Hello again from Japan! We’re in the middle of the Golden Week holidays, so it’s quiet around here. We hope you’re having a great week so far!
If you follow J-List’s Facebook page or Twitter feed, you’ll know that I have some random hobbies. For example, I like reciting lines from Tom Hanks movies in Forrest Gump’s voice. I also enjoy following people who share my name on social media to see what they’re up to. Another one of my hobbies is riding my bike around my neighborhood in semi-rural Japan and collecting photographs of these white metal signs that are posted by the PTA of a nearby junior high school. The signs feature short slogans intended to make people think about the importance of structure and guidance in children’s lives, and though they seem like they came through a wormhole from a Japanese version of the 1950s rather than the year 2015, they’re still interesting. One sign says, “A child who can greet others properly will not go astray in life” (which means, a child who can show humility and respect to his superiors by greeting them every morning, which is important in Japanese society, will enjoy the guidance and protection of his senpai andteachers). Or, “Those tiny eyes, always watching his parents actions” (your children are always watching what you do, so behave in an upstanding manner). Then there’s, “Remember the strictness of father, the loving embrace of mother, and bring them back into our lives.” The signs give us an idea of how Japan — a country that has strictly separates religion from public education — nevertheless embraces “moral education,” which is an actual subject in public elementary and junior high schools.
It’s funny how our own culture affects how we perceive the world we live in. Depending on where you’re from, you might think of May as having “May flowers” which are made possible by “April showers,” but when Japanese think of May they think of noisy buzzing flies. This is because the word urusai (noisy, annoying) is written 五月蝿い in kanji, which literally means “the noisy flies of May.” I once went to see a kabuki play in Tokyo, and I found myself confused by the story, and not just because of the archaic Japanese the actors were speaking. As the story progressed, men in black costumes would appear on stage and scurry around, moving props and background objects. To my eyes, they looked like ninjas ready to strike their enemies down, yet for some reason the actors on stage ignored their presence and went on with the story. It turns out I was looking at kuroko (no relation), which are stage hands who manipulate objects during the performance but who are supposed to be ignored by the audience. These “invisible shadows” show up in other performance arts, too, especially bunraku, a play put on using highly detailed dolls that are manipulated by a puppet master who wears dark clothing, making him invisible to the audience.
J-List loves selling on the webs: it allows us to be a bridge between Japan and countries all over the world. Still, there’s no substitute to going to a great convention and meeting our customers face-to-face. This year J-List will be at three big shows: the Phoenix Comicon, Anime Expo and the San Diego Comic-Con. At each show we’ll have plenty of awesome toys from Japan, oppai mouse pads, English-translated visual novels, and even iced cold Ramune. Also, we’ll have a special limited gift for customers who come see us this year. We hope to see you at one of these shows this summer!
