Hello again from Japan!
There are many Japanese products with names that sound funny in English. Calpis is a canned drink that’s sweet and milky white in color, that’s been popular in Japan since before World War II. The name sounds slightly disgusting in a bovine sort of way to the English ear, so it’s marketed as Calpico in California. Pocari Sweat is another funny-sounding product, a thirst-quenching sports drink that gets its name from a Japanese word (“pokkari” means to float like a cloud) — and it does not contains any sweat. (We sell Pocari Sweat powder on the J-List site.) Creap is a popular “creaming powder” for your coffee, and Nutrasweet is sold in Japan as Pal Sweet Diet here. There’s a popular line of boil-in-bag meals for people in a hurry called Cook Do, too. Just as some of the names used for Japanese restaurants in the U.S. sound very strange to Japanese people (you’ll never find a restaurant called “Ichiban” or “Kamikaze” in Japan), some of the names of products here can sound funny to English speakers.
Customs differ all over the world, and some of Japan’s customs would seem a little odd in the States. When calling on someone in their home, it’s acceptable to open the door and step into the “genkan” (the low area where you take off your shoes in a Japanese house), which is considered part of the outside of the house. It’s quite common to have salesmen or delivery men to open the front door and poke their head in, saying “Sumimasen!” (Excuse me!), then letting themselves into the genkan area to wait for you to come talk to them. If no one can be found inside, it’s common to walk around to the back of the house to see if anyone’s there, perhaps hanging up laundry. This kind of thing isn’t done in the U.S., but is a nice folksy custom, for the most part. It proved deadly in at least one case, though: in 1992, a boy Japanese boy named Hattori-kun did this in America while looking for a Halloween party. The owner of the house was alarmed and went for his gun, and because the boy did not understand the word “Freeze” he was shot and killed.
Now that J-List has turned six years old, it’s always interesting to reflect on how we’ve grown and changed over that time, thanks to you, our valued customers. We can gauge our growth as a company each year by seeing how many more calendars we get in than we had in stock last year. This year we’ve really outdone ourselves, and we’ve got so many 2003 Japanese anime, JPOP, contemporary art, pretty idol, AV and other calendars, we finally have no room to move all (we’ve taken over the J-List kitchen as our Calendar Shipping Department). We’re very happy with the quality and variety of calendars this year, and think you will be too. Please check out what we’ve got for you!
For the new update we’ve got some great new items for you, including:
- For fans of one of Japan’s most popular swimsuit idols ever, we’ve got a sexy new photobook featuring Yuka
- Also, a white-hot sexy photobook featuring top Race Queens like Miho Yoshioka, Toko Ushikawa, Chisato Morishita and more!
- For fans of Japanese swimsuit lovelies, we’ve got the Operation of Aya Hirahama, a full color magazine and idol DVD (region 2)
- For fans of our Japanese snacks, we’ve got the delicious Coffee Beat, candy-covered chocolate coffee beans, as well as a super Milky Candy and toy set, new varieties of miso soup, and some Korean dishes that you can try yourself
- Also, a new parody item that looks like a package of chocolate, but it’s really a set of really cool colored pencils
- We’ve got even more Studio Ghibli music boxes from Sekiguchi and Sun Arrow, this time from Hayao Miyazaki’s famous film Kiki’s Delivery Service (one of our favorites)
- For Lupin III fans, we’ve got some great “super deformed” character keychains in stock
- For fans of Hamtaro and Japanese bento boxes, we’ve gotten in fresh stock of the deluxe Hamster Club bento box set
- For anyone interested in buying one of the Studio Ghibli region 2 DVD players, we’ve been able to find some more stock — these items can be special ordered, so if you want one please find the item on the site and we can get it for you
- Finally, we’ve gotten in fresh stock of the popular Hello Kitty toilet paper, both colors — these wacky items are great for anyone who loves (or hates) Japan’s most famous cute character.
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For fans of Japanese adult magazines, we’ve got some nice new items, including new amateur and love hotel magazines with real Japanese amateur girls
- Also, we’ve got more rare back issues of popular magazines like Urecco and Gal’s Dee, in stock in our San Diego office
- For fans of Japan’s hardcover erotic photobooks, we have several new items, including a great photobook shot by Seiichi Nomura and other great items
- Also: fresh stock of popular items by Yuko Ogura, one of our favorite swimsuit idols
- We’ve got a nice hardcore photobook that features erotic cosplay and sex, it’s great
- For hentai game fans who want to follow the Japanese hentai world, we’ve got the new issue of Push, with two CD-ROMs of demos, pictures and more to check out
- Also, a rare hardcover photobook filled with bondage photographs that are uniquely Japanese
- For hentai manga lovers, we’ve got six new items for you, including a great new “deep and hard” comic anthology and a new hentai work from Hariken Hanna
- Also, fresh stock of many nice items, including several volumes of Pururun Seminar
- For DVD fans, we’ve got some great items for you, starting with Wet and Fetish Mix, from Kuki, with 210 minutes of soap girl and lotion fetish featuring top AV stars (region free)
- With her 105 cm bust (J cup), Marina Matsushima is truly an amazing busty AV idol — see 3 hours of her best work in a new DVD! (region free)
- From Soft on Demand, 35 all-nude AV girls get revenge on men, subjecting them to all kinds of wacky punishment (region free)
- SOD also gives us a great new “from below” DVD featuring the erotic Ran Asakawa, shot entirely from “low angle” below her erotic body (region free)
- For lesbian DVD fans, we’ve got another excellent offering from Deep’s, featuring “The Best Lesbian” of nine beautiful actresses (region free)
- For fans of Indies AV, we’ve got the DVD release of Mirai Hoshizaki’s best-selling Dream Shower (region 2)
- Finally, we’ve added stock of several DVD items, including Aoi Sora’s “Blue,” fresh stock of Rubbing Breasts for the First Time, and a major restock of the “Do Lesbian” series by SOD.
At J-List we carry many nice art books for fans of Japan’s hentai culture, such as the art books for X-Change 2, Tokimeki Check in! and Brave Soul, as well as other popular bishoujo games. Check out our excellent selection of items.
Remember our “free shipping sale” on Hentai Anime Poker ends at the end of the month — this is a great game that’s really fun to play, and now that it comes with all twelve expansion pack characters for free, it’s a super bargain. We highly recommend it!
