Hello again from your friends at J-List!
First of all, we’ve had some problems with the J-List shopping cart taking orders, sending the initial auto replies, then somehow losing the orders before we process them. We’re checking into the problem, but if you’ve made any orders in the past ten days and haven’t gotten updates from us on the order (letting you know when it was charged, when it was shipped, and so on), please email us right away. We’re very sorry for any problems.
There are some words that the Japanese are doomed to have problems with, due to the fact that Japanese is a rather phonetically impoverished language, with just 5 vowels and a limited repertoire of sounds produced normally. The sounds of L/R are not differentiated in Japanese, which makes some English words hard for them — hence, jokes about the Japanese sending Viagra to the U.S. because we couldn’t get an election. The Japanese are less likely to use the Internet term “FAQ” because in Japanse, it has the same pronunciation as another famous word that starts with F. “Curb” and “curve” are very similar words, but their meanings are still slightly different. In Japanese, though, the English word “curb” (kaabu) fills both meanings. And once, while standing in a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Yokohama, I remarked that the Japanese pronunciation of the word Colonel — “kaanaru” — sounds like the English word “carnal” (i.e., relating to the physical and especially sexual appetites). It turned out that the girl taking my order was a Japanese girl who had grown up in the States, so she knew English perfectly and understood what I said — boy was I embarrassed.
All countries have what the Japanese call a “kokuminsei” or a kind of “national personality.” One aspect of the Japanese kokuminsei is that they tend, by and large, to think and act in a group, without any members taking initiative to act. On Sunday, we were rushing to the movie theater to see Harry Potter (we waited this long to let the crowds thin out: when a movie is popular in Japan, it is really popular!). There was a four-car accident ahead of us, though, which totally blocked all the cars on the road — even the ambulance couldn’t get to the site of the crash because of all the cars. Amid all that confusion, one person had the good sense to get all the drivers’ attention and get them to back up, so that everyone trapped on the road could turn off onto a side road and get around the accident: it was my wife. Single-handedly she guided the congested cars back freed everyone, and we got to the movie in time. I gained new respect for my wife that day — no doubt her time living in the U.S. gave her insight into how Japanese peoples’ minds work.
The Japanese love movies, and many Japanese follow Hollywood and European films quite closely. Virtually all American films are shown over here, and they do very well (Titanic did 30% of its gross in Japan). American films must be translated into Japanese, and this can take time, which causes delays in the release schedules (for example, Evolution has just started playing in Japan, although it was in theatres in the U.S. last summer). Studios who want to have a successful film run in Japan make sure they get their films translated by the #1 movie translator, Natsuko Toda, who is so in demand that she gets to determine what movies Japanese people see and when. For a movie to get released in the U.S. and Japan at the same time, the studio had to have worked very hard to get the Japanese translation done quickly. There’s one problem for movies for kids in Japan — Japanese children are too young to read the subtitles. So movies like Star Wars Episode One and Harry Potter are shown in two versions, subtitled and dubbed. When we saw Harry Potter, my kids were the only children in the entire theater (all the other kids were in the dubbed version). One interesting aspect of the Japanese watching a film via subtitles — a Hollywood thriller and say, a French art film are both grouped together, since the Japanese are getting information through the subtitles and are not understanding the spoken lines in the film. Thus, films that might not get attention in the U.S. because they are “foreign” and have to be watched through subtitles, can have greater success in Japan.
For the first update of the new week, we’ve ot a bunch of excellent items for you, including:
- First, new magazines, including some nice new amateur magazines and more
- We’ve got a bunch of cool past issues of magazines posted for you, both premium and $5-6 discount magazines, too
- We have some gorgeous hardcover photobooks featuring lovely swimsuit idols, for fans of truly beautiful Japanese girls, as well as a beautiful erotic photobook by Yuuki Maiko
- If you bondage material, we’ve got a special DVD and magazine combination item for you, featuring the erotic performances of Nene Mochizuki and Ruka Aida (both very lovely)
- Look for many nice erotic manga volumes for you, including new volumes of the very cool Pururun Seminar large breast series from Chosuke Nagashima and more
- Also, for serious doujinshi collectors we’ve got another dozen or so all-new doujinshi posted, all of which were just released at the past Comic Market last December
- We have some excellent DVDs for you, too. From Soft on Demand, Nanami Nanase stars in a “virtual rape” performance for fans of rape play fetish themes
- One of our most popular items from Moodyz has been its “black men vs. Japanese girl” offerings, and now we’ve got a new one in which a pretty Japanese girl takes on a room full of big black guys from the U.S. (they rap while sliding the girl’s lotion-coated body over their own)
- Finally, for lovers of Ai Nagase, enjoy her “AV Special Training” performance in which she undergoes many challenges to become the best AV performer ever
- Also: fresh stock of many of our most popular DVDs, including Lesbian Room, Dream Gakuen 2, Costume Play 4H and the best-selling “All About Ai Nagase”
- In February, Japanese have a fun custom — they throw special beans out their door and shout “Out with devils! In with happiness!” You can take part in this custom this year, since we’re stocking Japanese Happiness Beans
- We’ve updated our Japanese snacks and food page, with many neat items, including chocolate covered sunflower seeds (yes, you read right), more delicious Lamune candy, and a special treat, the Mousse Pocky dark chocolate flavor that’s only available in the winter
- Also: for Japanese gum fans, we’ve posted fresh stock of the delicious Xylish sugarless stick type, with Xylitol, a very potent product that fights cavities (it comes from Finland)
- Finally, look for cute magnetic Japanese hiragana letters, new stickers and other Hamster Club character goods, new chopsticks and items for your kitchen, and much more!
Remember that J-List has a great selection of unique and bizarre Japanese T-shirts with funny messages, from the now-famous “I’m looking for a Japanese girlfriend” to “I’m a strange foreigner” and more. While we don’t recommend wearing our unique T-shirts when you go to meet your new Japanese in-laws for the first time, they are fun and will get you many laughs and much attention from Japanese people who spy you with the shirt on. The “girlfriend” shirts have proved effective on several occasions, according to customer reports…
Also, we’ve dropped the price of the hit game Three Sisters’ Story all the way down to $9.95 (from $34.95), to let fans check out his great game before it goes out of stock. This is a great interactive game in which you guide your character through a story of sex, intrigue and revege — why not pick up a copy now? For Windows 95/98/Me and DOS.
The J-Mate site has been updated again, with a hot new interview with the popular Yuuki Maiko (she tells what made her go into the adult video world), as well as a review of her newest photobook (which we happen to have in stock for you). See it at http://www.jmate.com/
