Hello from Japan. Chiharu and I are back in the Land of the Rising Sun after 24 hours or so in transit. Spain was wonderful, but it is nice to be home.
Coming back from Europe to Japan has been a new lesson in reverse culture shock. Jerking ourselves out of the relaxing and slower-paced style of living that the Spanish enjoy and coming back to busy, bustling Japan has been a little difficult. Quite used to going back and forth between California and Japan, Europe was a while new collection of interesting experiences for us. Just to make it more fun, I heightened my sense of cultural displacement last night by watching, back to back, the U.S. Godzilla followed by Godzilla vs. Destroyer with my son.
While we were away, the mother of Emperor Akihito passed away at the age of 97. A formal, strict woman, Japan’s version of the Queen Mum was known for being cruel to the current Empress, Michiko, who came from common blood (actually she is from Gunma Prefecture, not far from where J-List is). Japanese use formal titles when referring to the Royal Family, and never use their names — Emperor Akihito is known as the Heisei Emperor, since Heisei is the current age according to the Japanese calendar. Since it’s taboo to write anything bad about the Imperial Family in Japan, you’ll never see news of the troubles between Michiko and the Emperor’s mother on any news show. Actually
Last week also saw the death of Takeshita Noboru, a particularly corrupt politician who once controlled the most powerful faction of Japan’s elite Liberal Democratic Party. A kingmaker, he held the power to decide who would be Prime Minister — he even took the leadership of the country for a short time. In the style of disgraced Japanese politicians, he never left office, continuing to win his home election and remaining a force in Japanese politics even after stepping down as Prime Minister.
For tonight’s update, we’ve got a host of very special items for you, including:
- Great new magazines, including The Top Video and a new offering, Fetish Doll
- A great selection of new photobooks, including some excellent hardcover photobooks by the acclaimed Aida Garo (which are always popular)
- Also, many excellent back-in-stock photobooks, including Super Low-Angle, The Nama-Ashi, Super Lingerie, and the very popular Live photobook by Inoue Harumi
- From our friends at SOD, a dynamite item — the Morishita Kurumi Fan Thanks Day video, in which she performs fellatio and hand-jobs on 40 of her lucky fans — directed by female AV director Sugawara Chie
- For fans of dojin-soft, excellent hentai artwork on CD ROM and floppy, we’ve got a dozen excellent items on the dojinshi page
- If you like J-List’s excellent erotic manga, see the half-dozen all-new offerings on the hentai manga page
- Fans of the excellent Card Captor Sakura will like the new metallic character cards on the anime and cards pages
- For value-minded fans, the latest DVD & Video CD SOft Catalog is in, with 2 discs of excellent footage, all for a low price
- A slew of our popular $5 magazines, on magazine page 3
- JPOP fans will enjoy the 12+ new JPOP CD singles posted to the JPOP page
- For fans of our Japanese snacks, we now offer a unique item — sake candy! Made with real sake!
- And last, but not least, a positively fantastic DVD for all J-List fans — the excellent Kuki 20th Anniversary DVD, with *200* minutes of performances by Miura Aika, Wakana Sena, Yoshino Sally, Komuro Yuri, Suzuki Manami, Shiraishi Hitomi, Kitahara Rina
Along with this great new DVD, remember that J-List has the best selection of Japanese adult DVDs you’ll find anywhere, with over 50 different excellent titles, most currently in stock. Many of the excellent items we have are subtitled in English and Chinese, too, for the ultimate viewing experience.
