Hello again from Japan, on this, the last Wednesday of the millennium. It sounds silly, but if you think about the fact that there were 52, 142 Wednesdays over the past millennium, and this happened to be the last one.
There are certain phrases in English that Japanese will always know. Some English phrases always find their way into kids’ anime, with “foreign” characters who spout words like “Oh my God!” and “Unbelievable!” until Japanese kids learn these phrases. The most elementary sentence in English, according to the Japanese sense of things, is “This is a pen.” This is the sentence that all Japanese start learning English from. Another favorite is “Boys, be ambitious, the parting words of Dr. Clark, an American professor who helped found Sapporo University. One way Japanese can be English-ized” is to keep Japanese words in place but replace the words “you” and “me” with English. This is how Jar Jar Bink’s strange mode of speaking was communicated in the subtitles in Star Wars Episode One, in case you’ve ever wondered about it. Whenever a character in anime is supposed to be speaking English, this is usually how it’s expressed in Japanese, too.
The Japanese do do some funny things with English. There was a rock band that called themselves the Piss Kids, which seems like a shocking and disgusting thing to call yourselves, until you realize that the name comes from the famous statue in Belgium of Cupid peeing into a fountain, which is called “shonben kozo” or “piss kid” in Japanese.
We’ve added a new section to our DVD category — Hentai and Bishojo DVDs! On this page we’ll add some of the wonderfully erotic adult anime DVDs from Japan, which are wonderful, and highly collectible. They’re admittedly expensive, but their high quality makes them worth it. See the great new items on this new page — your feedback on these new anime DVDs is appreciated!
In addition to our new Hentai DVD page, we’ve got a veritable cornucopia of cool things from Japan for you, including:
- First, we’ve got one final last-minute Japanese calendar for you — a wonderful wall calendar from Uchu Kikaku featuring six of Japan’s loveliest AV girls including Minori Aoi. The calendar is free, but if you get any of our remaining stock of calendars, we’ll give you this excellent calendar FREE as our way of saying thanks for helping us reduce our stock of calendars
- Our video sale was so successful, we’ve decided to post another big volley of videos to the discount videos page! All of these videos are heavily discounted, and come with free SAL shipping (or half price on airmail). Among the videos posted are Aoi Minori, Kawashima Azumi, and Asaoka Kaori and more — but our stock is limited, as we’re closing these items out
- We have several excellent new magazines, including the excellent new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, featuring some very lovely models, as well as new issues of the excellent OK and Do-Up!
- We’ve got another volley of excellent magazine back-issues, including new issues of Boyes and some classic Gokuh’s — including books featuring Miura Aika, Aida Momo, and more
- We’ve got fresh stock of the excellent DVD & Video CD Soft Catalog, a magazine & dual-VCD combo that gives you up to 2 hours of AV footage for a fantastic price
- See new photobooks on our photobook pages, including the lovely and charming nude of Tanami Mari
- Leg fetish fans, see the hot new issue of Minisuka Deluxe, but stock of this issue is limited — get it fast, if you want it
- We’ve got some “gouka-bon” format books posted to the high-end S&M page, including a new issue of Anal-ko Hip & Anal, and by customer request, the latest issue of New Half, for fans of pretty transsexuals
- If you love hentai, bag the latest issue of Fantasienne, a huge magazine filled with wonderful H game artwork and images from Japan’s newest games
- On our newly created Hentai and Anime DVD page, see several all-new items, including the latest in the G-Taste erotic DVD series — the Morimura Nana chapter — as well as Soft on Demand’s debut in hentai animation — Otaky Sasaki’s story of an erotic android maid, Fragile Hearts
- We have a great new update to our dojinshi page, with many wonderful erotic dojinshi — see the Dojinshi and Yao pages for these items
- Also very cool — master hentai illustrator “Linda” has released a fantastic erotic manga that has to be seen to be believed — see “Sadist” on the manga (new releases) page
- For anime fans, see several classic issues of Animage from years gone by, featuring Gundam Wing, Rayearth, Evangelion and more
- We’ve got a nifty item, a Totoro deck of playing cards, posted to the anime & toys page as well
- On our signs and stickers page, we have some amusing new message stickers — Japanese “push” and “pull” stickers, as well as an odd message asking your guests no to splash urine on the floor when they use your toilet
- Several useful new items on the Wacky Things from Japan homepage, including stylish wood and bamboo chopsticks that are extra-easy to eat with
- Finally, the national food of Japan isn’t sushi or sashimi, it’s really curry rice. Based on British versions of India’s curries, curry rice arose as one of the most important Japanese foods in the 19th century, and now there are dozens of varieties on the market. Boil-in-bag curry is a favorite staple of Japanese, since it’s incredibly easy to make — just boil the curry bag and pour it over rice. Now one of the most popular brands of curry rice — Bon Curry — is available from J-List, for your eating pleasure — see it on our Japanese snacks page!
Okay, that’s all for now!
