Hello from all of us at J-List!
Well, Harumi’s wedding at St. Marry’s (sic) Church went off without a hitch. Japanese weddings are very structured, and there are many facets to them that are interesting for Westerners, many roles that each person involved with the wedding has to play. As the employer of the bride, I had to give the second speech, following the employer of the groom. During the “wedding party” (reception), Harumi’s parents came over to pour my beer (pouring beer for others is a big custom in Japan) and thank me for giving the speech and to apologize for their “stupid, lazy and useless” daughter, which is a very complex thing that Japanese tend to do. Its one way that Japanese show humility by lowering the people in their “in group” (and thus, raise the level of others they’re trying to be polite to). It’s similar to the when, if you give a Japanese woman a compliment about how pretty she is, she will often deny it, sometimes vehemently.
As is customary at Japanese weddings, the friends of the bride and groom were assigned various performances to do in front of everyone. The best one was put on by several friends of the groom in which they wrote words like laziness, poverty, short temper and unfaithfulness on pieces of wood. The groom had to punch through each board, defeating the demons that would keep him from making Harumi happy and proving his love for her in front of everyone. Another wedding custom is to choose music for the wedding reception, usually something that’s very trendy in Japan at that time. Disney music like the themes from Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast are usually chosen by couples in Disney-loving Japan, but Harumi’s new husband was a Star Wars fan, so he went with the love theme from Attack of the Clones for the main theme of the wedding. It was very nice.
Those who’ve been with J-List for a while know that something very busy happens to us every September: we post hundreds of anime, JPOP, idol, nude and other calendars for preorder to our website. Well, calendar season has arrived this year with a vengeance, and we’ve worked hard to post all the dynamite Japanese calendars to J-List for you!
In case you haven’t seen the beautiful and glossy calendars that are popular in Japan, think of the high-quality, shiny pages in a good Japanese photobook — but reproduced in large-size for your wall. Most calendars are “B2” size, which is 28 x 20 inches, quite large (anime calendars tend to be smaller and cheaper, see the size table for more information). Most calendars have seven pages, meaning you have a poster-size cover page and six calendar pages with two months on each page. You can display the front page of the calendar on your wall while you wait for the new year to begin.
Unfortunately, the window for us to order these calendars is very narrow, and we can only guarantee availability of these calendars through mid-October. To ensure that your calendar comes in without delay, we ask that you preorder as soon as possible. Orders made after the middle of October might not be available, as our Japanese distributors begin to run out of stock of popular calendars very quickly.
Shipping (SAL) on calendars is $5-6 per calendar, plus $3 for a tube (we ship them from the U.S. specifically to protect your calendars). Up to two calendars can be sent in one tube (they will be opened and carefully rolled). Order four or more calendars and get free tubes. Payment with a credit card is preferred, since we can hold the order without charging anything until the calendars actually come in. In some cases, we may ask for pre-payment if you order certain calendars.
Japan’s calendars are a really special way to spend your year, with beautiful, glossy printing and great characters and photography. We’ve got 250+ calendars for you to choose from, everything from lovely JPOP and idols to rare anime calendars to swimsuit idols and actresses and more. Because J-List is dedicated to bringing you Japan’s unique pop culture in all its beautiful forms, we go all-out to make sure not just the top few calendars are available, but virtually all of them, with the best selection you will find anywhere. Enjoy a unique year with your favorite Japanese singers, actresses, AV stars, and other characters — you’ll love it! Also, they make excellent Christmas gifts!
Important note! Although the Japanese calendars are beautifully printed and very large, the only pictures we currently have on hand are tiny thumbnails which we scan from at a very high resolution. This usually makes it very difficult for you to decide which calendars you want to get. This year, for the first time, we’re adding unrelated pictures of the anime or models in the calendar, so that you can see examples of the calendar pages that will be representative of the actual calendar. Please note that the rightmost picture in calendars which have two pictures, and in some cases both pictures, doesn’t reflect the actual pages in this year’s calendar (but they should be representative based on our experience with these high-quality calendars).
