We hope you’re enjoying the all-new J-List website. Just a reminder: certain products like magazine and snack subscriptions, iTunes cards and game downloads are still not up, but will be soon. For English visual novels and eroge via download, please visit JAST USA.
The Japanese follow many sports closely, with TV regularly broadcasting coverage of professional golf, soccer, figure skating, marathons, and the official national sport of Japan, sumo wrestling. But the most popular sport here is without a doubt that old American classic, baseball, which has been played nonstop ever since 1872, when an American English professor named Horace Wilson decided to teach his students how to play. There are 12 pro teams in Japan, organized into the central and pacific leagues, but unlike in the U.S., where the home city is part of the team name, in Japan it’s the corporation that owns the team. Thus you have the Yomiuri Giants, owned by the Yomuiri Group of newspaper companies, the Yakult Swallows, operated by the company that makes those heavenly yogurt drinks, etc. While baseball fans follow their favorite teams closely, Japan’s housewives do too, because when a team wins the World Series it always means a big celebration sale at businesses affiliates with that team, for example on meat products when the Nippon Ham Fighters wins. A few days ago the championship was clinched by the Softbank Hawks, and as a result the cellular provider famous for their TV commercials about the cute white dog named Otosan (“dad”) is having a big sale, including giving away free cell phone service for life to one lucky winner.
Coming to Japan from the U.S. entails adapting to different systems, for example getting used to paying for products in yen instead of dollars (obviously), or internalizing that the time to trade in shorts for long pants is when the temperature drops below 25 degrees Celsius or so. Like most countries, Japan uses the metric system, which is very easy to get used to, though the American diet app I’ve been using for the past year has been a little inconvenient, requiring me to convert units at the dinner table occasionally. Another difference in Japan is time, specifically, the lack of a Daylight Savings Time system here. While never setting your clocks forward or back may seem great, it also means that the sun goes down at 4:30 in the winter, and if I stay up late watching “just one more episode” of YuruYuri or Is The Order a Rabbit? in the summer, I’m likely to see the sun come up as I head for bed. 
November 4 is International “H” Toy Day, a great excuse to review the special items that bring you relaxation and joy at the end of a hard day. To help spur you along we’re giving $10 off any purchase of naughty toys as well as our selection of cosplay items, using code HAPPYTOY10. Happy browsing! Offer ends Friday.
