Hello again from all of us in Japan!
One of the engines that drives Japanese society and makes Japanese people the way they are is called “hito no me” (HEE-toh noh meh), which translates as “the eyes of others.” In all that you do in Japan, there is the sense that you’re being watched by everyone around you, and that if you stray too far outside the invisible lines of what is acceptable you’ll be judged harshly. This tendency to be concerned with how you appear in the eyes of people is a big part of Japanese daily life, and it’s part of the reason why Japan can seem a very homogenous place when viewed from the outside. In Japan, you throw your garbage out on set days, and knowing what kind of trash is okay to put out on any given day can require a Master’s Degree in Trashology. But if you don’t follow the rules and put exactly the right trash out that morning (not, by the way, the night before), you’ll suffer the ire of the ever-watching people around you, which subtly causes you to conform in ways that no threat of punishment could. Since most people in Japan are considerably thinner than they are in the States (at 100 kg, I am gargantuan for Japan, and have been asked by Japanese if I was a K-1 fighter), there is always that pressure to conform to the others around me and lose weight–which is a good thing of course. In the U.S., we try to value adversity and individuality, and if we saw someone walking under an umbrella even though it wasn’t raining outside, we might chuckle and say that he dances to his own tune. But in Japan there’s less chance that doing something that no one else is doing will be viewed in a favorable light.
Related to “hito no me” is the idea of “joshiki,” a word which translates to “common sense” but means much more. The Japanese all seem to have a built-in common sense, ideas about the way things work, and they are very much in harmony with each other. It is “joshiki” that all kids will go to school to be taught and brought up as happy citizens of the society, and so there is homeschooling in Japan. Similarly, it is common sense that babies be born in hospitals, and so there is very little in the way of alternate birthing here. An American friend of mine who was pregnant planned on having her baby and going back to work a few months later, but unfortunately, this goes against the “joshiki” rule that mothers should spend the first few years at home with their children before coming back to work, and she found herself blocked at every pass. This “all powerful common sense” that the Japanese seem to possess is always at work in Japan.
There’s an unfortunate phenomenon that affects all Japanese who use computers or “waapro” (word processors) at work: they lost almost all ability to write Kanji, or Chinese characters. With the steady acceptance of computers into Japanese life, many people use keyboards all day long, and as a result, almost never actually write characters by hand. Because kanji is a very structured system, not writing it for long periods of time really makes you forget how to write (although reading ability is retained). I imagine this happens not only with Japanese, but with all cultures that use kanji. Sadly, I am affected by this as well, as I almost never hand-write Japanese anymore, and it’s shocking when I go to write an elementary character but can’t bring it up in my mind.
We’ll be making a server move to a much faster machine sometime over the next week. We’re letting you know just in case anything fails to work right during the changeover. We think it will go smoothly but if you should notice anything that doesn’t seem right, please email us about it and we’ll check it right away. Thanks!
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for fans of Japanese snacks, we’ve got some unique and rare tastes for you, including green tea flavored caramel chips, pineapple pie snacks new onigiri mix and fresh, shredded ika (if you don’t know what ika is, don’t ask)
- Also if you love the popular anime Naruto, we’ve got some cool gummi Naruto figures that are fun to eat
- For fans of beautiful CG girls, enjoy the N.U.D.E.@ digital art book, featuring a robotic princess that you teach and bring up
- For those fascinated with Japanese high school uniforms, either because they want to make replicas for cosplay at anime conventions or they just like how cute they are, we’ve got two new pocket photobooks featuring the cutest sailor uniforms in all Japan
- For fans of sexy swimsuit idols like Miho Yoshioka and Yoko Matsugane, enjoy the Kira Kira Sexy Idol Magazine
- Want to see cool Japanese late-night TV? Check out the new Grasshoppa, featuring some of the boldest and funniest Japanese TV and skits, and all subtitled in English for your enjoyment
- Also, we’ve gotten in a great photobook for Japanese Race Queen fans, the lovely Pit Queen
- Kubrick block figures are incredibly popular all over the world — we’ve got a brand new series of these great toys for you, three different Shrek sets from Medicom Toy. Sold only in Japan!
