One of My Favorite Foods: Wasabi!

There are many strange and new tastes that await a foreigner who comes to live in Japan. Some, like pickled plums, chicken cartilage or the fermented soybeans called natto don't sit too well with me, although I've come to enjoy many other foods, including all manner of fish and other good things from the sea. (At my house, we regularly eat tako salad, which is fresh salad with octopus meat, served with a tangy vinaigrette). Another food I've really come to like is wasabi, an extremely spicy flavoring that adds so much to sushi and sashimi as well as soba and udon noodles. Similar to horseradish, wasabi has a very long history in Japan, and there are documents dating from the year 718 that mention it as a medicinal herb, which is interesting since wasabi is known to naturally fight infections and act as an antibiotic, for example killing the bacteria that cause ulcers. At J-List we have many interesting wasabi products, including the hit snack of the season, Wasabi Doritos, real wasabi in a tube, and a treat I personally love to much on, spicy rice crackers and peanuts called Kaki no Tane, which means "persimmon seeds" because of the shape of the rice crackers. Check them out!

Japanese Social Engine: the Eyes of Others

Last time I talked about what makes the Japanese the way they are, putting forth the theory that the strict Junior High School system is a major factor in shaping children into the adult citizens they'll become. Another of the social engines at work in Japan is called hito no me (hee-toh no meh), meaning the "eyes of others," essentially the ever-present invisible gaze of people around you. A friend of mine just built a house in Nagano, and he's enjoying having cleaner air and less people around him than when he was in Tokyo. His new neighborhood has a strict rule, however: trash must be deposited in the appropriate pick-up area between 6 and 6:30 in the morning, which means he has to get up extra early every day to put the trash out. If he were to break this rule by, say, putting his trash out the night before, he'd find himself the subject of the disapproving stares of the other people in the neighborhood, which is a lot harder to deal with than the threat of a monetary fine would be. This sensitivity to how you appear in the eyes of others is probably the primary reason Japan seems so harmonious when viewed from the outside, as gaijin see it. My sixth-grade daughter is half-Japanese, and she somehow managed to inherit my easy-going American personality. When my wife went to my daughter's class for parent participation day last week, my daughter threw her arms around her mother, to the shock of everyone in the classroom. Hugging your mother isn't really done in Japan, and certainly not in the middle of classroom full of the "eyes of others."

Earthquakes and Japan

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, a fact that I was reminded of on Thursday morning when the Kanto region (where Tokyo and Gunma are located) got a big 6.7 magnitude shake that seemed to go on for two minutes or more. A staggering 20% of all earthquakes in the world occur in Japan, a chain of islands that sits astride four different tectonic plates, and one of the major challenges to the country has been how to apply its unique engineering skills to make sure buildings and people are safe. It's a tribute to those skills that Thursday's quake resulted in only a few injuries and no deaths, although it doesn't always work out so well. The Great Hanshin Earthquake (Hanshin means "Osaka-Kobe") of 1995 occurred in a region of Japan where strong quakes were less common, and as a result of lower building standards, a staggering 6400 people lost their lives. One of the features homebuilders tout on TV commercials in Japan is how well engineered their houses are, with special spring joints that allow the homes to rock back and forth flexibly in the event of shaking.

