Hello again from all your friends at J-List!
Although you may think of trains when you think of Japan, you really need a car to get around unless you live in a large city like Tokyo or Nagoya. In Gunma Prefecture, where we live, there are train lines connecting the cities, but without a car it’d be very inconvenient to get anywhere. Buying a car here is a little different than it is in the U.S. For starters, nearly everyone buys cars from showrooms operated by the manufacturers (Mazda, Toyota), rather than from third-party dealers. GM’s Saturn dealerships were directly based on this model. Since you’re buying a car directly from the company that made it, they have total control over the buying experience and can come up with innovative ways of presenting their products to customers. Nissan has done just that with the launching of “Carest Zama,” the first large-scale “car mall” twice the size of Tokyo Dome, where prospective auto buyers can browse over 100 of Nissan’a new cars, test drive them in an on-premises driving track, get service and buy various car-related products, and entertain their kids. When you buy a car in America, you usually drive off the lot that afternoon, but in Japan, virtually everyone orders the car they want, choosing color and options, and waits for it to be delivered in three weeks.
Something that causes some frustration in Japan is the sha-ken system, which is basically a total vehicle check-up all cars must get three years after a new car purchase and every two years after that. A combination safety check of all parts of the car, smog certification and tune-up, getting your car sha-ken’ed can cost anywhere from $500 to $1500 depending on how large the engine is and on the age of your car. (Part of the sha-ken fee is a road-use tax, and another part is the minimum car insurance that all drivers must carry.) Since the sha-ken fee is so expensive, Japanese usually use it as an excuse to buy a new car instead, which of course makes car manufacturers happy. On the one hand, sha-ken acts as a kind of ongoing “over-use” tax, punishing drivers who don’t buy new cars every 3-5 years, and gaijin living in Japan are usually livid when they hear about all the money they have to pay to keep driving. On the other hand, having a solid safety check of all cars on a regular basis makes driving much safer, and cars almost never break here. In fact, I’ve only had one car problem in my twelve years in Japan, when a cat trying to get out of the cold climbed into my engine compartment, only to be ripped to shreds when I turned on my car.
What color are your eyes? All Japanese people have brown eyes, although if you ever ask them what color their eyes are, they’ll tell you “black” (because the center of the eyes are black, as opposed to the iris). Japanese are often interested in the eyes of foreigners, since they come in different colors, something totally unknown in Japan (although they do have color contact lenses here). When I tell Japanese that my eyes change color depending on what I’m wearing, ranging from green to hazel to blue, they usually don’t believe it’s possible. My wife and I are studying Spanish, and I’ve been asked by my teacher, a Japanese who grew up in Peru, if I saw the world through a blue or green tint because of the color of my eyes.
J-List carries over 200 different photobooks from Japan, with beautiful idols and models, famous JPOP singers, and lovely nude photobooks. It’s a great time to browse J-List’s huge selection of photobook items, for two reasons. First, we’ve found fresh stock of some really rare items that were previously sold out, and have added them to the site. Also, for the rest of 2003 we’re giving an extra big discount to customers who buy 4 more photobooks together: a whopping 20% (discount automatically applied at checkout).
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- Because we genuinely feel it’s our duty to make cool and unique products available to you from Japan, we’re happy to have Tomy’s Micro Aqua miniature aquariums, which recreate real fishtanks in every detail for you
- The Paper Stitch Lock, a great device that “stitches” sheets of paper together so you never need staples, has been one of our biggest sellers — now we’ve got a deluxe version that comes in different colors
- For Domo-kun fans, we’ve restocked the popular Domo-kun towels and washcloths
- We love the high-quality Totoro toys of Sun Arrow, a famous Japanese toy company famous for their high quality products — we’ve got more Makkuro Kurosuke, er, Soot Sprites in stock for you
- Japan’s unique toys, like Blythe and Kubrick, really come alive in the new issue of Dolly Bird, featuring a special look at the most stylish toys you’ve ever seen
- We have more wacky Japanese signs for you, including one for people with men in the house who can’t keep from missing the toilet
- We’ve got fresh stock of the popular FX Neo eyedrops, which wake you up when you’re sleepy — a very popular item
- We love cute things from Japan, and one of our favorites is the UsaColle Friends (short for Usako Collection and Friends) — enjoy eyeglass wipes and origami paper
- For Hello Kitty fans, we’ve got lots of cool things you can only find in Japan, including a set of Kitty kitchen figures, a delicious way to make ice cream with Kitty, and a Kitty microwave cake set
- Then try some delicious traditional Japanese tastes including furikake, sweet bean soup, and more
- We’ve restocked the popular Japanese spicy caffeine gum Black Black, advertised by Jean Claude van Damme
- One of our best-selling DVD titles is Happa-Tai (“Fig Leaf Army”) who were a big hit in the States — we have “Yatta!” back in stock for you
- Finally, look for more bizarre Japanese pins, fresh stock of cool Every Blythe miniature figures, fresh stock of 120 cm authentic “loose socks” and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japan’s beautiful erotic photography, we’ve got the new issue of Urecco, the “hybrid skin magazine” that features top-quality AV stars like Aoi Sora, Hitomi Hayasaka, Asuka Sawaguchi, and more, and Urecco is now an all-color magazine too!
- We’ve got a great item for you next, a full color magazine that comes with a 125 minute sampler DVD and a life-sized poster of Aoi Sora
- Then enjoy the new issue of Meets Girl (as in “boy meets girl”) featuring real Japanese amateurs age 18 to 20 in love hotels with their boyfriends
- We’ve got the wonderful hardcover swimsuit photobook of Noriko Satoh, age 18, and she looks really great
- Then enjoy the delicious body of Tsukasa Kato’s new photobook release, Rindoh
- We have some super new erotic manga for you including Yutaka Tanaka’s great new Shiawase H, the very erotic manga Ayame by AV Comics, and a very grown-up erotic manga by Action Comics
- Also, a real treat for fans of Japan’s highly developed tradition of hermaphrodite erotica, a new work by Amanoja 9 (“Amanojack”) in his best-selling “TS I Love You” series
- For doujinshi fans, we’ve got two great new doujinshi from the famous circle Ochimentaiko, for fans of Akira Minazuki’s erotic busty women, and a super Zeta Gundam hentai doujinshi
- For DVD fans, we have a great volley of new releases for you, starting with a new Body Concept erotic leg fetish from Shinkosha (region free)
- Then enjoy the super natural and shy sex of Momo Takai in her adult film debut (region free)
- Ai Nagase fans, Deep’s has put together a great collection of 4 hours of her best hardcore works, and for a super price (region free)
- Miku Hasegawa and Ai Shimura look great as they perform lesbian sex and 3P (three people, e.g. manage a trois) with am extremely lucky man (region free)
- Enjoy the lesbian kissing of beautiful Japanese ladies in the new Les Kiss by U&K, the famous all-lesbian adult video studio (region free)
- Then have a feast of bukkake in Semen Club, which features delightfully slutty women playing with sperm (region 2)
- Finally, look for various restocked and reduced price DVD titles, with many more that ship with free SAL shipping!
Remember that J-List carries many items featuring the beautiful Russian nude idol Yulia Nova, including magazines, videos and more. Since J-List is the official representative of Yulia Nova, we have the best selection you’ll find anywhere. Buy 3 or more Russian Beauties/Yulia Nova items and get an extra 10% discount, too.