- If you think the cool Japanese cars of the 1960s and 70s were cool, we’ve got a rare set of die-cast vehicles from Tomy for you, including the original Honda Civic, the Toyota Corolla II, and the Nissan Bluebird
- Happy faces are everywhere in Japan, and we’ve got two parody “happy face picnic sheets” that are plastic sheets for you to sit on while at the park — they’re wacky and loaded with funny English
- Just in time for summer, we’ve got some great Japanese sandals, which are called “beach-san” in Japanese, from “beach sandals” — they have the Japanese character for “shave ice” printed on them
- Also great for summer, some beautiful Japanese wind chimes that gentle ring in the breeze
- If you love Hello Kitty, we’ve got some cool Kitty nail polish bottles that come in great colors and are really cute for collectors, too
- We’ve got a great item: a Japanese hanko case that features a funny parody of a Japanese salaryman on top, who dances when you use it
- Studying Japanese? We carry many items to help you including a fun item, a dictionary of four-character Japanese phrases
- For your kitchen, we have food separators for bento, delicious wasabi, sushi makers, and more!
- Finally, look for a great way to protect your food from flies, a fun Kitty brush for little ones or big, a handy case for remembering your medicine,
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of great Japanese adult magazines, we’ve got the new Urecco for you, filled with jaw-dropping beautiful women including both kogal amateurs and top-name AV stars
- Then enjoy a great amateur magazine, Bjam, which features real Japanese girls doing real hardcore in love hotels
- Nao Oikawa looks lovely in her new hardcover photobook, “Naked Heart” which we have for you
- Also, we’ve gotten fresh stock of the popular Make Lovers, a beautiful hardcore magazine featuring the sex of couples in love
- Then enjoy the super sexy body of top Japanese swimsuit idol Harumi Namoto, an amazing and sexy idol for you
- If you love Japan’s fascination with “dick girls” and hermaphrodites, we’ve got a new issue of New Half DX for you
- If you love hentai manga, enjoy several great new books, including the erotic “Prisoner of Sodom” by Fujimi Comics and AV Comic’s “The Secret Date Club”
- Also, we’ve got great newly restocked manga including Slap Me With Your Breasts, Aero and a major restocking of the Paradise Lost Evangelion hentai manga series — new yaoi manga too!
- Be sure to order the excellent vol. 6 of Tohru Nishimaki’s Blue Eyes, too — it’s up for preorder now
- For doujinshi fans, another treat: new Please Teacher manga from Behind Moon, although they will sell out fast if recent history is a guide
- For our DVD collecting customers, we’ve got some great new titles for you, starting with a new “The Idol” release featuring 180 minutes of Ami Sakurai’s delightful pure sex (region free)
- Dogma brings you the erotic kissing and sex of Kurumi Morishita as directed by Hitoshi Nimura — an incredibly erotic performance, and she looks damned good in that cowboy hat (region free)
- Then from Soft on Demand, see Hikaru Inoue as the bukkake nurse, an erotic lady who swallows semen most happily (region free)
- Also from SOD, Ayami Sakurai is an elegant and experienced high-class soap lady who uses her fabulous body to clean you and make you happy (region free)
- A great “adult gravure movie” from Wanz Factory features an erotic “image DVD” of Mai Satoh, with many great erotic images of her incredibly sexy body for you (and at a great price too) (region 2)
- Then see the super erotic Ria Nanami and her fetish mania, with many fun fetishes explored (including ashi-koki, foot masturbation, and much more (region 2)
- For hentai DVD fans, we’ve gotten in fresh stock of a half dozen or more popular titles, too (region 1)
- Finally, even more freshly restocked DVDs, including the excellent Lesbian Heaven 4 Hours Special, Ran Asakawa’s “Masterpiece Concentration” offering, 4 hours of the best of Momo Aida (one of my personal favorite AV idols from the 90’s), and Let’s Do Sex with Ai Nagase.
Bewildered at Bishoujo? Confused about Kogal? Head hurting over Hentai? If you’re confused at some of the terms used on the J-List site and this updates list (which can be quite out there, we admit), be sure to check out our online J-List Glossary of Terms — the link is on our site, right below the product category listing on the left side of your browser window. We explain all confusing terms from Anime to Tekoki and more. We’ve recently updated the list, too, so check it out.
If you’ve got friends who may be interested in the wacky brand of Japanese pop culture J-List provides, why don’t you tell them about us? We’d love to have you share J-List with your friends, family and coworkers — please let them know about us! Thanks in advance from your friends in Japan.
