Hello again from your friends in Japan!
Yasu and I went down to the Tokyo Toy Show at Tokyo Big Sight, and were treated to all the upcoming offerings of Takara, Bandai, Tomy and all the other big names in toys. There was some kind of device that translated what your dog was saying when he barked, more Japan-only Matchbox releases, a Gundam cockpit you can really ride in, many cool Licca-chan doll items, some fun remote control toys, new Kubrick toys, and more. They even had some real live Race Queens! Of course all of us at J-List work really hard to find fun and interesting things to carry at J-List, and we’ll continue our hard work.
I remember my confusion when, coming to Japan, I went to my first Japanese juku (cram school) to teach English conversation, not knowing what a juku really was. Basically, in Japan, students attend normal school until 3 or 4 pm, and then they often attend one of thousands of these evening and weekend schools scattered around Japan where they study various subjects, math, science, English and kokugo, which means “national language” (i.e., Japanese). Some very old-style jukus teach abacus, Japanese brush writing, and so on. In every neighborhood you can find several juku run by people living in that area, each catering to a slightly different age group or specializing in this subject or that. Study during compulsory education (elementary and junior high) is relatively stress-free for Japanese kids, and they go to juku as much for the social aspect (hanging out and studying with friends) as anything else. But when students prepare for high school and college, for which an entrance exam is required, they must buckle down and study, and there are jukus that do nothing but help students get into the high school or college of their choice.
If you try to get into a college but fail, you are a “ronin” (a masterless samurai), and most ronin go to “prep schools” (yobiko) which are large schools that do nothing but prepare students for getting into the college of their choice. It is actually possible, although it’s very rare, for a 15 year old to try to get into a private high school but fail, thus making them a “junior high school ronin” who doesn’t go to school while they prepare to take the tests again next year. This is very rare, about one person in 10,000, but one of my students did this. Actually, since high school is not required in Japan, a certain number of youths in rural prefectures decide not to go at all, and start working instead — to Japanese, this is the epitome of “baka” (stupid) and is avoided by most of them.
For the new update, we’ve got some great items for you, including:
- First, we have the new Urecco, and it’s a beautiful one, with a great selection of the best Japanese AV lovelies for you, Ai Kurosawa, Megumi Osawa, Hitomi Hayakawa, Hitomi Hasegawa, and more
- We have new indies, amateur and kogal magazines in stock, including the always-popular Cho Mach! featuring an erotic tribute to kogal culture
- Also: fresh stock of many nice discounted magazine items, including popular $5 and up issues of Urecco that had been out of stock (but really hiding in our stock room)
- We’ve got a positively dynamite leg, stock and up-skirt fetish photobook, capturing 15 famous AV stars and 17 amateur gals in their lovely, leggy beauty
- Look for some nice new photobooks, including the photobook of Rui Sakuragi, the top Japanese AV idol of the mid-1990’s
- Also in stock, the lovely EX CD-ROM, which features a full color magazine and CD-ROM (video CD) filled with sample movies
- For bishoujo game fans, enjoy a full Japanese erotic game, Yuukan Shinshi (Bourgeoise Gentleman), and a full art book, for a great price
- We have a great update of hentai manga for you, with some excellent new adult comics, including the new issue of Pururun Seminar (!) and the positively beautiful Tale of G Street by Hot Milk Comics
- For DVD lovers, we’ve got many new items for you, starting with the last of the SOD Memorial DVD releases, four new full-length titles at great prices, including the “Worst 10 Titles of SOD History” (region free)
- Soft on Demand founder Ganari Takahashi is personally directing the career of the lovely new star child of Soft on Demand, Ruri Anno, in her excellent 2nd erotic DVD release (region free)
- The lovely Sara Akikawa has lovely, long legs, and you will love her new leg fetish offering from Deep’s (region free)
- In sumo wrestling, there are 48 ways to defeat your opponent, and in Japanese traditional sex, there are 48 sexual positions — see them all in a great new DVD we’ve got in stock now (region free)
- For lesbian fans, enjoy the new Les Gal Paradise, featuring 16 girls who show you their first hardcore lesbian sex (region free)
- From M’s Video Group and Waap Entertainment, a wonderful new Minami Hoshikawa “Album of G Cup Semen” (region 2)
- Also, a great restocking of DVD titles for you, including Mai Hagiwara, Anna Ohura, Street Fucker, Lesbian Girls’ School, and many more
- For fans of Japan’s lovely Race Queens, swimsuit idols and other beautiful women, we’ve got new items in stock for you, including an all-new Fumika Suzuki DVD!
- J-List also carries Japan-only releases of anime, including the films of Hayao Miyazaki with full English subtitles and dubbed versions on the discs — and we’ve gotten in fresh stock of Porco Rosso, one of my favorite of his films
- Look for more Hello Kitty items, and new Hamutaro cute items as well — including a massive restocking of the most popular bento box in our history
- Want to be stylish like Japanese kogals? We’ve got a small bag with leather strap that is all the rage in Shibuya these days
- We’ve got nice new snack items in stock for you, including a Ramun geletin drink you can enjoy, delicious traditional Japanese hard candies, and a big restocking of our runaway hit, gummi sushi
- If you’re getting ready for the World Cup, or if you’re just patriotic, we’ve got some killer bamboo folding fans with national flags on them (USA, Spain, Britain, Germany, Korea, Japan, France, Italy
- We have some cute new Ultraman little Tinibiz figures in for you, and for fans of “The Dog,” some extremely cute straps for your portable phone or keys
- Japan has a highly developed and interesting Pro Wrestling world, and we’ve got some more fun pro-wres action figures in stock for you
- Also: for fans of the anime and manga Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (er, God-Wind Pirate Jeanne), the very cute shoujo story from Ribbon, we’ve got the deluxe art book for you
- Finally, look for authentic chopsticks from Japan, more unique Japanese pens and funny English notebooks, unique Japanese soy sauce holders, a cute traditional coin bank, more odd “flowers of the world clothespins” and more!
Remember that J-List carries authentic Japanese “loose socks,” those outrageous baggy socks that high school girls wear. They’re great fun to wear, and are good for anyone putting together anime cosplay. If you’re looking for
I see we’re almost out of our popular Lasonic region-free DVD players — we have only 4 in stock as of this writing. If our stock runs out, you can still order them, and we’ve got 150 of the units on order.