Cool Items - Friday, May 9, 2008

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Sharon 1/8 Scale Figure ~ Quiz Magic Academy. Cute character from the anime Quiz Magic Academy, rendered in pre-painted PVC loveliness for you. How do they get the anime hair to look this good in three dimensions?
	Eika Ichijo Hug Pillow Case ~ Sky Girls. The anime Sky Girls by Mecha Musume creator Fumikane Shimada is a great one, about beautiful girls who defend the Earth using advanced mecha. Now you can sleep with the cute lead character Eika with this new "hug pillow" (aka dakimakura). So cute and fun!
	Newtype Japan April 2008. Another new of Newtype, the Moving Pictures Magazine, which is usually only available through our popular revolving magazine subscription service, but we got some extra copies in. Each issue is loaded with free stuff for you.
	S Cawaii May 2008. J-List also carries dozens of great anime, manga, toy and magazines for men via our "reserve subscription" service. We also have many outstanding fashion magazines from Japan which are fascinating to look through. This is S Cawaii ("Super Cute"), normally only available as a subscription, but we have some individual issues in today.
	Exodus Guilty vol. 1-3 Set. J-List carries the outstanding interactive anime games from Hirameki International, all-ages games that everyone can enjoy. We're reducing the price of their Exodus Guilty trilogy of interactive DVD games which are played in any standard DVD player -- you can pick up the whole set for a great price now!
	Wasabi "Kaki no Tane" Rice Crackers w/ Peanuts 6 Packs. Then, the Official Japanese Snack of Peter, this is the amazing rice cracker + peanut treat Kaki no Tane, which means "persimmon seeds" due to the shape of the rice crackers. These are coated with super spicy *real* wasabi, which will clear out your sinuses for you, we can tell you. Highly recommended snack item.
	DX Tatami Setta with Leather Sole ~ L size. J-List loves to bring you cool traditional items from Japan. Here is another pair of really well made setta sandals, which we call tatami sandals since they're made from the same materials. Great for guys or girls.
	Mugen Puchi Puchi -- Endless Pop Pop - Pink & Blue. See more of those popular "bubble popping" electronic keychains that make a pop, pop, pop sound when you press the buttons. Pink and blue are restocked today.
	80's Hello Kitty Microwavable Tight Bento Box. For bento enthusiasts, here's a cute Hello Kitty lunchbox that's got removable sections allowing your rice to be separate from the rest of your lunch Great Sanrio item from Japan.
	Ninja Weapon Keychain ~ Jitte *Goyou* / Red. The jitte (JI-teh) is a unique weapon designed to stop a sword attack, used for centuries by ninja and samurai. We've restocked our jitte keychains in case you find yourself being attacked by small swordsmen and need to repel them.
	Edo Style Handy Accessory Pouch. Also: this is a cool cloth pouch you can use to keep your money, credit card and other important things in. It's modeled after string-tied pouches used in the Edo Period.
	Hiragana Times 258 Apr 2008. Hiragana Times is an outstanding magazine that gives you articles both in English and Japanese each month which are very interesting. Great both for students of Japanese as well as anyone who wants to keep up with current events here!
	Restocked Studio Ghibli DVDs. J-List carries the official English-subtitled and dubbed DVD releases of the films of Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli, and today we're restocking Howl's Moving Castle and My Neighbor Totoro. We also sell great upscaling region-free DVD players with HDMI outputs to watch them on, if you're interested in one.
	Magic Ink Set ~ Multi School Marker with Retro Design / 8 colors. Here's a set of really cool "magic" marker pens that are as colorful as their retro package design is cool. For making broad, thick permanent lines in any color, this pen set is highly recommended.
	Hoshino Aki Clone ~ Bomb Special Edition -- Aki Hoshino. Unforgettable ero ero glossy photobook filled with Aki Hoshino's gorgeous pictures. Comes with a Windows DVD-ROM game that lets you touch Aki!
	New Ero Manga. Legendary manga-ka (manga artist) Distance is back again with a new offering, B-Chiku, and it's really a winner. Next, Takushi Fukada has a super collection of fantastic stories from this popular artist.
	Mellona Scale Cast-off Figure Excellent Model CORE ~ Queen's Blade *Preorder* Another fantastic Queen's Blade figure, this is Mellona, the mysterious shape-shifter who has telepathically-controlled appendages that she uses to attack enemies as well as cover up her more delicate parts.
	Queen's Blade Artbooks. And we've gotten even more Queen's Blade artbooks. In addition to Mellona, we're posting the books for Claudette the Lightning General with her excellent lightning sword, Reina, created by the character designer for Mai-Hime, and the super sexy Claudette.
	Maritan Concentrated Drill ~ Navy 3rd Year Ver. Here's a brand new book that teaches you English with the super cute character Maritan (which is Mari-chan said as if a child were speaking). The, uh, English is the rudest slang you'd ever hear a sailor utter, which makes this book so precious and hilarious to read.

