Hello and “Akemashite Omedetou” from all of us at J-List! The New Year is here, and J-List is happy to be back to work. We think 2002 is going to be our best year yet!
2002 will no doubt bring many new things to many new people. For Japan and Korea, 2002 is the Year of Cooperation and Good Relations, as the two countries are jointly hosting the World Cup. Everywhere you look there are signs of improved friendship between the two countries — everything from Korean film getting more attention in Japan to Japanese food companies bring more Korean tastes to customers. After the problems of last year, we’re very happy to see these changes. 2002 is also the Year of Soccer here in Japan, and about 40% of TV commercials manage to work the sport into whatever they’re selling. I have to admit that I’m not the biggest soccer fan in the world, but it is great to see everyone get so excited. Harumi, the girl who lovingly wraps outgoing J-List orders, is a huge soccer fan. If anyone knows how we could get tickets for any of the Japan games (tickets were not available to the public here at all), please let us know and we’ll pass the information on to her.
I received some questions about international drivers’ licenses when I mentioned them before, so I thought I’d give information on them. Annoying spam bouncing around the Internet aside, the international drivers’ license system basically allows you to go to a foreign country and, along with your normal valid license from home, drive legally. Japanese can go to the Japanese version of the DMV and get a Japanese version of the IDL and drive in the U.S. for up to 6 months, for example, and Americans can do the same in Japan (they get up to 1 year of driving, however). I once got an international driver’s license made at a passport photo shop, but was told by a Japanese policeman that the only ones that are really legal (and which will help you out if you’re in an accident) are the ones issued by AAA (Triple A). For foreigners living in Japan, it’s generally more convenient to keep an IDL and renew it each year. Because you’re not in the Japanese computer system, it’s virtually impossible to get a ticket for anything in Japan.
Japanese portable phone companies continue to duke it out, trying to give customers better features and keep NTT and NTT Docomo (the “Microsoft” of Japan) from swallowing their market share. J-Phone stresses their phones with cameras in them (now they’ve got little flashes for the phones), and AU boasts the Qualcomm “CDMA” phone standard, allowing you to go to several cities in Asia and America and use your Japanese phone (if you don’t mind paying $3 per minute). Now the first GPS phone has appeared — if you get lost, just call up a map of Tokyo on your phone and find out where you are. The idea sounds good, but after finding that I can’t even view Yahoo on my own Internet-enabled phone, I have to say I’ll wait and see how the technology unfolds.
The “Express Checkout” feature of J-List is now live, and so far it’s working really well. Basically, if you’ve already checked out once, you can make subsequent orders using the express checkout, and quickly select shipping, billing address, and payment method from a pull-down list. To add a new address or payment method (credit card, etc.) to your account, just check out once the old way, and the new information will be remembered. Just a note, by the way, that credit card numbers are not stored on the server at all — just the last four numbers are, for maximum safety.
For our first update of the new year, we’re coming out swinging, with a great lineup of new items for you. including:
- First, we’ve got the excellent new Gokuh, the oversized erotic
magazine from Eichi Publishing (great for Ami Ayukawa and Ichigo Milk fans)
- For Anna Ohura fans, we have limited stock of the dynamite
“Bauhaus Mook” filled with nothing but photos of the lovely 101 cm busty
idol
- We’ve got other mags for you too, including some really nice
amateur and kogal sex books, and a new issue of EX CD-ROM (a value-priced
adult magazine with a free video CD of footage)
- We have two great DVD ‘ magazine combos — DVD Wow, featuring 2
hours of super pro AV, and a rare treat, Aika Miura and Hikaru Oishi in a
bold bondage magazine + DVD coupling
- Just because we love you, we’ve got a super line-up of new
photobooks for you, featuring lovely girls like Shinobu Kasagi and Maria
Yumeno and more — both hardcover and softcover photobooks in stock
- If you are into Japan’s manga erotica, enjoy the double portion
of books we’ve posted for you, including the excellent “Refrection”
(Reflection) by the renowned hentai artist Okawari, the uncensored erotic
manga Engine Room, and more, as well as fresh stock of some great manga
works that were sold out
- A sneak peak from the December Comic Market, we’ve got a
beautiful “Busty Girls of Doujin” calendar, with 13 large pages capturing
beautiful huge-breasted anime girls — but we’ve only got three, so hurry
- For DVD and adult video lovers, we’ve got another can’t-be-beat
volley for you — first, from the new Hot Entertainment there’s a superb
120 minute lesbian DVD with great lesbian eros (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, three great DVD titles: the lewd “Semen
Hospital” (a very erotic place to get medical care), a new “Study of Men’s
Penis by Innocent Girls” in which 18 year old girls see, touch and “study”
a penis for the first time, and a great rape-play offering (all
region-free)
- From Moodyz, a superb erotic “soap girl” performance by Bunko
Kanazawa (DVD-2)
- If you love the delightful Rin Tomosaki, you’ll love her new
cosplay DVD by Wanz Factory, with anime, maid, sports wear and kimono
erotic costumes
- From Audaz, a very erotic “busty lesbian orgy” (VHS) and a
dynamite “Violent Shoot” performance by Maria Yumeno (DVD-2 or VHS) — best
of all, you get a free packet of sex lotion in each Audaz DVD
- A cool new offering from Aroma, a beautiful actress is deprived
of the senses of sight and hearing as she’s teased and fucked
- Also: a fun erotic “Morning Tekoki Musume” video for fans of
the pop group, and a super performance with the lovely Ai Nagase
- Finally, for fans of S’M themes, a very cool “Bondage Battle”
with three lovely AV idols, including Maiko Yuuki
- For fans of the incredibly high-quality “cold cast” figures
made in Japan, we’ve got limited stock (exactly one) of two beautiful
figures from Kia Asamiya’s manga Duplex Divine. The figures are truly
incredible and must be seen to be believed (we’ll order more so we have
stock in the future)
- Also on our anime ‘ toys page, we’ve got some cool stuffed
black cats from the Miyazaki film Kiki’s Delivery Service
- We’ve lowered the prices of our color bishoujo T-shirts based
on Peach Princess’s games, as we close out our stock to make room for
making new shirt designs. Help us out by picking up some Peach Princess
T-shirts!
- If you like being able to buy the Japanese snacks and food
items J-List sells, we’ve got some delicious Lamune candy (in many
flavors), as well as a major restock of some of our most long-selling
items, Milky Strawberry candies, the delicious Milky white carmels, and
more
- We’ve got some wacky traditional items for you, including some
cool Buddhist prayer beads (which you can also use as fashionable
bracelets), a super traditional bamboo dish, and more
- Finally, find a slew of all-new Wacky Things from Japan for
you, including a Hello Kitty pocket tissue holder (works with the J-List
tissues you get free with each order, too!), a jumbo deck of playing cards,
the ultimate food storage containers for your kitchen, a rare Japanese pan
that can make square omelets, and a great vacuum attachment that will get
your house really clean, and more. Please stop by and check out what we’ve
got for you!
Once again, all of us at J-List would like to wish you a peaceful and prosperious Happy New Year. “Kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu” is what Japanese say when they greet each other for the first time each year, and it’s an odd phrase that is really hard to translate accurately — something like “Please let us serve you again this year” is pretty close. So…please let us serve you!
