Hello again from J-List!
Japan is an interesting country, often being pulled this way or that by various outside influences. Japanese people go to a Shinto Shrine to pray on New Year’s Day, turn to Buddhism for death-related customs such as funerals, have Christian weddings, and import customs like Valentine’s Day and Christmas just to balance things out. Japanese can be quite superstitious, and many people here pay attention to their horoscope using the Western astrological system, although more tend to follow to the Buddhist system of lucky and unlucky days — when getting married or taking delivery of a new car, for example, you always make sure to do it on the “lucky” day, called Taian. Japanese are also very big on using feng shui to improve the flow of energy in environments.
Since Japan used the Chinese calendar until the 1873, they also maintain some elements from that system, such as animal years, e.g. the year of the dog, the snake, etc. 2004 is the year of the monkey, and this is the birth animal for any babies born this year — I was born in 1968, also a monkey year. But there’s an unfortunate Japanese superstition surrounding women born in the year of the horse when the element fire is dominant — most recently in 1966. Females born in this year, called Hinoeuma-no-onna or Fire Horse Women, are supposed to be un-tamable, shrew-like women who devour men, and there is subtle discrimination against them, especially by older Japanese. Eager to spare girl-children the pain of this superstition, many couples avoided having children in 1966, which caused the birth rate to plunge in that year — very silly. If you want to see what birth animal you are according to the Chinese zodiac, here is a chart: http://www.io.com/~cortese/hinoeuma/year.html
The topic of the role of women in Japan and how it differs from the West is a very complex one. For starters, Japan is definitely a man’s paradise where men are uniquely able to take the lead in just about any area they want, politics, business, you name it. In the U.S., the very act of a boss asking his female employee to get him a cup of coffee calls up any number of sexist images, but here, no one would think anything of such a request. Although there are laws against discrimination in the workplace as well as “seku-hara” (sexual harassment), there are many visible signs that Japan is for the most part a Man’s Country. The best example of this was the lightning speed with which Pfizer’s popular pill for men was approved for sale here by Japan’s Diet, comprised almost entirely of the drug’s target market. How about the Pill? Although available for 30 years in the West, birth-control pills remained illegal to dispense until a few months after the arrival of the popular drug for men, when Japanese lawmakers sheepishly admitted the double standard and approved it for sale. And yet, although Japanese women have consciously decided not to embrace Western-style feminism, they don’t lack for control at all — just ask my wife. Like almost all Japanese households, my wife handles all finances, making sure money is saved for important events, and generally protecting the happiness of the whole family.
Japan has had a strong tradition of love-simulation games, which allow you to interact romantically with beautiful anime girls, and we’ve worked hard over the year to support awareness of this unique form of Japanese entertainment. J-List carries virtually every English language dating-sim game in print, with all titles in stock in our San Diego warehouse. Because we’re a little overstocked on some titles, we’ve got a great new offer for you: two “special sets” of great games from G-Collections. Get the classic game DOR plus your choice of two other G-Collections games for $95 (normally $135), or DOR plus three games for just $135 (normally $185). Choose from Kango Shicyauzo 1 or 2, Kana, Chain, Horny Bunnies, or Come See Me Tonight. A super chance to complete your bishoujo game collection!
Remember the January DVD sale! Because our fiscal year is ending on Jan 31st, we’re having a special sale on all DVDs — get an extra-large 20% discount when you buy 4 or more DVDs from Japan. Check out our great selection of titles now, before the ones you want sell our and this special DVD sale ends!
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we’ve got a dynamite item for Shirow Masamune fans: the new Treasure of Togihime illustration collection, which includes all works (including some very cool alternate versions of his most famous artworks) — you can fix calendar stickers to the pictures to make a customized desktop calendar, too!
