Greetings from all your friends at J-List!
They have some interesting customs in Japan related to children. Thirty days after a child is born, you take him to your local Shinto shrine and have the priest announce his name to the gods, in a ceremony that’s sort of like a christening. When a child loses a tooth, you throw it on the roof of your house (if it was a lower tooth) or under your house (if it was an upper tooth), to encourage the growth of new, healthy teeth. And in my family, when our children turned one years old, we tied one kilogram (2 pounds) of mochi (Japanese rice cake) to the kids to make it difficult for them to walk. We then put money, an abacus, and food at opposite corners of the room, to see which item the kids went to pick up. This determines the child’s future (whether he’ll become rich, or good at math, and so on.) Both our kids went for the money.
May 5 is another special day for kids, Children’s Day, really a festival for boy children. During this time families fly huge kites made to look like fish swimming upsteam when the wind blows, called Koi-Nobori or Upsteam Swimming Carp. If you drive around Japan in late April and early May, you can’t miss the giant fish-kites flying in the breeze. Some part of Japan are famous for having the grandest, longest koi-nobori, and really take pride in their work. You can see pictures of some of these here: http://www.mikimaru.net/etshioda/sophia/j-trivia/trivia08.html
There are always subtle differences between countries. One of the first things I noticed upon coming to Japan was that the milk tasted vaguely funny, different than it did in the States. It didn’t take long to get used to, but the funny taste it still noticeable after all these years. Japanese are big fans of thick, creamy milk, with 3.6 or 4.2 milkfat in it, since they are such a thin race of people. While lowfat (1%) is generally available, it’s next to impossible to find skim milk here.
We’re very happy to see the warm reaction to our region free DVD players, and many customers have picked up the $119 players, which allow you to view DVDs from all over the world via a simple remote control setting (no firmware to upload). Many of the DVDs that J-List sells, including all Japanese anime, Japanese film and most “Indies” adult DVDs, are region 2, and having a player like this is really convenient.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent new items for you, including:
- First, some great new magazines, including the new issues of the great adult video magazines Best Video and Video Boy, filled with lovely models for you
- Also, we’ve got new amateur and kogal magazines from Japan, including the new Lip Mate
- We’ve got great new photobooks in stock for you, including the erotic hardcover photobook of the lovely Rio Sannomiya, limited stock of Manatsu Hirose’s popular first photobook, and many more
- We’ve got some great new hentai manga in stock for you including the very nice “Legend of Lewd Love” by Angel Comics, as well as fresh stock of more popular past items
- For fans of Tohru Nishimaki, good news — even lower prices on the extra-large Japanese “hugging character pillows” (daki-makura)
- Our region-free DVD players are selling very well, which makes us happy, since it means that more people in the world will be able to watch ALL the DVDs from Japan, be they region free or region 2. They’re just $119 and in stock in San Diego
- For DVD collectors, we’ve got another large update for you, starting with the Soft on Demand Memorial series, four more great bargain-prices releases — but they will go fast (region free)
- The ultimate Japanese adult DVD for soccer fans, we’ve got stock of the FERA World Fuck Championship, a great “all nude soccer” hardcore title from (region free)
- We’ve got “Bisexual,” a superb “lesbian and bisexual” DVD presenting the excellent sex of Japanese girls (region free)
- For region 2 DVD buyers, a special “fetish lesbian” DVD presenting the “sweet, beautiful, immoral and hardcore lesbian world” (region 2)
- The Dream Shower series from Waap presents the excellent bukkake performance of Miyuki Hourai (region 2)
- A great release for lovers of Nao Oikawa (which was posted on Friday but didn’t show on the J-List site), her AV Special Training production from Wanz Factory (highly recommended)
- Finally, a great restock of our DVD titles, including Mizuho Kano titles, new stock of Lesbian Lovers and the popular No Cut DVDs, Aika Miura Special, and the “How to Perfect” series from Wanz
- We’ve got some great new Hello Kitty items in stock for you, including cute 3D stickers, cute Japanese stamps and a special item for soccer fans
- For Sailor Moon lovers, we have the limited edition Sailor Moon bottle cap series in stock
- Also: a whopping 800 units of that great gag item, the Hello Kitty Vibrating Should Massage
- Newly added snack items include new Japanese green tea candy, delicious mango citrus cookies, new varieties of Japanese “furikake” (which you sprinkle over rice for an instant meal), Hamutaro ice cocoa mix, and more
- Also: fresh stock of some of our most popular items, such as HimoQ, Tropicana soft candy, Japanese traditional “black candy” and sake candy, and the very last Pocky we’ll be getting in before fall (since Pocky melts in Japan’s hot summer)
- J-List carries dozens of cute items in “The Dog” series, and now we’ve got a whole new generation of the lovable little plush dogs, this time in super small size
- We have two new deluxe plush stuffed toys of My Neighbor Totoro, excellent products made by Sun Arrow
- We have some nice bento and kitchen-related items, including a Ojamajo Doremi rice bowl set for your kids, more cool bento boxes and bento related items
- Another item posted last time but not mentioned, the very cool Bit Char-G tiny remote control car toys, from Takara
- We have new Japanese notebooks in stock, including items to help you study Japanese (hiragana and katakana notebooks)
- Finally, look for the ultimate travel pack, a very happy bag to put anything in, a great traditional Japanese wind chime, and more!
The J-Mate site has been updated yet again (I keep finding time to add reviews when I should be doing other things). Read reviews of Mai Hagiwara’s Platonic Love, Yinling’s Joytoy DVD, and more! Also, remember that we are always happy to receive reviews on Japanese manga, photobooks, DVDs and other items. If you’ve got a product you’d like to review, please email us! The J-Mate site’s URL is http://www.jmate.com/
As a Star Wars fan, I’ve been enjoying the fan-made Star Wars short films such as Broken Allegiance, made with surprisingly good special effects and production quality by fans. See http://www.theforce.net/theater/ to download these very cool movies.
