Hello again from Japan, where fatherhood means never taking a bath alone…
Bongo Friendee aside, it’s quite interesting to analyze Japan’s car names. Above all, they must sound “kakko ii” (cool), and since nothing sound cooler to the Japanese ear than English, most cars here get their names from English words — like Honda Life and Legend, or Nissan’s Bluebird and Sunny. But many other names come from slightly altered English, so that they cause the same emotional response while being original. Words like Carolla or Tercel or Sylphy or Premacy sound like English, but car companies can still “own” the original names.
Japanese cars must never, ever have Japanese names, since that would be “kakko warui” (un-cool) — Japanese are always amused to learn that the Suzuki Jiminy is sold as Suzuki Samurai in the U.S. However, there are some cars whose names started out as Japanese words before being “English-ified.” Toyota Camry, for example, gets its name from “kammuri,” which means crown in Japanese — which is funny, since Toyota sells a higher-priced sedan here called Toyota Crown. Other names that have a “Japanese” feel to them are Daihatsu’s Mira (sort of sounds like “mirai” which means “future”) and Mitsubishi’s Minica (which sound like what it is — a very small “mini car”).
Incidentally, no one drives Camry here, and it’s quite rare that you see them driving on the streets. Honda’s popular Step Wagon (a mini-van) and Toyota’s Estima are far more common.
For this week’s first update, we’ve got some extra-special items for you, including:
- Killer new magazines, including the very lovely new Beppin School. Because last month’s issues were unavailable, we expect this great issue to go fast, so pick it up if you want a copy
- Also very cool, Urecco’s CosPet, a look at some of Japan’s most killer AV gals in sexy costumes
- For photobook lovers, we’ve got some nice all-new titles, including Yokoyama Yuki’s very erotic hardcover nude photobook
- Also for photobook fans, some limited stock of some classic photobooks, including Miyazawa Rie’s category-killing “Santa Fe”
- Leg fans, don’t miss the Internet Idol and Race Queen panty stocking fetish photoobok (3 copies posted)
- Also very cool, we’ve now got stock of the fabulous Mania Club Deluxe, an all-color hardcore S&M photobook featuring 25 gorgeous AV gals, including Yoshino Sally, Sawaguchi Miki, and many more
- For dojiinshi fans, we’ve got fresh stock of two incredible works from Okachimentaiko: The Next Climax Magazine 3 (all Gundam hentai dojinshi) and Burajiru 2 (a lovely *color* Yamato, Pokemon and other hentai dojinshi)
- If you love hentai games from Japan, a new issue of Fantasienne is posted for your approval
- For as long as we’ve sold Japan’s erotic manga, the #1 seller has been Harazaki Takuma’s positively beautiful erotic comic Golden Stage. Now vol. 5 of this supremely crafted hentai manga is available
- For fans of very hardcore yaoi, we’ve got the excellent “SM Boy’s Love Anthology Stinger” on the yaoi page for you
- For DVD collectors, a very nice magazine + code-free DVD sampler item, with *120 minutes* of great footage from 74 different adult DVD titles
- Also for DVD fans, a great item — the DVD version of SOD’s First Period of 2000 product sampler, and this DVD is code-free (yaay)
- The DVD titles Bondage DX and Big Morkal’s 4 hours sample item, which had sold out and were accidentally taken off the J-List site, are reposted (sorry about that)
- For Japan AV video lovers, we’ve got two for you: Shy DX 2000, a great erotic video featuring 8 of Japan’s most popular actresses performing for you over 90 minutes, and Sexy Restaurant Konna Miller’s an erotic exploration of Japanese waitress fetishism
- For fans of our “wacky” things from Japan, we’ve restocked several items, including Hello Kitty chopsticks (the pefect symbol of Japan in one little package), Japan’s milk container sealers, and the washing machine balls that make your clothes cleaner
- For Japanese snack fans, we’ve got some nice items for you, including a deluxe Miso Soup package (with different varieties of soup in one package), children’s furikaku that comes with a cool Japanese pokemon figure, and just one package of the much-requested winter limited edition chocolate
- For Japanese gum fans, find Meiji’s Xylish sugarless mint gum, that protectes your teeth with the help of a funky compound invented in Norway
- We’ve got the ultimate Japanese set of funny stickers for your bathroom on the Japanese signs page
- And finally, new items on our Wacky Things from Japan page include Hello Kitty tissue, a delue package of chopsticks that say “Live long and prosper” on them in Japanese (well…), and the ultimate Japanese device for separating egg yolks from whites!
We’ve also lowered the price of the very popular Creamy Angel CD-ROM series vol. 1 & 2 from $14.95 to $9.95. This is a really excellent hentai CG series featuring the full works of Japanese erotic CG illustrator Mashitaka. See these and other very cool items on our hentai CD-ROM pages.