Hello from Japan, where stores play Auld Lang Syne to signal to customers that the store is about to close.
Den Fujita, the father of McDonald’s in Japan, died last month at the age of 78. A respected business leader here, Mr. Fujita fought hard to win over Ray Kroc for the right to bring McDonald’s to Japan in 1971, beating out over 300 more established rivals who wanted the franchise for Japan. He did so by showing passion and eagerness, and he was also aided by his fluency in English and understanding of Western business models. Although McDonald’s Japan went into the red as a result of trying to cut prices too far, the company is back in black now. I believe McDonald’s Japan could teach some things to its American parent. The restaurants are always clean and pleasant, and they only serve 100% orange juice with Happy Meals, not Hi-C sugar water, which makes me happier as a parent. The portions are reasonable without being too large, and you can choose a small salad instead of french fries with any meal at no extra cost. And green tea shakes are great in the summer ^_^ In addition to founding McDonald’s, Mr. Fujita was one of the founders of Toys R Us in Japan.
Before I came to Japan, I never thought that I had much in common with men from Sri Lanka, Peru or Pakistan, but here, we’re all part of one big happy gaijin family. Gaijin (lit. “outside-person”) is the Japanese word for foreigner, and because it can have a slightly rude connotation to it, the softer word gaikokujin (“outside-country-person”) is the preferred term. But although all non-Japanese living in Japan are ostensibly foreigners, there seem to be some subtle rules for how Japanese label members of different groups. Koreans and Chinese, who are much closer culturally to Japanese, aren’t described with the word gaijin; instead, they’re referred to specifically by their nationality. But the rest of us are usually grouped together with the term gaijin, as if the word were acting as a catch-all word to describe people whose nationalities aren’t recognizable by looking at their faces. While foreigners often dislike being addressed by the term gaijin by Japanese, most friends of mine use it among themselves freely.
When learning Japanese, it’s always fun to learn the gitaigo, a group of words similar to onomatopoeia which describe the state of objects. Because they consist of repetitions of words, they are cute and fun to use. If you’re hungry, the Japanese would say that you’re “peko peko,” a word which describes the way you feel when your stomach is very empty. Alternately, “kara kara” describes your throat when you’re thirsty. If you get soaking wet in the rain, you’re “bisho bisho,” and if you get indigestion, your stomach is “muka muka” (MOO-ka MOOka). If your skin is especially smooth and clean, someone might say it’s “sube sube” (SOO-beh SOO-beh, a word which comes from suberu, “to glide”), and if you’re a little on the plump side, you might be described as “puyo puyo” (POO-yo POO-yo), a word which sounds quite cute. Other fun gigaigo words include “paku paku” (to eat rapidly; this is where Pac-Man gets his name from); “beta beta” (beh-tah beh-tah; to be sticky); and pan pan (pahn pahn; being so full you slap your stomach like a sumo wrestler).
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, we have more excellent traditional Japanese shoes, this time great setta and zori sandals for men which sport really neat ukiyoe prints on them, capturing the spirit of Edo period art — they’re so cool!
