Greetings from Japan, where a turn signal on a car is known as a “winker.”
We woke up to a special treat this morning: about 10 cm of white, fluffy snow. The Tokyo area (our prefecture, about 100 km from the city, considers itself part of the “Tokyo area” even though Tokyoites don’t always agree) gets snow only a few times a year, and it rarely piles up enough to be trouble for anyone. Today, though, the unexpected snow caused many problems, with traffic backed up everywhere and even several train lines stopped, including the Narita Express, which goes to the airport. Being from San Diego, I love snow and winter, although it does get a little tiring after a few days.
I’ve mentioned before how Japanese have a way of all being on the same wavelength on various issues. The Japanese seem to have a built-in sense of common sense, known as “joshiki” in Japanese — that is, they all tend to share opinions about how life should be lived. Kids should go to school and learn and receive an education that makes them feel that they’re a part of the larger society, and so, there is no homeschooling in Japan. For a family to be happy, the husband should be the “daikoku bashira” (literally, “big black pillar”) that supports the house, and so, the number of women who desire high-paying careers is much lower here than in the West. You always need money on hand for a rainy day, so most Japanese households save at least 10% of their income per year — and the average household has US$100,000 in cash, if you can believe it, usually in cash accounts that pay almost no interest. (I’m not saying these opinions are necessarily right for everyone, just passing opinions held by most Japanese that I know.)
Still, there are about 1-2% of Japanese who fall outside of the larger group. Most Japanese don’t think too deeply on the subject of religion, and regularly mix religious themes in their lives, christening a baby with a Shinto ceremony, getting married in a Christian church and burying loved one with solemn Buddhist ritual. (If you want to have some fun with a Japanese, ask him to explain the differences between Shinto and Buddhism.) But some resist this blending of religion. I had a student whose family was Shinto, that is, believing in the original animalistic religion of Japan as opposed to Buddhism or Christianity, and her family always turned to Shinto, even for events normally reserved for Buddhist Temples in Japan such as funerals. Another students husband was Christian, and forbade his wife from going to Shinto shrines to pray for good luck in the new year, done more as a fun thing to do and not as a religious ceremony on New Year’s Day.
We’re happy to report that we believe we’ve fixed the “cartfile not found” bug that was plaguing some users. It seems they were accessing the site through j-list.com rather than jlist.com, and the domain name change was causing a problem with the certificate that allows secure checkout. Sorry if you had any problems — it should be working fine now!
For the new update, we’ve got a huge volley of new items from Japan for you, including:
- First, for Hamtaro fans, we’ve got some great items, including a super-deluxe plush backpack (note: stock is limited, but more are on order) and delicious boil-in-bag Hamtaro curry!
- We have a very special item for Godzilla lovers, various sets of the rare Godzilla Meikan series from Bandai
- We love Hello Kitty, and have many products only available from Japan in stock — look for new items, including Kitty sunglasses for kids, a Kitty magnet and a fun Kitty musical instrument (a clapper)
- Also very cool, a special Hello Kitty “foamy friends” bath sponge for your bath
- For fans of Japanese snack and food items, we’ve got more fun things, including new miso soup and fried rice mix, delicious vitamin C “throat candy,” chocolate only available in the winter, squid flavored crackers that taste much better than they sound, fresh stock of Gravel Choco, and more
- J-List also carries many varieties of Japanese gum, and we’ve got a great new flavor, Juicy Melon, for the real taste of honeydew melon in your mouth!
- Enjoy meals in traditional Japanese style, with a great tray, bowl and spoon set that make eating Japanese food fun!
- Enjoy a Japanese style hot springs with Bub, a fun cube that dissolves in your bath like Alka-Seltzer
- We carry dozens of bento related items for people who want to try some of Japan’s boxed-lunch culture — we’ve got a nice new double-decker bento box in stock, too
- We’ve got some nice and rare items for fans of One Piece, the popular manga and anime — enjoy a set of trading cards and super0fun “pirate gummi” candy
- For fans of the spiffy Japanese toy cars from Tomy, we’ve got new additions for you
- Finally, find a super cute plush friend named Zukin-chan, cute traditional Japanese items, a nice Japanese lip balm that contains aloe, cute Hamster items, authentic chopsticks from Japan, and more!
Remember that you can get free shipping off of any Peach Princess game all this month — a great chance to pick up some of the best English-language love-sim games. Also, we’re having 25% off all “The Dog” items by entering THEDOGSALE in the coupon field at checkout — they’re incredibly cute, and very special since they only come from Japan!
I’ve updated my personal homepage at http://www.peterpayne.net with J-List updates from the last three months. If you want to browse my collected articles and views on life in Japan, including advice on how to teach in English in Japan and more, check it out.
And from the “worth a look” department, here’s an interesting parody item, that we’re not sure what to make of: http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com (but don’t take it too seriously)