"Haafu" (Half) Japanese, the Pinnacle of Cuteness

Wherever you're from in the world. there's a good chance that your blood contains contributions from different national groups -- maybe some German or Italian blood from this branch of the family, or perhaps a dash of Cherokee to keep things interesting. To people from the melting pot that is the United States, mixed ancestry is taken for granted, and it's quite common to talk about about where your ancestors came from with others. This is one discussion you probably won't hear in Japan, a very homogenous country where virtually everyone considers themselves to be of identical stock. The exception to this rule are individuals who are haafu, or half Japanese and half-Western, who exist in the special place between futsu (normal) Japanese and the incredible varieties of face, hair and body types seen in Westerners. To many people here, haafu seems to be the perfect blending of Japanese sensibilities and Western mystique, and there's a large group of "talents" on TV whose mixed blood helps them appeal to fans. These include popular TV announcer Crystal Takigawa, whose soft half-French appearance might subliminally lend credibility when reporting on international news; half-English JPOP singer Kaela Kimura, who got her break when she was chosen to appear in the "Have a break, have a Kit Kat" TV commercials; and of course the super-cute Leah Dizon, whose ancestry includes French, American, Chinese and Filipino. Perhaps the current pinnacle of haafu cuteness is actress Erika Sawajiri, the Algerian-French-Japanese star, who's incredible beauty has won her many fans.

The Reason Japanese Are the Way They Are: Junior High School

The question of "What makes the Japanese the way they are?" is an interesting one, and I'm certainly not the first gaijin to ponder it. While the U.S. is viewed by Japan as a "horizontal" society in which everyone is more or less equal, Japan's society is considered "vertical," with relationships that change based on relative age or status in a group. One example of this are the concepts of senpai and kohai, words that describe an upperclassman in a school or senior member of an organization, and underclassman or junior in a group, respectively. Another example is how the concept of, say, "brother" is split into separate words for older brother (oniisan) and younger brother (ototo), and it'd be difficult for the Japanese to think of the idea of a "brother" without classifying older or younger in his mind. (In the case of twins, by the way, the one that pops out first is the older brother.) My personal theory is that the the majority of Japanese social imprinting occurs in Junior High School, a unique period of three years in which students are first exposed to the strict reality of these top-down relationships for the first time. It's in Junior High that kids are forced to join clubs and engage in "club activities" with older kids, which includes greeting senpai in a loud, clear voice, showing respect at all times, and putting up with some hazing, no doubt. This period of intense social pressure seems unique to Junior High: in Elementary School, kids are still treated as kids and almost never interface with kids at other age levels, and High Schools function like a miniature version of the university system in Japan, with students choosing which school fits their study goals and academic abilities, so there's less social pressure (although there are plenty of other pressures, like college entrance exams).

This picture appears to be girls cleaning a boy's restroom in bare feet -- pretty gross. Or are they male students?

The Basis for Japanese Food Culture: Soybeans

You probably don't think of soybeans as being vital to culture, but in Japan, the lowly soybean is the most important national crop after rice. Soybeans began being cultivated in China 4000 years ago and found their way to Japan through Siberia soon after. Today many of the traditional foods of Japan are made from soybeans, including tofu, or soybean curd, which tastes a lot better than its English name sounds; miso soup, how I start my morning every day; and natto, the fermented soybeans that foreigners usually shun because of the way it smells. Soybeans are the base for soy sauce, a flavoring used more often than salt in Japanese kitchens, and they're also used to cast out "devils" (actually fathers wearing cardboard devil masks) on a special day in February called Setsubun. Another popular way to eat soybeans is as edamame, lit. "twig bean," which are boiled soybeans in their pods that are great for munching on over a beer, and healthier than anything else you could choose, too. The way the soybeans pop out of their pods when you give them a squeeze is especially fun, and there are compulsive people here who love nothing more than to order an extra large bowl of edamame and pop all the seeds out. If this sounds appealing to you, check out the Endless Edamame Keychains we've gotten in stock today -- they're great fun to play with all day long!

