Hello from Japan, that hot, humid but eminently fun country.
Well, Japan officially has a 2000 yen note, now that the new bills are in circulation. Previously Japan has had an enormously simple currency structure, with only 1000, 5000 and 10, 000 yen notes. The new bill is quite beautiful, with a depiction of Murasaki Shikibu (the author of A Tale of Genji and creator of the hiragana syllibery) and a famous temple in Okinawa on the other. If you want to see what it looks like, the links are http://www.jlist.com/shop/b3/2000yenfront.jpg and http://www.jlist.com/shop/b3/2000yenback.jpg.
Summer is a wonderful time for festivals as a way of taking your mind off the hot sun here in Japan. The other day we attended a great local festival in which preschoolers from several area schools put on performances for everyone. My son Kazuki and his class put on a great performance using Japanese taiko drums, and I filmed and made a little movie using our Macs and iMovie. If you’re interested in seeing a slice of life from Japan or just like Japanese kids playing Japanese taiko drums, the link is http://www.myjapan.net/peter/taiko_2000.html . I also finally got around to posting some of my images from Spain, if you’re interested in seeing some of what we saw in Malaga and Barcelona. The link is http://www.myjapan.net/peter/spain.html . (Both pages require Quicktime 4.)
For tonight’s update, we’ve got some nice new items, including:
- First, new issues of our excellent Japanese magazines, including Video Boy, Best Video, and the very popular Beppin School
- In addition to our excellent magazines, we’ve got several great back-in-stock photobooks, including more copies of Mezame by Nishihara Kyoko, Kusanagi Jun’s Kubire 2 and Hitomi Ryo’s excellent Virginity hardcover photobook
- For fans of gouka-bon, Japan’s excellent and rare S&M and bondage/fetish photobooks, we’ve got several new and available-again offerings, including some great bondage, butt-friend, lesbos and “new half” items
- There are a half-dozen or so excellent new manga on the manga pages (on the “new releases” page), including some excellent offerings by Peace Comics and Zero-Shiki Comics
- If you’re a dojinshi fan, we’ve got more dojinshi for you, including fresh stock of the excellent Burajiru and Buy or Die, by Okachimentaiko
- Hentai CG art book fans will appreciate the additional copies of Ohno Tetsuya’s “Pussy Cat” on that page
- We’ve got more excellent and fun new videos in-stock, including SOD’s “Won’t you Tekoki?” series, various new videos in the popular Idol Shower (sperma) series, Hoshino Mai’s “Lewd Woman” video performance, Kawashima Azumi’s deflowering, and more — see these videos on the Japan AV Gals and SOD pages
- If you like our funky Japanese items, we’ve got some more for you — including a new “it is forbidden to urinate here” sticker as well as the universal Japanese “emergency exit” sign, and more — see them on the Anime (Trendy Goods) page
- We still love those Japanese headbands, and have some fresh stock for you
- There is another volley of new JPOP items, including some nice “maxi singles” (long-playing singles)
- Finally, I loved the old corny Japanese robot & rubber monster show Giant Robo (in America, it was shown as Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot). We’ve got the villain robot, GR2, on the anime toys page, a wonderful “miracle action figure” for any Japanese toy fan.
Remember that J-List carries the only bizarre, esoteric T-shirts with Japanese slogans on them you’re likely to find anywhere in the world. Our currently best-selling T-shirt says “Beware Perverts in the Area” and is a great way to get some attention from Japanese people.
