Greetings from Japan, where people inexplicably write last names in CAPITAL LETTERS.
In Japan, a meeting of friend for drinks near the end of the year is called a Forget-the-year Party (“bounen-kai”), and a party held after Jan 1 is a New Year’s party (“shinnen-kai”). I had a New Years meeting with some friends in Shibuya, one of the three main “playgrounds” of Tokyo, and we had a great time. My favorite restaurant in Shibuya, an authentic Italian restaurant with the unlikely name of DJ’s Bar & Grill, recently closed its doors, a victim of the Japanese recession, but we managed to have a great time anyway.
First, we had dinner at Anna Millers, a chain of restaurants known for having beautiful waitresses and the sexiest uniforms you’ve ever seen — the rumor is that the girls’ hourly wage goes up, the shorter she cuts her skirt. (See Kayama Juri’s photobook on the photobook page for an example of the uniform.) Then, we we went to a restaurant called the Buttsu (Budda) Trick Cafe, a fascinating place where all the food is a hodge-podge of Asian food. from Vietnamese spring rolls to Thai-style chicken and hot sauce — and everyone eats around a replica of the Giant Buddha of Kamakura. Be careful not to sit with your back to Buddha, or you may offend him. Finally, we headed over the Shibuya branch of TGI Friday’s for one of the rarest treats in Japan — frozen margaritas. It was fun to experience such unabashed Americanism for a change, but coming out of the restaurant to find myself on the streets of Tokyo kind of made my head spin.
For this evening’s update, we’ve got a carload of cool items for you. They include:
- Some excellent magazines, including the new issue of the always-popular Gal’s Shower, and a special “wide” issue of Urecco, called Urecco Super Beautiez, which features *18* of Japan’s most popular AV idols
- We have a bunch of all-new photobooks for you, including several lovely new books in the Bishojo Memorial series, and Minami Masako’s lovely underwater nude hardcover book
- Along with our new photobooks, we’ve got a great volley of some excellent sold out books — including more stock of Ariga Mih’s “Hommage” and several more
- We have another huge volley of excellent erotic manga, with not only all-new manga volumes, but many (more than a dozen) back in stock items — Distance, Chattaro, Hit Comics, and many more
- We’ve got fresh stock of all issues of the very popular G-Taste, the excellent hentai illustration book series by Yagami Hiroki
- Also update, our yaoi page, with new yaoi manga, including some very hardcore books
- For our video customers, we have two brand new releases on the Videos (new releases) page: G-Cup Lesbians, and Hinano Tubame’s lovely “Prime” erotic performance
- We have fresh discount videos for the discount page, with all videos receiving free shipping — check them out
- Morishita Kurumi fans will love the excellent “Morishita Kurumi: AV Actress, a fantastic 120 minute erotic video that takes you go Kuru-Kuru’s rural hometown, where you meet her mother and younger brother and hear what they think of Kurumi’s AV career — it’s a fantastic video for you
- Also, we’ve posted Kurumi’s first three AV releases, now available on DVD, on the region-2 code DVD page. Like all SOD’s DVD releases, they’re zoned for region two, but their high quality and bargain price (almost always cheaper than the video releases) make a strong case for looking into a region-free DVD player
- For anime fans, check out several items, including a cool Kubrish toy set featuring the famous Iron Man 28 robot figures
- We have fresh stock of several of our sold-out wooden signs, including my room, secret room, and It is forbidden to urinate here”
- Restocked items on our popular Wacky Things from Japan page include “hand of a grandchild” (mago no te), the excellent bamboo backscratchers, and those really cool Japanese eraser sets, featuring rubber erasers in the shape of sushi, curry rice, tempura, and other Japanese foods
- Finally, some all-new funny Japanese notebooks — useful, high-quality “perfect bound” blank notebooks with lines that won’t smear if you spill water on them, complete with ridiculous English printed on the covers. Enjoy!
We’ve posted a link to some excellent reviews of region-free DVD players, at the top of the region-2 DVD page, in case you’re looking for information on which region-free players are the best for you.