Cool Items - Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Mugen Edamame - Endless Soybean Keychain. Nothing goes with a tall beer like a bowl of chilled edamame (eh-da-mah-meh), or soybeans that you pop out of their shells or their pods or whatever they're called, and into your mouth. Now you can enjoy this fun popping action with Mugen Edamame, the Endless Soybean Keychain toy from Bandai.
	Nendoroid Petit Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi #01 Full Set of 11. One of the most anticipated toy lines in a while is in stock: the Nendoroid Petit Haruhi toys, with miniature versions of all the characters in the show. Imagine the dioramas you can create with this set!
	R2-D2 Shampoo Bottle *Preorder*. Ba, ba, ba ba ba ba, ba, ba ba ba ba, ba, ba ba ba ba! Er, sorry, just geeking out over the cool R2-D2 shampoo bottles that just came in.
	80's Hello Kitty Bento Bag ~ Red and White. Wow, these cloth bags to hold your bento boxed lunch are fantastic! They come in two different colors and are the cool retro Kitty-chan from the 80s that we like so well. These can of course hold other items besides bento.
	DX Samurai Sword Display. Here's a cool item: a miniature samurai sword that can be used as a display item for your home or office, or carried with you in case you are attacked by 1-foot-high ninjas. The blade is real metal!
	COSMODE 021 ~ Super Cosplay Magazine 21. The Japanese have a highly evolved costuming culture, and love to dress up as their favorite anime character. This is COSmode, the #1 cosplay magazine, loaded with photos of all the best costumes from events all over Japan. Comes with a photobook of video game costumes and pattern (!) you can use to make a cool costume at home.
	Smart May 2008. Smart is the magazine that lets you track fashions for men in Tokyo, and see what all the smart guy are wearing, Also includes lots of info on lifestyle products, cool apartment furnishings and so on.
	Revoltech Strike Valkyrie VF-1S. Macross (aka Robotech) was one of the breakout anime series of all time, and its mecha designs by Shoji Kawamori are still some of the best ever. Here's fresh stock of the super-posable VF-1S "Skull Leader" Valkyrie.
	New Japanese Snacks. Enjoy delicious new snacks from Japan today, including the incredible Azuki Caramels from Morinaga, made with traditional azuki beans, as well as Shigekix in "Super Hard Gummy Ramune" flavor, and a new variety of the popular e-ma candy that come in a great flying saucer package.
	Soft Leek Replica. The lowly negi, or leek, has become the eternal symbol of modern anime fandom thanks to the popularity of a popular Flash animation called "Leekspin" in which a character from Bleach spun a leek while singing a song from Norway. Strange, we know, but you can buy this leek yourself and spin it to your heart's content. Recommend for the summer anime conventions!
	Animal ONIGIRI Bento Box (Frog), Miso Soup Bowls. We've restocked that darned cute bento box that has space for onigiri, those triangle shaped rice balls that are eaten as a casual snack in Japan, like sandwiches. Also, more miso soup bowl goodness for your kitchen.
	The Complete Japanese Verb Guide. Good things about Japanese: no helping verbs, like "he would have been able to have saved her." Bad things about Japanese: most of that information is indicated in the verb form, making memorizing all the forms a challenge. Which makes this book especially helpful for students. Restocked today.
	Happy Tanuki Sake Set. See fresh stock of our popular ceramic sake bottle with two cups, great for enjoying some hot sake with a friend.
	Restocked Writing Tools. See fresh stock of the best-selling Zebra New Spiral Ergonomic Pen, a stylish way to write, as well as the fantastic Kendama Pen with the famous Japanese ball game built into the pen. Also, fresh stock of the fantastic Cinnamoangels cute pencil board for protecting the sheet below while you write.
	Glico Coconuts Pocky. Calling all chocolate lovers -- the time to pick up your favorite Japanese snacks is NOW, as we'll be removing chocolate-related products from the site soon, to keep them from melting. Be sure and browse the list for the last Pocky, Meltykiss, and other good stuff before it's gone, gone, gone.
	Jyudotai ~ The Passive Voice -- Yuuka Kyomoto. Wow, here's a really special photobook featuring gorgeous model Yuuka Kyomoto, who really shines in the many photographs of her. Books like these really illustrate what's special about Japan's female photography.
	Newly Posted Manga. Today's new "H" manga are great, including the new Futanarikko Lovers vol. 9, filled with 11 separate stories for fans of this amazing manga art form by Japan's top artists. Also, a parody manga/doujinshi anthology for fans of Zero no Tsukaima.
	Queen's Blade Artbooks Restocked. More great news for fans of Queen's Blade, the amazing ecchi artbooks featuring incredibly beautiful female character that can be used as a combat RPG. We're restocking the elven mercenary Echidna, elite Assassin Fang Irma, Nowa, the guardian of the forest, and gorgeous Erina, by the designer of Mai Hime.
	Alice 1/8 Scale Cast-off Figure Excellent Model CORE ~ Queen's Gate *Preorder*. Speaking of Queen's Blade, we've got another gorgeous Queen's Gate figure for you, the "cast off" (hehe) of Alice, with clothes that you can, well, cast off. Preorder it now!
	Swimsuit 8 Hour Special. There's something about a beautiful woman in a tight-fitting swimsuit making love. Then again, there's really something about 8 hours of beautiful women in swimsuits, which you can see on this fantastic double DVD set from TMA.

