Hello from Japan, where the turn signal on a car is called a “winker.”
First of all, the J-List site was down for an hour or so in the morning, due to a MySQL process that had gone to sleep, which meant you could surf the pages but not search or add items to your cart. Sorry for the inconvenience if you were trying to view the site during that time. As always, you can use the secure email form in the upper left hand corner of the site to send a secure email to us, so you can send order information that way if you need to for some reason (problems with the site, etc.).
Japan is a very different place from the U.S. in many ways. For one thing, it’s still largely a cash-based society — cash is used for everything, and there is no concept of a personal or business check for payment of funds. When we need to pay a supplier, it’s done with a direct cash deposit (called “furikomi”) rather than with any kind of paper, which is a little inconvenience since we have to physically go to the bank to pay, and we’re charged a fee of around $6 by the bank. Although we recently switched to a direct-bank deposit system, for years the J-List staff was paid each month with a big envelope full of cash, still the norm in Japan. Credit card use among Japanese consumers is on the rise, especially ones that allow payments to be broken up over several months, but by and large, Japanese are in love with cash.
Part of the reason why Japan can look so strange to outsiders is its tendency for them to do things as a group, something that’s rarely done in America, a country that places importance on individuality rather than everyone working in harmony. One example of Japan’s moving as a group is “koromo-gae” (koh-roh-moGA-eh, lit. “changing clothes), when you put away your winter clothes and bring out the summer clothes you’ve got in storage. For Japanese school students, koromo-gae means the day you change from your winter uniform to the cooler summer uniform, or vice-versa in the autumn. For virtually every student in the country, the changeover takes place on June 1 and November 1 — on those days and only those days, regardless of the actual weather or what part of Japan you live in. The prospect of millions of students changing from warm-weather to cooler-weather clothing on the exact same morning of the same day is vaguely unsettling to Westerners. Because Americans don’t have a set day to switch from summer mode to winter mode, we tend to wear short-sleeve shirts fairly deep into autumn, and it’s common for Japanese to ask “Aren’t you cold?” to us even though it might still be a balmy October day outside.
When I came to Japan, one thing I was surprised to see were the cotton masks, which Japanese often wear when they feel a cold coming on — they keep their germs from infecting others, and also protect themselves at the same time. I’d never seen anything like the masks before I came to Japan, and bought some to take home with me as interesting gifts. With SARS fears in many parts of the world right now, these masks are not uncommon at all, and you see them on TV reports from Hong Kong and other countries. If you’re interested in these masks but don’t know where to buy them, never fear — J-List has a variety in stock for you today. And since Japanese are so into style, we’ve got some very colorful and stylish ones, too!
Announcing the May Manga sale! We love Japan’s extremely talented artists and love to carry a variety of great hentai and other mangas direct from Japan. As a way of saying thanks for your support of J-List, we’re offering a “buy 5 or more mangas, get 20% off” sale, and all the Japanese manga we carry are included. It’s a great chance to really pick up some fantastic books for yourself from Japan’s top artists and manga publishers. We’re not sure how fast some of our more popular books will start to sell out, so we recommend you look at them soon.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, by popular demand, J-List now sells great “snack packs” (which we’re naming “spacks”) containing excellent sampler packs of famous Japanese snacks. These snack packs are a great way to try a variety of delicious Japanese snack foods, and they make great gifts as well!
- Master illustrator and manga-ka Shirow Masamune has outdone himself in his fantastic new Intron Depot book we’ve got for you, capturing all his great works from 1992-2002. This brand new art book is hot off the presses (it’s still warm) and is such a beautiful collection of artwork we just can’t believe it. And this book is fully bilingual, with all notes by the artist in English and Japanese!
- For fans of the undying Final Fantasy games, a treat: the Final Fantasy Heroines figure series from Bandai, and we’ve got full sets in stock so you don’t have to waste your time buying duplicate figures!
- Also, we’ve gotten in stock of the very cool MyClone figures, super deformed parodies of the Micronauts (known as Micro Man in Japan)
- We’ve restocked the very cool Star Wars Kubrick figures from Medicom Toy — don’t miss out on these, though, as we won’t be able to get any more
- Also on the very cool list, we’ve restocked the hugely popular miniature sushi toys, extremely realistic plastic such that come with plates, cups of tea and tiny little chopsticks
- For Totoro fans, we’ve added new varieties of the very cool Totoro picture frames with music boxes built into them — a really special way to display photos of your loved ones!
- And one more Totoro item, the super deluxe Totoro cuckoo clock — you have to see this thing to believe how great it is!
