Hello again from Japan, home of cars with odd names, like the Daihatsu Naked.
Sanrio’s pantheon of cute characters are famous all the world over. The most famous is of course Hello Kitty, who is known as “Kitty-chan” (“chan” being a cute name tag attached to all cute or effeminate things) here in Japan. Kitty changes every year — past Kitty variations have included Hawaiian Kitty, Kimono Kitty, and Wedding Kitty. Keroppi, the frog officially known as “Kero Kero Keroppi” in Japanese (“kero kero” is the sound of a frog croaking), is popular here, as is the yellow-and-brown dog Pom Pom Purin, who represents a sweet pudding-like dessert called flan, if you know what that is — I didn’t until I came to live in Japan. One of my personal favorite Sanrio characters is Shinkansen, the cute little Japanese bullet train characters that are very popular with Japanese boys, all of whom seem to go through a major love affair with trains when they’re three.
The Japanese love to abbreviate words. Often it’s to shorten a long and clumsy words imported from English: “digital camera,” which is quite hard to say, is often shortened to “digi-kame” for example. Other abbreviations follow this four syllable pattern: Ame-komi (American comics), Sony-Pura (the fashionable Sony Plazas that dot Japanese cities), geesen (game center), pure-sute (Playstation), pasacon (personal computer), and so on. Names of famous people also get reduced to short versions, ala J.Lo — handsome Japanese “talent” (what they call multi-talented entertainers here) Kimura Takuya is universally known as Kimu-Taku, and the cute former Morning Musume member Gotoh Maki is called Go-Maki. The Japanese love Brad Pitt’s movies, and they’ve christened him with a Japanese nickname: Bura-Pii. We do this at J-List too. If there’s a problem with Tomokazu’s computer we would say “Peter, please take a look at Tomo-Con when you get time.”
Often, when products from America or Europe are marketed in Japan, they are sold by Japanese companies who license the brands from their owners. I can enjoy drinks like Canada Dry Ginger Ale or Bireley’s Orange Drink, but they don’t come from Canada or the UK — they come from the good old Asahi Beverage Company, and you can see the little Asahi corporate mark, hidden somewhere in the packaging. Budweiser is bottled by Kirin, and Ritz crackers are made by the Yamazaki Bread Company and sold under the Ritz brand name. A year ago, Tic Tacs (a word which sounds like “tick tock” to the Japanese) appeared in Japan, courtesy of the Morinaga Confectionery Company, but they didn’t do well here — Japanese thought it tasted like toothpaste.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for fans of the Groomy line of plush pets for your computer, a new series: Clip Groomy, cute little bears that can do things like hold your mouse cord out of the way, hold messages and cling to your computer monitor!
- Also, a huge restocking of the popular Groomy plush dogs and cats, who have soft chamois bottoms for cleaning your computer monitor with
- If you love our Japanese snacks, enjoy several new items, such as Japanese plum wine candy, pineapple gummi treats, vitamin C candy from Japan, stewed ika (don’t ask what this is), and delicious Japanese mushroom rice bowl mix for you to make and eat
- Also, enjoy authentic Japanese green tea — with a cool Japanese tea container to hold your tea, too
- We just love the highly detailed die-cast metal Tomica cars from Tomy, and we’ve got two cool new unique Japanese cars for you
- For Hello Kitty fans, we have a great piece of pop culture for you: a deluxe Kitty kaiten zushi (conveyor belt sushi) that’s great fun to display in your room
- If you love cute Japanese girls, we have a great photobook for fans of Yui Ichikawa — comes with a cute paper doll of Yui-chan too!
- Then enjoy Sayuri Anzu’s very sweet idol photobook, a great hardcover photobook that comes with a full image DVD too! (region 2)
- For doujinshi fans, a great non-hentai comic for you that parodies the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball game
- We positively love the new Ghost in the Shell TV series that’s being released on DVD in Japan — we’ve got volume 7 in, and it’s another great one you won’t want to miss! (region 2)
- Also for Shirow Masamune fans, we’ve got fresh stock of his popular computer mouse!
- Usako Friends is really emerging as the super cute Japanese character of the year, and we’ve got two Usako Friends PET bottle holders for you — they keep your drink hot or cold!
- We’ve got a handy item little “micro lens” that makes it easy to see anything — items you look at are magnified 15 times!