Zipang... Cipangu... Giapan...

The name of Japan in its own language is nihon or nippon, alternate readings of kanji characters that mean "origin of the sun," a name given it by China, written 日本. The two names are interchangeable, with nihon being used in everyday speech and nippon used in more formal situations, for example by lawmakers or the straight-laced newscasters on NHK, Japan's version of the BBC. The first Westerners heard of Japan was through Marco Polo, who wrote about a strange country 1500 miles to the East of China called Cipangu, a place of great wealth where both temples and average homes were made of gold, and where the people were very polite, although they had a strange custom of eating human flesh. The modern name of Japan has been filtered through many other languages, including traders in Malaysia   (who called it Jepang), Manchuria (Zeppen), and the Portuguese (Iapan), and first appearing in English as Giapan. For some reason, the Japanese have focused on the version Zipang as a cool, retro early word for their country, and this name is commonly found in books, video games, an anime and manga series, and computer CPU cooler.

(The anime Zipang is really good, by the way, a kind of Final Countdown in which a present-day Japanese ship is sent back to World War II...I recommend it a lot.)

The Funniest Man in Miyazaki Prefecture

Japan has been undergoing a "Miyazaki Prefecture Boom," lately, thanks to its governor, former TV comedian Sonomanma Higashi, a discovery of director/comedian Takeshi Kitano, who appeared on Takeshi's Castle for years. The TV comic gave up his career as a "talent" to run for governor of this rural prefecture last year, winning despite having no backing from any political party. Since taking office, he's shaken things up quite a bit, using his celebrity status to shed light on the wasteful construction projects that plague rural Japan and trading in his official governor's vehicle for a hybrid. Now, his face adorns dozens of products that contain ingredients from the prefecture, and it seems you can't go into a shop without seeing his face smiling up at you. Miyazaki is located in the southeast corner of the southernmost island of Kyushu, one of the early centers of Japanese civilization due to its proximity to China and the Korean Peninsula, and it's famous for mangoes, the off-season training camp for the Tokyo Giants, and a sprawling resort called SEAGAIA, which recreated a tropical beach under an 85 acre dome, although it was closed last year due to the inability of the operators to make a profit.

Japan is a Small Country

Japan is a small country, which has to fit about half the population of the U.S. into an area just 1/25th the size. This makes it important for people to use less space, and you can see many ways in which the Japanese go about doing this in their cities. First of all, many businesses such as family restaurants or electronics retailers are built up high, with the ground level clear for cars to park, which saves a lot of space. Houses with business built into them are quite common in Japan, like Seven-Eleven convenience stores with apartments above for the manager to live in, or my own house, which contains the small liquor shop that my wife's family has operated for fifty years. Gas stations need to save space, too, and many have their pumps located in the roof, with hoses that can be dropped down from above, allowing for more space for cars waiting to be refueled. For parking a lot of cars in a small area, the Japanese have automated car storage systems that will whisk your car away and store it while you shop, then return it to you when you insert your parking stub. There's even a version of this for bicycles that has just gone online, which can store 9400 bicycles in a small underground space. Of course, building up always gives you more room with work with, but it's not always possible to do that in earthquake-prone Japan, which puts extra pressure on engineers to come up with ways of doing more with less space.

