Hello from Japan, where everything is as different as it could be from the U.S., it seems sometimes. Even the number to dial for emergencies is the reverse — in Japan, you dial 119.
One thing you learn when living in Japan: every region of the country has some food that it’s “famous” for, which is used to promote the image of that part of the country. People who travel to those cities are expected to get excited about that food and buy some to bring it home, if possible (they’re really big on buying souvenirs for family members in Japan). In Osaka, the famous food is tako-yaki, or balls of batter with pieces of octopus mean in them, and the best tako-yaki can be found at Otako-ya’s in the heart of the entertainment district, near the famous “Glico” neon sign. In Kyoto, the highly-developed style of food known as kaiseki ryori, in which you eat a very complex multi-course meal that is beautifully prepared, is famous. Kyushu (the southernmost Japanese island) is famous for ton-kotsu ramen, ramen with a white soup, while Fukushima Prefecture (North of Tokyo) is famous for kita-kata ramen, which has curvy noodles. Gunma Prefecture, where J-List is based (right in the exact center of Japan’s main island of Honshu) is famous for “sauce katsudon,” a breaded, fried cutlet of pork with a delicious sauce on top of it, one of my son’s favorite foods. In Takasaki, one city over from where we are, the famous food is “Daruma bento” or a bento (lunch box) that’s in the shape of a bright-red daruma doll.
Japanese, like all languages in the world, comes in many different dialects. The fact that Japanese tend to move less, often living their whole lives in one area, helps make dialects more pronounced than say, in the U.S., where the population tends to be more mobile. When older Japanese from rural Japan are interviewed on TV, it’s not uncommon for the TV station to put subtitles on so everyone else will understand what is being said. Standard Japanese is defined by the Ministry of Education as the Japanese of Tokyo, and that’s what is taught in textbooks around the country, but many other dialects of Japanese have much more “flavor” to them. The most well-known is Osaka-ben, the dialect of the Osaka region, and it seems to be the official dialect of comedians and entertainers on Japanese television because of how funny it can be. If you want to try out some Osaka Japanese on a Japanese person, say “Osaka-ben ga wakara-hen” which is saying, I don’t understand Osaka dialect, in Osaka-ben.
For the mid-week update, we’ve got a lot of cool stuff for you, including:
- First, for collectors of rare toys items from Japan, we’ve got the super-cool YF-21 die-cast metal fighter from Macross Plus, complete with moveable wings and a cool display box
- For fans of The Dog, there’s limited stock of a cute dog “mini T-shirt” keychain
- Two very popular and cute characters from Japan are Anpan Man (Bean Paste Bread Man) and Doraemon (a robot-cat who comes from the future). We’ve got cute new toy items in for fans of these uniquely Japanese creations
- If you love Japanese race queens, see the new issue of Cam-Girl Collection, filled with lovely “campaign girls” from Japan
- For lovers of Japan’s youthful idols like the lovely Yuko Oguro, enjoy the new issue of Spica
- For fans of Japanese snacks from J-List, we’ve got several new items to try, including “cheese kamaboko” (a cheese and steamed, pressed fish snack, which tastes better than it sounds), Anman Pan cookies, and a rare item for Star Wars fans
- Also, a big restock of snack items, including new miso soup, sukiyaki flavored furikake, and more
- Also, cool items for your kitchen, including an ice cube tray that will make perfectly round ice cubes, as well as fresh stock of our popular bento boxes (all colors).
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products, including:
- For magazine fans, we start off with the excellent Mini-Suka Deluxe, the popular leg, stocking and mini-skirt fetish magazine from Japan (stock is limited, but we’ll get more in later)
- For fans of amateur sex in love hotels, we’ve got several new items too, including the new issue of Love Con, short for Love Hotel Complex
- Makiko Esumi is a beautiful model and actress in Japan, and looks great in her new nude photobooks which are incredibly erotic
- Also, J-List carries the popular photobooks of Russian model Yulia Nova, whose works are not available in the U.S. and Europe — and we’ve restocked these for you
- We’ve got another excellent volley of brand-spanking new doujinshi from the Comic Market, great for collectors of Japan’s amateur adult comics, however not that these books will go fast!
- For collectors of hentai manga, we’ve got a huge update of new items for you, including Toen Comics’ “Teacher, Forgive Me” and “Family Play’s, Honey Life”
- Also, another large update of back-in-stock manga items, including Sex Crime, Under the School Uniform, and Three Sisters’ H Story
- J-List carries the dynamite G-Taste series of hentai art books, and we’ve restocked vol. 1
- If you love Japan’s adult DVD titles, we’ve got some very special ones, starting with the new Premium release by Janes, starring the white-hot Sayaka Tsutsumi, the erotic young indies idol who is on her way to being #1 (region free)
- See the best performances of Kurumi Morishita’s career with Soft on Demand in her third History DVD, with the best of six complete productions all on one disc (region free)
- Nao Oikawa is your sultry “teacher pet” in a new “female teacher” fetish from Soft on Demand (region free)
- Ringo Kihara is the new star of indies AV maker Dogma, headed by the famous Tohjiro, and she goes on a “summer sex training camp” to learn how to get better at sex (region free)
- From the very talented Moodyz, a new and very tender lesbian performance about sex between an older, experienced woman and a young, naive girl (region 2)
- Finally, a new “Japanese woman vs. big black men” production from Moodyz, the very erotic Akira Watase takes on a troop of big black guys from Los Angeles — very interesting to see! (region 2).
I’ve on my way out the door early today, on my way to Tokyo on business. I’m meeting a friend from Italy, and will be taking him to my personal favorite sightseeing spot in Tokyo, the Anna Miller’s restaurant in Meguro, famous for having the sexiest waitresses in all Japan. See you when I get back!
