Japan can be a superstitious place, with many beliefs that people in the West would have trouble understanding. Some of these seem to have to do with water. For example, after a woman gives birth, it’s bad luck for her to touch water for three days, so her mother will generally do all the dishwashing and laundry during that period. It’s no big deal to remodel your house, but if you relocate anything to do with water, like your kitchen or bathrooms, it might bring bad luck to the family. My policy on these beliefs is, since I have no evidence that they’re wrong, they might be correct, so I never dismiss them outright. Japanese kids have a cute superstition they do here, called “shoe weather forecasting”: they take off a shoe and throw it as hard as they can. If the shoe lands upright, it will be a nice day tomorrow; if it lands on its side, look for clouds; and if it lands upside down, it will rain.
At J-List, we’re able to act as a kind of “ambassador of pop culture” between Japan and the West, something we really like doing. I get a lot of email from young people who really love Japan, asking me for advice on how they can live here someday. By and large, the time-honored way for English speakers to work in Japan is by teaching English as a Second Language, and before I started J-List, I taught ESL to Japanese kids, high school students and adults. ESL isn’t for everyone, but if you’d like to know more about it, I’ve got a (recently updated) article on my personal homepage (http://www.peterpayne.net) for you. Of course, when I get mail from young people interested in Japan, I always make sure to tell them to think about university first and foremost. When I look back at my life, virtually everything good that I’ve been able to achieve was made possible by my four very interesting years at SDSU. If you’re a young person wondering how you can come to Japan some day, by all means plan on going to a challenging 4-year university first — everything else will probably click into place after that.
Native English speakers don’t think about it very much, but English can be really convoluted and confusing, with grammar and vocabulary borrowed from almost every other language on Earth. During my time as a teacher, I was often hard pressed to explain the “why” of grammar and word usage to my students, who wanted to understand the structure of English, not just hear what the correct answer was. Language is ultimately based on grammatical rules — for example, there’s a rule governing the intonation of words that can be both nouns and verbs (e.g. record a record, present a present to someone, subject the subject to a test). Even slang and dialects like eubonics are based on their own sets of rules. During my time as a teacher, I really got to learn my own language.
J-List carries three different DVD players that allow you to enjoy DVDs from any country, including the region 2 anime and special DVDs which we sell at J-List. We offer three units by Lasonic, made for the U.S. market with one year warranties and manuals in English. We sell the low-priced DVD-7890, the ultra-compact DVD-800, and the full-featured player with karaoke, the DVD-7880K. All players are in stock in our San Diego office right now, ready for you to order.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we’re big fans of the miniature food toys by Re-Ment which include traditional Japanese meals, sushi and extremely detailed miniature cakes. Their newest series captures the “Dream of American Life” with such replicas as steak, airline food, Halloween candy, snack at a movie theatre and more! (full sets are in stock)
- For fans of traditional footwear from Japan, we have some beautiful Japanese “geta” (wooden shoes) that are fabulous — great for wearing or displaying in your home
- A super item for summer: we’ve got beautiful Japanese wind chimes that sound great in the breeze, and feature a uniquely Japanese look with the kanji for “ice”
- Also for the hot months, we’ve got a great fan that will keep you cool no matter what you’re doing this summer, as well as pleasant “cool” bath powder that makes you feel minty fresh even when it’s hot out
- For Eva fans and collectors, we’ve got the “Real Model” of the Eva-01 Test Type, a super toy from Sega
- Want to learn to draw manga? We’ve restocked several of the popular How to Draw Manga books for you
- Also: a super new toy from Japan, the die-cast metal bike from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is in stock, complete with stand, many accessories and a figure of Kaneda to ride it — this is a cool item!
