Hello from Japan, where you can still find “skin color” crayons sold in stores.
It’s quite well known that in Japan, you take off your shoes before entering someone’s house. Japanese houses (and some businesses, J-List included) have a recessed area in the foyer where shoes go, called the “genkan.” Since living in Japan means putting your shoes on and then taking them off several times a day, you learn to wear shoes that can be slid on easily, e.g. no high-top basketball shoes. Basically, according to the Japanese sense of cleanliness, everything to do with outside the house is “dirty” and this is why dirty shoes must be separated from the inside of the house. In my Japanese textbook (Current Japanese by Higurashi, if anyone out there is using it), there was a chapter about an American girl who was living with a Japanese family. She washed her shoes in the washing machine, but this caused a big blow up with her host family, who had to buy a new washing machine because the old one was “dirtied” by the washing of the shoes. I just checked with my wife, who confirms that the day I try to wash my shoes in the washing machine is the day I’ll be buying her a new one.
When you’re learning about Japan through anime or manga, it’s always fun to learn some of the small, unimportant details along the way. One is “Ai-Ai Gasa” (Love Love Umbrella), a cute doodle that is drawn by elementary school students, the Japanese equivalent of a boy and a girl carving their initials in a tree surrounded by a heart. In anime, this famous doodle is usually used to imply a romantic relationship between a weak-willed main character and overpowering female, with very amusing results. Supposedly, the idea of a boy and girl walking in the rain under the same umbrella is quite romantic to the Japanese. To see what Love Love Umbrella looks like, click this link (the names under the umbrella are Taro and Hanako, the Japanese equivalents to John and Mary): http://www.asahi-jc.com/images/kasa.gif
A major path to business success seems to be, watch what successful companies do in the U.S., then do it in Japan before they can get over here. In America, eBay may be on top of the hill when it comes to online auctions, but in Japan it’s Yahoo all the way, and Yahoo’s Japanese auction site is so successful that eBay quietly closed their Japanese page two years ago. Pizza Hut is another similar success story. After observing the paradigm shift from eating pizza in restaurants to having it delivered, Pizza Hut copied the Domino’s strategy in Japan, opening hundreds of franchises and delivering pizza in 30 minutes or less. Pizza Hut (whose motto is “Dynamic and Speedy” by the way) has a strong presence all over Japan, but Dominoes is only available in a few cities.
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- At J-List’ we are big fans of Totoro, and we love to carry rare things for Totoro fans — we’ve got a super Totoro all-purpose container that you can put anything in, especially a space roll of toilet paper in the bathroom, a super item to impress guests with
- We love the super-cute swimsuit idol Yuko Ogura, and there’s a great new photobook for her fans filled with photographs as well as pictures and more by her
- For fans of anime figurines, be sure and see the Moon Princess figure we’ve got in stock, just lovely
- And if you love Final Fantasy Tactics for the Gameboy Advance, we’ve got a super collection of character “pin badges” for you to collect
- Cute things from Japan are popular, and one of the cutest in recent years is the Ochaken, or Tea Dog, and we’ve got a deluxe plush Green Tea Dog that makes your room smell great
- Also, we’ve got cute plush Japanese food that looks delicious, but it’s really cute plush animals
- Also, cool Hamtaro goods sold only in Japan including fresh stock of the Hamtaro and Ribbon-chan anime bags with snacks inside
- For fans of our Japanese snack foods, enjoy a limited edition of Kinoko no Yama, little chocolate mushrooms that are delicious to eat
- Also, enjoy delicious McVities sweets, cola flavored soft candy, and fresh stock of many other snack and food items including miso soup and more
- For Godzilla fans, a super treat: the Godzilla History collection, featuring high-quality magnets from all the great films of the past that you can collect and display proudly
- And for fans of Japanese film on DVD, we’ve got a great Japanese movie by the creator of “Versus” (region 2), with a fascinating and very violent story
- For fans of cute things from Japan we’ve got some authentic “shoes bags” — holders for your shoes for times when you have to take your shoes off, but you can put anything in them you like
- For Hello Kitty fans, we’ve got some extremely stylish Kitty lip gloss that has to be seen to be believed
- For people who find it hard to open bottles or cans, we’ve got a super-handy magic opener that you can carry with you everywhere
- Finally, look for cute things with funny English (and French) on them, a fun “praising stamp,” the world’s most convenient ironing board, and more!
- For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of erotic magazines, we’ve got the beautiful new Gokuh, just loaded with wonderful nude AV stars like Ai Mita, Ai Nagase, and the delightful Moe Yamazaki
- Also enjoy the new AV Idol Live Document, which shows top-name Japanese AV stars on the set while they perform, along with a great amateur love hotel photobook
- For fans of the incredibly beautiful Yinling, the Taiwanese sexy idol and Race Queen, we’ve got a superb new Yinling of Joytoy “monopoly magazine” that is just beautiful
- For hentai manga fans, we’ve got some superb works for you including a new huge breast fetish manga by Hiroshi Kawamoto
- Also, if you love yaoi comics, see the new b-Boy Zips, with 250+ pages of top quality yaoi stories
- For doujinshi fans, be sure and check out the newly posted volumes for you, with many great works for you
- Also, for fans of quality hentai manga in English, we’ve restocked issue #5 of AG, in stock in our San Diego location
- For fans of Japan’s hentai game culture, see the new art book for Peeping Web, featuring beautiful female characters and computer graphics
- If you love Japan’s adult DVD entertainment, enjoy our many new offerings, starting with a new No Cut!! offering from Kuki, featuring three hours of superb AV performances by the pure and lovely Izumi Hasegawa (region free)
- From Dogma, enjoy the “beautiful legs and double manko” (pussy) of Misato Suguhara and Mizuho Takai (region free)
- Nanami Nanase undergoes her “First Time Lesbian” in a great disc by SOD’s Chujitsudoh label (region free)
- Nude gymnastics are a huge hit at J-List, with many best-selling items — now from SOD enjoy the nude rhythmic gymnastics of a famous former national star (region free)
- Akira Watase is hard at work again, making all your erotic dreams come true in a new cosplay work featuring her most sex, while wearing many fabulous costumes (region 2)
- From Audaz, enjoy a bizarre work in which 19 beautiful girls are asked to explore their lesbian sides in a massive all-girl orgy — a great reason to get a region free DVD player if you don’t have one yet! (region 2)
- Finally, look for various added stock of popular DVDs from Japan!
Remember that we’re having a $1 sale on shipping for all bishoujo games we sell, allowing you to get a lot of great English-language love sim games sent to you and save lots of money. Get four or more games and get 20% off. Since we carry virtually every Japanese dating sim game that exists, we know we’ve got some excellent titles for you!
Remember that J-List allows you to subscribe to a wide selection of anime, manga, toy and hobby, fashion and other magazines. Two of the most popular magazines are Fruits, the Japanese magazine of street fashion and kogal culture, and Megami Magazine, a beautiful anime magazine that is just filled with up to a dozen glossy posters and other fun treats. You can subscribe to these great magazines easily (a credit card is recommended, but not required), and you can quit at any time, too.
