Hello from Japan, where it’s okay to slurp your soba noodles, but not your spaghetti.
Today’s update is a day later than usual, because of the expansion of the J-List office. Wednesday was the day the builders cut a hole in the wall between the old section and the new one, and we decided to close the office that day because of the noise, and move our update schedule back one day.
When you learn a language, there are always some things that are more complex than the language you’re starting from. To study Spanish or French, for example, I’d have to deal with feminine and masculine nouns, which don’t exist in English. In English, we use the words “wear” or “put on” for just about any kind of object of clothing you could think of, but the Japanese have several different words. For anything going on your legs or feet (shoes, pants, etc.) the verb for to wear is “haku.” For shirts or dresses, the verb is “kiru” (the “ki” from this verb is part of the word kimono, which really just means “thing that you wear”). Put something on your hands, like a ring or gloves, and you use “suru” (lit. “to do), and anything worn on the head is “kaburu.” Similarly, the Japanese have two concepts for cold, one for cold in the air around you, and another for things that are cold to the touch. If the air around you is cold, you use “samui,” but if you’re washing dishes in cold water, the word would be “tsumetai.” Whichever word comes out of your mouth, it’s pretty certain to be there wrong one for the situation you’re in. Foreigners making mistakes like using the wrong word for cold sound “cute” to the Japanese.
Memorizing the names of the months in English must be difficult for Japanese, but it’s easy going the other way — the months in Japanese are all just numbers followed by the kanji for month (e.g. ichi-gatsu is January, ni-gatsu is February, etc.). They get their revenge, though: although the days of the month in Japanese are expressed with numbers, just like in English, there are special names for the first ten days of the month, which must be memorized, always a chore for gaijin learning Japanese. The days of the week are interesting, too — each is associated with a kanji that represents the original European origin. The days of the week are Getsu-yobi (lit. “moon day”), Ka-yobi (“fire day” since the first character for Mars is “fire”), Sui-yobi (“water day,” from the Japanese name for the planet Mercury), Moku-yobi (“wood day,” from Jupiter), Kin-yobi (“gold day,” from Venus), Do-yobi (“earth day,” from Saturn), and Nichi-yobi (“sun day,” from good old Sol).
Do you know what year it is? I often don’t. In addition to the standard Western calendar, the Japanese have a unique system of counting years based on the reign of the current emperor. It’s currently the 15th year of the Heisei era (Heisei means “accomplishment of peace”), which began when Emperor Hirohito died and was succeeded by his son, Akihito, so this year is Heisei 15. Before Heisei was the Showa era (from 1925 to 1988), before that was Taisho, and Meiji, and so on — Japanese students have to memorize them all. When you live in Japan, you quickly learn your own birth year according to the Japanese system, since you need it to fill out various forms (I was born in Showa 43, e.g. 1968). Incidentally, the current Emperor of Japan is 125th in an unbroken line of emperors going back 2000 years. His name is Akihito, but since he’s always called “Emperor Heisei” in Japan, it’s quite common for Japanese to not know the name of their own emperor.
Well, the fantastic Shirow Masamune Intron Depot 3 Ballistics art book sold out in record time — in less than one day, to be exact. We’ve got 100 copies of this fabulous collection of Shirow’s best artwork on the way, so feel free to order it and we’ll send your copy to you as soon as it comes in stock. As always, when you order an item that’s not in stock, the items that aren’t available are held separately and are never charged until it’s ready to go out to you.
We’re very happy with the popularity our wacky shirts from Japan have achieved, and we’ve got a great new design for you today, a parody of the famous anime movie Akira done in a Lego block art style — wacky on many different levels. Like all our funny Japanese T-shirts, it’s 100% cotton and printed in the USA, and all sizes are full U.S. sizes (there’s a size chart with the actual measurements of the shirts too, for anyone who’s unsure of their size).
