Hello again from Japan, where drivers should always practice “safety driving.”
First, an update on the site. We had two major changes take place over the weekend, a sudden move of our image server (forcing us to serve J-List product images from a backup server), and a change in the way the J-List pages are rendered. The second change caused problems for some customers trying to view adult products via the search or “three day” links. The “adult cookie” that controls which J-List products are displayed was not being set properly. To set the cookie, enter the J-List site from the front again (http://www.jlist.com/) and it should work. If you experience any problems with the site at all as we work out the bugs, please email us.
The most profitable Disney theme park in the world is Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983 and has broken all records for money-making for the theme park line. The Japanese penchant for spending money on souvenirs for family members, called “omiyage,” helps push this profitability up. A year ago, Disney’s second Japanese park opened: DisneySea, centered around themes of the sea. We took a day off work yesterday and took the kids, although we were miserable for much of the time due to a typhoon that was soaking Japan. Also, Disney’s parks are very popular in Japan, and even with all the rain, there were thousands of other gusts, pushing waiting times for some rides up to 3 hours. The park features a volcano, a recreation of Agrabah from Aladdin, a fun under-the-sea area for younger kids, a cruise ship, a “jet coaster” (as they say in Japan) based on Journey to the Center of the Earth, and even a hotel where you can get married, right inside the park (for all the Japanese “Disney otaku” who REALLY love Disney characters). The kids had fun, although my son said it was “kakko warui” (unstylish, uncool) for Mickey Mouse to speak Japanese when he should be speaking English. If you’d like to see pictures of the park, http://www.jtcent.com/disneysea/index.html is a good site. (It was much wetter when we were there.)
The Japanese are a very efficient people, and they’re very fond of abbreviating words and making shortcuts. Abbreviations of long words or names are made by taking the first one or two syllables from each part and combining them to make a shorter word. Kokumin Hoken, one of Japan’s health care systems, is shortened to “Koku-ho” and the machines that take your picture and print it on little stickers (a huge business in Japan, where there are game centers with nothing but these machines in them) are called “puri-kura” (from “print club”). Virtually all famous actors and singers in Japan acquire nicknames that are often created by abbreviating syllables (singer Kimura Takuya, the Brad Pitt of Japan is universally known as “Kimu-taku”). The names of Western stars can be long and unwieldy in Japanese, so they’re often shortened: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s been known as “Shuwa-chan” for a decade, and Brad Pitt, the Kimura Takuya of America, is almost always referred to as “Bura-pii” by fans since it’s easier to say. Tomo also tells me that the famous Eagle’s song Hotel California is shortened to “Hote-Karu” by Japanese fans.
One of my personal favorite games is our Hentai Anime Poker, a very enjoyable single player game in which you take on computer-controlled anime girls. Now that Hentai Anime Poker comes with all 12 expansion pack girls free (a $24.95 value), it’s a great buy. And this month, we’re giving free shipping (half price for international) for this game, making it an even better buy than before. Enjoy the best poker game you’ll ever play, with fantastic female anime opponents!
For the new update, we’ve got a huge selection of cool things from Japan for you, including:
- First, for fans of Japanese trading cards, enjoy great series from Chobits and Di Gi Charat, but extremely cool
- For fans of Hello Kitty, we’ve got a cool item: a “hot or cold refrigerator” that can be used in your home or in your car — it’s so cute, and very Kitty
- Also, an incredibly stylish Kitty bathroom cup, soap dispenser and cotton ball holder that would greatly improve any bathroom, especially if you want to impress guests
- There’s a delicious snack from Japan called Mountain of Chocolate Mushrooms, little cookie mushrooms with chocolate tops — we have this in stock now
- Also: a cute parody cell-phone strap (which can be used as a keychain as well) with little chocolate mushrooms made or rubber — so cute and fun!
- We have two cute strap/keychains from “Doko Demo Issho,” the funky-looking cat character from Sony
- For toy collectors, we have more cool only-sold-in-Japan Hot Wheels cars, that are really cool and great for fans
- For Macross/Robotech fans, we’ve got new *transformable* toys from Bandai and Yamato, which can transform into Fighter, Gerwalk and Battloid mode — so cool!
