Hello again from all of us in Japan!
Japan seems to be the home of the “boom” — as each year crawls by, it’s amazing to see the kinds of things that become popular with young people here. In the past, we’ve seen some interesting fashion trends among Tokyoites, including the dog tag boom, when all the kogals were wearing military ID tags with their personal information on them; the Union Jack boom, which saw millions of Japanese sporting the British flag on their clothes; the infamous thick sole sneaker boom, when girls wore shoes that made them 6-10 inches taller; and one of my favorites, the camisole boom, when every girl in Tokyo seemed to be walking around in her underwear. There was even a boom called “my boom,” in which everyone found something to be interested in, even if you were the only one in the world who cared about that thing. Currently, Japan seems to be on a big health drink kick, with many new amino acid drinks appearing on the market. Bottled green tea is very popular too, especially ones with flavonoids that reduce blood sugar. Japan is having a “gay boom” right now — a new wave of funny comedians, very effeminate and fashionable, appear regularly on a wide variety of TV shows. Supposedly in Tokyo there’s a trend towards men who are interested in wearing make-up, just like girls. Called “Morios,” these men put heart stickers on their faces and dress in outrageous fashions like the kogals of a few years ago — you cold almost call them “koguys.” At J-List we’re having a bit of a boom, too: all the male Japanese staff have shaved their heads, in preparation for Japan’s hot and humid summer.
The Japanese are a very clean people, with many traditions tuned to keeping things sanitary. Japanese bathe every day, taking nice long baths to relax away the day’s stress and get the body really clean. Shoes and anything to do with the feet are considered unsanitary, and so shoes are removed when you enter a home, and are never washed in a washing machine. When using a public restroom, many Japanese prefer the seatless Japanese-style toilets to western-style sit-down toilets because nothing important touches the toilet itself. But there are times when Japan doesn’t seem like such a clean place. In public restrooms, it’s common for a plastic cup to be placed near the sink, presumably so that anyone who’s thirsty can help himself to a drink of water — despite the fact that any number of others might have used the cup in the past. Similarly, at Japanese shrines, there’s often a metal cup that you can use to drink the purifying water. To my American sensibilities, hundreds of people using the same cup hour after hour isn’t the most sanitary thing in the world. (To see what Japanese toilets are like, here is a link: http://www.jlist.com/japanese_toilet.html)
J-List carries dozens of English-language bishoujo games because we love this genre of romantic, fun game from Japan. We’re happy to announce stock of the newest title, Jewel Knights Crusaders, a super “sentai” (fighting team) parody featuring the Jewel Knights, female defenders of justice who gain fighting power by doing naughty things. A great new dating-sim game for Windows computers, in stock in our San Diego office now — and of course shipping is just $1 (US/Can; half price for international customers) during our special sale!
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for fans of Japanese film, we have the new release of Onmyoji II, a fascinating tale of Japan in the 9th century (region 2)
- For fans of Naruto, we’ve got a great item: a manga that’s a collection of popular doujinshi dedicated to Naruto and friends
- Morning Musume is one of the top idol groups in Japan, full of cute bounciness that is uniquely Japanese — we have a great photobook of Maki Gotoh, their most famous former member
- We love the detailed miniature “candy toys” that Japan is famous for — today we have a cool replica of a street in the Showa era (1925-1989), a wonderful bygone time
- Also very cool, we’ve got 1/144 scale replicas of the most famous fighters of World War II, a great series from Bandai
- Then enjoy another treat from Japan: realistic replicas of Japan’s most famous trains, made of die-cast metal
- For fans of our Japanese snacks, we’ve got more furikake and ochazuke, traditional foods you eat on top of rice, as well as delicious Strawberry Hi-Chew from Morinaga
- Restocked snack items include Petit Pizza crackers, Nova Rabbit chocolate, Cocoa flavored Pretz, and the amazingly delicious Poiful colorful jellybeans
- Also, look for fresh stock of the best-selling Bubble Balls, delicious candy balls with “fizzing” taste inside — we’ve added stock of cola, ramune, melon, grape and lemon
- Then enjoy delicious Hamtaro bubblegum, a great item from the makers of Felix the Cat bubblegum]
- Zoid fans, we’ve got a great PVC figure of Chris Tasker, complete with stand
- Then we’ve got another wacky item: little ramen bowels that hold gum erasers, fun to play with
- We’ve restocked the popular Hidamari no Tami, or Sunshine People, toys, which rock their heads from side to side, powered by solar energy
- Totoro lovers, we’ve added many cool items for you, including the Totoro magnet sets, plush Totoro toys, and more
- We’ve also restocked the Groomy plush computer pets, which feature soft chamois bottoms which you can use to keep your monitor clean — very handy and so cute!