- For fans of our Japanese snack foods, enjoy tasty Konnyaku Gummy treats with healthy fruit inside, delicious ramune candy, and a great item for fans of esoteric traditional snacks from Japan: a super value pack featuring a total of 39 items for you to taste and try inside
- Restocked snack items include more Pocky Reverse, delicious Tea Doc chocolate treats, Dice Caramel, Peko-chan Milky Candy and more
- Would you buy a washboard from Japan? We’ve got one, and they’re very handy to have around
- We have a great color manga by Katsuya Terada, a horrific tale of a bizarre trip to the west
- Next, a parody of Young Magazine featuring gorgeous Mari Shimomura, nicknamed Young Marilyn
- For JPOP fans: a super photobook of Aya Matsuura, the incredible shining star of the JPOP world — comes with a punch-out desktop display for her fans
- We have a great combination toothpick case and business card holder that is very traditional and cool
- Fans of Hello Kitty, known as Kitty-chan in Japan, we have a great all-purpose hand mirror in stock today, as well as fresh stock of the popular Kitty USB mascot
- Domo-kun fans — we’ve got more great stuff for you, including restocked keychains, memo pads, the deluxe stuffed plush toy, and the Domo-kun business card holder
- For students of Japanese, we’ve restocked the inexpensive Canon Wordtank IDC-310, which is a very compact unit yet it features the “jump” feature that makes it useful to gaijin to look up kanji characters
- We’ve added stock of various wacky parody items too, including toilet paper that helps you go to the bathroom, fun Japanese headbands, and more
- Another unique item we sell is StitchLock, the incredible “staple-less staplers” from Japan that knit sheets of paper together for you — we’ve restocked several items, including the deluxe StitchLock Zn
- Finally, look for some great traditional and wacky things from Japan, including Japanese notebooks paper, a great Buddhist money bank, more capsule-type marker pens, and other cool items!
For our 18+ customers, we’ve got many new products. The new items include:
- For fans of gorgeous Tokyo girls, we’ve got the new issue of Yo!, featuring beautiful bad girls and a giant pull-out poster
- Then, we have the new issue of Karami, a super photomagazine dedicated to a single JAV star — this issue features Nana Natsume, the luscious top name in Japan’s video world
- Then from Sabra, enjoy the gorgeous Spicy Girls issue featuring Sayuri An, a knock-you-off-your-feet gorgeous girl from Japan’s pantheon of sexy idols
- Also for photobook fans, a great item featuring Race Queen Toshimi Horiguchi’s “Body Heat”
- For fans of Japan’s quality H manga, enjoy a tale of very enjoyable punishment, a fantasy teacher to make your dreams come true, the ultimate Amazon Princess, and more
- We’ve restocked many H manga too, including Cafe de Murata, Futanari Premium, Buttagiri Sisters, Illustrated Maya Miyazaki and more
- Also, we’ve got a dynamite item for yaoi lovers too: Touch Me On a Starry Night, by the talented artist Tori Maia
- For our DVD customers, enjoy some fantastic new releases for you, starting with Monbu Ran’s Very Best vol. 2, featuring a staggering 4 hours of her best performances ever, by Million (region free)
- Then enjoy the “futanari” performance of Shuri Himesaki, who plays a girl who has sprouted something very surprising, and puts it to good use (region free)
- From SOD, a new project: Tokyo girls who are made to watch couples performing on an video set, who then become excited and want to join in on the action (region free)
- Then from Deep’s, an exploration of female pleasure with the mouth, featuring 20 different beautiful actresses (region free)
- Senna Kurosaki is a dark and gorgeous JAV actress from Japan — see her in a dynamite new release from the stylish Wanz Factory, featuring 3 hours for you (region 2)
- Tomo has added another volley of DVD titles to our free shipping sale — these discs come with free SAL or airmail shipping so you can save lots on them!
- Finally, look for some great restocked DVD titles, including the Female Best Complete vol 1-3, Female Card Game and great works by Mai Sakashita
Remember that J-List carries cool Japanese shoes and footwear, including great “tatami sandals” (setta) that are made out of the material tatami mats are made from. We also carry an item I personally feel all parents of young children should buy, Japanese shoes for children with squeakers inside — when children walk, their shoes make a fun squeaking noise. Kids like to wear shoes that make noise, and parents will appreciate being able know exactly where their kids are in a crowded store. It’s a wacky but very useful thing from J-List.
