One of the benefits from living in Japan is having access to cool keitai denwa, cellular phones. The three main providors of cell phone service in Japan are giant NTT Docomo, KDDI’s stylish au, and European-owned Vodafone, and they duke it out in the marketplace trying to provide the best service area, phones and features. NTT is the Microsoft of Japan, and their phones are all top of the line, however you pay for the privilege of using them. I much prefer the stylish phones that au makes, and recently upgraded my phone to the brand-new W31T, a slim phone which sports Bluetooth, 2.4 Mbps remote web surfing, support for Qualcomm’s Brew applications, a camera so good I’ve thrown away my digital camera forever, and a web browser that can display normal websites. Although it’s only been 8 months since I’ve upgraded, I was floored by all the new features that hadn’t been in existence when I checked last time, including a phone with a TV receiver on it, a “tough phone” with stylish plastic guards that you can submerge in water without problem, a phone with stero surround sound speakers, and more. And of course they all play music like the iPod.
One could write a book on the subject of women in Japan, and quite a few have, I’m sure. As with many aspects of Japan, it’s common for Westerners to see the country as being “behind” America and Europe with regard to social equality between men and women, but I’m not sure that this is really the case. Oh, it’s true that the roles of women in Japan seems to be somewhat below that of men, and there are fewer well-known female business and political leaders in the public eye. In nearly all households, the majority of income is brought in by the husband, who is the daikoku bashira or the “big, black pillar” that supports the family, while the household and its finances are managed expertly by the wife (as it is in my household). There are women with careers to be sure, but it’s more common for women to concern themselves with the household and children more and with work less, at least until the kids are grown. It might be incomprehensible to many, but by and large Japanese females seem to prefer things the way they are — so rather than being behind the West, I like to think that Japan is just “striking a different balance” between men and women that suits the way its people are.
We love to bring you interesting things from Japan that you never knew exited, a concept which is pretty much embodied in the OH! Mikey series, a bizarre but hilarious comedy show about the Fuccon family, who moved from America to Japan . The show is acted out with mannequins who never change their poses at all, and it will have you in stitches all the way through. In addition to the latest OH! Mikey release (disc 7), we’re happy to have the original volumes back on the site, including vol. 1-3 which had gone out of print temporarily. The discs are all fully subtitled in English, however since they’re region 2 discs you’ll need a region free player to view them on (we humbly recommend the two excellent Lasonic players we stock).
We also feel it’s part of J-List’s mission to promote the study of Japanese, and we sell many items that help you learn the language. We’ve got a great new item for you today: the Best of YesJapan, a DVD with over 4 hours of the best episodes of YesJapan’s originally produced TV show George & Keiko, which helps you not only learn Japanese but pick up fun information about the country and language. The DVD includes some of the best episodes, including “Tricks to sound good in Japanese,” “Techniques to impress your Japanese friends,” and the infamous “Date with Keiko” episodes. See this item, and all items in fact, on the J-List or JBOX.com sites.