- Hello Kitty fans know that J-List loves to stock wacky and fun items that you can’t outside of Japan — now we’ve added a cute plush tissue box cover featuring lovely plush figures of Kitty and her cute rabbit friend
- Also, some cute Kitty ballpoint pens for your desk, more Kitty hotcake mix, and more
- In this era of fear of airborne germs, the high-quality masks used by the Japanese are just the ticket for staying healthy — we’ve got several varieties in stock for you
- We’ve got a cool traditional Japanese items, including a “geta” wooden shoe that is a money bank for you to save your coins and decorate your room in Japanese style and a great miso soup bowl that’s even microwavable
- Fans of Japanese tonkatsu sauce, the delicious food flavoring that the Japanese call “sauce,” is back, in larger containers for you now
- Fans of other fun snack and food products can enjoy “red miso” soup mix, green apple candy, and fresh stock of authentic Japanese and Chinese teas for you
- We’ve got some handy kitchen items, including a non-stick rice scoop, a cute bento box with Japan’s #1 anime character, and new Japanese chopsticks that are easy to hold and eat with
- For students of Japanese, we’ve restocked the popular Wordtank IDF-4100 and IDF-2100, both highly recommended for anyone trying to learn the language
- Finally, learn the Japanese prefectures with a fun map puzzle we’ve got in stock for you, pass your test with Japanese headbands, and amaze your friends with the Bonny Boy “peeing” drink dispenser based on the Japanese Dakara commercials!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japan’s high-quality adult magazines, enjoy the new issue of Bejean, which we’ve got in stock for you — features all the top stars in Japan, including the ultra-sexy Yuko Ogura
- We love Japan’s beautiful, glossy photobooks, and have some nice ones in stock for you, including Kirari Koizumi’s fresh nude and the charming and sexy photobook of Manami Fuku
- Also, for leg and stocking fetishists, we’ve got a new Leg Idol photobook featuring incredibly lovely “low angle” photography
- Also, check out some excellent amateur nudes in a new photobook that shows you “fuck mania”
- We’ve restocked several hardcover photobooks for you, including Kaoru Private Garden (the most popular Aida Garo photobook ever), the delightful European Fairy Tale, and Sora Aoi’s wonderful nude photobook “Blue”
- If you love Shirow’s incredibly detailed artwork, don’t hesitate to pick up his new Intron Depot art book, described above
- For hentai manga fans we have some excellent new items for you, including the erotic and stylized “Noble Illusionist” from Angel Comics, an interesting bondage-themed comic from Mujin Comics and stories about cosplay love and sex by Young Comics
- We’ve also got a great Japanese parody fan that shows the 48 classic sexual positions — a wacky and fun item
- For DVD enthusiasts, we’ve got some great new releases, starting with a Large Breast 4 Hours Special from Yellow Box, a great selection of busty sex with 9 AV idols (region free)
- Then, we’ve got a new series from Idea Pocket, World Wide Fuck, featuring sex with lovely girls from Hungary (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, a great “Actress Directory of Special Choice” which gives you 4 hours of superb sex, with 30 lovely AV idol — enjoy this great sample of excellent works from SOD! (region free)
- For stocking fans, a “Beautiful Leg Fetish” DVD from SOD’s IEnergy label, very lovely to see (region free)
- U&K is famous for offering some of the best lesbian sex of any company in Japan — now you can enjoy a great compilation DVD featuring 2 full hours of the best performances (region free)
- Then, for fans of the sly and sexy Mirai Hoshizaki, a great treat from Wanz Factory: 3 hours of her super best, featuring loads of bukkake, pussy-angle, car and outdoor sex, and more (region 2)
- Finally, look for fresh stock of many titles, including Hitomi Hasegawa’s super-detailed “Digital Mosaic,” Ami Hinata’s erotic “Semen Club” and the excellent lesbian “Stairway to Heaven and Highway to Hell.”
J-List carries every English-language bishoujo game made, so you can always find a great selection whatever your tastes are. We also are the only company to carry all the classic love-sim games by Himeya Soft (aka C’s Ware). Since many of these titles have been in print for years, some of them are unfortunately going out of print soon. If you’re interested in any of the great games by Himeya, we hope you’ll get them before they’re gone.
Remember that J-List carries three different region free DVD players, a great way to enjoy DVDs from around the world, including the region 2 discs that J-List carries. All three of the player we currently carry come with great features like international power supplies, the ability to view PAL discs from Europe, compatibility with DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, MP3 playback, and more. The players all come with manufacturers warranties, and the prices are great. We ship daily from our San Diego warehouse, so order one today and you can get it in a few days!
