Hello again from Japan, where drivers turn off their headlights at intersections to be polite to other drivers.
Japan is not, all things considered, the country you should come to if you’re disabled in some way. Standards about wheelchair access are haphazard all around the country, with some cities trying to modernize their facilities, especially publicly sponsored places like parks, so that people with disabilities can use them. Some platforms on some train stations have some kind of wheelchair access, but if the station you’re going to doesn’t have the same access, it’s quite difficult to use the train. One of the primary motivating factors for the progress of Japanese society is how their country looks in the eyes of the foreigners who visit or live here, and Japanese are aware that North American and European foreigners tend to look down on Japan’s record when it comes to dealing with its disabled citizens. As a general rule, though, many Japanese will tell you that Japan is a small country without much land (Japan has a population density of 335 persons per square km, vs. just 29 in the U.S.), and just can’t have the same amount of access that people in wheelchairs enjoy in the U.S. Most foreigners living here, especially Americans, don’t buy this and tend to look on Japan’s lack of handicapped access as a big minus, despite the invention of words here like “barrier free” (which means, life free of barriers for all citizens, be the disabled or aged and so on).
Then again, it’s extremely easy to find one’s self looking at Japan from the standpoint that everything in your home country is the “way it should be,” and that’s of course not right. If you’re from the USA, then the way things are done at home naturally seem to be best; ditto if you’re from France or South Korea. It’s quite difficult to avoid this tendency to be judgmental of other countries and cultures, and lord knows I have failed at this many a time myself. This is one reason I recommend to young people that they should live for a year outside of their own country, preferably while in college — you will never look at other countries or your own home country quite the same way.
Everyone who is disabled in Japan has certain benefits that the Japanese government sets up for them. There are special health and rehabilitation facilities all around Japan for them to use — I used to volunteer my time teaching English conversation at a facility for handicapped persons that is just up the road from my house. Companies above a certain size are required to hire handicapped people to work. If they don’t want to do this, companies can instead pay a penalty, and this money is used to benefit support programs. The government assists handicapped people purchase special equipment like cars that don’t require legs to operate, too.
For the update this evening, we’ve got a bunch of excellent items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got some new magazines for you, including the excellent Gal’s Shower (bukkake magazine), and the new Urecco Gal, which captures the lovely “bad girls” of Japan
- We’ve got some excellent photobooks, including the lovely swimsuit grace of Emi Ito
- Also: fresh stock of several of the very erotic “Strawberry Diary” photobooks which feature extremely high quality glossy photographs of beautiful Japanese angels
- For bondage lovers, we’ve got the elegant magazine with dual Video CD combo SM Desire, with tons of images and video for bondage and S&M lovers to enjoy
- We have many nice new items on our erotic manga comics page, including new “wide manga” from Japan’s top studios, as well as many restocked manga titles (about a dozen overall)
- For yaoi fans, we’ve got the new b-Boy Zips, as well as fresh stock of several others in the series
- If you are into doujinshi fans, we’ve got fresh stock of new items for you, as well as several restocked and popular books
- For DVD fans, we’ve got wonderful new items for you, including the new No Cut!! release of Ichigo Milk, featuring 180 minutes of great AV by this lovely bad girl (region free)
- For lovers of adult video history, enjoy the excellent Alice Japan 2002 Special, with 30 AV idols and a whopping 4 hours (240 minutes) of AV for you! (region free)
- If you love Cosplay, with such erotic costumes as race queen, nurse, bus guide and so on, enjoy Cosplay Royale from Kuki (region free)
- Soft on Demand has a new turn on cosplay, with the lovely Itsuki Kinoshita in a fun anime bukkake DVD, as she takes 100 mens’ ejaculation on her while wearing various anime costumes (region free)
- Fans of the G-Taste erotic anime DVDs will enjoy the new Director’s Cut, featuring the lovely nurse training of Nana Morimura and Mai Kannazuki (region 2)
- Finally, we’ve got two more titles by the oh-so-hard-to-get Milky Cat
- We continue to get great feedback from customers who have purchased The Dog plushes, and we thank you for you warm comments. We’ve got a bunch of new “The Dog” items for you, including fresh stock on the sold-out set 1 of the normal size plushes, a giant-size extra huggable size of the Labrador Retriever and Golden Retriever
- For fans of the bishoujo game “Air,” we’ve got some very cool collectible cards that are really stickers, so you can use them as either
- Also: a metal “The Dog” dog dish for your dock with the cute dogs printed on it and very cute “The Dog” coffee cups with fish-eye dog images printed on them
- For fans of our Japanese snacks, we’ve got a new taste of baked pretzels from Glico, the delicious Grilled Cheese Pretz
- Also, fresh stock of one of the most popular snack items we’ve ever sold, Sake Hard Candy from Japan
- Fans of anime should check out the very cute Totoro white board and magnet set, as well as a rare item, Sailor Moon gum with little “kisekae” dress stickers
- Finally, look for many other neat items, including new bento boxes, Kero Kero Keropii watercolor paint sets, cute hamster items, a great toothbrush for your tongue, and more!
