Japan is ecstatic about the achievement of Ichiro, Japan’s current favorite son, who beat the record for most hits in a season set back in 1920. The Japanese like nothing more than having one of their own gain recognition around the world, and names like writers Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe and directors Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki have a special place in the hearts of people here because they raised Japan’s image internationally. The Japanese are great fans of baseball, and to have one of their own distinguish himself in the Big Leagues like that makes everyone very proud here.
As always, it’s interesting to watch the unfolding of American politics from outside the U.S. I can really get a bird’s-eye view of my own country, looking in from the outside, and I’ve had interesting discussions with British, Canadian and Australian expats about various aspects of American politics. As the U.S. election approaches, Japanese newscasters regularly follow the campaign, giving commentary on every facet of the battle for president, which is often a tall order since there are so many differences between America’s electoral system and the Parliamentary system that Japan uses. Gaijin like me are able to vote in the election too, thanks to the absentee ballot system, which Japanese are always amazed at — they don’t have anything like that for Japanese living outside of Japan. While I’ve voted for candidates from both parties in my life, I am personally concerned about one party — GOP or Democrat — controlling both houses of Congress as well as the Presidency. I believe it’s fundamentally healthier for America when power is shared between both parties, which forces them to struggle and reach compromises that are good for all of us.
Time for some trivia. In case you were wondering what the Japanese use to estimate the size of a person’s privates, well, we’ll tell you, and then you’ll know. Unlike in the U.S., where the size of the hand often indicates male size, here the size of a man’s nose in relation to his face supposedly indicates whether or not he is well endowed. So if you’ve got a large nose and come to Japan, you may find yourself surprisingly popular with girls (although your mileage may vary). In similar silly Japanese fashion, the area inside a woman’s ear (the little cavity formed by the bottom of the “S” shape) supposedly indicates the general size of her womanhood.
If you use a XML news reader, you can follow updated J-List products easily with our RSS feed, which lets you easily check your favorite blogs and news sites (the link to our “R” feed is http://www.jlist.com/feed.xml). We’d had some problems with our feed which might have caused errors to appear in some readers, but we believe we’ve fixed them now. Feedback on our RSS feed is always appreciated.
We have a wonderful update for you today, with many great items. First of all, the first batch of 2005 calendars has come in, and we’ve posted them to the site post haste — no waiting! We’ll be getting more and more calendars in over the next few weeks, so if the item you want to get still says “preorder” it means those calendars haven’t come in yet, but will be in soon, so feel free to order it. We’ve also gotten our stock of the Otaku Catalog, the collection of essays on otaku culture released at the international symposium on architecture and culture in Venice, Italy. It’s very interesting reading for anyone interested in Japan’s unique sub-culture.
Remember that J-List carries authentic Japanese “loose socks” in two different sizes, and also carries “socks glue” which you can use to glue your socks to your legs to hold them up. Worn by virtually all Japanese high school girls (except those who go to strict schools where they are forbidden), they look great when bunched up just so. Enjoy a little slice of Japanese fashion culture courtesy of J-List — they also go great with the authentic high school uniforms we sell, too! Great for cosplay, too.
