Hello again from Japan!
In Japan, the oldest son in a family has certain responsibilities to their household and parents, and as a general rule, will stay at home even after finishing school, taking over the family business (if there is one) and taking care of his parents as they get older. When a son in this situation gets married, the woman he marries has to agree to live in his house with his parents, which is called “yome o morau” (to receive a bride) — she then is listed on her husband’s family register and is completely a part of hew new family, and when she dies she is buried in her husband’s family’s grave.
If there is a son and a daughter, the responsibility to take over the household usually falls on the son, even if the daughter is older than the son. If there is no son, or if the son is unable to take over the household, the daughter must take care of her parents, and must find a husband willing to come and live in her family’s house — called a “muko” or “son who comes from another house to live.” In cases where a man comes and lives in his wife’s family’s house, he generally takes his wife’s last name. Because my wife is an only child, she was in a similar situation — she really wanted to live in America, but had to return to Japan because of her parents. I married her and live in her home, however I didn’t legally take her last name but kept my own. This makes me a “Masuo” (named after the husband of Sazae in the long-running anime Sazae-san).
A J-List customer from Germany has sent us the correct versions of some of the non-English words the Japanese use in their daily lives, and the original words they come from. Here’s a list:
randoseru arubaito anke-to karute karuta pan
J-List has close relationships with several doujinshi artists, including Blue Eyes creator Tohru Nishimaki. J-List makes available the very nice “Daki-Makura” or large-size hugging pillows (the largest is as big as Kaori-chan), items which are unavailable to fans outside Japan. We’ve posted several new versions of the giant pillows for you to browse, and lowered the prices, too. Also, you can now have these giant character pillows shipped by either seamail or EMS. Finally, full-size poster versions of Mr. Nishimaki’s lovely characters are now available, too.
For the pre-weekend update, we’ve got a great lineup of cool items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got some excellent new magazines for you, including both new Japanese Penthouse issues, loaded with beautiful models from Japan (and Taiwan, and Russia)
- Everyone likes our discount magazine pages, so we’ve got some newly reduced magazines, starting at just $5, as well as some nice older issues of Japanese magazines (on magazine page 2)
- We’ve also got some fantastic soft- and hardcover magazines for you, including Yuko Oguro’s wonderful new photobook and the lusty nude photobook of Megumi Osawa
- Yasu has worked hard to restock many of the photobook items that have proved very popular, including Fumika Suzuki’s excellent “JAM”
- Mini-Suka Deluxe (“Mini-skirt deluxe”) has long proved one of the most popular items in J-List history, and we’ve got a new issue of the wonderful leg fetish photobook for you
- For manga fans, check out the excellent new items we’ve posted for you, including the dynamite “Fruit Body” by Tomu Tamio
- Also, an excellent restock of our hentai manga pages, with fresh stock of many excellent volumes we’d sold out of (region free)
- J-List carries many interesting Japanese adult toys, including the “Pink Rotor” (tiny pink egg-shaped vibrators you may have seen in Japanese AV). We’ve got several new variations of this popular item on the page for you now
- For DVD fans, we’ve got another volley of the popular discount-priced SOD Memorial Series, with four erotic productions by director Tohjiro (region free)
- Also from Soft on Demand, a fun DVD production in which three girls tease and punish men and make them feel small (region free)
- In “Eighteen Paradise,” Yellow Box explores the sexuality of ten girls who are eighteen years old, standing at the threshold of youth and sexual experience — and it’s a *4 hour* DVD (region free)
- The Shake It! series continues, with more excellent tekoki (handjob fetish) from Japan (region free)
- Audaz has a great new Super Violent Shoot offering out, featuring interesting themes of group sex in Japanese erotica (region 2)
- For fans of M’s Video Group and their fine brand of erotica, enjoy The Countdown Sperm featuring a real Japanese newscaster and incredibly detailed video editing
- For fans of the lovely Yinling of Joytoy, the incredible photobook featuring Taiwanese Race Queen Yinling, we’ve got a special treat: the complete DVD edition of this extremely erotic and highly aesthetically penetrating world (region 2)
- Also, another treat for fans of Yinling, a super idol DVD in the Myriam (“Miho, Yinling, Ran”) series, capturing the charm of this wonderful lady
- We have many nice new anime toy items, including a super Anpan Man (Bean Paste Bread Man) toy set, Hello Kitty stuffed characters in Japanese style and a really nice Lupin strap
- Also: fresh stock of dozens of cool toy items, including the Japan-only Hot Wheels (including the Lupin vehicle set), new Tomica mini-cars, a great way to play with Totoro in the bath, and a big restocking of the Love Hina “SkyLuv Project” figures
- For fans of the new Hayao Miyazaki film Spirited Away, we’ve got some cool “complete figures” in stock
- Something that I personally love and recommend to everyone, we’ve got a giant (and I mean GIANT!) Cat Bus from My Neighbor Totoro in stock, measuring a full 32 inches long!
- For fans of Japan’s lovely swimsuit idols, check out Idol DVD & More page for newly posted items
- We’ve got fresh stock of several of the Cardcaptor Sakura Bilingual Comics published by Kodansha — Japanese manga with both Japanese and English printed on the page!
- Fans of our Japanese snack and food pages, see several new items, including Tropicana Orange soft candy, buttered corn flavored caramels, the ever-cool “Choco Samurai” candies, and another favorite of mine, Himo Q, a 1.2 meter long string of gummi that is delicious
- For fans of authentic Japanese “loose socks,” the cute baggy socks that Japanese high school girls wear, we’ve got fresh stock of both the 80 cm and 120 cm versions
- Finally, look for new Japanese hot springs powder for your bath, more fun Hello Kitty items from Japan, Ultraman monster figures, vocabulary study cards to help you learn Japanese, and more!
J-List pioneered the field of “Wacky Japanese T-shirts” four years ago, and our signature T-shirts are still a J-List original. We’re sure you’ve noticed that we’re running low on stock of most of our shirts. We’ll be getting new stock of our shirts soon, and we thank you for your patience.
