Hello and TGIF from your friends at J-List!
One change that has come about in the past few years in Japan: there is more analysis of business and investing on Japanese TV. While a lot of the news is needlessly negative, there are reports of success stories, companies who are beating poor business conditions through innovation. One man who operates office buildings in Tokyo is doing well because he made long-term investments in superior air-conditioning systems decades ago, which lowers his overall operating costs compared to his competitors. Another company that happens to be located just up the street from us has struck it rich buying dilapidated old Japanese houses, “reforming” (remodeling) them so that they’re brand new, and selling them for a tidy profit. (Old houses have no value in Japan, because after all, who would buy a “used” house when you can just knock it down and build a new one? Only land has value here.) In crowded Tokyo, “1 tsubo” businesses that rent the narrow space between two buildings (which is 2 tatami mats, or 1 tsubo, in width) and operate small shops, are also quite popular. Other companies doing well in Japan today include firms streamlining farming of vegetables for “salad in a bag” factories, motorcycle delivery companies that zip your documents around Tokyo in a short time, and American-style temporary staffing services, which didn’t really catch on in Japan before the current era of “risutora” (Japanese for “layoff” coming from the English word “restructuring”).
Another category of business that got its big break in the current Japanese recession is the “recycle shop,” Japanese parlance for a shop that buys stuff that people don’t need anymore, cleans it up, and sells it for a profit. Everything from rice cookers to washing machines to skis to books and CDs are bought and sold in Japan’s new retail underground, the recycle shops. The most successful of these is BookOff, a chain of used book stores that has 700+ locations in Japan and a few in the U.S. Time’s Asian edition called founder Takashi Sakamoto “the most hated man in the Japanese publishing business,” because he has found a way around the Japanese laws that forbid selling of books and music CDs at less than list price. While virtually all new books and CDs are sold at full list in Japan, BookOff is able to undercut everyone by selling used merchandise. BookOff is expanding into other areas too, with ToyOff (they sell “almost new” children’s toys) and HouseOff (selling goods for your home). A competitor of BookOff has taken the bizarre name of HardOff, supposedly implying that their discounts are bigger than BookOff’s.
At J-List, we carry a huge number of great English-translated dating-sim games that allow you to interact and find love with incredibly beautiful anime girls. We also carry CD-ROMs of licensed hentai artwork CG from top Japanese doujinshi artists, including the Borderline series, a collection of beautiful erotic Evangelion artwork (Dream World II), airbrush erotic collections, and more. These low-cost CD-ROMs are great ways for you to get full collections of uncensored CG artwork and support the artists at the same time. One of our favorites is the Creamy Angel series of incredibly detailed bukkake and hermaphrodite parody images, which have been incredibly popular since we first came out with them. Now we’re happy to announce that the excellent vol. 3 of Mashitaka’s incredible artwork will be released soon. We’ve posted Creamy Angel 3 on the J-List site for fans who want to preorder this great selection of supreme hentai CG — you’ll love Mashitaka’s lovely goddesses!
Also, want to read through the new JAST USA catalog of bishoujo games, with all the great games by Peach Princess and G-Collections and other companies listed with full descriptions? It’s available in PDF format here (Adobe Acrobat Reader required): http://www.jastusa.com/Merchant2/JAST_Catalog.pdf
For the weekend update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for fans of unique and tasty snacks from Japan, we’ve got some great new items, including orange cookies, Curl sticks, delicious soup and Hamtaro choco wafers that comes with stickers inside
- Also, see fresh stock of the delicious chocolate-filled fish-shaped crackers, Pucca
- We’ve got new Japanese sandals, this time very stylish “setta” sandals that feature soft leather on top and foam or leather soles — very cool and very Japanese
- If you love Hello Kitty, we’ve got some nice Kitty items for your kitchen and bento, including a set of Kitty chopsticks with case, a fun Kitty cup with mascot, and more
- Also for your kitchen, a handy small spatula that’s great for preparing Japanese food like Monjayaki and Okonomiyaki
- American kickboxer Bob Sapp the big huggy bear of the Japanese TV commercial and variety show scene — we’ve got a cool figure of him for collectors
- For fans of Tomica, the excellent die-cast metal cars from Tomy, we’ve got two cool police vehicles that are cute and uniquely Japanese
- If you love JPOP idols, don’t miss Takako Uehara’s bold and sexy photobook, shot in beautiful France
- For fans of the great anime Please! Teacher, we’ve got a super official fanbook filled with art and data from the series
- Also, we’ve got a great trading card series of Maki Gotoh, the super cute pop star and former member of Morning Musume
- Final Fantasy is extremely popular in Japan right now — there’s a great Final Fantasy Creatures fan book that comes with a beautiful PVC figure
- The Glico Running Man is a famous trademark of the Glico snack company — now there’s a cool series of Kubrick figures featuring the Glico characters used over the years (but stock is very limited)
- If you’d like to secure soap, toothpaste and other items to your bathroom wall, try Pittanco, a cute little two-way suction cup pad that really sucks
- For fans of She, the Ultimate Weapon, we’ve got fresh stock of the special version of the DVD that comes with a limited edition PVC figure
- Going abroad and want something to keep documents in? Or just need to compartmentalize a bit more? We’ve got some candy clear cases from japan in stock for you
- For fans of loose socks, the cute bulky socks that Japanese high school girls wear, we’ve got fresh stock of “socks glue” which is glue specially designed to hold your socks up!
