Hello and “yoi otoshi o” from all of us in Japan!
Well, 2003 is at an end, and we’re all ready for our final J-List update before turning our faces to the coming year and all that it holds. Japanese usually spend New Years Eve quietly, with the family gathering to enjoy a special night of TV. Virtually all of Japan’s famous singers, comedians and other “talents” (a word the Japanese use as a catch-all for television performers) appear in Kohaku (lit. “red-white”), a great year-end variety show in which the male singers battle the female singers to see which group is more talented. Japanese eat soba, or buckwheat noodles, which supposedly helps you live longer (because the noodles are long) and wait for the New Year to commence. At 15 minutes before midnight, Kohaku winds down, and NHK broadcasts quiet, solemn images of shrines, temples and churches all around Japan, lit up to allow eager visitors to get their New Year’s prayers in as early as possible. The bells in shrines and temples ring out 108 times, to purify the 108 delusions that humans are supposed to be subject to, and to ring out hope for the coming year. Then, without any fanfare or countdown, the clock on NHK’s video feed flashes 0:00, and the new year is here.
One thing that took some getting used to when I first got to Japan was the sharp distinction between this year and the coming year in the Japanese language. In the U.S., a New Year’s Party is something you throw on December 31st, to ring in the new year with friends and champagne. But in Japan, it’s not the “new year” until January 1st, and so a party with friends is a “bounen-kai” (Forget-the-past-year Party) if it’s in December, and a “shinnen-kai” (New Year Party) if it’s in January. In December, you wish someone a Happy New Year by saying “Yoi otoshi o” (YOH-ee oh-TOH-shi oh, lit. “have a good year”), but on or after Jan. 1st you can say “Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu” (ah-kay-MAHSH-tay oh-meh-deh-toh go-za-ee-mass, lit. “congratulations on opening the new year”). New Year’s is the most important holiday in Japan, and most businesses are closed for the first few days in January as everyone takes a rest. But one group of people are busier than ever: Japan’s postal workers, who must sort and deliver millions of Japanese New Year’s greetings cards, the sending of which is a huge custom in Japan.
The past year has been a phenomenal one for all of us at J-List. We found dozens of great new ways to bring fun and bizarre things from Japan to our customers who are not fortunate enough to live here, and helped spread interest in the country that we love to tens of thousands of people — including the 50,000+ readers of our regular J-List update emails. Thanks to the warm support of all of you, we’ve been able to be an even better “wonderful toybox of things from Japan” this past year. From all the staff of J-List in Japan and in San Diego, we thank you for your support, and hope you’ll let us serve you in 2004!
For the new update, we’ve got an extra-special update for you. The new items include:
- 2003 has been the Year of Shirow Masamune, and we’ve got a very special item for you: the Intron Depot Figure Series 2, featuring six incredibly detailed sexy characters from the mind of Japan’s foremost artist. Full sets are in stock — there’s no need to buy many duplicates to get the items you want!
