[Apologies if you are receiving this message twice. We had a problem with our mail server and have had to resend last night’s J-List update.]
Greetings from Japan, where they love to invent words like “amenity communicator.”
Well, the existence of God has proven — we have our very first Starbuck’s in Isesaki. Ever since the company entered the Japanese market five years ago, Starbuck’s has quickly become a household name, bringing their coffee beans and delicious beverages to all corners of Japan. They’re so popular in Japan that it’s uncommon to wait in a line for 30 minutes in Tokyo just to order, and it’s very rare that you can sit down and relax in a Starbuck’s. Actually, in more crowded restaurants, they have “standing tables” that have no chairs — you just lean against the table as you drink your matcha frapachino. Starbuck’s are by no means rare or special in America, so I’m sure no one gets excited by yet another one opening. But to a foreigner living in rural Japan, it’s great news. We were also fortunate enough to happen by the store during their “open house,” where they gave out free coffee to everyone that wanted some. Incidentally, Japanese Starbuck’s drink sizes start with “small,” a small 8 oz cup, which would be far too small for Americans to drink.
Often, when products from America or Europe are marketed in Japan, they are sold by Japanese companies who license the brands from their owners. I can enjoy drinks like Canada Dry Ginger Ale or Bireley’s orange drink, but they don’t come from Canada or the UK — they come from the good old Asahi Beverage Company, and you can see the little Asahi corporate mark, hidden somewhere in the packaging. Nabisco goods are popular in Japan, but products like Ritz crackers are really made here by Yamazaki Bread Company and sold under the Ritz brand name. Recently, Tic Tacs (a word which sounds like “tick tock” to the Japanese) have appeared in Japan, courtesy of the Morinaga Confectionery Company. Oh well, they taste the same.
For the new pre-weekend update, we’ve got an extra special volley of items for you, including:
- First and foremost, we’re happy to announce that the film that sunk Titanic as the top-grossing film in Japan’s history, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, is in stock! A great 2-DVD set featuring English and French subtitles and much more, this is a wonderful film we hope you will not miss!
- Speaking of Studio Ghibli, we’ve got extremely limited stock of a super item: the Studio Ghibli DVD player, a beautiful compact region 2 DVD player that comes with many extras, including a copy of Spirited Away — you have to see this thing to believe it!
- Everyone in Japan knows there are some cool Hello Kitty items made in Japan, like Kitty refrigerators and even a limited edition Hello Kitty car made by Daihatsu. Well, we’re happy to announce that we’ve gotten in two excellent Hello Kitty toasters that brighten your kitchen toast your bread with Kitty’s face on it
- We have some nice new hardcover photobooks for fans of Japan’s lovely swimsuit idols
- We have some great new snack and food products for you, including a giant box of delicious Morinaga milk caramels, CC Lemon vitamin C candy, and cold Matcha drink mix that is just great
- Also, restocking of many items, including our popular mugi tea deluxe set, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, Shigekix sour “hard gummi,” Meiji’s Banana Choco, and more!
- Also, we’ve got stock of Wata Gum, a great Japanese gum that is like cotton candy (wata means “cotton” in Japanese), but when you put it in your mouth it turns to gum
- We have some cool toys in stock for, including toys based on Kellogg’s cereal’s characters, a positively cool Kubrick Bible, and a cool deluxe “The Dog” ashtray
- Other Hello Kitty items include Hello Kitty straws, more of those popular Kitty mayonaise cups which have so many uses, a Hello Kitty mechanical pencil, and more Kitty bento boxes
- Also, fresh stock of Hamster Club chopsticks, more bento related items like the fish soy sauce bottles, little cutters that turn sausages into cute little penguins, Buddhist incense, a handy little shaver, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- First, we’re happy to announce that our best-selling Hentai Anime Poker, a game in which you take on lovely girls of anime in five games of strip poker (including Texas Hold ‘Em), now comes with all 12 expansion pack girls free (a $25 value) — so you can enjoy everything about this great game!
- We have new magazines for fans of Japan’s lovely ladies, including the new Chibikkuri, devoted to short girls (under 5 feet or 150 cm), which is a major fetish in Japan
- We have new erotic photobooks, including a great item from Aida Garo, the famous Japanese nude photographer, and more
- For hentai manga collectors, enjoy the new works we’ve got in stock for you, including new “dick girl” comics (always a popular theme), a great game girl parody manga, and more
- Also, a great new yaoi manga featuring the works of 14 different talented artists — great for fans of Japan’s famous homosexual comics
- For fans of U-Jin, perhaps the single most famous Japanese hentai artist, we have more copies of that excellent Candy art book
- In San Diego, we’ve gotten in fresh stock of the popular Blue Eyes English-language manga, all ready for you to order
- We have more of the cool plastic paper protectors and shitajiki (plastic paper underlays) that have beautiful bishoujo game images on them
- For DVD fans we have many new items for you, starting with the “younger sister” of Kurumi Morishita, the lovely Ringo Kihara, age 19, who appears in her debut production (region free)
- The lovely and experienced Yukari Sakurada stars in “Endless Semen,” a very erotic new festival of bukkake by Dogma and Tohjiro (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, a great new exploration of “obscene kissing of amateur girls,” great for fans of Deep Kiss (region free)
- Also, yet another cool “Amateur Bukkake” DVD release, in which naive girls learn about bukkake and semen and more (region free)
- Finally, the lovely Sayaka Tsutsumi is an erotic ninja in a great new offering Natural High (region free).
J-List is very happy with the popularity of our wacky Japanese message T-shirts, which are selling very well. We get questions from customers regarding the T-shirts, some of whom are afraid that the T-shirts come in Japanese sizes. Happily, our T-shirts are all printed in the USA, on 100% cotton T-shirts (6.1 weight, the same as Hanes Beefy-T). To better serve you, we now stock all sizes of shirts, from size S all the way up to XXXL, and T-shirts ship out daily from our San Diego office.
