Hello again from the country that invented curtains for cars, Japan!
Japan has some interesting customs regarding the signing of official documents. For example, when we went to fill out the forms for our Bongo Friendee, we had to make sure we had our dually registered name stamp (“hanko”), which is used in place of a signature as a way of verifying a person’s agreement. In order to officially stamp something, you often need a “stamp proof of registration” paper which you get from the local city office. Only stamps that are registered with the city are legally binding. The use of these stamps is somewhat puzzling to foreigners — what’s to stop someone from mugging you and stealing your stamp, then withdrawing all your money from the bank. For reasons that only the Japanese can probably understand, this nearly never happens. As the Japanese economy takes more queues from the outside world, credit cards are becoming carried more and more; since the credit card system uses handwritten signatures as verification, the Japanese are of course familiar with western-style signatures, too.
The Kyokucho (manager) of the Kotobuki Post Office is retiring, at the age of 62. An interesting man whose been an incredible help to us at J-List from the beginning, setting up ways to send packages through the post office much faster. J-List repaid his kindness by rocketing his tiny post office to the #1 stop for orders shipped (J-List edged out Sanden, a large manufacturer based in Isesaki, as the biggest user of postal services in the city last year), earning him a big bonus, we hope. He said he’s retiring early so he can spend his time traveling the world and doing interesting things. A very “genki” man who loves Japanese onsens and N-gauge model trains, we feel like we’re losing a member of the family.
For this evening’s update, we’ve got some very nice items for you, including:
- First and foremost, I’m very glad to say that Peach Princess’s premier title, X-Change, is now shipping. This is a wonderful “sex change comedy” bishojo game that’s been eagerly awaited by fans for many months — get your copy now!
- We have a bunch of excellent erotic magazines from Japan, including the new issues of Video Boy and Best Video — take note Ohura Anna fans!
- The new issue of DVD Soft Catalog, renamed to reflect the changes in the Japanese marketplace, is posted
- If you love great hentai-related magazines from Japan, check out Tech Gian, an excellent magazine that comes with a CD-ROM
- We have some new items on the gouka-bon page, for fans of high-end Japanese bondage erotica
- We’ve got some powerfully beautiful photobooks for you, including a new one from the lovely Tanaka Rena, and Hoshina Rie’s “Afternoon Face”
- Also for photobook fans, a treat — stock of a great issue of Photoshot, the glossy photobook-quality magazine with the oversize format
- If you love Japanese angels with long legs, check out our surprise: fresh stock of Mini-Suka Deluxe, our #1 leg-fetish item
- For manga fans, we’ve got a nice item: fresh stock of many issues of the excellent parody manga from Japan’s Fusion Product: Lunatic Party (erotic Sailor moon) and Angelic Impact and Paradise Lost (erotic Evangelion)
- Also for manga lovers, we’ve got some great back-from-the-dead manga volumes in both the Manga (new releases) and Manga (classics) pages
- We’ve got some new dojinshi posted, too, although they will likely sell out quickly (sorry
- For girls, check out the stock of the latest Shojo Kakumei (Girl’s Revolution), a very interesting erotic comic for girls
- If you love cute Japanese gals, check out the 4th video in SOD’s Puchi Angel, featuring the lovely Hayakawa Yu-chan
- Fans of the popular bishojo game Kanon should check out the very nice art book on the art books page
- We’ve got two killer items for region- free DVD collectors: Hell of Lesbian, a refreshing lesbian DVD performance; and the excellent My Little Sister, a *4 hour* DVD featuring excellent erotic works by four lovely AV actresses, including Ijiri Sayaka — this cool DVD comes with a business-card size CD-ROM for Mac/PC with extra goodies
- We’ve got some nice items back in stock on our Wacky Things from Japan page, including some excellent new funny Japanese notebooks
- If you love Japanese tea, we’ve got an item for you: Japanese mugi (wheat) tea bags that are extra long and thin, so you cna easily brew mugi-cha in any narrow PET bottle. Convenient and delicious!
- Finally, we’ve got some great new Wacky Things for you, as we always do: today we have a deluxe canvas backpack (very popular among Tokyo gals), a super-hanger that allows you hang tons of cloths in a small space, and a niffty Japanese “shoes box” for your car — keep your car clean by having your guests take their shoes off in your car.
I must apologize again to the people who got multiple copies of the J-List updates list last week. Very sorry about that. The offending list server has been punished, and we don’t think the problem should occur again.
