Greetings from Japan, where tako salad always contains fresh octopus.
We had great time at the J-List year-end party last night, drinking dark German-style beer and fruit sours and eating tons of food, including kimchee nabe (meat, tofu and vegetables simmered in a spicy Korean broth), with sushi and octopus salad. Most of the J-List crew don’t drink, but Yasu, Chiharu and I managed to get quite hammered. Most Japanese possess a gene that causes their faces to turn bright red when they drink alcohol, by the way, in case you’ve ever noticed it. Yasu was especially red last night, all over his body, and his wife had to come pick him up.
J-List has been honored to be able to bring a wide range of Japanese pop culture goods to customers around the world for five years now. We’ve got customers in practically every country in the world, including Luxumbourg, South Africa, and even Iran. I recently ran a script to see where most of J-List’s customers were located. Not surprisingly, the lion’s share of J-List customers are in the U.S. and Canada, where Internet connection rates are the highest. England and Australia are also well represented. In Europe, countries with a lot of interest in Japan order from J-List, with Germany, Italy and the Netherlands in the lead. In Asia, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong have the front position. We’ve also got quite a few customers in South America, especially in counties with large Nikkei (Japanese descended) populations.
When foreigners come to Japan, it seems they are always striving for a way to understand the country and put it into some kind of context. Some gaijin who like anime or manga try to see Japan through the eyes of their particular hobby, while others try to view the country through, say, Japanese martial arts. Another way to understand Japan is through its dramas. In the U.S., the “basic” unit of television entertainment is the 30 minute situation comedy, but in Japan, dramas are the most popular form of television, and there are always several running at any given time on Japan’s major networks. Featuring famous stars and dramatic romantic situations, each weekly episode of a standard Japanese drama is an hour, and dramas generally run for 15 weeks, building up to a big dramatic finale. The people and places in popular Japanese dramas become cultural symbols that all Japanese recognize — for example, when Masaru Fukuyama played the character of the kind oldest brother in the drama “Under One Roof,” the name of his character became an icon of its own, and he’s forever known as “Chii-niichan” because of that role. Japanese dramas are broadcast in many countries in Asia and spottily in the U.S. (if you have access to a Japanese TV channel), or can be rented from Japanese video rental stores if you can’t find them any other way. Watching Japanese dramas can provide “hooks” for foreigners wanting to learn more about the country and culture, and they’re fun to watch, too.
We’ll be going ahead with the checkout system upgrade for the J-List site, which will add the much-requested “express checkout.” Once you’ve checked out with the site once, you’ll be able to quickly checkout in the future, and the system will remember your credit card information, too. As always, there’s a chance something could break, so if you have a problem ordering from our site, you can always use the secure email form link.
For the weekend update, we’ve got a big slew of new products for you, including:
- First of all, some great new magazines, including the new Video Boy and Best Videos, the two “all purpose adult video magazines” that feature all lovely AV idols from Japan
- For fans of Ami Ayukawa, we have a very cool item, a special magazine dedicated to nothing but this lovely lady, all throughout
- If you like magazines with discs in them, check out the new issue of DVD Wow! we’ve got in, featuring a full color magazine and 120 minutes of AV for you, on a region free DVD
- For photobook fans, we’ve got some nice items for you, including a very rare item capturing the lovely nudes of eight lovely Russian models (Russian girls are popular in Japan)
- Also: fresh stock of Strawberry Diary with Honami Seki
- If you love lovely girls and asses, we recommend the dynamite Hip Paradise, featuring the lovely ass and leg photographs of Kaya Asami and Hitomi Ikeno
- For manga fans, we’ve got a large number of all-new books, including manga from Do Comics, Fujimi Comics and more
- Also, we’ve posted a bunch of fresh stock of sold-out items, including manga by Yui Toshiki, fresh stock of “Motherhood And Sexuality” and “Sexbeast Fight Vaginass ” and more
- Out doujinshi special ends soon, and we’ve got more doujinshi for you to grab, all new and all in single issues so they’ll go fast (so hurry)
- We’ve got many new video and DVD items for you. From Audaz, enjoy the “Shameful Love” of Rin Tomosaki, who is made to do embarrassing and shameful things on video
- From Moodyz, there’s a super special all-lesbian video (“Lesbian Room”), followed by the indies debut of Minami Yoshikawa, a favorite “demure type” AV idol that Tomo and I like
- From Waap, we’ve got a great “Dream Shower” performance for zamen fans, starring Nana Houshou (known for her beautiful legs), followed by a very erotic new Aika Miura video (“A disguise of actress, her nature of a slut”)
- From Soft on Demand, we’ve got a “reverse fucking” offering with the lovely karate black belt “ball breaker” Erika Nagai, an all-lotion cat-fight video in which girls fight in a pool of lotion in which the losers are raped on-camera, and finally, a super “special edit version” of Nanami Nanase’s Fan Thanks Day
- From Wanz Factory, there’s a great indies DVD featuring the “super angle of manko” (pussy) of Natsumi Kawahama
- For fans of the lovely Shinobu Kasagi, of White Sexual Desire fame, she’s got a new 120 minute bondage DVD, great fun
- There’s a dynamite *four hour* erotic cosplay DVD, with lots of anime costume sex, and a DVD dedicated to watching women have sex from behind (doggy style)
- Finally, for fans of the beautiful AV gals, check out Shinobu rei’s very lovely Love Juice video
- Also: look for more discounted video items on our discount video page (they ship free)
- For Star Wars fans, we’ve posted more of the “super deformed” Star Wars talking figures, which speak lines from the movies when you put them on your hand (Stormtrooper and Darth Vader)
- Also on our anime & toy page, we’ve got fresh stock of the very cool Godzilla 2002 Deluxe Figure, Deluxe Ghidora, Gamera, and the Love Hina SkyLuv Project figure, as well as an excellent new toy figure for Japanese professional wrestling fans, and more
- If you like Hello Kitty, check out the new items we’ve posted, including Hello Kitty rice bowl, fresh stock of Hello Kitty towel holder, and more
- For our Japanese snack lovers, we’ve got fresh stock of Morinaga Carmel, a cool brand of carmels that have been around for over 100 years, as well as a totally cute Hamutaro Peanuts and Choco snack that comes with cool Hamutaro characters tags
- We’ve got new calendars! Well, they’re not really “new” per se, but we’ve freed up some very nice calendars by deleting some old orders that hadn’t been paid for — it’s a great second chance to pick up that swimsuit or idol calendar you’d like to have
- Finally, we’ve got a great way to massage your neck and back, a “pollen and cold mask” which you wear to protect yourself and others from pollen and germs, and more cool New Years’ items, including fresh stock of the square “masu” sake cups (you can drink sake out of them, or use them to organize your workspace since they look so cool
We’ve updated the J-Mate site again, this time with a killer English interview with Sally Yoshino that gives a lot of insight into her as an adult video performer. The site is located at http://www.jmate.com
