Hello again from your friends in Japan, at J-List!
The sad and shocking events of this week continue to unfold, and of course we are watching them on Japanese television and on the web. There is some good news to report, however: of the estimated 500 Japanese who were reportedly inside the WTC buildings during the attack, all but 24 have been confirmed safe. The missing Japanese included twelve employees of Fuji Bank, three from Chuo Mitsui Bank, and two from Nomura Securities. One Japanese was also on United Flight 11, a 2nd year student at Waseda University who was vacationing in the U.S. Despite the tragedy, we’re glad that so many were able to escape to safety.
Many J-List customers were affected by the events of September 11, being either physically close to the World Trade Center or affected in other ways. One customer’s cousin, Paul “Pauly” Stamper, was the fire captain of the 113rd Batallion in New York, and was one of the first rescuers to arrive at the scene of the attack. Paul stuttered when he spoke, and he was described as a somewhat unlucky man, who had two cars stolen in the space of a week; but he had a heart of gold. He is missing and presumed dead at this time, lost when the first building crumbled. We pray that a mircle can somehow happen and Paul and others can be found safe.
The Japanese government swiftly reacted to the attacks, and Prime Minister Koizumi gave full support to the U.S. stance against terrorism after a 10 minute phone conversation with Presiden Bush. It was a good speech, although it lacked the emotion of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s, with sympathy for “our friends, the Americans.” Unfortuately, while Japan wants to help in any way possible, they are forbidden against using any military force outside of their borders by the Japanese constitution, but they will help in other ways. The Japanese stock market fell 400+ points the day after the attacks, going under the 10,000 mark for the first time in 17 years — $1 invested in 1984 would now be worth exactly $1, ouch — but has been stable since then.
With air flight disrupted, shipping delays are unfortunately unavoidable. We’re making sure all packages are prepared for quick shipment as soon as mail to the U.S. resumes. In some cases, mail already sent will be returned to our offices in Japan, and we’ll resend it as soon as we are able, at no extra charge. Mail to Asia and Europe is not disupted, and we’re making sure to get all packages out to those regions on a daily basis, too.
If you’ve tried to get any work done this week, I’m sure you know how hard it’s been. In the aftermath of all this, it’s very difficult to care about business at all. However, we find our minds screaming to get back to some kind of “normalcy.” So, we’re updating the J-List site with new products as we try to move forward as best we can — we sincerely ask your forgiveness if this seems improper. We’re trying to post items we have a lot of stock of this weekend, so that the items will still be waiting for you if you want to take some more time. Thanks for your understanding.
So, for this first update, we’ve got some nice new items added to J-List, including:
- First, we’ve got two very nice new issues of Penthouse for you, both Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, with very nice models inside, including the lovely Megumi Yasu, one of our new all-time favorites
- Other new Japanese magazines include the very nice Mini-Teen, and the ever-popular Gal’s Shower, which always manages to sell out quickly
- For fans of Japanese idols like Yuuka and Wakana Sakai and Maki Gotoh, we’ve got Hakkutsu Original, which features embarrassing and early shots of these girls from before they were famous
- Some nice new photobooks for you, with new items posted as well as fresh stock of some of our popular items — including Mami Gotoh’s “Morning Baby” and Aoi Minori’s popular “Juice” photobook and more
- We’ve got another popular magazine + disc combo item, this time a magazine with a super DVD, filled with 138 minutes of Japanese AV footage for you — a very nice sampler, and a great bargain, too
- For our manga fans, we have several all-new volumes, including new books by Tsukasa Comics, AV Comics and more
- In addition to the newly posted manga, we had a major order of hentai manga arrive, including long back-ordered books as well as recent additions, so we’ve posted our new stock for you
- We got tired of the G-Taste series, the excellent line of erotic art books by Hiroki Yagami, selling out all the time, so we made a massive order — we now have *all* the G-Taste books in stock for you
- For yaoi lovers, see the new volumes of b-Boy Zips , new featuring very innovative “yomi-kiri” (single story) dramatic m/m stories
- We have an excellent doujinshi for fans of Yumiko Takahashi’s classic anime, with super hentai parody of Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2
- We have a new adult video from Soft on Demand’s “Natural High” label, part 2 of the best-selling Bukkake Circle in the Blue Sky
- For SOD DVD fans, check out “Global Girl Fighter of Sea, Wind & Earth” (three fighting girls who fight evil — you can toggle them from costume, underwear or nude using the multi-angle feature on your DVD remote)
- Also for DVD lovers, see the very nice Night Blue Gal’s 2001, featuring 120 minutes of very nice performances by four Japanese AV idols, including the lovely Koharu Tohno
- We’ve made a major restock of our popular Japanese gum, including Black Black (the caffeinated spicy gum recommended for truck drivers and college students), La France gum (delicious pear-flavored gum), and Ume gum (Japanese plum)
- Also, fresh stock of several popular Japanese snack items, including traditional Pocky, our ever-popular sake candy, and Japanese kuro-ame (a classic Japanese hard candy)
- Were have some nice “traditional” items on the Wacky Things (traditional) page, including a beautiful new Japanese “congratulation” envelope, and a Japanese “kabe-kake,” a wall hanging based on how they used to cover open windows back in the Edo period
- We have a new “wacky” wooden sign for your bathroom, and fresh stock of the eternally popular “it is forbidden to urinate here” wacky sign
- Finally, our “wacky things from Japan” page includes some new items, including an all-new non-stick rice scoop, a cool storage item modeled after a steel paint bucket, which would look great on your desk, fresh stock of Hello Kitty toilet paper and chopsticks, and by request, more of the very cool Japanese “tube squeezer” that allows you to squeeze all the toothpaste, make-up, etc. out of tubes. Very wacky!
Just in case you’ve gotten the “Nostradamus” mails that have been bouncing around the net, please note that they are bogus. For more information, please see this page: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/predict.htm
