Last night I went with Mrs. J-List to a nice restaurant over in Maebashi to celebrate my birthday. The restaurant had a genkan (foyer) at the front where patrons remove their shoes then put on slippers before entering, but when I went to put my slippers on the owner rushed over with a larger pair to accommodate my giant gaijin feet…which is pretty funny since, at 26.5 cm (about a size 8 1/2 in the U.S.), my feet are average size for Japan. When it comes to foreigners, the Japanese do have trouble seeing past their own pre-existing cultural worldview. They always “see” me as being very tall and apologize for how tiny and cramped their cars and homes are, despite the fact that I’m just 177 cm, or 5’9″. Japanese also perceive all Western women as having blonde hair, whether they do or not — many of the “blonde” actresses in the European and Russian JAV we sell are brunette and raven-haired, yet no one here seems to notice — and envy them for being freed from the endless social rules that Japanese have to follow.
Japan is a British-style parliamentary democracy with a two-house Diet (legislature) for passing laws, an executive branch headed by a Prime Minister elected by the majority party, and so on. One thing I’ve been impressed by is the way Japan sets strict rules for how its elected officials must behave, both during elections and while in office, then makes sure they’re are followed. Once, when a Deputy Defense Minister was found to have asked for perks in exchange for defense contracts, the National Police raided the Ministry of Defense, which is the equivalent of the FBI raiding the Pentagon, something I don’t see ever happening in the U.S. Currently Tokyo is enveloped in a scandal after governor Yoichi Masuzoe was found to have mis-used public funds, for example claiming $3700 in meals with his family as work-related expenses, which forced his resignation. The bad news is that an emergency election to replace him will cost a whopping 5 billion yen (USD$45 million).
J-List stocks great anime products, including all the best anime Blu-rays, from the official releases of Studio Ghibli (with dubbed tracks and subtitles in many languages) to the highly collectable Blu-ray releases that are the backbone of the anime industry. Today we’ve added the uncensored Prison School discs, which are 100% uncensored and come with tons of cool extra stuff. Start your collection now!
