Greetings from Japan, where it’s not polite to stick your chopsticks straight up in your rice.
It sure is hot in Japan this summer! In fact, it’s a full 2 degrees centigrade hotter this year than in past years, something which has pushed sales of air conditioners up more than 50%. The heat has caused many would-be guests at Tokyo Disneyland to opt for the “after 6” late-night ticket and skip the hot afternoon. When it gets hot, the Japanese tend to eat spicy food to give them stamina, which has pushed sales of kimchee up as well.
Every afternoon at around 4:30, the kids walk over to J-List, and we all stop what we’re doing and ask them about their day. Rina, it seems, has finally gotten over her fear of the “scary Furby” (really a plush doll of Mohawk, from Gremlins 2 which we had sitting in the hall) and can use the J-List bathroom all by herself. In sadder news, the official J-List Cat, who Kaori nicknamed Nyan-ko Sensei (Dr. Meow), has unfortunately given birth to stillborn kittens. The father, a sandy white cat who comes to visit every once in a while
Our Wacky Japanese T-shirts are selling well, and it’s always fun to see which will be the most popular. We weren’t surprised to see the “Japanese flag” version of “Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend” take the #1 spot right away, but “Hen na gaijin” (I’m a strange foreigner) pulled quickly into the #2 position, especially with American customers, who seem to like the red, white and blue motif. The enigmatic “Philosophy of Hentai” remains firmly in place at #3.
For tonight’s update, we’ve all been working hard to bring you some cool new items. They include:
- New magazines, including not one, but two different issues of MPEG King, a magazine + two video CD combo item that give you 140+ minutes of AV enjoyment for a low price
- We have several nice photobook items, including a really excellent First Photobook by the lovely Morishita Kurumi, and more copies of Vivian Hsu’s soon-to-go-out-of-print “Venus”
- For Japan AV video fans, we’ve got some truly excellent new videos in stock, including hot, new idols like the busty nurse Fukada Miho and the sizzling Yumeno Maria (on the New Offerings page) as well as fresh stock of dynamite videos by Miura Aika and Kanazawa Bunko (on the “Classics” videos page)
- we’ve got another dozen of “special order” video offerings on the Video Catalog (New Releases) page. There are great new Reserve you copies now!
- If you love DVDs, we’ve got some killer ones for you: Sexy Lingerie Fuck Collection and Nurse Fuck Collection, each featuring *dozens* of lovely AV idols from present and past for your enjoyment — find these
- There’s a new series of the popular Crystal Video nude AV idol cards, on the photobook and magazine pages — -very nice
- There’s a cache of new artbooks and photobooks on the Anime Artbooks page, including the new Final Fantasy IX book, the Gundam Manual 3, and a super magazine for 1/700 scale model fans
- We have fresh stock of some items that have proven surprisingly popular, including various reflective stickers with funny slogans, the “Do not urinate here” wooden signs, and one of the most popular items, Hello Kitty chopsticks
- For your kids, or the kid in you, in-stock issues of Yochien, a great magazine for kids which features tons of pictures of current anime and special effect shows, as well as giving you tons of stickers and put-together toys in each issue — recommend for Rika-chan and Pokemon fans
- For lovers of fine Japanese snacks, we have fresh stock of Pocky, Coconut Pocky, Tomato Pretz, our popular sake candy (with real sake inside!) and more
- Finally, a great item I’ve wanted to see in the US for many years, little plug extenders that keep those big, fat AC adapters you sometimes get from taking up too much space on your power bar. Find them on the Trendy Goods page.
