Greetings from Japan, where it really is more fun to stand in the “Japanese only” line at Narita Airport immigration…
Well, that was fast — one day, I’m enjoying the various good things that the States has to offer, from Starbucks to Submarina and good Thai food, and the next, I’m back in Japan. Of course it’s nice to be back, but part of me wishes I could have stayed longer and enjoyed the warm San Diego weather a little longer.
I brought back a lot of stuff, from blank CD-Rs to a motorcycle tire for a friend to “anti-constipation chocolate” (chocolate-based laxatives), which are a great gift for Japanese women, if you’re ever wondering what to bring one. I tend to push the weight limit whenever I fly, bringing as much as I possibly can — one reason I fly Korean instead of Delta. Somehow I’ve managed to bring bicycles from the U.S. to Japan, without paying any extras fees at all — twice.
Everyone has a little nationalism in them, a love of their own country, and my wife is no different: she wants to see Japan and Japanese excel in the world. One evening, we managed to catch a fabulous opera performance, performed by a troop from China. They did a fantastic job, right down to singing in Italian, and this gave my wife pause. The Japanese are good at many things, but there’s no way they could manage to perform an Italian opera in Italian. She said she felt jealousy and inadequacy that Japanese, for all their love of the arts, could not manage the kind of performance we saw.
For this evening’s update, we’ve got some excellent products for you, including:
- First, some excellent new magazines including the new Aishite Ageru (I’ll Love You), the exceptional “wet” magazine from Million
- For collectors and fans of AV actresses of a few years ago, some premium issues, on magazine page 2
- For bust fetishists, Gal’s Dee Super DX Natural Peach-Breast, a deluxe perfect bound photobook-style book with fantastic busty women
- Fresh stock of some of our best photobook items, including the excellent Photoshot vol. 41 (Aoi Minori fans take note)
- Another copy of the hard-to-find Santa Fe, the nude photobook of the lovely Miyazawa Rie
- For manga fans, we’ve got several all-new volumes posted, as well as a large volley of back-in-stock books — including one of the most popular manga artists in the history of J-List — Hit Publishing’s own Shiwasu no Okina
- For dojinshi fans, a fantastic treat — the excellent erotic Ah My Goddess dojinshi work “I want you to stay with me forever” as well as a great number of all-new books for you
- For DVD lovers, a super new “killer app” for your DVD player — SOD’s excellent line of idol DVDs! Featuring lovely Japanese idols in swimsuit and other sexy wear, these DVDs are zoned for *all* countries, and are (puzzlingly) subtitled in Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean — see them on the DVD and idol pages
- Also very cool for DVD and hentai fans, chapter 3 of the excellent “Fragile Hearts” series from SOD
- Love Japan’s AV videos? We do, too. We’ve got too many though, so we’ve posted a bunch of bargain videos to our bargain video page
- Also for dojinshi fans, fresh stock of several popular Okachimentaiko works, including Buy or Die
- On our popular Japanese Snacks & Food page, fresh stock of authentic Japanese wasabi
- Restocked “wacky” items this evening include the Hello Kitty Mayonnaise Cups (but you can put anything in them you want), the surprisingly popular bamboo forks (great for serving guests), our deluxe rice scoop with holder (with anti-stick coating), more Japanese origami paper, and that cool business card holder we had in a few months ago
- New additions to our Wacky Things from Japan page include a map of Japan (so cool!) and a Japanese map of the world (in Japanese!), and some really cute Hello Kitty picture frames for your desk
- Finally, we’ve got fresh stock of our popular and one-of-a-kind Japanese T-shirts with funny slogans, including many of the most popular sizes (that had been sold out for so long). All our T-shirts are printed in the U.S. on Hanes 100% cotton Comfort-T shirts, so you don’t need to worry about Japanese sizes or anything. All ship out of San Diego, too, so you can get them quickly. Express yourself with J-List’s funny and bizarre Japanese shirts!
I’m happy to see that many people are taking advantage of our pre-order offer of free shipping on all Peach Princess games. But remember that J-List also carries a great number of English-language games and image collections that we think are great, and all are in stock now. We also have the last stock anywhere in the world of Otaku Publishing’s titles, Return to Paradise Heights and True Love, which are our of print. We’ve got a few dozen copies of RTPH, but True Love will probably sell out completely in the next week or so. When they’re gone, it will be time to say “so much…for True Love…”
Kaori’s been playing with Photoshop, and has come up with some cute images, which we’ve christened the “official” J-List wallpaper. Check out the files on the About J-List page (down at the bottom).
