Greetings from Japan! I had an uneventful trip back to Japan, and it’s nice to be home again. Although I’d forgotten how hot and humid Japan is in August…
Before I came to Japan ten years ago, I had many pre-conceived notions about what I would find. One was that the Japanese were very cool on the subject of religion and I would not find many Japanese with strong religious beliefs. Although this has held true for the most part, I was surprised to find that there were many religions active in Japan, including Baptists (I was asked to play “Santa-san” at the Maebashi Baptist Church my first Christmas here, because they thought it was more authentic to have a gaijin Santa), Catholics (there’s a Catholic church in Maebashi that was mysteriously saved when the city was bombed in the final days of World War II), Mormons (they give free English lessons to get converts), even Jehova’s Witnesses. The Church of Scientology exists in Japan (it’s called “Koufuku no Kagaku” or “The Science of Happiness”), as well as several Japanese religious movements, some of which are quite dangerous, the most famous of these being the Aum Shinrikyo group that was responsible for nerve gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995 as well the tragic murder of a lawyer named Sakamoto and his family.
One powerful religion that has its roots in Japanese Buddhism is called Soka Gakkai, the only “evangelical” Buddhism I’ve seen. It’s quite easy to compare Soka Gakkai to Mormonism, as it is a relatively new religion that claims roots going back thousands of years (it aims to recreate what members consider to be the “true” Buddhism, Nichiren, established in the 13th century AD); and members actively work to spread the religion to others. Soka Gakkai exploded as a religious movement after World War II, and grew so powerful that they made their own political party, the Komeito, which is the third largest party in Japan (although there are supposedly no longer any official ties between the party and the religion). There’s a lot of criticism of some of the tactics the group has used in the past to get new members, and a quick search on Google brought up pages that were both very much for and against the group. If you’re interested in seeing the official homepage of Soka Gakkai International and its form of Buddhism, the URL is http://www.sgi-usa.org/
For the new update, we’ve got a huge list of cool new items from Japan just for you. They include:
- First, we’ve got a most excellent item for Star Wars fans, a series of five characters and vehicles released in the Japanese market by Tomy — only sold in Japan, and extremely cool for fans of classic Star Wars moments!
- Also, a drop-dead cool item for fans of Hayao Miyazaki’s popular film Spirited Away, we have limited stock of the Spirited Away Collector’s Edition, featuring a very detailed recreation of Yubaba’s inn, three beautiful posters, a dynamite book *in English* with background on the film and Miyazaki’s other movies, the movie on DVD, and more
- We love the excellent hardcover swimsuit and sexy idol photobooks Japan prints, and we have new ones for you, including the very sexy Ayu Okakura, and more
- For anime and toy collectors, we’ve got some nice from-Japan-only items, including an excellent (and huge) Bastard!! “high end figure,” and a cool Gio Gio’s Excellent Adventure item as well
- Also, another excellent “wedding Kitty” set of plushes, featuring Hello Kitty and her hubby, Daniel, getting married in traditional Japanese style (we’ve recently restocked the other one we had in stock, too)
- For fans of Hello Kitty, we’ve got a super new Hello Kitty “Pet Bottle” (Kitty is your pet, get it?) featuring one of 12 very cute Kitty characters and delicious fruit-flavored hard candies inside
- Also for Japanese snack fans, we’ve got several new items, including delicious blueberry candy, sweet mints, new delicious miso soup, and much more!
- If you love the popular anime Love Hina, we’ve got a very nice set of collectible trading cards that are lovely
- Finally, see many new “wacky things from Japan” including fans, a spiffy Hello Kitty toothbrush for your little ones, a Doraemon water balloon maker, a super way to shine shoes, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products, as you can probably imagine. They include:
- First, the excellent new issue of Urecco, overflowing with dynamite AV idols and nude models that are just beautiful
- Other great magazines too, including the very sexy Nurse no Oshigoto (A Nurse’s Job), and more
- We have new and restocked nude photobooks, including a great new pocket-sized erotic photobook that features fabulous photography with an “nameless” amateur model
- Also, a great leg-and-costume fetish photobook featuring a huge A-list of top AV stars and great sexy lingerie
- For collectors of Japan’s unique erotic comics, we’ve got another update of great titles for you, along with restocked titles for you, too
- J-List now stocks U.S. release hentai DVDs from Nutech and other companies, all translated into English and totally uncensored — we’ve posted boxed sets of some great titles, including Welcome to Pia Carrot 1 and 2, EL and the famous Cool Devices (all are region 1)
- For erotic DVD lovers, see many new items posted for you, starting with a superb performance by Akira Watase, who is hunting male virgins in a new release from SOD (region free)
- Also very cool, Ruri Anno learns how to eat “bukkake” in the hilariously named “How do you do, Mr. Semen?” (region free)
- The lovely Nozomu Momoi is fucked and teased for four hours straight in a great release from Million (region free)
- See the “virgin performance” (the first on-camera hardcore sex) of four dynamite AV idols in an *English subtitled* release from HMP (region free)
- For lesbian fans, we’ve got a really lovely all-female performance from Glory Quest (region free)
- For indies fans, a very nice erotic “Nama Guerilla” performance by Yuuna Mizusawa, who willingly has sex in public places (region 2)
- Finally, Tomo’s done a restock of many popular DVDs, including Holed Panties vol. 1 (fun with scissors, panties and CCD cameras), new tekoki and bukkake DVDs, Airi Kago having sex in a dancing school, and more!
Remember that J-List carries many cool things from Japan. One category we like a lot are the bilingual manga from Kodansha, which feature real Japanese comics with dialogue both in English and Japanese. Great for students of Japanese or anyone who just wants to enjoy the comics in English, you can enjoy titles like Love Hina, Cardcaptor Sakura, Ah My Goddess, and more.
