Greetings from Japan, where a corndog is known as an “American dog.”
I don’t doubt that part of the reason I live in Japan today is all the Japanese TV and movies I enjoyed as a child — Ultraman and Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot, Star Blazers, Kimba the White Lion, and so on. But while I was being influenced with a love of Japan, my wife was watching American TV shows that were being broadcast in Japan, shows like Charlie’s Angels, Bewitched (brought over as “Okusama wa Majo” or My Wife is a Witch), I Dream of Genie, Knight Rider and so on. Just as I was first interested in Japan through monster movies and anime, she became intrested in America through American television. When we started dating, we knew we would end up married because we had so much in common, including a love of the 1980s show The Greatest American Hero. Fate can be very funny, can’t it?
The Japanese are always pleased by foreigners taking an interest in their language and becoming fluent in Japanese, and many of the actors and comedians on Japanese TV are foreigners who have mastered Japanese enough to even be funny in the language. Dave Specter, an American who came to Japan as a TV producer, is universally despised by gaijin like me, usually because his Japanese is better than ours (but I hate him because he dyes his black hair blonde to appear more “American”). Daniel Carl is famous because he mastered Japan’s Yamagata dialect, and it’s funny to see an American speaking redneck Japanese. Thane Camus (prounced “Sane Kamyu” in Japanese) is a super-cute “gaijin talent” (and incidentally the grandson of famous French novelist Albert Camus) who does a show called World’s Funniest English, in which Japanese who do not speak English are asked to tell stories in English while the exact translation of what they’re saying appears on the TV. (If you want to see what he looks like, his homepage is here: http://www.thane.co.jp/thaneworld/info.html) And then there’s Wickie-san, who came to Japan from Sri Lanka and passed the entrance exam to Tokyo University, Japan’s top-ranked school. His primary goal is to get Japanese people to learn that Sri Lanka is not part of Africa.
Some customers have been reporting a problem with the J-List page, which causes individual categories to give a “page not found” error. If you should happen to experience problems with the J-List site, please let us know right away and we’ll get on the problem.
We love the interactive love-simulation games from Japan, and work hard to bring these great games to you. This month, we’re having a “free shipping sale” on some of our favorite games, the great English-language bishoujo releases from G-Collections! The four G-Collections games are I’m Gonna Nurse You (sexy goings-on in a school for nurses in training), Kana ~ Little Sister (heartfelt game about love between brother and sister with a story that will have you in tears), DOR (a classic bishoujo game from one of Japan’s top game companies) and Chain ~ The Forgotten Footsteps, an excellent game loaded with sexual intrigue and more. Get free shipping on these games in the U.S. and Canada or half price shipping for international orders this month!
For the new update, we have some excellent products for you, including:
- For fans of beautiful anime art books, enjoy a great collection of Masahisa Suzuki artwork, loaded with color illustrations
- We’ve got reduced prices on the very nice bilingual comics we have, featuring Cardcaptor Sakura, Ah My Goddess and Love Hina with both English and Japanese, right in the book!
- For Japanese snack fans, we’v got some nice items for you, including tasty Cafe Chocolat Pretz, rare Babana Kit Kat from Nestle, and some delicious Hello Kitty “edible bubbles” that are fun to play with and eat
- Speaking of Hello Kitty, we’ve got some nice new items for you, including a great Hello Kitty USB hub (Kitty types on her keyboard when you do)
- For Gundam fans, see the great plush toy of Haro, the flying round robot from the first two Gundam series — it’s really just too cool!
- Also for anime and toys fans, enjoy fresh stock of many cool items, including the Japanese-only Hot Wheels, fresh stock of the Space Cruiser Yamato die-cast toy that is so cool, and more!
- We’ve got a killer item for Evangelion fans, too: a beautiful “master model production” of the third Angel Sachiel from Kaiyodo
- Also, for Star Wars fans, we’ve got fresh stock of the popular “Kiran Kiran” lighting necklaces, including Darth Vader and Yoda!
- Laputa fans will love the beautiful soft vinyl Laputian Robot keychain added to the site — it’s so cool!
- For fans of traditional items, we’ve got a beautiful set of “card wallets” that you can use as business card holders, or else carry anything from credit cards to cash in them — they’re made out of the same material as kimonos
- Finally, see a nifty train pass you can use, wacky Japanese stamps, a handy “pocket toilet” for times when you can’t get to one, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For Japanese magazine fans, we’ve got the new Video Boy and Best Video, two excellent all-purpose adult video magazines that feature all pro AV idols from Japan’s adult video world
- Also, we’ve got fresh stock of the popular backissues of magazines, stocked in our office in San Diego — check them out on magazine page 3!
- For fans of Japan’s hardcover glossy photobooks, we’ve got some nice new items, including Kyoko Ayana’s beautiful nude photobook, and great items by Mihiro and Ayaka Bessho
- For adult manga fans, we’ve got some great new hentai comics, including Milk Lovers by Belle Comics, as well as other new works and restocked comic works including Huge Breast Mother and Daughter
- Also, we have the excellent vol. 5 of A-G, the English hentai magazine of “art, sex and CG culture”
- For DVD fans, we’ve got many nice items for you, starting with a 180 minute collection of the “first debut fuck” of sixteen famous AV idols (region free)
- From Soft on Demand comes a very special item: to commemorate their reaching $70 million in annual sales, they’ve released a special DVD of their best works over the past 7 years — 4 hours! (region free)
- Also from SOD, a great new “Rubbing the Breasts for the First Time” offering (region free)
- Maria Yumino and four AV gals go into the Magic Mirror Box Car for some excellent “fan thanks” in beautiful Shonan Beach, Yokohama (region free)
- For fans of Japanese Indies, enjoy a very detailed “digital mosaic” release with the lovely Nao Oikawa (region 2)
- If you’re interested in Japanese films, especially in the story of Ai Iijima, one of the most famous AV actresses of the 1990’s, don’t miss the excellent Platonic Sex, in stock now and with English subtitles! (region 2)
- Finally, we’ve got a major restock of DVDs, including Minori Aoi’s great Cosplay Mania, Ryoko Mitake’s Parfum, hard- and softcore titles from Hitomi Hayasaka, more Mai Hagiwara DVDs and more!
The J-Mate site has been updated again, with new reviews of Aroma Planning’s “International Lesbian” and also a review of the autobiographical movie based on Ai Iijima’s life, “Platonic Sex.” The URL for J-Mate is http://www.jmate.com/
Remember that J-List carries many cute items for your kitchen, including bento boxes and accessories, Japanese chopsticks (both basic ones for general use and cute chopsticks), sushi and onigiri molds, wacky Japanse kitchen containers, and more. Please check out the “Kitchen and Bento” section of the Wacky Things from Japan page!
