I’ve been having lots of fun with my daughter, taking in the sights of South Florida before arriving up in Orlando to visit Disney World. I’ve wanted to bring my kids here for a long time, as they have that annoying tendency of growing up and becoming too busy to do stuff with Dad. I’ll let you know later if four days walking theme parks with a teenage daughter was a good idea or not…
After exploring the Florida Keys, we went to Miami — a colorful city to say the least — and found a company that offered a guided tour. The bus driver (a former San Diegan named Jim) gave a very nice tour, pointing out the unique architectural styles of the city as well as where some of the more infamous murders had taken place over the years. I noticed one thing about Jim: he seemed to have an uncanny ability to speak slow, clear and easy-to-understand English, no doubt because so many of his passengers hailed from countries where English is a foreign language. It was interesting, because I have this ability too, after spending so many years teaching ESL to Japanese students. It’s certainly not a bad skill to have when encountering people from other countries.
One subject I find myself interested in is obsession, and the way it’s become quite normal for someone to get carried away with hobbies like LEGO or anime or zombie films or Bronyism. The world today is very different than the late 70s, when Star Wars first burst onto the scene. Back then, if a grown man displayed hundreds of action figures in his office (as I do) people wouldn’t quite know what to make of him. Now, however, it’s accepted that most of us will have some area — high performance Japanese cars, the films of Quentin Tarantino — that we’re especially passionate about, and it’s all good. I’ve got a friend from Italy who’s a card-carrying “Disneyland otaku,” loving the magic of Disney’s theme parks, as a separate thing from the films and history of the company. He visits Tokyo Disneyland 6-7 times a year at least. “I love the parks because they offer a kind of ‘magic’ that’s 100% fake, yet we can have fun nevertheless,” he says. “This fake quality is very honest, in the end, and I enjoy the theme parks because of this.” My daughter and I are certainly enjoying it, too!
J-List has, ahem, a lot of products, and sometimes I like to browse all products sorted by popularity and see what our customers are checking out this week. In addition to incredibly sexy anime figures, we’ve got all the most awesome Sailor Moon toys available from Japan. Our Japanese snacks are always popular with our customers, and we go out of our way to carry random products that will surprise you. Finally, enjoy popular ecchi products, which can really take the edge off after a hard day at work. Browse the week’s ranking of products today!
