Hi again from Japan, where you bow to drivers when they give you the right of way (and I do it to).
Concepts such as what defines cleanliness can vary from country to country. In Japan, shoes are dirty, so they’re always taken off before you enter a house, to keep the dirt on the shoes from making the house dirty. They’re left in a special recessed area by the front door called a “genkan” (we built one of these into our house in San Diego). Americans might wash shoes in the washing machine when they get really dirty, but doing this would be unthinkable here — it would contaminate all your clothes, and you’d have to buy a new washing machine. Americans tend to dislike the Japanese-style toilets they have here, which you must squat over to use, but the Japanese point out that with a seatless toilet, you avoid getting other people’s germs on any delicate areas, which is more sanitary. Despite this, the Japanese seem to be fans of the concept of a “communal cup” — there’s usually a plastic cup in public restrooms, presumably for everyone to use to get a drink of water, something which doesn’t seem very sanitary to me, at least.
Now that it’s gotten warmer, the boso-zoku can be heard riding noisily around at night more and more. An odd bit of counter-culture in Japan, the boso-zoku (lit. “tribe of those who run wildly”) are street gangs that dress in very right-wing clothes and ride on motorcycles modified to be extra loud. The motorcycle gangs from Katsuhiro Otomo film Akira are based on the boso-zoku, but the real bike gangs aren’t nearly as interesting as in the movie: they’re mostly bored kids who dropped out of high school because they fell in with the wrong crowd and thought it was cool to make a lot of noise on a bike. You could call them “yakuza scouts” because Japan’s famous mafia usually use boso-zoku members to transport and sell drugs for them. While it’s probably dangerous to get on the wrong side of these loud kids, they’re usually nothing more than an annoyance, especially when you’re driving somewhere and get caught in a traffic jam caused by a group riding slowly through the town, ignoring stoplights and honking their horns.
You may be familiar with the Japanese word “otaku.” A formal word which really means “you” or “your family,” it’s come to describe people who go all-out in pursuit of their hobbies. The most famous otaku are the anime otaku, aficionados of Japanese animation, but there are many other kinds of otaku, from military otaku to perfume otaku to train otaku, and so on. There seems to be something about the Japanese psyche that opens them up becomming obsessive when it comes to their hobbies. Unfortunately, while foreigners are often happy to use the word otaku to describe themselves as a lover of Japan, I really have to advise against referring to yourself as an otaku front of Japanese people. In Japan, the concept of people getting carried away collecting doujinshi, Zippo lighters, and Disney plush toys is cute, but the idea of being an otaku is really not a positive one to the Japanese mind — just as you might not know what to think about a person who boasted about what a “Trekkie” he was. If you’re an otaku, my advice is to hide your otakuism from Japanese people until they know you better, and not show it right away.
We’re always happy to see our wacky Japanese T-shirts selling well, and we thank you for your support. In order to make room for new designs, we’re always closing out some of our current shirts. Shirts that we won’t be making any more of include Hiragana Man (a famous Japanese doodle), Men Over Women, and Your Mother has a Protuding Belly Button. If you’d like to get one of these shirts before they’re gone, we suggest you hurry while we have your size in stock. Invariably, we always get requests for shirts when they’re sold out, so please plan ahead.
