Hello again from your friends in Japan!
As you probably know, the Japanese take their shoes off when entering homes and some businesses, including J-List. To the Japanese, there’s nothing dirtier than shoes, and so homes here have a “genkan” or low area near the front door where shoes are left (we built one of these into our home in San Diego). When inside the house, Japanese usually wear slippers, however there’s one problem: although the Japanese excel at many things, the slippers sold here are nearly always too small for big gaijin feet. Thus when visiting a friend’s home, we quietly forget to put on the offered slippers, hoping they won’t notice.
As December moves on and the weather gets colder, Japanese start to think about eating — mikans! Mikans, or mandarin oranges, are wildly popular in Japan in the winter, and all stores are well stocked with large and small bundles of mikans for customers to buy. In December, Japanese give winter gifts to people they want to show thanks to, such as teachers, bosses and so on. Businesses also give year-end gifts to the companies they do business with, exchanging special boxed sets of coffee, canned juice, foods from a special part of Japan. This year J-List received an extra special gift from one of our suppliers: a large box of delicious mikan oranges from Shizuka Prefecture, and we’ve all been savoring the sweet delicious taste of them all week long while we work. (See “Local Gift Goods” set on the J-List website for detailed miniature versions of these gift items, including the mikans we received.)
Whenever you learn a language, one of the first things you generally learn are the “bad” words — that’s just plain human nature. Most students of Japanese are surprised to find that there are almost no really bad words in the language — if you define bad as in, words that kids aren’t allowed to use. “Kuso” (the “s” word) is used regularly on children’s anime in Japan, and most kids use it normally while playing with nary a word from their parents. “Baka” (stupid) is the catch-all insult, used in almost any situation (Japanese from the Kansai region say “aho” instead). Variations on the above two words include “baka-jijii” (stupid old man) and “kuso-babaa” (sh–ty old woman). The various applications of the “f” word don’t translate into Japanese at all — the word doesn’t exist in Japanese, although virtually all Japanese know the English word, along with the English word “sekkusu.” The only really “bad” words in Japanese is “manko” (referring to a woman’s reproductive organ) — a word as embarrassingly close to “mango” as election/erection is for Japanese speakers of English. This word is so bad, it’s usually written with a circle or “X” or a circle in place of the middle letter. As always, exercise caution when using these words so that you don’t offend any Japanese around you. For more information on Japanese terms, see the glossary.
Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of another unique 2004 calendar selling out, never to return. Because J-List wants to foster interest in all forms of Japanese pop culture, from anime to JPOP to Japanese’s culture of worshipping sexy swimsuit idols, we carry hundreds of 2004 calendars every year. Now calendar season is winding down, but we’ve got hundreds of really fun large-format calendars that would look great on your wall, or on the walls of friends and family members (they make great gifts). The glossy printing on Japanese calendars is beautiful to behold, and the large calendars showcase the photographs beautifully. Why not browse our extensive selection of Japanese calendars and see which you’d like to get? Order 4 or more and get free mailing tubes and a 15% discount.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Domo-kun lovers, we’ve gotten in fresh stock of some of the most popular Domo-kun items, including the deluxe plush toy that can stand anywhere
- Macross fans, we’ve got a great treat for you: fresh stock of the cool Macross Battroid and Gerwalk figures released by Arii
- For fans of our unique Japanese snacks, we’ve got some great new items for you, including a limited edition of Morinaga Choco Ball candies sold only in the winter — enjoy new Caramel Macchiato and Cheesecake flavors!
- Also enjoy delicious rice crackers from Kameda, the #1 maker of rice crackers in Japan, as well as the very cool Dice Caramels, sold in Japan for decades
- We’ve added stock of many snack items too, including White Cocoa Melty Kiss, Baby Star Ramen, wonderful Pocari Sweat powder, and our best-selling sake candy
- Macross fans,
- Want something unique from Japan? We’ve got some really cool Finding Nemo character toys sold only in Japan — two cute characters per bag
- Morning Musume fans, we’ve restocked some popular Mo-Musu photobooks which are very hard to find — get them before they’re gone!
