Hello again from Japan, where the American shampoo Pert is marketed under the product name Rejoy.
With my wife and both of my kids at our home in the U.S. right now, I’m having the time of my life, as only a married man in an empty house can. Every night I’m free take myself to the sento (public bath), come home and run the air conditioner at full blast, enjoy an extra beer from the liquor shop downstairs, go to bed at 4 am, you name it. It’s fun!
When I came to Japan in 1991, I was extremely motivated to learn Japanese, since there’s no such thing as learning a language automatically, just by living in a country. I took advantage of every opportunity to advance my study, listening JPOP music and watching Japanese dramas, which are great fun to watch and full of new vocabulary words to learn. Outside of my English classes, I made sure I spoke only Japanese with the people around me. Then one day I was in Tokyo, looking for a coin locker to put my bags in — a middle-aged Japanese salaryman who was clearing his out said “Please use this one” to me in English. I responded, thanking him in fluent Japanese, but after that I realized that I’d done him a disservice. This man would probably have only have a few chances to use his English each year, and yet I had spoke to him in Japanese — so I resolved to make myself use more English with Japanese people who wanted to speak it to me. Yesterday, I was swimming when a elderly man swam up to me, wanting to talk in English about swimming in the U.S. compared with Japan. I pretended not to speak Japanese, and he seemed very happy to be able to use his English with a real life gaijin.
However, one thing gaijin who attain fluency in Japanese can attest to, is that some doors close the more Japanese you learn. Japanese often think of foreigners as very fun to be around, and part of that fun flows from both sides not being able to understand each other perfectly. If you go out to karaoke with Japanese, they’ll enjoy themselves more if you sing a ridiculous version of “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire than if you’re able to belt out the latest enka hit by Hiyoshi Hikawa. At bars and clubs, too, there’s a certain “English factor” at work, which can make people who don’t speak Japanese more popular than gaijin who can read all 1945 characters of the “joyo kanji” (the characters designated for “general use” by Japan’s Ministry of Education). Perhaps it has to do with the mystique of foreigners — if they are able to communicate easily in Japanese, that mystique isn’t present. In academic settings, too, sometimes you can know too much Japanese. I’ve got an American friend who’s a professor at a university in Kyushu. He wants to take level 1 of the Japanese Ability Test, the highest level gaijin can attain, but most of the professors he works with haven’t passed the same level of the corresponding English test, the Eigo Kentei Shiken. Since he doesn’t want to appear to be putting his superiors down by getting a higher level than them, he’s decided he won’t try for level 1 of the Japanese test.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Hello Kitty fans, we’ve got some cute items you can’t find outside of Japan — look for a cute all-purpose container made of PVC plastic, and a great metal coin purse that makes a great accessory — also metallic Kitty stickers too!
- If you love fun snacks and food items from Japan, we’ve got many items for you, including a chocolate-filled baked cookie from Meiji, delicious salmon and cream spaghetti sauce, funky Doritos from Japan, and cute animal-shaped candies that have been enjoyed in Japan for decades
- The Japanese are fans of replicas of items from the postwar era, and J-List carries many cool miniatures recreating things from those days — now we’ve got a series of nostalgic enamel signs advertising popular products that are as famous in Japan as Normal Rockwell is in the States
- If you’re interested in the famous game of Go (also called Igo in Japanese), we’ve got a deluxe Go board and piece set for you!
- Want a funny item from Japan? How about a denim wallet that comes complete with a pocket?
- For fans of funny erasers, we’ve got some nice ones in stock — including a cute set of sea creature erasers in stock today
- Domo-kun fans, be sure and check out the pocket tissue we’ve got for you, featuring Domo-kun, Usajii (Old Man Rabbit), and the cute Ta-chan
- For fans of the excellent Gothic & Lolita series, which J-List sells through our “revolving subscription” system, we have fresh stock of the popular Homemade G&L pattern book, so you can make the clothes at home!
