Hello again from your friends in Japan!
We’re extremely relieved to announce that everything is fine with both our home and the J-List San Diego office. The deadly Cedar Fire that has destroyed more than 1000 homes came within a hair of the Tierrasanta area of San Diego, where our U.S. home is located. Happily, the elementary school that sits behind our house saved us — the large areas of asphalt robbed the fire of fuel and stopped the spread, although ten homes in another part of Tierrasanta were lost. All is well at the J-List office, too, and our staff is all safe and back at work, ready to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Shipping of orders for T-shirts, games and DVD players will resume today. We’re happy to have been spared great hardship, but with so many having lost so much, it’s still very sobering. As I write these words, the lovely mountain town of Julian, where San Diegans go to see snow in the winter and eat apple pie in the summer, is threatened by the flames.
To see some pictures of the area around our house during the fires and of the fires area as of yesterday, here are some URLs for you:
http://www.laurapientka.com/pcr/fire/picts.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/fires/images/031028fierypaths.html
When you come to a country like Japan, you realize that words don’t always mean what you intend for them to mean. When I was working as an English conversation teacher, I had a confusing moment when a pretty female student talked about going shopping over the weekend with “lover.” The word she meant to use was boyfriend, but because the Japanese word is koibito (literally “love person”), she got confused, causing me to sweat for the rest of the class. It happened again when we were talking about her dog, and I happened to ask what sex it was. The Japanese use the English word “sex” but only to describe the famous act, not to denote male or female — and confusion reigned again.
Simple concepts like “you” and “I” can get quite complicated in Japanese, too. The basic word for “I” is “watashi,” and this is what is used in formal settings (also pronounced “watakushi”). Girls get a cute version of this word — “atashi” — and good boys are supposed to use a boy’s word for referring to one’s self, “boku.” Rough and tough boys, as well as men who want to project their manliness, will use the men’s word “ore” (oh-rey) for “I” — Kenshiro, of Fist of the North Star, uses this term exclusively. For “you,” the formal word is “anata,” but “kimi” (a familiar word for use among friends) and another rough man’s word, “omae” (oh-MAH-eh), are also used depending on the situation. A person’s choice of what first- and second-person pronouns he choose to use reveals much about his personality and self-image. A cute little girl will use the term “atashi” or “watashi” and play with Licca-chan dolls; a girl who is a rebellious tomboy might use the boy’s word “boku” to the disdain of her parents; and young boys, such as my son, will rebel against his parents by using the word “ore.”
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for Domo-kun fans we’ve got two high-quality all-purpose Domo-kun pouches, which you can keep just about anything in — they feature sturdy strings to close the bags, too
- We’ve got some really cook “shokugan” figures in (small toys with candy inside), a series of figures from the eerily beautiful anime Utaware Mono (full sets in stock)
- Then, for Blythe fans, we’ve got a super fun new Pop-up World Blythe figure featuring a luxurious doll with stand and accessories
- The Nyanko Restaurant series presents famous Japanese dishes, but instead of food, super cute plush kitty cats are inside — this could only have come from Japan. See the new Nyanko Nabe (pot-based cooking) in stock
- Like Japanese snacks? We’ve got traditional Japanese mizu ame (water candy, er, it’s really sticky and fun to play with), unique Japanese tea, and fun “choco crayons” that you can really eat
- Also, the newest flavor of Toppo, the baked pretzel stick with chocolate inside — taste the delicious bitter chocolate, made with real cocoa powder, as well as a major restocking of our delicious Pocky
- Another favorite of ours, Hi-Chew, a delicious “chewing candy” by Morinaga — we’ve got in stock of the “secret flavor” (we’re not allowed to tell you what the flavor is)
- For fans who love the wacky mannequin drama OH! Mikey, we’ve got a great PVC keychain of Mikey, really cool and hard to find in Japan
- For those who love the aesthetic look of kanji, we’ve got a nice wood signboard with a beautiful message written on it
- For Kitty fans, we’ve got a cute Hello Kitty all-purpose plastic pouch, great for storing many things — also, fresh stock of other great only-sold-in-Japan Hello Kitty items
- Also, some really nice balsa-wood chopsticks that are great for giving to guests when they come over to eat
- For Miyazaki fans, we’ve restocked the dynamite kitsune-risu (fox-squirrel) from Nausica and Laputa, Bou Nezumi from Spirited Away
- Also, fresh stock of the really cool large-scale Evangelion Mass Production Model toys
- Finally, look for other items, including wacky accessory pouches that kogals in Japan use, more wacky Japanese notebooks with funny English on them, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For those who love shapely, beautiful Japanese AV stars, we’ve got the new issue of Dela Beppin, the deluxe Beppin that overflows with top names from japan including Aoi Sola
- Then we’ve got a special deluxe Mook (a cross between a magazine and a book) version of Gokuh, with super glossy pages filled with lovely erotic angels from Japan, all for you
- For fans of hardcore sex magazines, we’ve got the new issue of Do-Up (which sounds like bukkake dripping in Japanese, e.g. dwapp!!)
- For photobook lovers, we’ve got some great new hardcover offerings for you, including Nami Ichinohe’s dynamite new photobook, and the sexy Erotic Revolution photobook of Noriko Namimatsu
- Also, see the fantastically bold photobook of Kanako Ishikawa, Feeling K, showing her in all her loveliness
- Akira Gomi’s “Yellows” series of photobooks document the beautiful female bodies of hundreds of girls from Japan — we’ve got limited stock of his photobooks for you now
- For hentai manga collectors, enjoy an excellent offering of new books, including cat girl fetish, extreme hentai, and a beautiful work of erotic love by Hiro Suzuhira
- Restocked manga and doujinshi include Aero, Cheeky Petite Angels, and fresh stock of Elixir, the excellent dick girl CG collection by Androgynous ONLY Circle Alsenoteris
- Also, for yaoi fans, we’ve got a great new anthology for you, featuring great works by famous m/m artists, as well as fresh stock of other really nice comics
- For our DVD customers, we have some great items for you, starting with the Masterpiece Concentration of Nozomi Momoi, the tragic AV idol from Japan (region free)
- From Alice Japan, we’ve got a superb cosplay fetish DVD featuring the erotic sex of Sola Aoi, aka Sora Aoi, aka Blue Sky, for you (region free)
- See four lovely female teachers from Japan in the very sexy “female teacher army corps” (region free)
- Enjoy the Super Idol and Gokkun Debut in which Riho Nanase teachers two new stars all about bukkake, jizz-swallowing and more, in a great release from SOD’s Natural High label (region free)
- The popular hentai manga Nami SOS! by master illustrator Chataro is now an anime! We’ve got the great erotic hero anime for you on DVD (region 2)
- Then Manami Suzuki, the sultry former Race Queen, stars in a great bukkake and gokkun release, in which she allows many a lucky actor to blow on her face, then she drinks it all down (region 2)
- Finally, we’ve restocked many excellent erotic DVDs, including Penis Venus (Kurumi Morishita pretending to be a boy with a penis in a yaoi production), Anna with a Change of Costumes (classic busty Anna), 4 Hours of Ran Asakawa, The High Grade Soap 4 Hours Special, and Beautiful Leg Queen (vol 1 & 2 combo). Enjoy then all!
Do you love Hello Kitty? J-List does, and we stock nearly a hundred unique Hello Kitty items that are only sold in Japan. From Hello Kitty toilet paper to Kitty chopsticks to the world-famous Hello Kitty vibrating shoulder massage, which is out of production and will disappear from J-List within a few months, we’ve got some great items for you. To find them all, just search for “kitty.”
