Greetings from J-List January 28, 2000

Hello again from Japan, where Nutrasweet is known as “Slim Up Sugar.”

The Japanese do love to bathe, and most foreigners living here get caught up in this passion. Going to onsens (hot springs) is the national leisure activity of Japan, and billions are spent annually. Since Japanese have the highest longevity in the world, it would be interesting to see a scientific test done, to see if the daily relaxation gotten from the daily bath had long–term beneficial effects on a person’s health.

My kids and I love baths, too — we have a fancy computer console in our bathroom that fills the bath for you to the preset level and temperature then beeps when it’s ready. I also take the kids out to our favorite public bath/sauna, Furo 21, at least once a week. Parents bathing with their kids provides what the Japanese have come to call “skinship” — the important skin-to-skin relationship between parents and children.

Since the weekend is upon us, we’ve got an extra good update for J-List readers. The new items added to the site include:

• A large volley of new parody game manga, including several volumes of the Electronic Fighting Daughter and Electronic Love Daughter series, in stock!
  
• For fans of dojinshi and fan-created computer images, we’ve got a nice new selection of floppy and CD-R-based “dojin-soft” with some really excellent images, including some playable games, on the dojinshi page.
  
• New magazines, including some excellent new “one shot” magazines on Magazine pages 1 and 2, as well as more of the popular $5 magazine on page 3 (including some “lost” Urecco issues)
  
  A bunch of new in-stock videos, including Asakura Mai, Yumeno Maria, and the lovely Ozawa Madoka (see in-stock videos page 1)
  
• More special-order videos, for people who want to reserve their own copies of the newest, most popular before they come in stock — we’ve got some nice ones, including Sakurai Fuka, a nice Elevator Girl item, and more
  
• A fresh infusion of some all-new Year 2000 calendars, including some unique “beauty of Japan” ones that we’re interested in getting feedback on. See most of the calendars on photobook page 1, although some of the anime/JPOP calendars are on those respective pages.
  
• New puzzles, including a new lovely artwork puzzle by Morita Haruyo (a character from traditional Japan) as well as a super puzzle item for Morning Musume fans
  
• Finally, a long-deserved update to our Japanese Snacks page, with fresh stock of the delicious “Mogi Mogi Fruits” (Gummi fruit trees) at a lower price, as well as two all-new items: Delicious Gummi Pokemon candy, and one of my all favorite snacks of all time, Shigekix, the incredibly tart lemon “hard gummi” candy. We’re very happy to be able to bring these cool treats to people living outside of Japan.
  

To better serve our customers and protect your privacy, we’ve made some changes to the order form, allowing you to better specify how you want your package sent from J-List. Gift wrapping is now an option (either for sending gifts to a friend, or as added protection against customs agents in certain countries). You can opt for a completely hand-written label, too, in addition to the “no J-List return address” option. We hope these improvements will serve you!

Thanks for checking out J-List. We hope you have a great weekend!