Hello again from Japan, the country where no one eats Cream of Wheat (because it looks to them like Okayu, a watery rice dish eaten by sick people).
No matter how long I live in Japan, there are some things I just can’t go without. Although the Japanese have a long tradition of pickling vegetables (including making kim-chee, Korean spicy pickles), they’re not just a replacement for good, crunchy Vlassic pickles that I am used to from home. Fortunately, through the Foreign Buyer’s Club (http://www.fbcusa.com) expats in Japan can get anything from home quite easily, with the only catch being you must buy it in supermarket cases (e.g., 8 jars of pickles, not just one, 12 boxes of Raisen Bran, not one). When Japanese go to the U.S., they often pine for their own Japanese pickles, called tsukemono, which aren’t easily available. I guess there’s something about pickles that makes the ones from home taste the best.
It sometimes seems to outsiders living here that Japan is a very death-oriented society. Don’t give gifts in multiples of four because the number four is read “shi” in Japanese, which also means death. Don’t put you chopsticks straight up in your rice, since that’s only done as part of a ceremony for the dead. Likewise, don’t sleep with your head facing north, as bodies about to be cremated are laid facing this direction. Yet for all the customs that have to do with death, nearly all of which spring from Japan’s various versions of Buddhism, the Japanese have almost no concept of estate planning. As far as I can tell, virtually all the things we do in the States to prepare for the event of one’s death, from writing wills to making living trusts to investigating how to avoid death taxes, are not practiced here in Japan at all. Since my wife’s parents have some land that will be transferred to my wife’s name at the time of their death, I brought the topic up with them, to see if there was anything we should be doing ahead of time — but it seem like this is something you just don’t talk about in Japan. Likewise, I asked our accountant to recommend some options we might want to keep in mind about our own property in Japan, but he said no one really did anything to prepare for death estate-wise. Even the concept of drafting a will is not really practiced here. Because all Japanese have strong “common sense” built into them, a natural sense for the “way things should be” that all Japanese are in tune with, wills are not as necessary here. If I were to die without a will, common sense dictates that my wife and children would receive all my possessions, and this logic is rarely contested here.
We’ve been selling DVDs from Japan since the first ones started to emerge back in 1996. While the vast majority of the DVDs we sold were region free, over time we saw more and more DVDs coming out that were encoded for region 2 (Japan and Europe), mainly anime and the specialized adult DVDs known as “Indies.” We have recommended some of the lower-cost players that could be found online, but many customers have told us they’d rather buy from J-List, who they trust, than some third party online seller. So, after much forehead slapping over missing out on a great idea, we’re happy to report that we now carry our first region-free DVD player, the Lasonic DVB090, a solid region-free portable DVD/VCD/MP3 player that’s also really inexpensive! And stocked in San Diego for your ordering convenience.
For the last update of the month of April, we’ve got some great items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got the special 16th anniversary issue of Dela Beppin, featuring a great lineup of beautiful Japanese AV idols and models for you
- We’ve got some great amateur and “wet” magazines for you as well, including kogals and another Japanese fetish, women who are unfaithful to their husbands
- We have some great hardcover photobooks for you, with beautiful Japanese angels, and the sexy leg fetish photobook of Yuka Sawachi
- We have excellent all-new hentai manga for you, including the erotic “Hidden Room” by artist “Beauty Hair” as well as new Yaoi volumes too
- Also: a general restocking of a dozen or so volumes of hentai manga for your perusal
- We’ve got more volumes of the very popular Bishoujo Grand Prix CD-ROMs by Lyceen, full of cute CG “hair nude” for Mac or Windows
- For DVDs, first we’ve got another volley of the popular SOD Memorial Series, at just $10 each (region free)
- Hina Uemura, a tantalizing new face at SOD, assists your masturbation with a great lineup of cosplay and fetish performances (region free)
- There’s a new Bukkake Circle in Blue Sky for bukakke lovers, by SOD’s Natural High label (region free)
- Fans of the lovely Azumi Kawashima will love her “Final Visual Collection” soft-porn DVD, which is just lovely (region free)
- Also very lovely, the excellent return of Mai Hagiwara to Bauhaus, Platonic Love (region free)
- Lovers of erotic Japanese girl-next-door Nao Oikawa (and they know who they are) should check out the new AV Special Training Department featuring Nao-chan, a sizzling new production from Wanz Factory (region 2)
- Finally, we’ve got another great M’s Video Group bukkake special for die-hard bukkake lovers
- For anime and toy fans, we’ve got a great lineup of items, including a fantastic new Cosmo Tiger (Cosmo Zero) from Yamato/Star Blazers, and some all-new totally cool Japanese Hot Wheels cars
- We’ve got some beautiful anime art books, including Cardcaptor Sakura and the very interesting Angel Cave, in stock!
- Hello Kitty fans should check out the newly posted items, including a cool Hello Kitty cash register that really talks (you run food products over the bar code reader), and a Hello Kitty refrigerator you can put food in
- We have some cute new items from The Dog series in stock, including cute The Dog pocket tissues that are so cute
- Finally, newly posted snack items include Doraemon Gummi snacks, fresh stock of Mill Make (which all Japanese school kids drink), more delicious miso soup mix, Japanese wasabi, and more!
Along with my other hobbies, I am a big fan of 80’s sci-fi movies. While watching my copy of Blade Runner late at night over some Sapporo Black Label beer and rice crackers, I happened across the ultimate Blade Runner fan site and movie FAQe, which I thought I’d pass along to you. The URL is http://www.brmovie.com/