- Look for nice items for your kitchen, including some high-quality bamboo chopsticks, a cool bowl for drinking miso soup, a cute My Melody bento box, and more
- We’ve got fresh stock of an old favorite: a Japanese calligraphy set including brushes, ink well, ink and paper, great for learning Chinese brush writing
- Also, restock of ear cleaners that contains little lights and batteries, so you can more accurately clean the ears of your loved ones (only from Japan)
- Finally, see many other new items, including a “wet tissue” pack moistened with 2000 year old water, cute hamster tissues, a great “rocket pencil” featuring the cute character Thunder Bunny (Kaori’s favorite), a big restocking of bento box items, and a spiffy pencil case with random French written on it.
- For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. These new items include:
- For fans of Japan’s unique adult magazines, we’ve got new issues of some great magazines for you, including the new Gal’s Dee, just brimming with busty Japanese idols
- We’ve got the new issue of Bachelor, featuring the beautiful Russian nude idol, Yulia Nova (but stock will go fast), as well as the new Do-Up, featuring super-detailed hardcore Do-Up
- We’ve got superb new photobooks, including a positively fantastic look at high-end bondage and rope work in Japanese erotica, with fifteen different models featured
- Also very cool, two “Chinkame” style photobooks which document the prettiest high school uniforms of Japan (a non-adult item)
- Courtesy of Yasu, we’ve posted a major restock of beautiful photobooks, including fresh stock of Morning Musume, Yellows, Yinling of Joytoy and many other cool items, all back in stock for you
- We love Japan’s pretty swimsuit idols, we’ve got a very nice new photobook featuring Eriko Satoh, a really lovely girl
- Of course we’ve got more great hentai manga in stock for you, with new works by Peace Comics, Tsukasa Comics and others, with some excellent (and uncensored) work in stock
- Also, a HUGE slew of great hentai doujinshi in stock, with many of the best items we’ve put out in a long time — be sure and see these items before they disappear
- For erotic DVD lovers, we’ve got some great titles for you, starting with Nao Oikawa’s super-deluxe Cosplay Beautiful Breast Idol, with parodies of Fujiko from Lupin III, Lum, Astro Boy, Gundam and an Evangelion parody that must not be missed (region free)
- The lovely Cocolo, a professional AV performer popular in Japanese adult magazines, has a great costume play release out too (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, the stylish “smart older woman” Natsumi Kawahama who is very classy as she shows you her top-notch sex (region free)
- From Deep’s, we’ve got a new Lesbian Hospital, with some excellent all-female performances for lesbian fans (region free)
- Enjoy the very erotic anime cosplay, lesbian bukkake and more with the wonderful Nanami Yusa, from Moodyz (region 2)
- Audaz, a super new Violent Shoot, featuring Mirai Hoshizaki in a great bukkake performance (each DVD comes with a free packet of sex lotion courtesy of Audaz)
- Finally, look for various restocked DVDs from some of Japan’s most popular studios, such as Tohjiro’s Blue Sexual Desire series, the Fetish Lesbian releases, titles by Ai Nagase and more.
One of our favorite series are the Yellows photobooks by photographer Akira Gomi. For ten years, he’s photographed beautiful nude women from Japan, America, and China, and presented the photos in high-quality photobooks that detail the names and other information about the models. A very interesting ongoing project from a famous Japanese photographer of nude women. We carry all the Yellows photobooks in stock at J-List.
Remember that J-List stocks a wide range of hilarious Japanese T-shirts with message that say “Expel the foreign barbarians” and “I’m looking for a Japanese girlfriend” and “I wish I were Japanese.” Our shirts are 100% cotton, printed in the USA, and are really fun. Since no all customers are the same size, we go the extra mile for you, stocking size S, M, L, XL, XXL and XXXL in almost all shirts. Check out our shirts for guys and girls on our site!
