Hello again from your friends in Japan and, er, Europe!
We’ve enjoyed our two days in Frankfurt, short though they were. During our time here, we catalogued many differences between Germany and Japan that caught our eye. One thing my wife noticed were many elderly couples walking and shopping together. In Japan, when a husband and wife get past a certain age, they don’t spend that much time together outside — older ladies hang out with their “obasan” friends, and men play golf or pachinko with their “ojisan” companions. (Obasan and ojisan mean “aunt” and “uncle” but also refer to middle-aged women or men in general.) My wife also fell in love with the incredibly cute children we saw here, with blonde hair and adorable faces. If a Japanese female sees a beautiful child, she will utter the words “Ningyo mitai!” (“Looks just like a doll!”) 100% of the time, and my wife was saying these words every 20 seconds or so. And as in our last trip to Germany, we were relieved and grateful at the number of people who could speak English here, since my German is limited to what I gleaned from Hogan’s Heroes reruns as a kid.
Germany is a very efficient place, though. All the trains ran on time, and there was no waste anywhere that we could see. Virtually every time we ordered a cappuccino, it was made by a machine with the press of a button, not by hand by a barista as in Italy. We also love the convenience of having the Euro to pay for items all over Europe.
In our absence, the J-List staff have added many great new products to the website for you. Included are new Blyth dolls that are so cool, more How to Draw Manga books for you, deluxe new Pocky with extra-creamy, extra-delicious chocolate covering, new Hello Kitty and other cute items, cute peripherals for your computer, new Totoro stuff, a cool case for your iPod or cigarettes, fresh stock of cool miniature food toys, and other cool and wacky things. For our adult customers, check out new adult magazines and new and restocked hentai manga, great new “dick girl” doujinshi from Behind Moon, great new adult DVDs including bondage, lesbian, bukkake and more, great new photobooks, and other wonderful items for adults. Please check out all the new items!
Well, now it’s time to go back to the airport and catch our 13 hour flight back to Japan. I’m fully loaded with charged Powerbook batteries, a full iPod and the latest George Martin paperback, A Storm of Swords. We’ll see you when we get back to Japan!
