Hello again from your good friends in Japan!
Japan has many nice customs, and one of my favorites are the hot towels restaurants give you when you sit down to order. Similar to the hot towels they hand out in airplanes, the steamed towels are just the ticket to make customers feel pampered and positive about the meal they’re about to enjoy. Almost all eating establishments from ramen houses to finer restaurants hand out the hot towels (called “oshibori” in Japanese), although some restaurants to give you a slightly cheaper towel made of paper. This is a great custom, I think, and I often think it’d be nice to see it catch on in the U.S.
Do you want to go to Kentucky? In Japan, going to Kentucky means going to KFC, one of the most successful American businesses to enter the Japanese market (they opened here in 1971). While American food chains like McDonald’s usually make a lot of changes to the menu to make the food appeal to local tastes (Teriyaki Burger, etc.), KFC in Japan stays pretty close to their U.S. menu, offering original recipe and extra crispy chicken, popcorn chicken and one of our favorite menu items, the Twisters, a large chicken strip in a flour tortilla, just about the only thing approximating a burrito you can find in Japan. They do make some “local” menu items, of course — during the World Cup, they had a Korean version of their Twister that was really good. The company that runs KFC in Japan also operates the successful Pizza Hut chain, however we’re not sure where Pepsi enters into the equation, as they sell Coke at both restaurants. McDonald’s has been putting a lot of price pressure on all competing restaurants over the past years, making KFC’s products look expensive by comparison. They combat this by emphasizing that they use Japan-grown chickens, whereas McDonald’s imports all its beef and chicken from Australia. KFC restaurants in Japan are always fun for visitors because they have life-size statues of Colonel Sanders in front of them (dressed up as Santa around Christmas), and sometimes you can spot foreigners posing with the Colonel in pictures. If you want to see what he looks like, here’s a picture: http://www.bigempire.com/sake/images/kfc2.jpg. Since turkey is almost totally unheard of in Japan, gaijin like me often get KFC on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
We’ve added a new feature to our DVD listings by adding a “DVD (all titles)” which allows you to browse all our DVDs in stock in one category. We hope this makes it easier to find the titles you want in our excellent selection. At J-List, we love DVD, and stock over 600 different titles for you at any given time, so we’ve always got lots of cool things in stock ready for immediate shipping. Feedback on our site and its ease of browsing is always appreciated!
For the new update, we’ve got a super selection of products from Japan for you, including:
- If you’re a member of the Star Wars generation, we’ve got a great item for you: the only-released-in-Japan full size Yoda plush from Tomy. It’s really cool!
- For fans of The Dog series, we’ve got stock of the two most popular breeds ever, the Pug and Welsh Corgi, in a large, deluxe size (with real leather collar)
- For Kubrick fans, a super rare and special item: the Tofu People, a set of five cute Kubrick characters whose heads are large blocks of tofu
- The Japanese are big believers in Feng Shui, and as a result we’ve got a set of cute “feng shui lucky teddy bears” for you, which you can put on your phone, camera, keys, etc. — they bring love, respect, self-confidence and more to you
- For Hello Kitty fans, a really fun item: a child’s toy cellular phone that’s extremely cute, and features Kitty talking and singing to you when you press the buttons
- For fans of our snack pages, enjoy a new flavor of delicious Toppo from Lotte, as well as spicy Japanese rice crackers (called “persimmon seeds” since they look the same), with peanuts — great!
- Finally, look for other items like a new Hello Kitty deluxe toothbrush for little ones, a “kogal style” jaguar skin picture frame, and more!
- We love the sexy Race Queens that help promote F1 racing in Japan, and we’ve got a dynamite new DVD featuring 120 minutes of the most famous RQ’s in all Japan (region free)
- Also, we’re happy to announce preorders for the Japanese release of one of Hayao Miyazaki’s best films ever, Castle in the Sky Laputa, which will come out in Japan October 4th — the 2-DVD set will feature both English subtitles and the excellent dubbed track (region 2)
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For magazine fans, we’ve got the new Gal’s Dee, featuring beautiful Japanese AV models of cup “D” or over, as well as the dynamite new Video Boy and Best Video, filled with Japanese AV idols for you
- We’ve also got new and back in stock photobooks for you, including some nice hardcover works!
- Also, a new “Chinkame” format photobook, a small pocket-sized collection of lovely nudes of 15 Japanese girls all taken on their birthdays
- For fans of Japanese erotic manga, we’ve got some extra special books in stock for you, including the much-requested Chokotto 2, an all-Chobits erotic comic anthology, and great new erotic comics from Angel Comics, as well as restocked items
- Also, for hentai doujinshi fans, we’ve got some brand new works, a very hardcore Gundam hentai manga and another book with erotic parody of Chobits and other CLAMP characters
- For fans of Japanese bishoujo love-sim games who would like to try out some titles on their original form, we’ve got a few authentic Japanese games posted to the site, including some titles from the original game maker JAST that are quite good
- For DVD lovers, we’ve got another excellent volley of rare Japanese titles for you, starting with the very erotic “Man’s Juice” bukkake DVD from Soft on Demand, starring Yuka Igarashi (region free)
- For fans of Japanese lesbian performances, don’t miss the new Lesbian Lovers release featuring lesbian fucking, penis play, and soapland and love hotel playing (region free)
- The lovely Miki Sawaguchi (101 cm, J cup) teams up with beautiful Ryo Ayanami in a superb new huge breast fetish DVD release — a really excellent item for Japan AV fans! (region free)
- We love Nozomi Momoi for her erotic body and pure face, and you will too, in her new release from Wanz Factory (region 2)
- Enjoy a great bukkake extravaganza in Waap Entertainment’s latest Dream Shower starring Akira Watase (region 2)
- Finally, see newly restocked DVD titles including the Do Lesbian series, SOD Best Selection, Study of Man’s Penis by Naive Girls, and more!
Remember that at J-List, we carry the whole line of unique Japanese chewing gum from companies like Lotte and Glico. Some of our most popular items are Lotte’s “Black Black” (menthol gum with caffeine, it will keep you awake!), delicious Sweetie (grapefruit) gum, and a fun item, Fruit of the Bubble, with “lucky” gumballs hidden in the package. Check out all these items on our Japanese snack pages!