Cool Items - Monday, May 5, 2008

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Dengeki G's Magazine May 2008. Another treat for anime magazine fans, this is the new issue of Dengeki's G's Magazine, dedicated to the gorgeous female characters found in anime and bishoujo games. See artwork and more from Baby Princess, ToHeart 2 Another Days, Little Busters, and much more. Also: a free deck of playing cards featuring the ToHeart2 characters, free. Wow!
	Jiji Stained Glass Photo Frame ~ Kiki's Delivery Service. I am in awe of this product, a fantastic stained glass photo stand featuring images from Kiki's Delivery Service. You can put in pictures of your loved ones and keep them on your desk beside the great image of Jiji the black cat. This is based on the stained glass windows at the Ghibli museum in Mitaka, Tokyo.
	Pleinair-san Shark Backbreaker ver. A super original character designed by illustrator Takehito Harada, who created the art for such games as Disgaea, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom.
	Hello Kitty Bolt Cap. Turn your car into a cool Hello Kitty car with these decorative covers for your license plate, which cover the screws that hold the license plate on. They fasten with double-sticky tape.
	DX Tatami Setta with Leather Sole ~ LL size. Do you have big gaijin feet? If so, then we've got some great new tatami sandal type traditional Japanese shoes for you, which are incredibly well made, feature real leather bottoms, and tops that are made with the same material as tatami mats. They feel great to walk in.
	Funny Signal Letter Set ~ Please Observe the Rule. A stationery set that shows a crosswalk sign, but the man is hitting the woman up with the famous pick-up line, "Would you like to go drink some tea together?" (ocha demo dou?).
	Glico Walky Walky (Tsubu Tsubu Pocky) -- Strawberry Pretzel. We admit it -- sometimes we choose what snacks to carry on J-List based on their silly Japanese-English sounding names, and "Walky Walky" got our attention right away because of its name. But the Pocky-like chocolate bits inside this Starbuck's style cup package is nothing but delicious. Adding chocolate and strawberry flavors today.
	Dr. Slump Handy Soft Poop ~ Pink, Clear Pink. Poop is considered good luck in Japan because the word for it (unchi oon-chee) sounds like unki, the word for "luck." See fresh stock of the Dr. Slump soft vinyl poop toys today.
	Bento Lunch Boxes. See fresh stock of our popular Uneri Bento Box set, along with more miso soup bowls for your kitchen.
	Niko Niko Punch 3 -- Face Bento Decoration. Another great item for bento fans, this is another hole punch that turn sheets of nori seaweed into pyre happiness, allowing you to decorate your bento in many fun ways. These also work on paper.
	Restocked Traditional Items. Then see some great restocked items, including Lacquered Wood Sandals for women with kimono-style straps, Happy Tanuki Green Tea Cup, a Lucky Cat coin bank for fans of feng shui and fresh stock of our popular happi coat, a kind of short kimono, for summer.
	Kana de Manga. Learn to read and white hiragana and katakana with manga! This popular book is back in stock in San Diego.
	Hello Kitty Little Taps, Kimono Dolls. Fresh stock of Little Taps, the cute characters that tap dance when you turn them on, playing music. Best of all, you can hook this up to other Little Taps toys and they'll all dance together. Also, see fresh stock of our "Warabe" dolls featuring Hello Kitty in a kimono.
	iTunes Japan Music Cards. There are several good reasons to purchase the iTunes Japan Prepaid Music Cards from J-List, including access to the "free single of the week" and the ability to sample music with your PC, Mac, iPhone or iPod Touch. I found two cool links to the most popular JPOP songs of the 80s and 90s (note: iTunes links) that are great for fans of Japanese music from these bygone eras.
	Shana of Blazing Eyes II Solid Works Collection ~ Full Set of 6 "Preorder". A full set of the upcoming Shakugan no Shana figures, which you can preorder now. These are incredibly cool looking. All characters designed by the Haruhi character designer.
	Restocked Japanese Snacks. Then enjoy some restocked snack goodness from japan, including Mikakutoh Charcoal Roasted Coffee Candy, a hugely popular item over the years, Lotte Black Black Candy, Meiji Wata Pachi cotton candy with pop rocks inside, Tsubu Tsubu Hi-Chew, and Bakery Pretz Flat Style in "bacon cheese sandwich" flavor.
	Great! Dela Bomb. A great photomagazine + DVD featuring some of the most beautiful Japanese models you'll ever see, from Aki Hoshino to Yuko Ogura to Akina Minami and many more. 2 hour DVD included too!
	Mymic ~ Vocaloid Hatsune Miku Presented by Behind Moon. Here's a real treat for fans of Miku Hatsune / Vocaloid and futanari themes: a brand new doujinshi from the talented group Behind Moon. You won't want to miss out on this!
	Yin-Yang! X-Change Alternative. The "PC Dating-Sim Game of the Month" is Yin-Yang! X-Change Alternative, a fantastic game in Crowd's gender-bending X-Change series in which you play Kaoru, a young man who was born with strange "yin-yang" DNA that are both male and female. When his body changes into a girl's, what bizarre events await? Especially popular with futanari fans. Get this game at a special price this month!
	Uncho Kanu 1/9 Scale Figure Nurse Costume ver. ~ Dragon Destiny DD *Preorder*. If I'm ever sick, I hope to find a sexy nurse like Uncho Kanu to take care of me. Great upcoming figure for Ikki Tousen / Dragon Destiny fans that you can preorder now.
	More Restocked Queen's Blade. Look for more awesome Queen's Blade artbooks back in stock, including both books featuring fightin' Shinto Shrine Maiden Tomoe, the fiery Nix, super cute Nanael, and the incredible mother-and-son team of Cattleya.

