Hello again from all of us at J-List!
The big event has finally come — my son has started his first day at Japanese elementary school. School in Japan is a very complex thing, really a very structured machine designed to create happy, productive Japanese citizens who get along with each other, something important in a country in which half the population of the U.S. is crammed into an area smaller than California. Also, Japan’s education system aims to eliminate differences between the kids so they can all be on the same level, another important aspect to life in this country where 80% of people describe themselves as being middle class. The wearing of school uniforms, which is done in Junior High and High School, also aims to remove distincations between rich and poor in public schools.
To build “chowa” (harmony) into the kids, the Japanese educational system makes sure that everyone does things the same way — the kids wear the same yellow hats, carry standard backpacks (red or black, and although other colors are available, the only colors I saw were red and black). The focus on conformity can freak out Westerners, who can’t understand why people would strive to be so similar to each other. I had a British friend who left Japan to return to England, mainly because he was not comfortable having his kids become the same as all the other kids (like baby ducks following their mother, he said). In the end, all these rules and having exactly one way to do things aims to make a strong feeling of being part of a group, something that’s very important to the Japanese. Since we take frequent trips to the U.S. with the kids, we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to get in lots of individuality-building while we’re home, to counter the Japanese school system.
The school Kazuki is going to is Misato Elementary School, and this is the school that Kazuki’s mother went to 30 years ago…and also the school that his grandmother went to! That is so far outside the experience of my American mind I can’t describe it. I’ve moved many times during my youth, living in on the East Coast, in New Zealand for a year, finally ending up in San Diego, and the idea of going to the same school as my mother, much less my grandmother boggles the mind.
Anyway, if you’d like to see pictures of my son in his new school, the URL is http://www.peterpayne.net/ (click on “Pictures from Japan” and choose the “first day of School” link).
It’s the middle of the week — only a few more days to go to get to the weekend again. We’ve got a bunch of great new items for J-List, including:
- First, we’ve got some nice new amateur and kogal magazines in for you, including a new magazine, Yes!! with great love hotel shots
- The older and premium issues of Japanese magazines we posted last time sold out so fast, we’ve posted some more
- Look for some great new photobooks, including new hardcover and softcover photobooks capturing some extremely beautiful Japanese women, both nude and swimsuit
- We’ve got new manga for you, of course, with new works posted by Wataru Watanabe, Rinu Monota and more, as well as a great restocked items, including some of our most popular recent manga works
- For yaoi fans, we’ve got both new and restocked manga for you, so check them out, too
- For fans of Japan’s excellent bishoujo games, we’ve got some nice art books, including the art book for the dynamite game by Elf, Ashta no Yukinojo
- We have some very rare doujin-soft CD-ROMs with great images on them, along with some interesting experiments in “digital manga” that you can play on your computer (we’re selling them cheap)
- For our DVD fans, we’ve got another volley of low-price DVDs, with nice erotic releases by Soft on Demand, all full-length and just $10 each! (region free)
- Also by Soft on Demand, the elegant and very erotic Sally Yoshino performs as the ultimate female teacher in “My Only Pet is Female Teacher” (region free)
- The very lovely Mirai Hoshizaki (one of my faves) stars in the dynamite Super Angle of Manko, in which 90% of the footage is shot from between her legs (region 2)
- The fresh and lovely Kirari Koizumi appears in a great 3-for-1 presentation, featuring 180 minutes (3 hours) of excellent adult video (region 2)
- For bukakke lovers, be sure and check out the new M’s Video Group release, directed by Yama Dachin
- For fans of Japan’s incredibly lovely Race Queens, we’ve got a very special 180 minute DVD featuring all the very best of Japan’s sexy RQ’s, including Yinling (a J-List favorite)
- For those who want to learn more about Japanese film, Tomo has posted some more Japanese films on DVD that feature English subtitles, so you can enjoy the movie and understand the stories — also, see the new links to online reviews we’ve posted for these items
- New and back-in-stock snack items including delicious nori flavored crackers, Vitimin C In Candy, Tomato Pretz, caffinated coffee candy, and new Pork and Small Fish Japanese fried rice mixes
- For gum fans, a big restocking of Black Black by Lotte, as well as several other popular flavors of Japanese gum
- For fans of Japan’s swimsuit and JPOP idols, be sure and see our Idol Photobooks, DVDs and more pages for some great new items, including the brand-new Morning Musume photobooks!
- For collectors of beautiful Totoro items, see not one but two new music boxes in stock, as well as Totoro magnets and cute little mascots from the new Miyazaki movie Spirited Away
- We’ve got a lots of cool Hello Kitty items, including Hello Kitty oil removing sheets, Hello Kitty chewing candy (it looks like a stick of gum, but it’s really a long piece of sweet taffy-like candy
- We kept running out of socks glue, the funny glue that you use to hold up your loose socks, so we’ve gotten a few dozen in
- We love the fun “sushi lights” (realistic-looking pieces of sushi with lights inside), so we’ve restocked all of these
- Finally, see a funky rice scoop that won’t stick to rice, a traditional Japanese “one flower” flowerpot, Japanese bento separators, the ultimate tofu storage box you’ll ever need, and fun new bento related items!
J-List carries lots of interesting items from Japan, including the very nice resin anime statues only available in Japan, such as the very nice (and very large) Belldandy cold cast figures. Check these very nice items out on the Anime Figures page.
That’s all for now — thanks for being a part of J-List, and we’ll see you on the web!