- Wordtank users, we’ve restocked our popular electronic dictionary cases, which you can use to protect your Wordtank
- Also for anyone studying Japanese, we’ve restocked several dictionaries, including Japanese-Japanese, kanji and katakana — they’re handy and very affordable!
- For fans of truly wacky things from Japan, we’ve got more of the Salmon Strap, a phone strap/key holder that looks like a fish, and it opens its mouth when you pull a string
- For anyone wanting to do some power-erasing, we’ve restocked the popular electric erasers for you
- Look for fresh stock of several Japanese Girl Collection Nagomi series items, including the tea holder
- Finally, look for more Cup Noodle coffee cups (a favorite of mine), more shiatsu shoe inserts for women, more wacky pens from Japan, bilingual Chobits manga, and other great items!
For our 18+ customers, we’ve got many new products. The new items include:
- For fans of Japan’s 18+ magazines, we’ve got the new issue of Ryu-Gu, or the Court of Dragon, featuring top-name JAV idols and Tokyo girls inside
- Then we have the new issue of Yasashiku Shite Ne, or Please Be Gentle with Me, featuring authentic performances from love hotels
- We have a great magazine + DVD item for fans of silky, long Japanese legs with stockings, a great item
- Photobook collectors, we’ve got a great new item for you, the delightful glossy photos of Satsuki Aida, age 19
- Then check out a great “private photobook” featuring the playful love of lovely girls from Tokyo
- Also for photobook lovers, check out the dynamite hardcover photobook of Miyu Inaba, yum
- H manga collectors, we’ve got a great volley of new comics for you, including Uniform Game by Hit Comics, a new anthology of great H themes, the latest volume of Love Junkies and more
- Also, we’ve got many restocked comics, including Pururin Seminar (all volumes), I Cup Idol, The Girls who Belongs to the Nation, and more
- Yaoi fans, look for fresh stock of popular books too, including the Gush Mania series
- We have some super DVD titles for you today, starting with a great “Concentration” release featuring Hiyori Shiraishi, who shows you her lovely performance (region free)
- Campaign Girls are an alternate form of Race Queens, extremely gorgeous girls who promote F-1 racing and advertise companies in Japan with their bodies — enjoy a great authentic performance with two real former Campaign Girls from V&R Planning (region free)
- Next, we’ve got another “study” DVD from Soft on Demand in which 100 Japanese girls poke, prod and learn all about guys’ favorite parts (region free)
- Then prepare for a very amazing “chikan bus ride” featuring all female members (region free)
- From Wanz Factory, Noa Torigoe (TOE-ree-GOH-eh) shows you her silky long legs and gorgeous feet, a great new release for leg fans (region 2)
- We’ve restocked the popular “BLAME! And so on…” by Tsutomu Nihei, as well as the sold-out
- Then enjoy great restocked DVDs, including more wacky Erika Nagai beating up on guys, Akira Watase’s best releases and Ami Ayukawa’s Super Angle of Oppai (region 2).
Remember that J-List is the only place you can get the excellent and authentic high school uniforms from Matsukameya of Nagoya. These are extremely well made uniforms that are famous all over Japan, and all uniforms are custom made to your size. Although they’re a little expensive, the quality is exceptional — of the hundreds of uniforms we’ve sold over the years, we’ve never received anything but positive comments from our customers. We’ve just lowered our prices on the summer skirt, so why not take the plunge and get yourself an authentic high school uniform from Japan? With the summer convention season coming up, you or your loved one would look great in one!
Japan’s vending machines are very wacky — there are automated machine selling everything from rice to cameras to beer. If you want to see some of Japan’s wacky vending machines in action, see this link: http://www.jlist.com/japanese_vending_machines.html