All About Japanese Females

Being a healthy male, I'm naturally fascinated with the opposite sex, and I find the subject of Japanese females to be an especially complex and interesting one. Over the years I've known many Japanese females, from students I taught English to, to girls I dated, and of course my wife, and while each of them is unique, I have noticed some patterns. Japanese females are often very concerned with how they appear to others, wanting to be chanto shiteru (roughly translatable "doing things properly, as they should be doing") in all things, and when it comes time to, say, split a lunch bill, out come the calculators so they can accurately compute the amount that each person must pay. Often, Japanese girls feel the need to cultivate a certain kawaii character about themselves, and it's not that difficult to find a girl in her high teens or twenties who thinks its cute to hold her coat sleeves in her hands to make herself look "super deformed," to refer to herself in the third person or to spontaneously channel a "catgirl" without warning. (As you can see from looking at Colonel Sanders wearing a maid costume, there's no natural upper limit to what can be made "cute" in Japan.) While there are exceptions, most Japanese girls are extremely slender, and I've known grown women here who, when visiting the U.S., need to shop at Gap Kids if they want to find their size. Thanks to eating rice three times a day, Japanese females are constipated more often than not, and spend great quantities of money on exotic Chinese herbal remedies, when all they need to do is eat a little less rice. I could go on, but I wouln't want to ruin the mystique of Japanese women for anyone, and besides, they confuse me, too. At J-List we've got a wacky line of T-shirts, polo shirts and hats that say "Now Accepting Applications for a Japanese Girlfriend" in kanji, and based on its ongoing popularity, I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one fascinated by the enigma of Japanese women.

