Greetings from J-List October 9, 2000

Greetings from Japan, the country where you pronounce the word “election” very carefully.

The Japanese love to compete internationally, since a lot of their validation as a nation comes from getting the respect of foreigners (this is arguably why the Shinkansen was built, so foreigners would oo and ah when they came for the 1968 Olympics in Tokyo). The interesting TV show TV Champion followed several Japanese “oo-gui” (big eaters) through some hairy and gross competitions in which they tried to eat more sushi, bananas, or Chinese dumplings than their rivals. The winner got to come to New York City, in an international big eating competition against some of the biggest eaters America could muster. In a surprise turnaround, the Japanese oo-gui competitor (who wasn’t even fat) defeated his larger American rivals. It was all the more meaningful as the competition took place on the Fourth of July.

Calendar pre-orders are off to a great start this year, and it’s always interesting to see which will be the top sellers. Anime calendars are leading the race this year, with Evangelion and Oh My Goddess in a tie for the top spot, followed by Gundam Wing, Totoro, Sailor Moon and Ruro ni Kenshin. The lovely ladies and nude calendars are also selling well, with Onsen Nudes (lovely women in Japanese hot springs) in first place, followed by Kanazawa Bunko, race queen Suzuki Fumika, the busty Satoh Eriko and the lovely Mini-Skirt Police idol Asakura Megumi. Other calendars that are selling well are the Morita Haruyo illustrations (simply beautiful)

Newly added to the site this evening, new T-shirts! Yes, we have three more of our excellent wacky Japanese T-shirts, with very cool slogans for people who want to show their love of Japan to everyone. We have both wacky slogans (“Hentai gaijin” would fit into this category) as well as cool kanji that look good (“daikoku-bashira, the great black pillar” that holds up the household, now on its very own T-shirt), and a Japanese version of the famous Vulcan slogan. Check them out on the T-shirt page.

In addition to the new shirts, we have a bunch of great products, including:

We have several excellent new magazines, including the very nice Best Video, Video Boy, and Suppin Evolution
For our those interested in our unique photobooks from Japan, we have fresh stock of the Miura Aika 1999 Photobook (the best-selling photobook in J-List’s history), as well as both volumes of Miyazawa Nude (but they will go fast)
For indies fans, we’ve got a new issue of MPEG Indies, a cool magazine and dual-VCD sampler magazine that’s a great value
We have more original Japanese bishojo games from JAST and Trush on Hentai game & CD ROM -> CD ROM & MPEG
On Manga -> New releases, we’ve got some excellent new adult wide manga from Japan, from Hot Milk, Tsukasa and AV Comics
For video fans, two nice new long-playing videos from Kuki and Big Mogal, including a new edition of the excellent “Tokimeki Invitation” series
Also for video lovers, a brand new “study of men’s penis with innocent girls” directed by Sugawara Chie (on the SOD Main Page, or the Special Order page if we run out of stock)
For DVD lovers, the second edition of the “Image Club Super” series, a 120 minute DVD featuring excellent “image club” (costume play and acting out of sexual fantasies) on the DVD Galleries page
On Wacky Things from Japan page has several items, too, including more stock of several of our remarkably popular wooden signs with messages on them, as well as more of our popular wooden and bamboo wind chimes. Very cool!