Greetings from J-List February 15, 2001

Greetings from Japan, the home of Mazda’s popular car, the Bongo Friendy.

Well, Time Ranger has come to an end. In the last episode, the five time fighters took a trip in Time Robo over the past 20 years of sentai shows, since they are time travelers and all that. It was cool, seeing each year’s five-team fighting show — Go Ranger (the first one, which was shown in 1975), Changeman, Car Ranger, Mega Ranger, Gingaman, Go Go Five. The new sentai show is called Gau Ranger (“gau” being a sound in Japanese like “growl”), which will use animal motifs. I noticed that Time Ranger’s footage had already started in the U.S. with Power Rangers Time Force.

We’ve had to say “sayonara” to our Nissan March. In Japan, there’s a special car check-up and tax called sha-ken that car owners must pay every two years, which sets you back about $1400 each time. It’s a cleverly disguised government-sponsored system to encourage people to buy new cars sooner than they would, and discourages keeping older cars. Since we got our Saturn, we haven’t used the March much at all, so rather than pay the tax, we’re going to scrap the car. Unfortunately, there are no economic ways of using the car, as the sha-ken tax exceeds the value of the car. In the U.S., when you scrap a car, you get a few hundred dollars out of it, at least. Here in Japan, the owner of the car must pay $200 to have the car taken away.

For this evening’s update, we’ve got some nice items for you as usual, including:

First, a killer new magazine & video CD combo — a new issue of Club Indies, with 70 minutes of sample footage that’s really bizarre and cool, very different from the “pro” workd of AV
For hentai fans, a very special issue of Fantasienne is posted, with a cool sampler CD-ROM and large poster inside — see the hentai magazine page
We have several very nice new photobooks, including Kawashima Azumi’s lovely Flowing Out” and more copies of the popular Yoshino Minami’s very lovely “Haru” photobook
For our erotic manga fans, another large update of all-new books, including some shocking fetish manga
For dojinshi fans, a treat — not one, not two, but three new Okachimentaiko erotic dojinshi, including their all-ero tribute to Gundam, and a book dedicated exclusively to game girls
Fresh stock of several hentai art books on our hentai art books page
For DVD fans who buy region 2 discs, two very cool items from SOD — one, a very high-quality erotic V-cinema creation by Tohjiro and Asaoka Mirei, and an educational DVD (?) on how to do anal sex
For hentai DVD fans, two new items — Elf’s popular Wordsworth erotic fantasy anime, vol. 2 and 3
For fans of the lovely Morishita Kurumi, a super item — a dual-VHS featuring the surface (omote) and secret self (ura) of Kurumi, in a super idol video + AV video dual set, shot on location in Saipan
For anime fans, some really cool older issues of Animage, including some very rare and cool ones, on the anime toys page
Also on our anime & toys page, the much-requested Zeta Gundam fully posable toy from Bandai
On our Japanese snacks & food page, a treat — three flavors of “furikake,” which is tasty, dried food you sprinkle over white rice, which includes ingredients like tiny bits of dried scrambled egg, sesame, dried leafy vegetables, and pieces of salmon. Loved by children and adults in Japan, furikake is a great healthy food for you.
On our Wacky Japanese signs & stickers page, several cool new items, including more of the “Looking for a beautiful woman” sticker, and sticker for all “safety drivers”
Restocked items on our popular Wacky Things page include more Hello Kitty toilet paper (for those who really love or really hate Kitty-chan), more authentic Japanese loose socks and Socks Glue to go with them, and more excellent Japanese correction pens
Finally, we’ve got several nice new items on the Wacky Things page as well — funky Japanese ‘days of the week’ magnets, a fashionable Japanese knit bag (all the rage this winter), and a deluxe long wooden shoehorn for fans of these useful items.