Old and New Things in Japan

It's always interesting to compare the differences between Japan and the rest of the world. In America, many products like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Wrigley's gum and Tootsie Rolls have been around for over a century, some since the Civil War, and they continue to dominate in their respective categories decade after decade. Japanese consumers, however, seem to favor new products when they shop, forcing manufacturers to come up with fresh ideas at a faster pace. While there are some solid Japanese standbys that never change -- Original Pocky, or Peko-chan Milky Candy -- any visit to a Japanese conbini (convenience store) is sure you bring you into contact with a dozen or so products you've never seen before, like the brand-new Fanta Furu-Furu Shaker, a can of orange Fanta with gelatin in the can that makes it rather difficult to drink. The Japanese beer industry is another example: even in the small-town liquor store that my wife's parents operate, I constantly see new twists on Japanese beer being sold, like beer formulated for ladies, or beer with dietary fiber added, or beer that tries to appear "green" and somehow friendly to nature. I've been told that this is because the Japanese themselves have short attention spans, and move onto the next big thing rather quickly. While it's always nice to find an innovative new flavor of Kit Kat or a new twist on Doritos, it's also good to have a core of old favorites that never change.

Japan's Newest Internet Trend

Like most countries, the keitai (mobile phone) has become a huge part of life in Japan, and for the younger generation, cell phones seem to be supplanting the personal computer as the primary Internet device of choice. The newest trend is young people using their phones to access sites called purofu (i.e. "prof," from the English word profile, which looks very similar to "blog" when rendered in katakana), centralized services that allow people to create profiles for themselves showing their pictures, specifying their age and location, and listing their favorite music, movies or food. These purofu services are sort of like guestbooks optimized to display on cell phones, where people can search for keywords then leave comments or links and have random, meandering discussions, creating a way for lonely Japanese young people to make friends. No one knows exactly how many users of these services there are in Japan, but conservative estimates start at 1 million or more. The new Internet services aren't without problems, however, some of which came to light last week when a 17-year-old student attacked a 14-year-old in Chiba Prefecture with a metal baseball bat for writing insults on his profile page.

Click to visit link (note: it's in Japanese and ugly as hell)

Cool Items - Friday, May 2, 2008

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Comptiq Feb 2008. Comptiq is the fabulous "MediaMix Game Magazine," which means it's got tons of information on the best anime, games and more. This issue is loaded with great manga, art and more Japan's top bishoujo games, and you even get a free key cover featuring Konata from Lucky Star.
	Tachikoma 1/24 Scale Pre-painted Figure Metal Finish ver. Here's a really cool Tachikoma figure in the "Wave High Advanced Model" series, featuring a gorgeous toy of the famous spider tanks with an awesome metal sheen to it. Features a figure of Ishikawa that can be posed beside it.
	Ryuk SD Figure ~ Deathnote -- Nendoroid Series. The Nendoroid of Ryuk from Death Note has come in again, too. He's a shinigami or "death god" who came to Earth because humans are so "interesting" to him.
	Lucky Cat Mug w/ Lid -- Sakura, Mt. Fuji. We love to carry unique items you can't find anywhere else, and today we've gotten in two Lucky Cat mug cups for drinking tea, coffee etc., which are actually shaped like the famous Japanese cats, complete with cat-shaped lids. A fabulous item!
	Delicious Japanese Snacks. Also, although the chocolate season is ending due to the coming of summer, we've got some fantastic new items to show you: Morinaga Morning Time (a cereal stick with yogurt!) and the new Coconut Pocky. Also, my favorite snack of all is Morinaga Green Tea Caramels, and it's now available as an extra large bag.
	SHOXX vol. 179 Jan 2008. Shoxx is the "Visual and Hard Shock Magazine" filled with great photos and information on Japan's top "visual-key" musicians. Best of all, this magazine comes with perfect bound printing and extra large, glossy pages.
	Restocked Japanese Bilingual Books, More. See fresh stock of various books from Japan, including our popular bilingual Japanese Recipes 60, which teaches you how to make great Japanese food in both languages, The Tales of Miyazawa Kenji in both languages, and Tokyo Nobody, photographs of Tokyo with all the people removed.
	High School Uniforms from Matsukameya. Remember that J-List carries authentic high school uniforms for both guys and girls, made by the famous Matsukameya of Nagoya (pronounced ma-tsoo-KAH-MEH-ya). All uniforms are made to the size you specify and the quality is so good, I can truthfully say I've never gotten negative feedback from a customer, and we highly recommend them for the coming Anime Convention season!