- We’ve got more funky Japanese wooden signs for you — “Open” and “Closed”
- Also, a really handy item — a bag in a bag, which you can take with you, and whenever you need a bag, open the bag and get the other bag out
- For Hello Kitty fans (or those who hate Kitty-chan), we’ve got fresh stock of the super cute Kitty Toilet Paper, in two colors
- Finally, find authentic Japanese chopsticks, a great way to stop snoring, tofu and miso soup, furikake like your mother used to make, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of great professional Japanese adult magazines, we’ve got the bold and sassy new issue of Gokuh, filled with top-quality Japanese AV stars for you
- Also enjoy a great magazine for fans of erotica between people who are in love, Couples Vol. 01, featuring boyfriend/girlfriend couples who are enjoying each other’s sex because they love each other
- Then we’ve got the new issue of Yo! with many Japanese kogals in love hotels and amateur sex
- There’s nothing better than getting a 180 minute DVD with a magazine for free — check out the new issue of Mappa, which features short clips of sex from Japan’s most famous and lovely AV stars, a great sampler item (region 2)
- For photobook fans, a superb erotic photobook featuring Ai Nagase’s “nudie and virtual” sex, and it comes with a super giant poster too
- Also, enjoy the lovely pure nude of Lovely Maria and the incredible photobook of Kaoru, photographed by Aida Garo
- For fans of our extensive selection of hentai manga, we’ve got another great selection of items for you, including the erotic Amber Girl by Mujin Comics and The Slave as Flesh Hole by hentai artist Psycho, and the long-awaited Blue Eyes vol. 6
- For doujinshi fans, a manga that compiles some fantastic game girl parody hentai, with incredible Final Fantasy, Evangelion, naughty tentacles, and more
- Also, we’ve got a huge restocking of many popular books, including An Equation of the Night and The Equation of the Immoral by Azuki Kurenai, Oshiri Excellent (all ass-fetish anthology manga), and about a dozen more
- For fans of yaoi erotic comics, a great new “Judicial Love Story” from Aqua Comics
- J-List stocks many adult toys and vibrators which are only sold in the Japanese market — look for fresh stock of the colored Cute Mini Vibrator, the Vibrating Ecstasy Brush, and the incredibly popular Rabbit Rotor, a cute little bunny that brings pleasure
- Also, we’re stocked the enigmatic Clitoris Cap for you as well
- For our DVD customers, enjoy another value-priced Bring Up Ecstasy 4 Hours DVD, featuring Hitomi Hayasaka in an incredibly erotic production (region free)
- Then, a special One Year Anniversary Release by Million, see a superb lesbian performance starring Nao Oikawa and Kurumi Morishita, their first lesbian performance together (region free)
- Sora Aoi (aka Sola Aoi) is a pure, beautiful G cup angel — see her great new release on th Samantha label (region free)
- From SOD, enjoy a remix of the best works of super busty Maria Yumeno — includes chapters from Chie’s Angels, the erotic parody of Charlie’s Angels (region free)
- For those who like their sex “wet and messy,” we’ve got a very interesting new release from SOD’s Martian Devil, including body paint fetish and the first ever “gold leaf titty fuck” (region free)
- Then enjoy the Illusion Sperm Angel performance of Yu Tsutsumi, a wonderful bukkake release from Audaz for fans of sperm fetish (region 2)
- Finally, look for fresh stock of the popular Fetish & Erotic soft porn DVD series, and more!
Looking for a way to browse J-List products easily? Since we have over 2500 different products on our site (amazing, we know), you can use the handy “Three Day Link” which shows you all products added or updated within the past three days. Want to see more? Click the “View all products” link in the upper left hand corner of the site, and view all products on the J-List page, with the most recently added items appearing at the top, in order of how recently they were updated.
Remember that J-List carries a full line of Japanese snack foods, with many rare cult favorites in stock for you, like Japanese sushi gummi, Black Black caffeine gum, and also the delicious and popular Felix the Cat bubble gum, which is famous all the world over (we’re not sure why, but based on the mails we get from customers, it is).
The J-Mate site has been updated again, this time with a great interview with experienced Japanese AV star Yukari Sakurada who is famous for her bukkake performances. Read her views on the adult video world and why she become an AV actress — it’s very enlightening! The URL is http://www.jmate.com
