Hello again from Japan, where a movie release is called “road show.” We were slowed down last week by both the Golden Week problems as well as some server hiccups, but we’re back, with a great update for J-List fans. The page is working fine now, although not that we are keeping most of the large images off the server to avoid the problems coming back (please forgive our dead links).
Well, Japan feels just a little more like home to me, now that the local Toys “R” Us is open. I took the kids there for a treat on opening day, and was surprised to see thousands of Japanese, getting into the spirit of American consumerism. On the other hand, what the Market gives, the Market taketh away: Burger King has unfortunately retreated from their foray into the Tokyo fast food market, and has sold the leases to their dozen or so stores to — ugh — Lotteria. Back to eating at the Subway in Ocha-no-mizu.
All languages have different elements which are new to learners coming in from other languages. In Japanese, there are long and short vowels — the sounds “ko” and “koh” are two completely different phonetic concepts in Japanese, just as L and R are in English. It can be confusing when learning Japanese: ojisan means “uncle” but ojiisan (note the extra “i”) means “grandfather.” The long/short sounds are so completely separate that Japanese don’t even hear a similarity in the sounds. I once had a student named Ohno Yoko (Yoko, not Yohko). When I pointed out that her name was similar to the wife of the former Beatle (which is Yohko, with the long vowel), she told me she’d never thought of that in her life.
The long/short vowels also cause problems when transliterating Japanese into English. For example, Akimoto Yuna’s name is really Yuuna, not Yuna (long vowel), but it’s tedious and pointless to write her name the “correct” way when it makes no difference to how the name is pronounced. At J-List, we generally transliterate names and words in whatever way makes them shortest and clearest, especially from the standpoint of pronunciation — thus, we’d use “Yuna” in the above example. We usually write words like bishoujo, doujinshi as bishojo and dojinshi, although it’s technically less accurate. Sometimes AV actresses have an “official” English spelling, or one that’s very accepted (Tohno Natsuko, Ohura Anna), we usually use those. It’s a difficult situation — the multiple spellings is a big challenge for search engines, for example — but it’s all part of Japanese.
Announcing the Spring Video Sale! We’re a bit overstocked on our popular AV videos, so we’ve moved tons of titles to the Discount Video page. In addition to free SAL shipping, until the end of May you can buy 3 and get the 4th video free. The videos must be in stock (not a problem, we’ve got hundreds in stock now). The lowest priced video is the “free” one, so if you choose four videos of similar price, it’s like getting 25% off.
For the first update of a fresh week, we’ve got some nice items for you, including:
- Many new 18+ items
- For Japanese idol fans, we’ve got stock of the newest Morning Musume card set — the Priname Petit Card series — only $2.50 per pack!
- There is fresh stock of the silly wooden sign that has “Now being punished” (oshioki-chu) on it
- We have limited stock (one set of each, actually) of FULL SETS of the Cardcaptor Sakura keychain and Cardcaptor Sakura stationary set — both very lovely! See the Anime Snacks page for these items.
- We have fresh stock of several cool items on our Wacky Things from Japan, including the surprisingly popular train/bus pass holder, Japanese vocabulary word cards, wacky Japanese notebooks with funny English written on them, and more. We’ve also added new items, including a very nice new Japanese “noren” room curtain (add a touch of Japanese style to your room), a wonderful Japanese pouch that can hold your digital camera or MP3 player, and more.
We’re looking for a person knowledgeable about Japan’s bishojo games, who can help work up an article for publication in a major adult magazine. If you have a writing background and are preferably published, please talk to us. Thanks!
