Greetings from your friends in Japan!
Poor Kaori. Some evil person broke into her husband’s car and stole an expensive CD player and “car navi” (those nifty navigational computers — I’ve lived in Japan so long I’m not sure what they’re called in English). He also broke the glass in Kaori’s Nissan Cube before fleeing the scene. During the past five years, as the Japanese recession has continued, we’ve seen more and more instances of crime, and the liquor store my wife’s parents operate has been broken into and/or had money stolen three times. What is happening to Japan?
As the recession continues here, many industries are brought down as some others flourish. When companies vacate buildings in Isesaki, they are often replaced by “sara-kin,” high-interest loan companies like Acom and Takefuji Yen Shop and Lake (which is owned by General Electric venture capital arm, by the way) that lend money to individuals — perhaps Scott Adams would call them “induhviduals” — at up to 30% per year. These companies spend millions on advertising on late-night TV to get consumers to use their money-loan machines, which let anyone borrow up to $3000 with just a drivers’ license. In the New Japanese Economy, the growth of these high-interest loan companies has been incredible, and many of the founders top the roles of Japan’s wealthiest businessmen.
One area that I’m glad to see booming are Japanese onsens and bath-related entertainment, a uniquely Japanese way to enjoy yourself. With the opening of Yura no Sato (“Land of Hot Water and Comfort”), I now have two great hot springs within 10 minutes of my house. Yura no Sato sports at least twenty different indoor and outdoor baths, several saunas, a traditional Japanese “pot bath” (tsubo-buro), and more. My son and I have already been several times, since we are just baka for springs.
Do you have a cat’s tongue? If you can’t eat hot food, then Japanese would say that you do. Cat’s don’t like to eat hot food, and a person who likes to cool his food before eating is said to have a “neko-jita.” It’s totally different from the English phrase “Cat got your tongue?” but an interesting area of confusion between English and Japanese.
For the start of the week update, we’ve got a great selection of items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got new magazines, including the new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, filled with lovely Japanese models shot by Japanese photographers
- Since our bargain magazine pages are quite popular, we’ve posted fresh stock of our low-priced magazines
- For MPEG (video CD) fans, check out the new EX CD-ROM, featuring a magazine and 70 minute sampler CD-ROM for your enjoyment
- We’ve got great photobooks for you, including the hair nude photobook of Airi Hoshizaki, fresh stock of several other very nice photobooks and more
- For manga fans, we’ve got several excellent new volumes for you, by some of Japan’s most famous studios, as well as a major restocking of popular past issues that had been taken off the manga page — look for about twenty new and back-in-stock items
- If you’re a fan of yaoi comics, we’ve restocked several of the popular b-Boy Zipz anthology mangas (270+ pages per volume)
- For DVD fans, we’ve got some great new items for you, starting with two of the popular “No Cut!!” DVDs from Kuki, featuring 180 minutes of AV (3 complete video releases) per disc (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, more erotic fun with “Shiritori Samurai” in which girls agree to be raped if they lose a famous Japanese word game (region free)
- For indies lovers, rare offerings from Dream Quest, featuring Ai Nagase in some of her best fetish performances (region 2)
- Finally, an incredibly cool item from MVG, Kazuhiko Matsumoto’s M’s Video Group, a super new Semen Champion Carnival in which four beautiful AV idols complete in a bukkake championship (VHS)
- For region 2 DVD fans, we’ve got limited stock of the very nice Ah My Goddess motion picture, which was shown in Japanese theatres in 2001
- For fans of “The Dog,” the very cute plush line of little furry dogs, we’ve got two new items — the Shuh Tzu and the Poodle, both of which should be very popular (so get yours before we sell out)
- For fans of our Japanese snacks and food, look for several nice items, including a delicious (?) corn-flavored caramel treat, fresh stock of our best-selling miso soup with wakame and tofu, and fresh stock of Black Black candy (which sold out in record time) and Strawberry Pocky
- Also, we’ve got fresh stock of various Japanese gum, including the fun and bizarre blueberry flavored “Fruit of the Bubble” bubblegum
- For collectors of anime statues made using the “cold cast” production method (for beautiful detail), we’ve got a great new one — Vampire Hunter D, rendered in beautiful 1/7 scale polyresin
- Also for anime lovers, many cool new additions to our recently redesigned anime ‘ toy pages, including Lupin III keychains, a cool soft vinyl figure of Cobra, and the brand-new Kubrick Planet of the Apes toys
- Also: a super-soft, super nice “stuffed plush mascot” of Jiji, the black cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service
- For JPOP and idols fans, a very special item — the dynamite hardcover photobook of the lovely Maki Gotoh, of Morning Musume
- We’ve got fresh stock of the Kubrick-like Tinibiz figures of famous characters from the Doraemon universe, one of the most popular long-running anime shows ever
- We’ve also got some new cute items on our “Wacky things form Japan — cute items” page, including new Hello Kitty items for collectors of “kawaii” (cute in Japanese)
- Finally, look for cool double-ended pens with beautiful colors, unique Japanese cotton swabs with hooks on the ends, super cool sushi erasers, and other fun items!
One of my own favorite hentai/bishoujo games, which I still find myself playing late at night despite my own busy schedule, is Hentai Anime Poker. Featuring five different games of strip poker, including Texas Hold ‘Em, the game allows you to “plug in” other anime opponents, so you can play for hours. As a special thanks to our bishoujo game customers, we’re offering our “POKERPACK” (the Hentai Anime Poker CD-ROM with all four downloadable packs of opponents) for an even better price, just $24.95, half the price of buying the game with the download packs separately. The offer ends this month.
