over-protective parents" or 親孝行見せぬ人の子供が真似る oya koukou misenu hito no kodomo ga maneru, or "those who don't show filial piety and respect to their parents won't receive it from their children." Another of these slogans is 挨拶できる子は非行なし aisatsu dekiru ko wa hikou nashi or "a child who can greet others properly will not encounter difficulties in life." The Japanese concept of 挨拶 aisatsu, simply meaning "greetings," is quite an involved one, going well beyond the salutation you give to an acquaintance when you see them in the morning. Japan is a very "vertical" society, with people organized in senpai/kohai (senior/junior) relationships in school, club or work environments, and one of the rules of this system is that junior members should go out of their way to greet senior members as soon as they see them, which makes social relationships work more smoothly. The word aisatsu is also used to describe formal greetings like meeting your finance's parents for the first time or greeting someone in the new year, as well as the long, drawling speeches given at formal events.

The concept of "greetings" can be quite complex.

Attack on Dust: Big Cleaning in Japan

Now that Christmas is over, Japan is getting ready for New Year's Day, the most important day of the year to the Japanese. Stores here are well stocked with traditional products like kadomatsu, traditional New Year's decorations made from freshly cut bamboo and pine branches which symbolize the renewal of crossing into a new year, and mochi, the super sticky rice cakes that are delicious to eat with soy sauce poured on top. Shops are also selling cleaning supplies, some of them surprisingly cute, since the end of December is when Japanese do their 大掃除 oh-souji or "big cleaning" in their homes, a tradition that grew out of the custom of ritually cleaning Buddhist temples in preparation for the new year. J-List finished our big cleaning yesterday, with all staff members scrubbing and wiping and vacuuming every inch of our company, throwing away a year's worth of trash and junk and getting everything fresh and new for 2014. It's a great feeling.

Attack on Dust: J-List finished our "big cleaning" for the year.

Anime Calendar Season is Here, But They're Selling Out Fast

We started 2014 Japanese calendar season with nearly 250 different calendars, including anime, manga, popular Japanese idols, JAV and more. Thanks to our best Christmas ever, we've sold more than 70% of these calendars completely, and several dozen of our existing calendars are about to sell out. Browse the top calendars now, before the ones you want disappear forever!

J-List's Sale Runs Through January 3

Here's some good news: we've decided to extend our EMS sale through January 3rd! You can get a $25 in store credit if you buy $125 or more on the site and choose EMS shipping, or a $50 back if you buy $250 or more. EMS is ridiculously fast, comes with insurance included and is also fully trackable. J-List store credits can be used on either the JLIST.com or JBOX.com websites, and they never expire. Get shopping now!

Merry Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from J-List. We hope you are having a warm and special day surrounded by loved ones.

Christmas is, of course, the most important cultural and/or religious holiday to many throughout the world, especially in the West. In Japan it occupies a slightly lower peg on the cultural awareness scale, a fact I was reminded of when my Japanese wife asked me, "What day is Christmas this year?" as if it moved around from year to year like American Thanksgiving. One challenge to enjoying a nice, quiet Christmas in Japan is being so busy, since December is a very busy time. In addition to the seemingly endless stream of 忘年会 bounen-kai or year-end parties you have with co-workers and friends, you have to find time to do 大掃除 oh-souji, the "big cleaning" that must be done before December 31st, so that you can enter the new year with a clean slate. (Companies do this cleaning, too -- J-List does ours tomorrow.) One of the biggest bits of culture shock foreigners will experience when coming to Japan for the first time is that Christmas isn't a holiday here, and I remember getting stuck in a traffic jam while commuting home from work my first Japanese Christmas back in 1991. It was really odd.

Christmas in Japan can be a busy time.

Chopsticks and Japan

One thing everyone knows about the Japanese people is that they use chopsticks to eat with. It's true: except for certain Western foods like spaghetti or curry rice, the Japanese eat most every meal with chopsticks, and they're so ubiquitous here no one gives them a second thought. Children learn to use chopsticks around the age of three, often using training chopsticks to get started, and the first real peer pressure a child will experience is having to eat in front of the other children at preschool, with the fear of embarrassment if they're behind the other kids at chopstick skill. Although I've lived in Japan for more than 20 years, I still get an occasional お箸が上手 ohashi ga jozu ("you use chopsticks very well") compliment. We have tons of fun chopsticks from Japan in stock, with everything from Star Wars light saber chopsticks to Totoro and Ghibli, Pokemon and lacquered bamboo (the best kinds of chopsticks for foreigners to use since they're easy to grap food with). Why not browse now?

Using chopsticks are a big part of life in Japan.

Live Action Anime Series Have Few Friends

There are certain things I will never understand about Japan, like their fascination with the number of creases a person has in their eyelids. Eyes that are 二重 futae, with two eyelid creases resulting in a larger "gaijin-style" look, are said to be preferable to 一重 hitoe, eyes with only one eyelid crease creating narrower "Asian" eyes. I'm also at a loss as to why the Japanese love making live-action versions of popular anime series so often. Whether it's a stage musical version of Steins;Gate, the drama adaption of Ouran High School or the upcoming Kiki's Delivery Service film, live-action versions of already-beloved anime series seem guaranteed to receive negativity from many fans. This is an interesting question to ponder: why are the Sailor Moon musicals considered classics by most fans while production stills from the upcoming I Have Few Friends movie resulted in much groaning and facepalming online. One reason might be the strength of our existing attachment to the characters in anime form. I hadn't seen the anime version of Nodame Cantabile so I had no problem enjoying the live-action series, and the 20th Century Boys film trilogy (based on the manga, with no anime series made) is among my favorite Japanese films. Spending money to create live-action versions of anime series despite low interest by fans is one sign studios are ネタ切り neta-giri, a phrase that can be translated as "out of fish pieces for making sushi," or in this case, out of fresh ideas.

I'm not a fan of most live-action anime adaptions.