Hello again from Japan!
This year is the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Edo (Tokyo) as the capital of Japan. In 1603, Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, the third of the three unifiers of Japan, established the city of Edo as the capital of the country, after centuries of the Kyoto-Osaka region being the center of politics in Japan (and the center of repeated wars). The line of Tokugawa rulers continued for 265 years, closing Japan to all outside influences and trade to protect it from colonization by Western powers. The Tokugawa clan ruled Japan through 15 generations, until the Shogunate was overthrown during the Meiji Restoration of 1868, when young Japanese rallied around the Emperor in a plan to create a modern nation. Residents of Tokyo are planning many special ceremonies this year to commemorate the birth of Tokyo, and we’re taking part too: we’ve got great sets of historical action figures from Japan’s past, which are great to collect and display.
Tokyo is an interesting place, although I tire of all that concrete when I’m there, and I’m usually happy to get back to Isesaki (pop. 140,000) at the end of the day. Here are some interesting places you might want to check out if you’re ever in Tokyo, though. Ameyoko, an interesting collection of alley ways full of small street shops selling interesting clothes, food and accessories, is always fun to wander around. It grew out of a black market that flourished in the years after World War II. Another popular spot with tourists is Akasuka, a large shrine that has many interesting shops around it. If you like electronics — and what gaijin visiting Japan doesn’t? — be sure and hit Akihabara, home of the “Electric Town” where there are hundreds of shops selling just about anything you can want. If you’ve got your passport with you, you can avoid paying the 5% consumption tax at these shops, too. To check out “kogal” culture, just take the Yama-no-te (the loop line that goes around Tokyo) to Shibuya and get off at the Hachiko exit (see below for more on Hachiko). There you’ll find a vibrant area of street musicians and interesting shops, as well many Japanese girls, with guys trying to hit on them while standing around the famous “scramble intersection” (called this because you have to move your butt quickly to get across in time, or you’ll get hit by a taxi). For night action, go to Kabukicho, although gaijin should watch themselves as it can be a little rough, and some establishments won’t let foreigners in at all. Tokyo Tower and the massive Tokyo Municipal Government Office are also good to hit if you want a view of the city from above.
The most famous dog in the history of Tokyo is Hachiko, an Akita dog who was owned by a university professor in the 1920’s. Every day, Hachiko accompanied the professor to Shibuya Station, and in the evenings, the man would come back to find the dog waiting faithfully for his return, a happy expression on his face. This continued for years, until one day, the man died suddenly. Loyal Hachiko waited for his master to return for ten years, wagging his tail in front of the station every day until he, too, died. Tokyo residents have erected a bronze statue in Hachiko’s memory, which you can see at the Hachiko exit of the station if you’re ever in Tokyo. It’s so famous, it’s very useful as a meeting point for friends — “Meet me at Hachiko.”
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Tokyo becoming the capital of Japan, we’ve got a cool series of historic figures from Japan’s unification wars, including Tokugawa himself (full sets are available too)
- For fans of Shirow Masamune, we’ve got full sets available for preorder of not one, but two different upcoming toy releases: the lovely characters of the Intron Depot universe, and a superb Ghost in the Shell figure series. Both sets of toys will be coming out in June, but you can preorder your full set now!
