Hello again, from that wacky place where they make cotton candy into gum, Japan.
Our big news around here is — we were robbed! In the early hours of the morning on Monday night, a robber entered our house (the liquor store) through our unlocked front door, looking for cash to steal. In the end, he only got the cash register itself (which had no money in it), some coupons for free beer, and some sausages. You can see a picture I snapped of one of the policemen at http://www.myjapan.net/personalstuff/policeman2.jpg (they dusted all the doors for prints). The thief was nice enough to discard our cash register outside when he realized it was empty (they got some prints from it).
We’ve had two other instances of theft at the liquor store over the past three years — the other two times by a thief who knew that my father in law had a habit of keeping most of the cash in a yellow bag under the register. Both times my parents lost about $3000, but fortunately, this time the thief got almost nothing. Still, it’s very upsetting.
Thanks for all the comments on Chuyan and Hitomi, who are hitchhiking across the world in 80 days. You can see their progress at http://www.ntv.co.jp/denpa/sekai/index.html (in Japanese only, unfortunately). It would be really cool if a J-List reader could assist them in their quest (and get on Japanese TV, to boot). If you can give them a ride, a place to stay, or know some way they can get across the Atlantic for free (since they have no money with them; that’s part of the challenge), email them at [email protected] (160 chrs max).
The first delivery of calendar has arrived, so people who ordered their Y2K calendars early will be hearing from us in 1-2 days as we get them processed and out the door. We really do have to close down orders on the calendars, so if you haven’t chosen your Y2K calendars, please do so within the next two days. (We’ll keep the calendar pages up through the 10th of November or so, but as November rolls along, the chances that we’ll be able to get the calendars you want drops sharply.)
We’ve got some really nice new stuff for the J-List site. First, we’ve made a new page, Cards & Puzzles, where we’ll showcase collectible cards from Japan, and our unique puzzles featuring classical views of Japan, beautiful artwork, and anime themes. To commemorate the new page, we’ve posted two beautiful sets of collectible nude AV cards — the Bejean Generation series, and the new Crystal Card series (1999 vol. 2). Both sets are really wonderful, with great thick stock and excellent quality printing — but demand for these cards has been high in the past
We’ve got lots of other items for you, though. For fans of Japanese magazines and photobooks, there are several nice new items posted to those pages — . There are 30+ new JPOP CDs and albums posted to the JPOP page — and yes, our Y2K “buy four, get one free” sale does apply to the new items. So check them out.
Finally — we’re using a new listserver to send these updates out. If anything goes wrong (you get two copies of this, etc.) please let me know right away.