Mac users, we’ve got a treat for you. The cute shooting game that comes with the Viper Limited Edition CD-ROM is now Mac compatible, too, in both OS 9 and X, so you can get in on this great item, too. Viper LE is a compilation of uncensored artwork, wallpaper, screen savers and other goodies for fans of Sogna’s Hyper Animation Viper series, a popular animated hentai game line from Japan.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we’re happy to announce a new category of product at J-List — traditional Japanese shoes, including Japanese “zori” sandals that are made from the same material tatami mats are made of
- Show your love for your family with a cute heart-shaped pancake maker — they’ll know you love them
- For fans of Japanese snacks, enjoy tasty Calpis orange gummi treats, Beyblade rice snacks, dried shiitake mushrooms, fresh stock of Sakura Drops (the “Grave of the Fireflies” candy), miso soup, and more
- Also, a treat I hope everyone will try: salmon ochazuke, which you pour on white rice and then pour boiling water over it all to make a hearty meal
- Ear cleaners in Japan are a little difference from what you may be used to — we’ve got in stock of traditional ear cleaners made from bamboo which you use to remove ear wax just like the Japanese do
- For Kitty fans, we’ve got many cute items, like a Kitty “dental care set,” gift bag set, the really cool Kitty Pachinko machine and Astro Ball, and the popular Kitty document shreader
- We love anything with outrageous English on it, and we’ve got a cool series of “fancy aroma sheets” for you that fit the bill
- Also, we’ve got a cool new Japanese sign for you — don’t let your dog poop here
- Cute stationary and erasers are something we sell a lot of here, and we’ve got some cool items: Japanese PET bottle erases that parody famous drinks, sushi erasers, and more
- Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) is a great anime about an alternate 19th century Japan, with steam-powered mecha walking around — we’ve got a great figure + ramune candy set in stock, with full sets of these cool figures available for a limited time
- A favorite dessert in Japan is an upside-down caramel pudding called “purin” (aka caramel flan), and now you can put together an attractive 3D puzzle and display it in your room — very Japanese
- For Evangelion fans, a fabulous new large-size Eva toy from Kaiyodo
- Also, if you love Totoro and the movies of Hayao Miyazaki, we’ve got a major restocking of high-quality Sun Arrow plushes for you, including the Fox Squirrel from Laputa/Nausica and Soot Sprite, Laputa music boxes, and more
- We love to stock unique gift ideas, and have a new page with suggestions for gift-giving — one item we think would make a nice gift for someone is the Cup Noodle coffee cup, that looks like a real cup of ramen
- Finally, look for a cute way to drink loose tea including the Japanese teas we sell, a great way for women to avoid sweat stains on their clothes, cute magnets of fruits an vegetables, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of lovely Japanese magazines from Japan, we’ve got the bold new issue of Gokuh, featuring the lovely nudes of Mai Hagiwara, Hikari Kisugi
- We’ve also got a treat for Race Queen fans — a super photobook and 120 min. DVD for Race Queen fans, but the lovely idols in this photobook show you everything
- Back in print after many years, we’ve got the dynamite nude photobook of Vivian Hsu, Angel, a super item for collectors
- Enjoy the busty swimsuit loveliness of Yoko Matsugane in a new Million Mook that is not to be missed
- For photobook fans, enjoy the erotic nude of Miku Matsumoto, expertly photographed for you in her new hardcover photobook, as well as other great items
- To help you help us make our May Manga Sale a success, we’ve added another half dozen all-new hentai mangas for you to check out, including a new “Excellent” series anthology and an erotic tale of lust from AV Comics
- Also, look for a general restocking of several popular comics, posted near the top of the page if you’re viewing the “three days update” link
- We’ve got some new doujinshi in stock for you, for fans of the popular underground comics — stock is limited to one of each though, so hurry
- Also, another great “doujin” photobook featuring famous erotic girls on a rare CD-ROM
- For DVD collectors, we’ve got the third and final volume in the U&K Les Best Collection series, a must-own item for lesbian aficionados (region free)
- From Dogma and Tohjiro, enjoy a new “Trance” series DVD featuring the erotic “restraining chair” — great for bondage fans (region free)
- Female teacher Reiko Mizuno becomes the erotic pet of Mai Tamura in a new fetish DVD release from Soft on Demand (region free)
- Japanese fans want to learn everything they can about their favorite idols — see your favorite AV stars behind the scenes, talking and eating bento in between AV shoots, in an interesting new DVD (region free)
- Then, enjoy another great “Wild Replay” value-priced re-release, Yukari Kanou’s super erotic Black Semen in LA, in which she takes on a huge number of large black men (region 2)
- Then, enjoy the light bondage sex of Chika Kawamura, the busty indies idol, in a new release from Wanz Factory (region 2)
- Finally, fresh stock of many popular DVDs, including the Magic Mirror Box Car special box set, the First Kisses of Nude Amateur Girls, the popular lesbian “My First Experience” and the ever-popular 108 Girls All-Nude Zenra Sports — check them all out!
Remember that J-List carries that great symbol of Japanese wacky pop culture, the Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager, which is of course intended as massager for your neck and shoulders, although some would call it a Hello Kitty vibrator. A licensed Sanrio item sold only in Japan, the unit features high and low massage modes, and a beautiful image of Kitty and her rabbit friend. It looks just great, in or out of case — display it as the objet d’art that it is. Why not get a few, and give them out as gifts? If you get 3 or more you get 15% off automatically. Production has totally stopped on this item, and we expect that they’re going to start to get very rare in the near future.
Interested in JPOP and Japanese music? Please visit our friends at JPOP.com (http://www.jpop.com), a great site that’s filled with information on Japanese pop music, cute swimsuit idols, and Japanese pop culture in general. They also have a great BBS for chatting about what’s popular in Japan right now.
