Hello again from Japan, where a movie release is called “road show” for reasons that are completely unfathomable to me.
It’s been four months since the World Trade Center tragedy, and many are still in shock over the horrible events. The Japanese underwent a not unsimilar tragedy in 1995, when the city of Kobe and parts of Osaka and Kyoto were destroyed by the Great Hanshin Earthquake. (Hanshin means “Kobe and Osaka”.) Today is the 7th anniversary of that awful day, and I still remember getting the urgent beep on my “pocket bell” (everyone carried pocket bells in those days, cellular phones were too expensive). 6000 Japanese lost their lives in the quake, as broken water pipes left fires to burn uncontrolled, with no water to fight the fires. Citizens took to the streets to try to reach loved ones, which made it impossible for emergency vehicles to reach those hurt. Before the quake, the Japanese had been silently smug about their ability to engineer buildings to withstand earthquakes, but the Kobe disaster was a big lesson in humility for them. Although the disaster was a terrible one, it was fortunate that it hit at 5 am — if it had been just two hours later, with the freeways and trains full of rush hour travelers, many more would have died.
I had visited Kobe myself just two months before the tragedy, to see the city and also to add another notch in my Old Spaghetti Factory belt — whenever I travel to a city that has an Old Spaghetti Factory, I am compelled to visit the restaurant (there’s one in Tokyo and Nagoya, too). It turned out that the manager of the Kobe branch had done a year of management training at the OSF in San Diego and we became friends, and he drove me around the city. I was happy to hear that the old restaurant (which was formerly a brick warehouse used to store torpedoes during World War II) suffered some damage, but none of the staff was hurt in the quake.
Do so sleep in a bed or on a futon? Both are popular in Japan, although the trend is definitely towards beds among young people. In Japan, futons are large pads large enough to sleep one person comfortably. They fold up into three sections for easy storage, and are useful to keep around when guests drop by unexpectedly. No bed for them? Just pull your spare futon out of the closet. Futons must be hanged out to dry every few days, or they will accumulate moisture inside, which is unhealthy. The Western “futon” is usually comprised of a large stuffed pad and a wooden frame, but like California Rolls, this is a completely made-in-the-the-West concept.
We’ve posted a link to a “faxable order form” for those customers who are more comfortable ordering from a form rather than through our website. You can fax the completed form to us and we’ll process your order. We still recommend the normal shopping cart of course — items you buy are reserved for you right away, rather than the next day — but the faxable form might be better for some customers. As always, please make sure you reserve items from J-List first before sending payment (some customers do this, and are disappointed when the items they want are sold already).
There’s a new manga magazine dedicated to “art, sex and CG culture,” and it’s called AG. A monthly publication from Icarus Comics that will feature English-translated Japanese hentai manga as well as erotic manga from independent artists in the U.S., this is an excellent new publication for adult manga lovers everywhere. The premier issue will be appearing in a few weeks — you can get it at your local comic shop, or from J-List (we’re making it available through automatic subscription, and we’ll carry stock of each issue as well). Since AG is only $4.99 per issue, we hope all manga fans will support the new magazine and make it a success.
J-List customers have been responding to our across-the-board price cuts on manga, DVD, video and other items, and we’ve been very busy trying to keep up with the orders. Be sure to check out all the reduced prices on these hundreds of items.
For the new update, we’ve got a truckload of cool new products for you, including:
- For adult magazine fans, we’ve got great new items for you, including the new Urecco Gal, the very erotic Do-Up and more
- Also, the premium magazines from the 1990’s sold out so fast, we’ve posted more for you — we’ve got some great issues of magazines that feature girls who are long since retired (see magazine page 2 for these)
- For Beppin School fans, we’ve got a rare treat — a selection of long sold-out issues (from 2000) which we were able to make available again for you. When they are gone they will be gone for good
- We have several beautiful hardcover photobooks featuring dynamite ladies like Fumika Suzuki and Miki Munemasa
- If you love manga, we’ve got another volley of new books for you, including the very erotic “Lewd Miracle Fairy”
- Also, a bunch of all-new doujinshi, never before seen on J-List and all obtained from the past Winter 2001 Comic Market, as well as a special treat: the Blue Eyes 2002 calendar featuring all of his wonderful busty female creations
- We’ve got a great selection of erotic DVDs for you, including the lovely Semen Paradise, performed by an adult video actress from mainland China, Emily (good for bukkake fans)
- For lovers of the sweet Ai Nagase, enjoy a *4 hour* “Thanks, Ai-Chan” erotic DVD, presenting 240 minutes of her best performances
- For Indies DVD (region 2) lovers, enjoy the very nice Nanami Nanase BeJean erotic offering from Monroe (which was accidentally not posted on Tuesday, sorry for the mistake)
- The bold and sexy Sally Yoshino is back, and looks damned good on her cowboy hat in “Hot Western”
- We have stock of both video and region 2 DVD of a superb new erotic performance by Aika Miura from the talented Moodyz
- Finally, in the “from Russia with Love” department, a very rare DVD for fans of Russian AV, which is quite popular here in Japan for some reason, a selection of 10 drop-dead gorgeous Moscow women performing with Japanese AV actors
- We’ve updated our Japanese snack and food pages with new items, including tasty Lamune candy and a cool “sampler” of various flavors of miso soup mix
- Also, we’ve got a delicious new flavor of Japanese Mousse Pocky, Matcha (slightly bitter green tea)
- For idol card lovers, we’ve got fresh stock of the Last Alive sexy idol card series
- For fans of cute things, we’ve got new Hello Kitty onigiri makers, chopsticks, mayonnaise holders and more, as well as some cool things for your desk (or your kid’s desk)
- Newly posted “wacky” items include oil-removing sheets disguised as a student’s notebook, a great way to measure rice for cooking, a classic wooden Japanese butter knife (yes, we thought so too, but it’s really cool), fresh stock of our incredibly popular ear cleaners with light, and a great way to get rid of cooking oil
- We’ve sold dozens of the Japanese warming pads, little packets that get very warm through a chemical reaction with the air around them and keep you toasty for up to 24 hours. Now we’ve gotten in stock of a deluxe 10-pack at a great price
- Finally, the ultimately cool tin toy item for Totoro fans, the deluxe “bus stop” wind up toy that will surely be a treasured item in your home — it’s very cool.
The J-Mate homepage has been updated with reviews of DVDs by two long-selling actresses, Akira Fubuki’s DVD Special and Bunko Kanazawa’s venerable Go Go! Kanabun Land (which is subtitled in English). See J-Mate for product reviews and English-translated interviews with all the girls we sell at J-List. The URL is http://www.jmate.com/
Products by wholesale: Because J-List is has unique access to many products from Japan that aren’t available to the outside world, we’ve always gotten many requests to make our products available on a wholesale basis. If you’ve got an established retail shop or online business and want to carry some of the products we sell, please see our wholesale page at http://www.jlist.com/wholesale/