- For anyone taking medication, we’ve got a very handy and compact weekly pill case from Japan
- For Tomy car fans, we’ve got a cool replica of the Panasonic Toyota F-1 racing car, a very cool toy from Japan
- We’ve got two great new issues of Figure Maniacs, beautiful perfect-bound photobooks which capture the incredible detail of Japanese anime figures and sculptures
- Want to make some really unique ice cubes? We’ve got some fun ice cube trays from Japan for you
- We have some more wacky Japanese signs, this time metal signs with funny pictures and Japanese messages printed on them
- We have a super Japanese “carpet roller” that you can use to keep your carpet or clothes free of dirt and hair, a very handy item
- We’ve restocked our world-famous Hello Kitty toilet paper in both pink and green, and added fresh stock of the Poop Aid toilet paper which helps you go to the bathroom
- Other wacky items we’ve restocked: more Japanese headbands, our cool tattoo shirt that makes you look like a yakuza, and more
- Also, for bento box fans who are also hearty eaters, we’ve restocked our popular large-size Wimbledon Bento Box
- We love to bring you seasonal items from Japan, and we’ve got a great one for you: Hello Kitty hagoita boards which you can use to play hanetsuki, traditional Japanese badminton that’s played around New Year’s Day
- Finally, look for even more wacky chopsticks from Japan, a very unique Japanese way to clean your ears, more beautiful Japanese “congratulations envelopes,” even more Japanese New Year’s stamps, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japan’s incredible adult magazines, we’ve got the new Bejean (bijin = beautiful woman in Japanese), a great oversized magazine featuring Japan’s top adult and sexy idols
- For lovers of Japan’s “gouka-bon,” square-backed all-color fetish photobooks, we’ve got a new item for fans of New Half, aka dick girls
- For fans of Japan’s incredible photobooks, enjoy the solemn and beautiful nude of Nagisa Ohsaki
- Then a special item for you, we’ve got a Flash Special photobook that features seven of Japan’s all-time most popular adult stars, including Sora Aoi, Nao Oikawa and Ran Asakawa — see their wonderful nude photographs coupled with beautiful poetry in Japanese
- Then see the delightful sexy photographs of Yui Ichikawa, the beautiful swimsuit and sexy idol from Japan
- Then see the charming Chiharu Kazuki (I always have to laugh at her name, since my wife’s name is Chiharu and my son’s name is Kazuki), her bright, exciting hardcover photobook
- J-List carries unique adult toys sold only in Japan, and we’ve restocked our popular Japan Rotor, Mr. Pink and Vibrating Ecstacy Brush
- For hentai manga fans, we’ve got some more great items for you, including the hopelessly cute and erotic Bluesky Melody, Nyanko MIC’s Addicted to Flesh, and fun peach-colored breasts from Action Comics
- We’ve also got a big restocking of adult manga titles for you, including more than a dozen books — Stripper Mai, Shell, Miku’s Sexual Diary, and more
- Hentai gamers, enjoy a rare trading card set of Desire, the popular game from Himeya, which we’ve got in stock now
- For our DVD customers, we’ve got some great items for you, starting with the Masterpiece Concentration of Sayaka Tsutsumi, featuring her best sex compiled onto a great low-price DVD for you! (region free)
- Then see 4 hours of all-lesbian action from Big Morkal, with plenty of strap-oon dildo lesbian fucking, oral sex and more (region free)
- For fans of Japan’s highly-developed leg, stocking and up-skirt fetishism, we’ve got a new Flare & Right Skirt fetish DVD, with a hefty dose of sexy high heels and even tall boots — wow! (region free)
- Enjoy an all-lesbian soapland DVD, featuring the beautiful Yui Asahina in her first all-female experience (region free)
- For fans of sexual cosplay, we’ve got ten lovely adult video stars who wear super sexy costumes, from the Budweiser Girl to sexy maid to glasses-clad OL and more (region free)
- For indies fans, enjoy the super-erotic new Face release from Audaz, featuring the beautiful face and sex of Shuri Himesaki (region 2)
- Finally, find many restocked DVD titles, including Lesbian Ecstasy Best vol. 1 and Lesbian Kiss, various Mai Hagiwara DVDs, and more!
Remember that J-List carries over 2000 unique products from Japan. One of the most unique ever is the Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massage, a licensed Sanrio item that has been one of the best-selling products at J-List for two years. Sadly, the massagers are totally out of production and will never be made again. We’ve got the last stock of these unique items in all Japan, but our stock is rapidly being depleted as a dozen or so sell every day. If you want to own a really bizarre piece of Japanese pop culture, get yours before we run out for good! If you get 3 or more, you get an automatic 20% off at checkout.
