Hello again from Japan, where it’s considered polite to turn off your headlights while waiting at a red light (so as not to blind the driver in front of you).
We see that the Hollywood remake of the popular Japanese horror film series The Ring is doing well in theatres in the U.S. Part of Peter’s Unified Theory of Japan is that Japanese are tickled pink whenever they receive international recognition — as they were last week when Nobel Prizes were handed out and two Japanese received awards. Having Hollywood recognize the quality of one of their films (especially one that isn’t anime) really makes them all fuzzy with pride. The Hollywood version looks very interesting, and we’ll be sure to see it when it’s re-imported to Japan.
When I got here 11 years ago this month, I noticed many things that the Japanese were very fond of, which seemed odd to me and my fresh-from-the-States sensibilities. The Japanese just love corn soup, and you can buy it in most restaurants — they even have canned corn soup, a great thing to hold in your hand when waiting on a freezing train platform in winter. Audrey Hepburn is the favorite actress of many Japanese, and her film Roman Holiday is one of the most well-known movies among Japanese women. Sydney Sheldon is one of the most popular Western authors, and his books are all translated into Japanese and appear in most every bookstore (usually alongside the translated works of Agatha Christie). The Japanese tend to love the Beatles, and there only John Lennon Museum in Japan is about 50 km from my house. Judging from the number of times they’re shown on Japanese TV, Commando and the Rambo movies are the most popular films from America.
Then there are some things from the U.S. that Japanese aren’t so fond of. Mexican style beans are one — Japanese nearly always hate these at first, until they get used to them, as beans in Japan are sweet. (Foreigners also tend to hate Japanese sweet beans.) Another product the Japanese usually can’t handle is root beer, which is detested universally by Japanese, who think it tastes like the pain relief patches called “Salonpas” (popular in Japan). We brought some root beer back for Tomo from the U.S., and sure enough, he couldn’t stand it. My son Kazuki loves it through, and was very happy. “I can drink root beer, I must be an American!” he said. (Most Japanese can handle Dr. Pepper okay.) Japanese also tend to not eat bread crusts, and in fact you can buy bread in the supermarket with the crusts already cut off — which might explain why Japanese women are seemingly all constipated.
The updated J-List site seems to be working well so far, and customers are not reporting many problems — we’re happy with the speed of the version of the site. Some customers have told us they have trouble viewing adult products. J-List uses an “adult cookie” system to keep adult products from being displayed unless you click the “Yes” graphic at the J-List index page (http://www.jlist.com/) If you have bookmarked the J-List front page but the cookie information was not saved for some reason, you might be “PG” mode. Try going back to the J-List front page and re-entering the site to get the cookie.
For the new update, we have some excellent items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got some nice toy items in stock for you, including the super cute Thunderbirds Choro Q toy series that’s just great!
- We’ve got some very nice Japanese idol photobook, DVD trading card and calendar items in stock at all times, and now, a great new photobook of the lovely Meibi Yamanouchi that you will love
- We always have interesting Hello Kitty items you can’t find outside of Japan, and we’ve got some new items, including a cool 3D Hello Kitty coloring book, more fun Hello Kitty mayonaise cups and other kitchen items, and fresh stock of one of our favorite products, the famous Hello Kitty “shoulder massager”
- Also, a super-long “necklace strap” that makes it easy to keep your phone and keys in the same place, and never lose either
- J-List loves the Studio Ghibli Totoro music boxes we are able to carry — now we’ve got several more, beautiful new music boxes from Totoro, and also from Castle in the Sky Laputa (!)
- For bento fans, we’ve got some nice new items, a bento box w/ water bottle and a sturdy dual-level bento box that’s great
- For plush Totoro fans, we’ve added stock of several items, including the super-large Totoro plush tissue holder (his body hides a box of tissue, so cute), as well as other cool Totoro items
- We have another beautiful cold cast anime statue from Love Hina which we also highly recommend
- For fans of the excellent English-Japanese bilingual comics, we’re closing out all our current stock, so we’ve lowered our prices — check out the great items (just search for “bilingual” and they should come up)
- Finally, we’ve added some nice new “wacky things from Japan” for you to check out, including a new Japanese-style canvas bag with a classic image on it, a nifty Japanese portable ash tray, more funky Cup Noodle coffee cups that make great gifts, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products in, including:
- For fans of our excellent Japanese adult magazines, we’ve got the new Bejean, just dripping with fabulous Japanese AV idols like Ai Kurosawa, Ryoko Mitake and many more
- For fans of amateur love hotel sex themes, we’ve got the very nice Cho Natural Girl, featuring lovely girls age 18-22 who have almost no morals at all
- Enjoy the new DVD Hurricane, which features an all-color magazine with a free DVD with 150 minutes of indies and amateur AV on it (region free)
- We love the kind of sassy, bold photography that made the Chinkame photobooks so popular — now we’ve got CR Plus, a full size photobook with some incredibly cool nude and sexy photographs of beautiful women
- When it comes to leg, stocking and panty fetish photography, Japan is #1, and we’ve got several great new photobooks for fans of these themes
- By customer request, J-List now carries Japanese condoms, which are said to be much thinner and feel better than condoms sold in the U.S. (they’re also smaller). Enjoy the new parody condoms we stock on the Adult Toys page
- We love hentai manga, and we’ve got more in stock for you, a half-dozen volumes of great new adult comics, as well as fresh stock of some popular titles that had been sold out (including Yui Toshiki works!)
- For DVD lovers, we’ve got another great selection of all-new titles for you, starting with a superb No Cut!! 3-hour DVD featuring the final Ichigo Milk hardcore for Kuki (region free)
- For fans of Minori Aoi, enjoy a fabulous and very erotic “cosplay mania” production, with Minori-chan dressing up satisfyingly in many fabulous costumes as she performs for you (region free)
- From the excellent Soft on Demand, we’ve got a great new Idol Semen offering from Nanami Nanase in a wonderful performance of bukkake and excellent hardcore (region free)
- You’ve seen Survivor — now see SOD’s All Nude Survivor, in which three Japanese kogals are recruited from Tokyo and asked to live on an uninhabited island for four days, in the nude of course (region free)
- For lesbian fans, enjoy a superb DVD from Hot Entertainment featuring 21 actresses and 240 minutes of great lesbian sex (region free)
- For fans of ass and anal themes, Waap Entertainment brings you Backs, a great new DVD offering — “Fuck in the rear of hip”
- We have fresh stock of several nice DVD items, including the Go Go Magic Mirror Box Car (the full set), How do you do Mr. Semen, Anna Ohura’s excellent soft porn releases, and the erotic Semen Bus
- Finally, look for reduced prices on lots of overstocked DVD items!
J-List sells many unique items from Japan. We also sell adult toys including vibrators and other erotic aids, for those interested in trying out some of the items that are used in Japanese adult films. One item we sell are the “Pink Rotors” which are a staple of the AV industry here in Japan, and are very popular with Japanese . Consisting of a very small vibrating egg with a separate battery and control unit, they’re uniquely Japanese and fun to use.
The J-Mate website has been updated with a great review with Nao Oikawa, one of our favorite AV performers from Japan. While you’re there you can check out all the reviews for DVDs, bishoujo games and more. The URL is http://www.jmate.com