- For fans of super-realistic Japanese miniature food toys, we’ve restocked the Puchi Sample Series from Re-Ment, with the Japanese dessert and Chinatown series
- Also, we’ve posted fresh stock of the cute photobooks that show Japan’s popular high school uniforms, great for cosplay fans
- Finally, see more great chopsticks from Japan, sushi makers, wasabi powder (many uses for this) and kim chee flavored furikake, and more — check out all the items we have for you!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japanese magazines, we’ve got a great treat: the new issue of Dela Beppin, featuring top stars from Japan, sexy OLs (Japanese for “office lady” or female office workers), tons of erotic cosplay photos, and more
- For fans of beautiful Japanese girls and ass-centric erotic photos, we’ve got the new issue of Anal Shower in stock for you
- For photobook fans, we’ve got some great new items for you, including the delicious sexy photobook of Yoko Mitsuya, Megumi Osawa’s erotic 2nd photobook, and a wonderful snapshot of Rubi Aiba’s super first nude photobook
- Restocked photobook items include Minori Aoi incredibly popular “Beyond the Blue Sky,” Nao Oikawa’s hardcover “NAO” photobook, Yuko Ogawa’s “Love Heart” and more
- Also, don’t miss the great items we’ve got the Yulia Nova fans — two different sets of incredibly lovely Yulia postcard sets, highly recommended for collectors!
- We’ve got a great combination hentai manga and erotic magazine for you: the new issue of Hip & Lip, loaded with beautiful girls and sexy manga
- For fans of hentai manga, we’ve got a special oversized item for you: the superb Hermit Health Method by Misakura Nankotsu, loaded with beautiful color pages
- Also, look for newly posted normal hentai manga, including the very sex Slave Girl Week, and more
- Look for fresh stock of several popular hentai comics, including Married Woman Mitsue, Bomber Girl Crush, World of Cat Ears, and fresh stock of the popular Paradise Lost erotic Evangelion comics — also fresh stock of dynamite Psikyo Visual Arts Poster Book
- For yaoi fans, we’ve got the new issue of Love Come, which is short for Love Comedy, as in “The Story Love Comedy that your heart is tickled” — fresh stock of sold-out items too!
- If you love Japan’s bishoujo games, we’ve restocked the Viper GTB Official Fan Art Book, as well as the excellent Tokimeki Check in and X-Change art book as well
- For fans of Japan’s unique professional AV, we have the delicious and dynamite No Cut!! release of Aya Mizuki, with 3 hours of her sweet sex for you (region free)
- Then enjoy the bukkake and gokkun of Sonan, the girl who starred in her first adult film one second after her 18th birthday arrived, in a new work from SOD (region free)
- Also from Soft on Demand, see superb lesbian kissing fetish, including slow kissing and lesbian kissing while in the nude (region free)
- The Dream Woman series from Moodyz features “gorgeous actress meets semen shower” — see the dreamy bukkake action of Senna Kurosaki (region 2)
- Then see the super willing sex of Mai Haruna, the lovely and busty AV star who will fulfill your every erotic wish — you are her little king, darling! (region 2)
- Finally, Tomo has added fresh stock of some popular titles to the DVD pages and reduced the prices of others — check out all that we’ve got in stock for you!
Remember that J-List gives you great discounts on buying multiple items. Want to pick up some manga? Buy 4 or more and get 15% off automatically. Want to pick up some great photobooks? You get 15% off if you get 4 or more. How about the excellent English-translated Japanese dating-sim games we carry? Get 4 or more and take 20% off! Discounts are taken off automatically at checkout.
Also, remember that almost all of the DVDs that J-List carries are zoned for “all” regions, meaning that you can view them on any DVD player in North America, or on any computer with a DVD drive in it. The exceptions to these are anime DVDs issued in Japan (such as the Studio Ghibli DVDs of Spirited Away), Japanese films released in Japan, and most “indies” adult DVD titles by companies like Moodyz and Wanz Factory. If you wish to view Japanese region 2 DVDs in the U.S., including European region 2 PAL titles, we humbly suggest the feature-packed region free DVD players we carry in San Diego.