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, if you love stylish anime art, we’ve got a deluxe art book with yaoi themes, The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok — very cool
- If you’re a fan of Japan’s manga, enjoy the new Japan Comic Lemni 3003, a fantastic snapshot of the current state of manga in Japan (cover by Katsuya Terada) — the Alice in Cyberland story was worth the price of the book alone
- For lovers of Japanese snacks, we’ve got some tasty additions for you, including Hello Kitty rice snacks, delicious “Curl” puffs, banana yogurt chocolate, new onigiri mix and miso soups, and more
- Also a cool item, a delicious plate of desserts that are really erasers for you to collect
- We’ve got some nice Kitty related items, including Kitty MD stickers for mini-disc users (they work on floppy disks too), fresh stock of Kitty chopsticks and stylish wrist bands, and more
- For fans of traditional Japanese luck-bringing charms, we’ve got a super “fortune egg” series that is a realistic egg that contains a different colored Lucky Cat charm — each different color will bring you happiness, money, love and so on, according to feng shui
- We’ve got different traditional Japanese bags to organize your life with, including a great blue-dyed cotton bento bag and a handy double set of pouches
- Anime fans should check out the cool Gundam toys we’ve got in, a talking Haro alarm clock that looks great and tells you the time in Japanese
- Also, a superb item for Totoro collectors, a deluxe Totoro diorama that is a musical clock — a very special item for any collector
- We’ve restocked several of the popular only-sold-in-Japan Hot Wheels, like the Night Rider Kitt 2000, as well as several Studio Ghibli related toys and plush items
- For Race Queen fans, see the lovely Race Queen Hundred Costume, just loaded with beautiful authentic Race Queens and Campaign Girls from Japan
- Also for Morning Musume fans, we’ve got fresh stock of the solo photobook of Rika Ishikawa, the girl who replaced Maki Gotoh as the most fawned-over member
- Finally, see notebooks with funny English on them, more wacky Japanese emergency exit signs to go with our popular T-shirts, more items to help you study Japanese, delicious teas you can use to improve your health, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of beautiful Japanese adult magazines, we’ve got the new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, both of which feature only Japanese nude idols photographed by
- Then enjoy the lovely issue of “Let’s Do Good Things” (they have such interesting names for adult magazines here), featuring lovely hardcore and love hotel sex and more
- For photobook fans, enjoy several new items, including the sweet hardcover photobook of Kyoko Fujikawa and the beautiful body of G-cup gravure idol Misaki
- For manga fans who want to take advantage of our May Manga sale, we’ve got some great new works, including compilation manga with female teacher themes, petite nurse sex, and a superb cat girl & cyborg erotic manga
- We’ve also restocked several popular hentai mangas for you, including the very erotic Masquerade by Takushi Fukada and Kotoyoshi Yumisuke’s fantastic Insult
- Also, we’ve added several nice new doujinshi works to our page, for fans of the popular amateur hentai comics from Japan
- For yaoi lovers, see a new volume that’s filled with classic yaoi themes of love and sex, as well as fresh stock of popular b-Boy Zips anthology works
- For DVD fans, we’ve got some excellent works for you, starting with one of the most requested actresses in recent history — a new Best Re-mix of erotic works from Sakura Sena! (region free)
- Then enjoy another supreme remix of the best lesbian works of U&K, the famous all-lesbian adult indies studio — see 120 minutes of their best performances ever (region free)
- From SOD, a super treat — great lesbian and hardcore sex starring Riho Nanase and Kokoro Amano, who really perform up a storm as they bring you not one but two erotic DVDs in a great two volume set – a total of 260 minutes of prime AV for a special price! (region free)
- From SOD’s IEnergy label, a great panty and underwear fetish DVD — see the private sexy underwear of 15 beautiful Tokyo girls (region free)
- Waap brings you another great DVD, in which one man takes on the erotic sex of eight slutty women at once (region 2)
- Then enjoy the bondage sex and S&M play of Miyuki Ogawa in a great erotic release from Wanz Factory, great for fans of sexual experimentation
- Finally, enjoy fresh stock of several great DVDs, including the erotic “clothed female, naked male” series, Azumi Kawashima’s return to AV, Marina Matsushima’s super-busty re-mix and busty idol legend Kimiko Matsuzaka’s “The Complete.”
Remember that J-List carries many items featuring the beautiful Russian nude idol Yulia Nova, including magazines, videos and more. Although we’ve been asked by Mr. Kizu, the copyright holder of Ms. Nova’s works, to refrain from posting interior scans of products on our site, you can find many Yulia products by searching the site. We’ve also got the limited edition Yulia Nova nude postcard sets, although they don’t appear on the site (email us if you’d like information on them).
J-List carries many unique items, including many items that are very cool to give others as gifts. Whenever I go back to the States and find myself in need of gifts for my family (called “omiyage” oh-MEE-yah-geh), I never have to go farther than the J-List stock room (just kidding, Mom). See our new section for gift ideas from the J-List staff!
The J-Mate site has been updated, with a great new English interview with the lovely Hitomi Hayasaka, one of the brightest and most cheerful girls in the Japanese AV world today. Read her reasons for becoming an AV star. Also, read reviews of products we happen to have available at J-List, including the excellent Viper Paradice, a Monopoly-like 2D bishoujo game, and World Wide Fuck in Hungary, showing the sex of beautiful amateur girls in Hungary but filmed by Japanese actors by Japanese directors. The URL is http://www.jmate.com/
