Hello again from Japan!
When is the color blue really green? When you’re in Japan. For some reason that we’re not able to fathom at all, the color green is often called “blue” (“ao” or “aoi”) in Japanese. When foreigners come to Japan, they learn that the color green is “midori,” but when you see a green traffic light, Japanese universally describe he light as “ao” (blue). If you go to Aomori Prefecture, don’t look for a “blue forest” because there isn’t one, but there are plenty of green forests. When they buy fresh vegetables, Japanese say they want to find the ones that are “ichiban aoi” (the most blue). Why is this? Tomo thinks that it’s because a long time ago, there was another kanji that described the color green, but it unfortunately had the same reading (pronunciation) as the normal character for blue, “ao.” Through some mechanism that is beyond my comprehension, certain objects (the green of a traffic signal, the green of a leaf on a tree) are described as “ao” (which means blue today), while the actual color green is “midori.” Like bowing to a vending machine that has just verbally thanked you for making a purchase, it’s all part of the wackiness of living in Japan.
There’s an unfortunate phenomenon that affects all Japanese who use computers or “waapro” (word processors) at work: they lost almost all ability to write Kanji, Chinese characters. With the steady acceptance of computers into Japanese life, many people use keyboards all day long, and as a result, almost never actually write characters by hand. Because kanji is a very structured system, not writing it for long periods of time really makes you forget how to write (although reading ability is retained). I imagine this happens not only with Japanese, but with all cultures that use kanji. Sadly, I am affected by this as well, as I almost never hand-write Japanese anymore, and it’s shocking when I go to write an elementary character but can’t bring it up in my mind.
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga, while in college in the 80’s, and wondering why they always write the blood type of each character along with their name, age and astrological sign. In Japan, though, it’s believed that you can tell a lot about a person’s personality and character traits from his blood type. Type A people are neat, tidy, and plan things meticulously, almost to a fault. Type B are “going my way” (as the Japanese say), meaning that they do their own thing without worrying about the eyes of others, and don’t plan things out in advance. They can be messy, and tend to act on impulse (I am B, and my wife is always commenting on why do some things I do based on my blood type). Type O people have a private world inside their minds, supposedly, and they’re quick to become passionate about something, but then change to something else just as easily. Type O people are the ability to lead others. Finally, AB have “two faces,” one that they make in front of some people and another one they keep to themselves. Like the various beliefs (myths) that are related to Buddhism (such as, you’re not supposed to sleep with your pillow pointing north, as this is reserved for the dead before cremation), the Japanese blood type beliefs are hard to get used to at first, but when you live here long enough, you start thinking there might be something to them after all…
We thank all customers who have helped make the 2002 Calendar Season such a big success. We’ve still got almost 100 2002 wall calendars in stock, almost all in the “attractive swimsuit model or actress” category (although we have quite a few of the Bondage Nude and airbrush tattoo erotica calendars too). If you can find it in your heart to take a calendar or two off our hands, we’d appreciated (and we’ve reduced prices yet again!) Also of note are the Ryoko Hirosue and Norika Fujiwara desktop calendar/diaries that are very cool.
