Well, it’s calendar season again, and that means a great chance to get some unique Christmas gifts for someone you care about (maybe even yourself). This year’s Japanese calendars are excellent, with a lot of really nice choices, be they beautiful Japanese women, great anime calendars, Japanese musicians and “talents, rare looks at Japanese culture, and more. Part of the fun in entering the calendars into the computer is seeing who’s slipped from No. 1 down the list (or off it completely) — it’s an interesting mirror into current Japanese pop culture. I’ll be getting five or six of them myself, for my own collection. Please take a moment to scroll through the calendars and see if any of the excellent large-size calendars appeal to you. (In addition to the Calendars page link on the J-List main pages, you can find anime calendars on the anime page, JPOP calendars on the JPOP page, and adult calendars on page 3 of the magazines pages.)
For the benefit of anyone who wasn’t here last year, Japanese calendars are very unique and special. They are very large, generally, being more like posters than normal calendars that are available in the US. The sizes are either A2 or B2, unless noted in the descriptions — this is about 2 feet by 3 feet, shipped rolled. Unless noted, there are 7 sheets to each calendar (the cover, plus six calendar pages, two months to a page). The paper is very nice, with a very glossy finish, and bound with a metal rib (not the spirally thingies) that lets you easily fasten it to the wall with a pushpin without putting a hold in your calendar.
Prices for the calendars are as marked. Shipping will be $5 for SAL shipping, plus $3 for a handmade cardboard tube (there being no way to get real mailing tubes in Japan, we have to make our own). We experimented with mailing boxes last year, but enough of the boxes got crushed that we decided to not bother this time. If you order three or more calendars, the tubes will be free.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that the window for ordering these calendars is quite small. We’ll start accepting orders immediately, and we expect the first calendars to show up from the distributor around mid-October. We’ll have to stop taking orders around the first week of November, though — any taken after that will be hard for our distributor to fill. As always, when ordering just in time” items like this, it’s best if you can use a credit card, so that we can hold the order until the item comes in. For some calendars that are very popular
In addition to the calendars, there is an update on the dojinshi page — some books that had been in stock before are back on the list, with more copies added. Enjoy all the new items!
