Hello again from your friends in Japan!
Japanese is a linguistically impoverished language — there are only 5 vowels, all paired into syllables with consonants (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc.). This is where the thick accent Japanese speakers of English sometimes have comes from. One of the vowel lines — the “ta” line — is missing a useful syllables, the sound “ti” (sounding like “tea”) as well as the linguistically related “di” sound (sounding like “dee”). Without a way to express these sounds in Japanese, foreign words like “Disneyland” and “party” could not be correctly represented, and subsequently entered the Japanese language as “Desneyland” and “parteh,” which sound strange to the English ear. A “patch” was introduced at some time in the last few decades, a way to write “ti” and “di” in katakana, but unfortunately for a generation of older Japanese, they learned a slew of foreign loan words with odd pronunciations. Now, pronouncing words like “panty” as “panteh” or the letter T as “teh” (rhyming with “way”) instead of how they sound in English is the mark of an old fogey here (although, as a foreigner, it’s kind of fun to do it on purpose sometimes).
Japan can seem a very digital place, full of little gadgets that make like easier (or sometimes more complicated). It can be a very analog place, too, though. While we work at J-List, with all our Macs in our own little corner of the ultra-democratic online republic that is the Internet, we often hear the local yaki-imo man driving around with his truck of hot, baked imo (sweet potatoes). Selling baked sweet potatoes is an old profession, going back to the Meiji Era, and the song they sing (or play through speakers, in this modern era) is a classic part of the background of living in Japan. We found a site that has a recording of the song here, if you want to hear it for yourself: http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/sounds/ishiyakiimo.html
J-List stocks all the best bishoujo games available in English, since we love these games and want everyone to try them. Often, older games go out of print and are no longer available. If you’re interested in Three Sisters’ Story or May Club, two very nice games we’re running low on, you should pick them up soon, since our current stock could be ending very soon.
For today’s update, we’re got an extra-special collection of items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got some nice new magazines for you, including the lovely new issue of Aishite Ageru (“I’ll love you”), a nice hardcore magazine from Japan
- For photobook lovers, we’ve got several very nice new photobooks, including the lovely new photobook from Mai Hagiwara (out of retirement at last), as well as the beautiful hardcover nude photobook of Aoi Toki
- Also fresh stock of several popular photobook items, including the popular U.S. Playboy’s Eye, featuring famous Japanese AV idols who have been honored by being run in Playboy Magazine, as well as fresh stock of the Yinling Joytoy photobook
- For hentai manga fans, we’ve got yet another volley of titles for you, by Toen Comics, Shinyusha Comics and other popular manga studios, along with a big restocking of adult manga that had sold out recently (including Blue Shangri-la, get them before they sell out again)
- For fans of doujin (underground) CG, we’ve got some very cool doujin-soft CD-ROM titles, although they will go quickly
- For DVD fans, we’ve got a huge bunch of new titles for you, starting off with a great new Deep Kiss lesbian DVD from Soft on Demand — which of the lovely women will be chosen as the Deep Kiss Queen? (region free)
- From Natural High, a division of Soft on Demand, a great bukkake DVD for you (region free)
- Emily Yoshikawa is unique because she’s the first “Latina” AV idol, being half Japanese and half Dominican Republic. See her great new erotic video with great new sexual performances
- For fans of extremely unique Japanese indies adult video, enjoy the new Area of Waap, a very cool bukkake performance that’s all the more special because it’s directed by Kazuhiko Matsumoto of M’z Video Group (region 2)
- For fans of the high-quality hentai anime series by G-Taste creator Hiroki Yagami, we’ve got a great new one, featuring anime lesbian play and more (region 2)
- Finally, we’ve got a big restock of adult DVD titles for you, including Mai Hagiwara DVDs, Aika Love You, the long-running Go Go Kanabun (subtitled in English!) and more
- One of the fastest-selling products in the history of J-List has been the Hello Kitty vibrators, which have struck a cord with J-List customers as a cool icon of Japanese pop culture. We were in danger of selling out of our stock in just a few days, but we fortunately got more units in. If you want one of these cool items, get them before our distributors run out of stock
- Also, a cool follow-up to the Kitty-chan vibrating shoulder massages, a super new Doraemon Vibrator!
- Another spiffy item, we’ve got stock of the very cute Soot Sprites (aka Dust Bunnies) keychains from Hayao Miyazaki’s anime masterpiece, My Neighbor Totoro
- For fans of our “cold cast” anime statues from Japan, we’ve got two new items for you, Mitsune Kanno and Shinobu Maehara, rendered in beautiful 1/6 scale resin “completed figures” for you
- If you love the Ah My Goddess bilingual manga, which let you read the series in English and Japanese, well, we’ve got a big restock of these books for you
- For fans of things for your kitchen, we’ve got new bento boxes and bento food shapes, fresh stock of the ever-popular sushi mold for making perfect nigiri-zushi, more of the popular Puchi Onigiri race ball maker, and more
- We’ve restocked the very nice hiragana practice notebooks, that help you teach yourself to write in Japanese
- We have some other cute items from Japan, including Hello Kitty cups, colored glue sticks, and a rare Hello Kitty reusable container filled with gum
- Finally, find cool Japanese “onsen” powder that turns your bath into a real Japanese hot springs, new wacky signs in Japanese, restock of delicious Japanese gum, and more!
The “About J-List” page has been updated with the image of Mayumi, the newest face around here at J-List. You can see her picture, as well as see pictures of all the J-List staff, as well as maps of where we live in Japan and other information. The link is at the top left of the J-List product pages.