- For those interested in learning to prepare a traditional Japanese treat, we’ve got a real tako-yaki cooking set, allowing you to make delicious tako-yaki, balls of batter with octopus meat inside
- For fans of the cute Hidamari no Tami (“Sunshine People”) relaxation aids from Tomy, we’ve got two new varieties: one little person holding a fishing pole, another with a pretty flower
- For our snack fans enjoy traditional Japanese whistling candy (sold in Japan for decades), tasty chocolate malt balls with an Astro Boy toy, tasty mini-snacks and more
- Also, a new delicious full box of Mix Fruits bubblegum, tasty and delicious
- For fans of super detailed Japanese candy toy figures, we’ve got a cool set of Men At Work, roadside construction crews that are really fun to display
- Fans of the beautiful swimsuit idol Chisato Morishita, we’ve got a great item for you: collectable trading cards featuring the lovely girl’s glossy photographs on them
- For anime fans, we’ve got a great deck of Princess Mononoke playing cards that are fabulous
- Also, a superb item for true Totoro fans: various restocked items including Totoro magnets, knapsacks, and our Totoro Cukoo clock that must be seen to be believed
- We’ve got a new Pink Nipple Cream item in stock for you, a useful item that’s helpful in returning dark nipples to their younger pink color
- We just love the beautiful contemporary nihonga paintings of Seiichu Hayashi — enjoy several new Japanese Girl Nagomi items for your room, in stock today
- Have fun in the bath with a cute Lucky Cat egg toy from Takara — a fun egg that dissolves in the bath, releasing a cute Lucky Cat toy to play with or display
- Also, we’ve added two new cool Power Stone good luck charms, which help bring good luck to you (they also help you diet)
- We’re big fans of wacky parody items from Japan — we’ve got more hamster ramen erasers for you that are really fun
- We’ve got fresh stock of the Character Design Bible, a great artbook that examines beautiful manga and anime character structure
- We’ve added stock of items to help you study Japanese, including hiragana/katakana quiz cards and the cool kanji quiz booklets that Japanese elementary school students use
- We’ve added stock of cool things for your kitchen, including the sausage cutters that you can use to turn small sausages into octopi, crabs, etc.
- Finally, check out a great traditional all-purpose box, an ashtray you can use to putt balls into it, fresh stock of the Pictorial Pocket Book series, restocked display cases for our popular candy toy items, more miniature shogi boards, and more!
For our 18+ customers, we’ve got many new products. The new items include:
- For fans of big Japanese girls, we’ve got the new Gal’s Dee, featuring many lovely girls of D cup or larger
- Next, we’ve got the new Yappari Hitozuma issue, for fans of mature, experienced Japanese married women
- For photobook fans, don’t miss Rui Hayama’s delightful hardcover photobook, just released (it’s still warm)
- Chikako Sakurai is heir to Yuko Ogura as one of Japan’s most incredibly cute idols — see her sexy new hardcover photobook release
- Then take in the delicious Moe Yoshizawa first photobook, a superb item shot in a luxurious location
- Restocked photobooks include items by Minako Komukai, Kaoru and the incredibly beautiful Ryo Uehara (wow)
- H manga fans, we’ve got some superb items for you, including an excellent new work by Yumisuke Kotoyoshi and Hot Milk Comics, an exploration of many sexy themes by EX Comics, the “secret smell” and more
- We also have various restocked manga for you, including Twiny Attraction, Refrection (sic) and many more titles
- Also for yaoi fans, a super new work from Aqua Comics that will knock your socks off
- For our DVD customers, enjoy some great new releases, starting with the bargain-priced “Concentration” release of Misato Sugihara, a really gorgeous Japanese JAV star (region free)
- From V&R Planning, enjoy another 100% authentic performance by two former Japanese Campaign Girls, similar to Race Queens — very nice (region free)
- Then from soft on Demand, enjoy a fanatics 5 1/2 hours of deluxe JAV featuring Ai Kurosawa, Mai Haruna and Miyuki Hourai (region free)
- Then experience the world of esthe, Deep’s style, as experienced Manae Sugimi expertly guides to other ladies to health and beauty (region free)
- Next up, there’s a brilliant new release by Ami Ayukawa on the Wanz Factory label, featuring the Complete Ami that her fans should not miss (region 2)
- Then from Moodyz, a truly wacky parody of Joshi Juni Gakubo (“12 Girl Musicians”), the group of sixteen beautiful Chinese girls who play on traditional Chinese wood and string instruments — this time it’s a much more devious project indeed (region 2)
- Finally, look for various restocked DVD titles, including Stairway to Heaven & Highway to Hell (one of my all-time favorites), Ballerina, Stewardess Best 4 Hours, Marina Matsushima’s recent DVD release, and more!
Remember that we’re still having our great $1 shipping sale on all English-translated dating-sim games. Since we’ve got a huge variety of games in stock for you, with a variety of themes from romantic to dramatic school sim to comedy and more, we hope you’ll check out what we’ve got for you. If you buy 4 or more games, you still get our regular discount of 20% off. Why not stock up on these excellent games today?