- For fans of our unique Japanese snacks, enjoy the 30th anniversary version of Kit Kat chocolate, chocolate covered rice crackers, lemon C candy and fresh stock of several cool items including miso soup
- Also, for fans of Japanese gum, we’ve got Lifeguard gum, a fresh taste that quenches your thirst
- We’ve got great Japanese swimsuit idols for you, including a new hardcover item with the lovely Sayaka Isoyama in it
- For manga fans curious about girls’ comics, we’ve got a nice two-volume set for you, Lingerie Publicity by Mamito Ankara
- One of the most attractive men in Japan today is Gackt, a singer and male model — see his asthetically worthy photobook in stock for you today
- We always stock lots of cool toys from Japan — today, see limited stock of two cool Alien toys from the famous films Alien and Aliens — very detailed, and very cool, by Japanese toy maker Skynet
- For fans of the super-cute Groomy plush dogs and cats that we carry, which feature chamois bottoms for wiping your computer monitor clean, we’ve got four new varieties: St. Bernard, Bull Terrier, Doberman Pinscer and a Yellow Labrador
- For bento fans, we’ve got a nice new double-decker bento box that’s good for putting rice in one section and your “okazu” (that is, whatever main food you eat with your rice) in the other section
- For those whose lives need more organization, we’ve got a great “multi work case” that holds documents, phones, PDA, laptops, and just about anything else you can throw at it
- For Kitty fans, several new items including a really snazzy Hello Kitty mechanical lace pencil, fresh stock of the cute Kitty toy refrigerator and Rubick’s Cube, and more
- Also, for fans of Totoro and the other films of Studio Ghibli, we’ve restocked several plush toys, keychains, and the very popular Jiji Pencil Case
- Also, we’ve restocked several wacky stickers for you, with “No Parking” “Emergency Exit” and “Do Not Enter” in reflective stickers, written in Japanese
- Finally, enjoy a great way to hang pictures or notes, a Hello Kitty photo stand, new wacky bento boxes for fans of Japanese boxed lunch, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japanese magazines, enjoy new “hitozuma” (married women) fetish items, showing young wives cheating on their husbands to pay their debts
- then find the new issue of DVD Wow! in stock, a full color magazine that comes with a 140 min. DVD full of great sample fucks for you to enjoy (region 2)
- We fell in love with busty Japanese AV star Alice Hoshi the first time we saw her, and you will too, in her super erotic hardcover photobook
- Then enjoy the erotic “Imoto” series photobook of Yayoi, age 19, a lovely creature captured by the camera of Garo Aida
- Megumi is the name of one of Japan’s top busty idols, and you will love her new photobook, dedicated entirely to the lovely idol
- For manga fans interested the best erotic comic artwork Japan has to offer, we’ve got some great new books for you, including the excellent Aigan (Appeal) from Mujin Comics, and the dreamy and erotic Stray Sheep by master illustrator “Benjamin”
- Also, great fresh stock of popular books for you, including the Chobits hentai anthologies, the super collection of anthology works ERO-GAINER, and many more (and all are part of our manga sale)
- We’re also happy to announce stock of the excellent hentai doujinshi of Behind Moon, featuring superb “dick girl” themes and great artwork — we’ve got two volumes in stock, as well as a
- For DVD loves, we’ve got a wild lineup for you today, starting with an erotic “Blue File” release with three hours of AV sex by Asuka, the sweet and erotic AV star who will melt your heart with her cuteness (region free)
- Sayaka Hijiri has been performing professional AV for two years, and has really made her mark on the Indies industry in Japan — now enjoy the best sex from her career, collected onto a great disc that’s an amazing 240 minutes long (region free)
- The Zenra Sports series continues, with a great new release by SOD’s Deep’s label — this time enjoy erotic all-nude basketball with 24 naked Japanese girls! (region free)
- Then, enjoy the incredible sexual experience of Ran Asakawa as she fucks, sucks and does much more in a new “Female Teacher” release from Deep’s (region free)
- SOD’s “Holed Panty” series is great because it allows you to see beautiful girls getting serviced without any mosaic censorship — now enjoy Ai Nagase as she gets the updated holed panty treatment (region free)
- There’s bukkake galore in the new Gokkun Selection from Waap, featuring the best cum-eating of 13 different hot Japanese stars (region 2)
- Then, the lovely Bunko Kanazawa offers to tease your penis,
- Finally, see newly stocked items, including fresh stock of Zenra Volleyball, Let’s Go Marine-Chan, and fresh stock of all the erotic videos of Russian star Yulia Nova!
Remember that J-List makes dozens of magazines available through our “reserve subscription” system. Basically, we’ll pre-reserve the current issue of each month’s magazine for you and have it in the mail to you by the time it’s in bookstores here in Japan — a few days earlier, actually, since we get our stock earlier than most bookstores. We’ve got many different anime, toy, JPOP/JROCK, idol, adult, and other magazines available, we just know there’s something you’d love to get each month. See the magazine subscription pages on our site for more information.
Also remember that the easiest way to see all the newly updated items on J-List is through the “three day link.” Click the link, located on the main J-List page, and all items from the past three days will be displayed. You can also click the product picture that appears on the front page to see all updated items.
