Well, summer is here, minus the tail end of Japan’s rainy season, which should be over by the middle of July. Summer means heat, and that means companies trying to attract hot customers into their air-conditioned restaurants. This year McDonald’s of Japan is appealing to the traditional tastes of Japanese consumers, with Green Tea Shakes (complete with Matcha powder to sprinkle on top). Green Tea is one of the most popular flavors of ice cream here (Haagen Daaz makes a delicious variety), so the idea is sure to be a hit. McDonald’s has another great item — little packets of nori (seaweed, the same type used in sushi) that you shake on your fries. Seaweed-flavored french fries is much better than it sounds.
Sunday was a major election here in Japan, as the confusing Japanese system of political parties jockey for position, trying to get enough seats to form a majority. Despite calls for reform and unhappiness with the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister Mori (who has made some bizarre utterances in past months), Japanese voters came out quite strongly for the LDP, which has ruled Japan almost continuously since World War II. One interesting event was the election of the daughter of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, to the Diet seat left empty by his death. Age 26, daughter Yuko was educated in England, and returned to Japan when her father had his stroke. She admits she doesn’t know much about politics, but she’s damn cute — she’s the only Japanese politician I’d like to see in Bejean. See a profile (in Japanese, but there’s a picture) at http://server31.hypermart.net/nonanona/yuko.html . I wonder if they’ll publish a series of idol cards based on her?
- Another excellent selection of JPOP singles, priced at $2-5, on the JPOP page
- Two excellent new videos from Soft on Demand, a 90 minute “hand job counselor for welfare facilities” (tekoki) and a nice “hitozuma” (married woman) sexual performance both starring Makuhara Reiko
- From Deep’s, a nice video similar to the Deep Kiss series — the 80 minute “Touching the Breasts for the first time, where Japanese girls are asked to massage each others breasts for the camera, resulting in some interesting results
- Even more in-stock videos, posted by Kaori, on in-stock videos page 1 (at the top)
- If you love Card Captor Sakura, you’ll enjoy the new Sakura Stationary we have on the Japanese snacks page — five different sets of lovely stationary with a various holders for letters and other trinkets, each printed with the Sakura characters
- Finally, for fans who follow the careers of Japan’s lovely idols, there’s a magazine called Bubka Treasure Collection, featuring rare shots of famous idols from earlier in their careers.
We’ve been having problems processing virtual checks for the past few weeks, due to service problems our e-check processing company has been experiencing. For the time being, we’re unable to process virtual checks, so if possible, we’d appreciate if people wanting to make an order either use a credit card or send a physical check when they order. We’ll get this problem resolved as quickly as we can.