- Then for Nausicaa fans, we’ve got a very special item: a highly detailed PVC replica of Nausicaa on her Meve flying wing, an incredible item for any fan’s display area
- Also for Miyazaki fans, we’ve got a very soft, high-quality Jiji plush from Japan’s famous Sun Arrow toy company, and fresh stock of Makkuro-Kurosuke (er, Soot Sprites)
- The Japanese film Battle Royale has become a cult classic, and for collectors, we’ve got the very special Battle Royale II Requiem Special Edition Box, loaded with cool things for you
- Every summer and winter, tens of thousands attend the Comic Market, an underground convention where fans can buy doujinshi, or fan-created comics — we’ve got some really cool “doujin cosplay photo CD-ROMs” in stock for anyone in love with high-quality anime cosplay
- We carry tons of cool Hello Kitty items from Japan — enjoy a great Kitty pocket tissue holder that will hold J-List tissue as well, great Hello Kitty art kits for making watercolor and sand paintings, and more
- We have a great new Japanese fude pen, a brush-writing pen that allows you to write as if you were using a Chinese ink brush
- We’ve done a major restocking of Japan Hot Wheels, sold only in the Japanese market (Knight Rider, Speed Race, Back to the Future Delorean), as well as some new Tomica die-cast cars (including the popular Prius)
- For your kitchen, various new bento and chopstick related items, great for fans of Japan’s boxed lunch culture
- Also, bizarre new Japanese pin badges for people who love strange things from Japan
- We have two bizarre “head puppets” from Japan that are great for parties or to amuse your friends with
- We have more cool dictionaries of Japanese proverbs, 4-character compound words and more, fun for anyone studying the language
- We have some cool English-language manga and DVD items shipping out of our San Diego office, take a look at them
- We have some amazing snack items for you, including a cool Japanese good luck charm (daruma, lucky cat, etc.) with chocolate cookies
- Also, a huge update of restocked items, including Men’s Pocky, our world-famous Gummi Sushi, Hello Kitty Strawberry Pretz, Dice Caramel, and more
- Finally, we’ve got some authentic Japanese “zabuton” or sitting pillows, which make it comfortable to sit on the floor like the Japanese do.
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- First, we have the delicious new issue of Urecco Gal, the super magazine of stylish pro and amateur kogal nudes, with some of the boldest and most erotic photography found in Japan
- From Soft on Demand, we’ve got a very special item: SOD’s special magazine, with a 2 hour sampler DVD, at a great price!
- For photobook fans, enjoy the wonderful nude photographs of female pro wrestler Noumi Kayo
- Also, the super-sexy Momo-Mune Musume (“Peach Breast Daughter”) Hiroko Akamatsu’s first sexy hardcover photobook
- Then see the lovely bondage play of Japanese adult video star Rin Tomosaki, captured in a high-quality photobook for you
- Doujinshi fans, rejoice: we’ve gotten a bunch of great new erotic doujinshi books for you, fresh from Comic Market 65, which was held yesterday — enjoy all the great new underground comics posted for you, however stock is limited…
- We have some great new erotic manga for you, including the delightful Slave Need Pleasure by the famous hentai artist Hindenberg, a new issue of Tende Freeze and more
- We’ve also got the new issue of Electric Love Princess, featuring super erotic anime parody doujinshi, collected into a perfect-bound manga volume for your manga collection
- For our DVD customers, we’ve got some fabulous items in stock for you, starting with an exploration of the eros of stewardesses, with top names like You Natsuki, Ran Asakawa and Ryoko Yada (region free)
- Then get ready for the luxurious sex of Sora Aoi, aka Sola Aoi, in her fantastic new release from Alice Japan (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, a new project from Hajime, the wacky Japanese adult video director — see amateurs from all around Japan showing their beautiful breasts to the camera (region free)
- Then it’s time for the “Ernest Lesbian Play & Deep Kiss with Semen” from Waap, an extra-special 2-disc work featuring the last performance of the erotic Nao. and Kirari Koizumi (region 2)
- Kyoko Ayana gives you her “Big Breast Fruits” in an erotic new release from SOD’s Princess label, a great offering for fans of extra-voluptuous girls from Japan (region free)
- Finally, we’ve got more freshly restocked DVDs, along with even more of our popular free shipping adult DVDs — check them all out!
J-List carries dozens of top-quality Japanese dating-sim games for you, with virtually every English-translated interactive game in existence available for immediate order. We’ve gone through and updated some of the pictures and descriptions to our games so you can get a better view of how beautiful the characters and graphics are in these insanely great games from Japan.
Remember that J-List stocks the incredible detailed classic food replica items from Re-Ment and other companies, which recreate famous food of the world — sushi, Japanese traditional dishes, desserts of the world, Chinese food from Yokohama’s Chinatown — in such detail you won’t believe they’re not edible (you even get little silverware/chopsticks). All of the food replica items we have in stock right now are out of production, so the stock we have will be our last. We hope you’ll consider picking several of these unique items up — full sets are available so you don’t have to buy lots of duplicates!