For the new update to the J-List page, we’ve got another great volley of products for you, including:
- For fans of high-quality Japanese magazines, find the new issues of Urecco (featuring Hitomi Hasegawa, Rio Sannomiya and many more), as well as another old favorite, the lovely Cream
- We have added more bargain magazines to magazine page 3, for the thrifty-minded out there
- If you dig video CDs with your magazines, see the new Amateur Hamedori Paradise, featuring some lovely footage on two VCDs that you can play on your computer or most DVD players
- For fans of Japan’s bishoujo (hentai) games, we’ve posted some backissues of the popular Push!! (which features a CD-ROM, so really get a great value)
- For lovers of Japanese hardcover photobooks, we’ve got a huge update for you, with many new hardcover photobooks as well as fresh stock of some items we’ve sold out of — all at reduced prices, too
- Japanese have many interesting sexual themes in their adult products, and one of them is rape-play. For fans of these themes, see the fresh stock of K.O. we’ve posted
- Japan’s hentai manga have become famous all over the world, and no matter how many we keep in stock, J-List customers tell us they’d like to see more. So we’ve got a very nice volley of new erotic manga, as well as many back in stock items for you
- For yaoi lovers, see a new issue of Double, the “Danger & Desire Comic” too
- If you love doujinshi, we’ve added more for you, including some very cool works by Ryu-seki-do that are new to J-List
- Our new dedication to bringing you really cool AV from Japan’s top independent AV studios continues, and we’ve got another big update for you today. From Soft on Demand, find an excellent performance by Kurumi Morishita, a super “coupling” of two Idol Zamen bukkake performances onto one DVD, and Airi Kago performing “reverse fucking”
- From Wanz Factory, we’ve got a tremendously good leg fetish DVD from Mirai Hoshizaki, a chance for you go to on a “happy date” with Ai Nagase, and the very lovely Honey Morimura being made to do shameful things
- Moodyz is another very bold company, which J-list customers have requested for many months. Newly in stock is an amazing 2-video production (180 minutes) in which four lovely AV girls go to Los Angles to perform with gaijin (two black guys, two white guys and a white woman) — very interesting!
- Also from Moodyz, a super all-new performance featuring the lovely Madoka Ozawa, out of retirement and acting again
- Waap has many nice productions, and for Waap fans, we’ve got a great Dream Shower starring one of my favorite actresses, Lum Nagase, followed by a super “busty lesbian orgy” offering
- From Aroma, a great live-action “cat girl fuck” with “Hello Kichi”
- Finally, in a new addition to our lonely “Indies videos (other)” page (where we’ll feature productions from companies that are smaller, but still make fantastic products), see one of the hottest Kyoka Usami videos we’ve ever seen
- Finally for DVD customers, look on DVD page 2 ($35 and under DVDs) for some extra cheap and discounted items from Tomo
- We have many neat new toy items here at J-List. First, we’ve got some very cool “blank” Kubrick toys, which you can detail yourself. Gundam fans will enjoy the very cool RX-78-NT1 Gundam from Gundam 0080. And for gamers, we’ve got some very cool and very rare Capcom game girl figures
- Also: fresh stock of the Godzilla 2002 figure (the large one) and the “super deformed” Chewbacca
- We’ve got some cute metallic Hamster Club stickers, for those who find themselves doodling little anime hamsters (we warn you that this show might be the next Pokemon, if they decide to bring it to the U.S.) as well as Hamutaro and Pokemon gum (with cool stickers inside)
- We love the interest J-List customers are taking in Japanese New Years’ customs, and so we’ve added some more cool traditional Japanese items, including a square Japanese “masu” cup for drinking sake in the New Year, and some Japanese envelopes for giving New Year’s money gifts to young ones
- On our popular Japanese snacks and gum pages, we’ve got more super-sour Shigekix and fresh stock of “Ramune” Hi-Chew Kids
- We have a new funny Japanese sign plate in stock, in case you want to decorate your room with funny Japanse signs
- Also: new designs of Hello Kitty
- An item I’ve wanted to carry for a long time, the Japanese “green leaf mark” (aoba mark) which drivers who have just gotten their drivers’ licenses here must put on their car
- J-List is fast becoming a major provider of Bento boxes and related items to the world, and we’ve got fresh stock of some of our most popular items for you
- Finally, see a nifty leopard-skin scarf to help you keep warm in the winter, more excellent Japanese warming pads (which will keep you warm in the winter), new Japanese study cards to help you learn Japanese, and more!
Bewildered at Bishoujo? Confused about Kogal? Head hurting over Hentai? If you’re confused at some of the terms used on the J-List site and this updates list (which can be quite out there, we admit), be sure to check out our online J-List Glossary of Terms — the link is on our site, right below the product category listing on the left side of your browser window. We explain all confusing terms from Anime to Tekoki and more. If there are any terms we haven’t covered adequately, please let us know.