- For fans of the Japan-only Hot Wheels, enjoy new stock of the Delorean from Back to the Future, very cool
- Also, we’ve got cool figures from Castle in the Sky Laputa and Kiki’s Delivery Service, all very cool indeed
- For shutterbugs, we’ve got an inexpensive tripod for a small camera that’s great to carry around with you, very handy
- Finally, look for a great Hello Kitty gift bag, more funny sign plates with Japanese on them, quality Japanese correct pens, healthy Japanese tea, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of deliciously beautiful AV stars and nude models, enjoy the new issue of Gokuh, featuring many lovely girls for you and Mai Satoh in a full-sized body poster
- Also, we’ve got the new issue of Yasashiku Shite ne!! (Be Gentle With Me), featuring real sex of real couples who love each other — it’s really quite fresh and cool
- Then enjoy a full color magazine and 150 minute DVD full of fun erotic samples and “quickies” for you
- For photobook fans, enjoy several new gorgeous hardcover books, including former idol Aki Kajiwara’s erotic nude photobook, the erotic body and “Declaration of Apron” of Akari Aoki and more
- Restocked photobooks including two high school uniform encyclopedia photobooks, Yui Ichikawa’s great hardcover photobook, Sola Aoi’s “Blue,” and the wonderful “Hitorigoto” (“Talking to myself”) of Yuko Ogura
- Also, we’ve got a great all-bondage photobook featuring detailed tying of 28 women — very nice
- For collectors of great hentai manga, we’ve got tons of new items for you in time for the weekend –see a new collection of works by Toh Moriyama (aka Naoki Yamamoto, creator of Dance Til Tomorrow), great stories of forbidden love, and more
- Also, we’ve posted another big update of restocked manga items including Immoral Maria, Pussy Box, Married Woman’s Lecherous Discipline and the great collection of hentai Chobits doujinshi
- Speaking of doujinshi, we’ve restocked the excellent “dick girl” doujinshi and CG of the circle Behind the Moon
- For yaoi fans, we’ve got a great new b-Boy Zips compilation manga too, featuring erotic stories from eight artists
- For DVD lovers, we’ve got some great items for you, starting with a fabulous “DVD Photo Shot DX” that captures 18 beautiful all-star AV idols on camera for you (region free)
- Then enjoy a total of 4 hours of the sweet sex of Saori Kamiya’s pure and excellent sex, in a great release from Million (region free)
- Then enjoy the great erotic action of three lovely girls — Rin Nohara, Asuka and Sora Aoi — in a great DVD for fans of pretty girls (region free)
- Kazuhiko Matsumoto, or M’s Factory, is the man solely responsible for inventing the concept of “bukkake” — he teams up with the lovely Ruri Anno in a very special release for bukkake fans, from Dogma (region free)
- In Japan, there’s a fetish for erotic and experienced women (called “chijo,” meaning slut or lewd woman) going after male virgins — see the best of Male Virgin Hunter series from Soft on Demand in a new release (region free)
- Then enjoy female cat fighting, SOD style, in a new release in the Lesbian Fight series (region free)
- The cat-like and erotic Ram Nagase (aka Lum Nagase, the spelling I personally prefer), is truly lovely in hew great new release
- Finally, fresh stock of several popular DVDs, including Queen Bee Honey, Anna Ohura’s “Give Me Love,” Yinling of Joytoy’s erotic feature film, and more!
Remember that J-List carries the super-cute plush pets known in the Groomy series, from Elecom. Not only are these cute plush dogs and cats fun to touch and hold, their soft chamois bottoms are the perfect material for wiping your computer monitor clean. A uniquely Japanese item that will brighten your day! To find them on our site just search for “Groomy.”
Also remember that J-List carries many cute items for your kitchen, including bento boxes and accessories, Japanese chopsticks (both basic ones for general use and cute chopsticks), sushi and onigiri molds, wacky Japanese kitchen containers, and more. Please check out the “Kitchen and Bento” section of the Wacky Things from Japan page for all these great items!
The J-Mate website has been updated again, with new reviews of cool products from Japan including the game Sensei 2. Be sure and browse through our products reviews, including lots of bishoujo games and DVDs, with plenty of screenshots for you to check out too. The URL is http://www.jmate.com/
