Hail and well met from your friends in Japan, J-List!
The Japanese may think that Brad Pitt is the sexiest man in the world, but to many Japanese fans, the hottest guy is Kimura Takuya, of the talented singing group SMAP (they also cook gourmet means in their spare time). One of the top Japanese “talents,” he can sing, he can dance, and his TV dramas are always huge money-makers, especially when he stars with pretty actress Matsu Takako. He is to Brad Pitt what Matsuda Seiko is to Madonna, and the fact that he advertises Levi’s in Japan while BP does the Edwin Jeans commercials seals their yin-yang relationship. See some pictures of Kimu-Taku, including some of his Levi’s ads, at http://www.geocities.com/youarebest1/index2.html (fair warning, there are popups on this site).
In sports, it’s harder to tell who the best-looking Japanese guys are. One contender is Ichiro, the popular baseball player who quit the top spot in Japan’s baseball world (at least in making TV commercials, anyway), and went to join the Seattle Mariners. He’s a handsome guy, even if he weren’t a talented batter (fellow Japanese pitcher Nomo beaned him accidentally in a game last week, which was widely shown all around Japan). But my wife and I agree that the sexiest Japanese “sportsman” (athlete) has to be Nakata, who quit Japan’s soccer league and is now a world-class soccer player in Italy. He’s also fluent in Italian, which fuels the Euro-philism that all Japanese secretly keep in their hearts. (Remember that part of Peter’s Unified Theory of Japan is that they secretly wish they were part of Europe. Why else would they make the DVD region codes for Japan and Europe the same?) You can see pictures of Nakata at http://nakata.net/official/light/document/document001.htm.
For the first update of the week, we’ve got some nice new items for you, including:
- First, some excellent new Japanese magazines for you, including the new issues of Video Boy and Best Video (two great magazines from Eichi Publishing that let you follow the entire Japan AV world easily), in addition to a special edition of the popular Waffle
- For fans of high-quality Japanese erotic photography, we have some nice photobooks for you, including Kurosawa Hitomi’s lovely “age 19” photobook, fresh stock of some popular photobooks that had sold out, and more
- Bondage fans should check out the “Traditional Bondage in Japan” photobook we’ve posted (stock is limited though)
- For erotic manga fans, we’ve got a large update, with both new manga posted as well as fresh stock of some very nice full sets of erotic manga that have been popular (but which had sold out and been removed from the manga pages). Be sure to check both pages 1 and 2 for new items.
- For anyone who wants to learn more about how to please a woman, famous Japanese AV actor Kato Taka and director TOHJIRO will teach you in their great erotic DVD from Soft on Demand, The Much-treasured Sexual Technique Lecture DVD. This lesson centers around “How to make a woman come.”
- Everyone love beautiful Japanese women, and Japan’s Race Queens are some of the loveliest. By popular demand, we have fresh stock of the very nice (albeit expensive) Gal’s Paradise 2000 ~Race Queen Collection Cards~
- Also for fans of lovely Japanese girls — the latest set of Morning Musume collectible idol cards, “Sweet Morning Card II,” featuring lovely glossy images of all the beautiful Mo-Musu gals
- For anime fans, two very special items only available from Japan — first, a superb “Laputa Castle in the Sky” figure set (Sheeta, Pazu and the super-cool Laputa robot!), and from Banpresto, a highly detailed Lupin III figure set (full sets available!)
- In Japan, there are two brands of mayonnaise — Ajinomoto and Kewpie. We’ve had Ajinomoto’s in stock on our Japanese snacks & food page for a few weeks, and now we’ve added Kewpie — so you can compare and decide for yourself which Japanese mayonnaise is the best
- On our funny Japanese signs & posters page, see new wacky wooden signs with interesting Japanese proverbs printed on them (including one of my favorites, “Boys be ambitious!”)
- Also on our Wacky Things from Japan pages, we’ve got some great new items for you that only J-List could bring you — including Hello Kitty toothbrushes, deluxe Japanese fans with wonderful Japanese pictures printed on them, origami paper, and more!
J-List sells many wacky and cool things from Japan, that aren’t available to people living outside of Japan otherwise. One cool thing we love to sell is Japanese gum, with all the delicious flavors that sound funny at first, but are great once you try them. Kaori recommends the delicious sugarless gum containing Xylitol, a remarkable product from Finland that protects against cavities and tastes great. We’ve got several varieties of this delicious gum in stock, so check out our Japanese gum pages!
