The warmest wishes to everyone for a Merry Christmas from J-List!
It’s Christmas Eve in Japan, and to the Japanese, it’s a time to have a special dinner that Okaasan (mother) makes. Over the past 20 years, the idea of giving a Christmas present has taken hold (helped along by Toys R Us Japan), and so most Japanese kids can expect a special present from their parents, or maybe their grandparents, too. Presents are also exchanged by young people, and of course boyfriend and girlfriend. Older Japanese, for whom Christmas is an “outside” thing, don’t usually give gifts. The other “big event” that is related to Christmas Eve is that it’s the #1 night for girls to lose their virginity, and for weeks in advance love hotels are booked solid with couples waiting for this perfect night.
We won’t be having a White Christmas on the Kanto Plain this year, but it certainly a cold and windy one. Geographically Japan is a very vertically oriented country, and the farther north you go the colder things get, until you are in “Yuki-guni,” or Snow Country, the setting (and title) of the famous novel by Kawabata. Known as the Tohoku region of Japan, the northern part of the main island of Honshu (roughly everything north of Tokyo) is an interesting area, and have hitchhiked up there several times. A cold and lonely area, with few large cities, Tohoku is cursed with a problem many Japanese rural areas face: shrinking populations as young people go to live in larger cities, leaving nothing but old people at home. Tohoku is the birthplace of many singers of “enka,” a sad form of traditional Japanese music that corresponds to country music in the U.S. (i.e., truck drivers listen to it). As you travel through Japan, you can see how Japanese architecture changes to reflect the regional climate. In the Tohoku area of Japan, houses are constructed with roofs that are slanted, to keep snow from piling up, and the front doors are extra-insulated to keep the heat in.
First of all, we’ve done our final price reduction on the 2002 calendars, and most of them are all the way down to $10, which is way below our cost. If you’d like to pick up a couple of these lovely calendars at this price, please help us out, we’d greatly appreciate it. The calendars that are still in stock are mostly the Japanese swimsuit and lovely actress/idol calendars, and some of the girls are really lovely. And you can put these up in your office without getting in trouble ^_^
For this yuletide update, we’ve got some very nice items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got some excellent new magazines for you, including the new Dela Beppin, filled with lovely girls including Maiko Kazano (heart)
- We’ve got a treat for adult magazine collectors, a cache of older Japanese magazines from 2000, which feature some very popular actresses who are unfortunately retired now, and quite hard to find — check magazine page 3 for the newly posted and discounted items. Once these sell out, they will be gone for good…
- For fans of erotic nude photography, we have another elegant issue of Photoshot for you, featuring some of the most lovely photographs we’ve seen in a long time
- Also, we’ve got fresh stock of several of the Strawberry Diary series by nude photographer Garo Aida
- For fans of hot Japanese AV stars like Anna Ohura, Natsumi Kawahama and more, we present Dynamite Body Sexual Collection, a nice new photobook for you
- We have fresh stock of some previously sold out photobooks, including Weekend Party, Love Target, and many more
- If you’re a fan of the very cool erotic manga we carry at J-List, check out the new volumes we’ve posted
- In addition to the new manga, we’ve got fresh stock of some sold-out manga, including Lovely Eyes, Rocket Oppai, Stripper Mai and more
- Remember that our Doujinshi sale is still on — buy 5, get $20 off — and we’ve posted some nice new doujinshi
- For fans of J-List’s adult DVD, we’ve got another great selection of new items. From Wanz Factory, we’ve got an erotic How to Perfect series DVD for fans of the leggy and sexy Kaori Shimizu, followed by a Happy Date with Yuuna Akimoto
- From Moodyz, vol 2 in the very best-selling Dream Gakuen series, featuring an all-star cast including Bunko Kanazawa, Mami Gotoh and more — over 30 girls in this 190 minute production
- From Soft on Demand, we’ve got some great new items, including an erotic DVD for fans of “Kissing, oral sex and horse-riding style sex,” a graceful and erotic “Zenra Swimming” (featuring an actual semi-pro swimmer swimming gracefully in the water, all photographed with underwater camera), and Vol. 2 of the popular “Anal Torture” 2-in-1 DVD from Deep’s
- From Waap, a super erotic Dream Shower video starring one of Yasu’s favorite AV idols, Mirai Hoshizaki
- Audaz chimes in with a new “Shameful Love” video starring Aya Otosaki, and a very nice an erotic video and DVD featuring Momo Kawai
- Finally, a bizarre item from Aroma, we present the ultimate”panty line fetish” video that captures beautiful Japanese women walking with tight pants, very nice
- For fans of Miyazaki’s animation, we’ve got a very nice item we’ll try to carry more of in the future: color film comics from Miyazaki’s movies, which present all animation from the movie in a great format. See vol. 1 & 2 of Nausica and Spirited Away on the English Manga page now (although this manga is in Japanese)
- Since it’s Christmas, we’ve got an extra volley of cool toy items for you. Macross fans should check the restock of the dynamite VF-1A and the limited stock (as in one copy) of the VF-1S “Skull 1” that is just too cool to live
- For serious collectors of My Neighbor Totoro items, we’ve got some very rare items from the Totoro’s Wonder Tin Toy Collection, featuring toys that are made out of tin, in the tradition of the toys of the 1950’s
- Our Capcom toy line has sold so well, we’ve posted stock of the Capcom vs. SNK super deformed figures that are really cute
- For bento fans, we’ve got fresh stock of two conservative colors of bento boxes, for those who are a little embarrassed to eat out of a cute Hamutaro box
- On our Japanese snacks page, we’ve got a tasty package of rice crackers and nori, along with fresh stock of two of the most popular Pocky items, Mousse Pocky White and Strawberry (Mmmm…)
- Finally, for those interested in traditional Japanese decorations, see the very nice “Maneki-neko” (Inviting Cat) piggy banks we have in stock, which are associated with good luck and business success in the new year — it’s really cool.
Remember that J-List is having a “free shipping sale” on all English-language bishoujo games and doujin CG collections from San Diego. This is a great time to snap up those JAST USA, Himeya Soft, Peach Princess or other titles you’ve been wanting but don’t get for Christmas.