- For fans of the Japanese love of cosplay, creating anime costumes, we’ve got the new issue of CosMode, featuring tons of photos of fabulous costumes as well as a pattern that you can use to create your own
- Star Wars fans, we’ve got a cool soft vinyl figure of Jango Fett for your collection
- Fans of the Japanese pop quartet Speed, we’ve got a cool reissue of one of their most popular photobooks ever — see all four girls in beautiful glossy shots that will knock your socks off
- For fans of innovative off-the-wall Japanese short films, we’ve got the new Grasshoppa! DVD, featuring fabulous films that are subtitled in English (great for OH! Mikey fans too)
- We love cute things from Japan, and we’ve got a really fun Kitty thermos/bottle with pop-up straw in stock for you, along with fresh stock of our popular Hello Kitty ceramic mug (large)
- Also, more fun Japanese egg bath toys — a bath egg that dissolves, bring a sweet “strawberry milk” fragrance to your bath water and revealing a Snoopy toy
- For fans of Jiji, the popular black cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service, we’ve got some cool “vibrating Jiji” plush toys (similar toys have proven very popular in the past, and these have been hard to reorder or keep in stock)
- Also, a very small plush of the really cool “No Face” (Kaonashi) from Spirited Away
- We’ve got some cool traditional Japanese dishes for your kitchen, including a miso soup bowl and a cool square cup for drinking sake
- Speed Racer fans, we’ve restocked the popular Mach 5 Hot Wheels, sold only in the Japanese market
- For your desk, an all-purpose sturdy steel basket to keep the things you need in
- For fans of our Japanese snack items, we’ve got delicious “Koeda” (which means “twig” in Japanese) stick snacks, in chocolate/strawberry and “black cocoa” flavor
- Also, strawberries “frozen” in white chocolate, spicy cracker rings, and various freshly restocked snack items
- Also, enjoy tasty senbei rice crackers in various flavors (shrimp, seaweed and crab)
- We’ve restocked our popular miniature Japanese food items, including the best-selling Washoku Zanmai series, extremely detailed replicas of traditional Japanese food, as well as my own favorite, miniature supermarket food items from Japan
- We’ve got a handy clip for your portable phone, which helps keep it from getting lost
- Finally, see more wacky signs in Japanese, some extremely well made chopsticks, more wacky maps from Japan, and other cool items!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of truly beautiful Japanese women, we’ve got the new Karami Photo Magazine, featuring the delightful erotic body of Akiho Yoshizawa
- Then see the incredible beauty of the Best of Sabra Girls, featuring 40+ superb models like Yoko Kumada, Yuko Ogura, Waka Inoue, Yinling and more — don’t miss this superb special issue
- For fans of the Japanese fetish known as “New Half” (She Male or Mr. Lady), we’ve got a new gouka-bon format photobook in stock
- We’ve also restocked the very lovely Yulia Nova photobooks, but the stock we have now is all we’ll have ever — the books are out of print
- For hentai manga fans, we’ve got some great items for you, including the delightfully erotic Introvert Eros vol. 3, an erotic fantasy work from Delta Comics and the superb Dawn of the Silver Dragon
- Also, a big restocking of our popular hentai mangas, including sold-out works like Noble Illusionist, Equation of the Immoral, and Full Course
- We have a great volley of new doujinshi comics for you, as well several “doujin soft” CD-ROMs, featuring fan-created works like games and cosplay photographs
- For our DVD fans, we’ve got some great new titles for you, starting with the lovely No Cut!! release of Haruka Tsukino, a fresh, clean adult film star from Japan (region free)
- Then enjoy the lovely Ai Kurosawa dressing up as your favorite anime characters in Animetic Costume Play (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, enjoy a new “Sperm Lesbian” release, featuring lesbians who also like to do it with men in the mix (region free)
- Then enjoy the delightful sex of Momo Takai and Rua Mochizuki, who are happy to assist your masturbation (region free)
- From Moodyz, see the super indies debut of Hikari Kisugi and Kirari Koizumi, performing a smorgasbord of sweet sex in sunny Okinawa (region 2, 2 DVDs)
- We’ve also restocked several popular DVD titles for you, just in time for our special January DVD sale!
Remember that J-List now sells long-sleeve and hoody versions of our popular wacky Japanese T-shirts, like “Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend” “Beware of Perverts Touching Women on Trains” and so on. A great way to wear a wacky Japanese message and stay warm at the same time!
