Greetings once again from Japan, where we’ve taken time out from tinkering with Mac OS X to bring you another (hopefully) interesting update!
An interesting aspect of the Japanese language is that there are multiple words for “you” and “I,” and which one you use speaks volumes about how you perceive yourself. The basic word for I is “watashi” but not used all that much. Words that boys usually use are “boku” (a soft word, usually polite) or “ore” (a rougher word, which can be rude depending on the setting you use it in). A girl who is somewhat tomboyish might use the former, or if she’s really tough, she might even use the latter; similarly, a young boy (like my son) might show how grown-up he is by using “ore.” The “girl’s” word for I is “atashi,” and a homosexual speaking in an effeminate manner would use this word for himself. Words for you include “anata” (a somewhat formal word, it’s also used by a wife when addressing her husband), “kimi” (a close term, used among friends) or the rougher “omae,” used when talking down to someone, or among male friend showing their manliness.
When foreign visitors come to Japan, one observation make is that there’s not that much that’s written in English. I speak and read Japanese, so I don’t think about it much, but it’s true — there are many times when Japanese aren’t considerate enough of English-speaking visitors. At least there are many English newspapers to choose from in Japan. The most famous is the Japan Times, which has a long history — I used to read old newsreels from the World War II years, when I worked in the library back in my SDSU days. I prefer the Daily Yomiuri, however, which has an interesting feature: they cycle in opinion pages from the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Independant, for a variety of interesting viewpoints from the U.S. and Europe.
For tonight’s update, we’ve got some truly excellent items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got two positively wonderful magazines from you: the new Gokuh and Bejean, both oversized and filled with lovely Japanese angels, like Hagiwara Mai and Ohura Anna — very nice!
- For photobook lovers, we’ve got some excellent items for you, including a great selection of our popular leg, stocking and “low angle” photobooks, and some great high school uniform photobooks
- For dojinshi fans, we’ve got limited stock of some excellent all-new items
- If you are a manga lover, of course we’ve got new erotic wide manga from Japan for you, including several all-new manga offerings by Hit and several other comic houses
- For fans of Japan’s erotic DVDs, we’ve got a super DVD in the “Pure” series, featuring three lovely contemporary Japanese girls who express their sexuality in really interesting ways
- For collectors of region 2 encoded DVDs, a superb item featuring 120 minutes with six lovely AV stars, including Yoshino Sally, Suzuki Manami and Komuro Yuri
- For fans of our popular discount videos pages, some great titles from the J-List vault, including some Miura Aika and Yoshikawa Minami — all with free SAL shipping!
- For Japanese idol card fans, fresh stock of the Bururun Club II series
- We’ve got fresh stock of some of our popular Wacky items, including wooden Japanese signs (our most popular is “It is forbidden to urinate here”), and more blank Japanese vocabulary study cards
- A neat new item Wacky Things from Japan page, a collection of highly useful zippered pouches, which you can use to protect your camera, CD player, or any similar device
- We’ve got limited stock of the very cool Domo-kun phone/camera strap on the anime toys page
- For Japanese snack & food fans, two delicious boil-in-bag spaghetti sauces: pasta cream (mmm), and “bongore bianco” (I know I’ve got that spelled wrong, I’ve never seen the word written in anything but Japanese ^^), complete with delicious clams!
- We have a very nice Hello Kitty letter and postcard set on the Cute Wacky Things page
- Finally, look for beautiful stickers from the Edo period, Japanese sushi decorative grass, a super item for cleaning your shoes, and the ultimate room freshener for those who like to read…
Remember that J-List has a full line of unique and interesting snack foods, from traditional Japanese Pocky to Gummi Pikachu to the excellent Crunky Crunch Chocolate. Check out our excellent items now!
