Greetings from J-List April 1, 2002

Greetings and salutations from your friends in Japan, at J-List!

Whenever you go to live in a new country, you're bound to have your share of culture shock. I experienced much when I came to live here nine years ago. A wide range of professions, from the men who guide you past road construction to the men who work in train stations, have uniforms that looked to my eyes like police uniforms, so I was constantly wondering why there were so many police walking around in Japan. Every gas station, it seemed, had a big flashing light that looked like police lights, which are really there to attract customers -- but I kept thinking there were accidents ahead of me on the road when it was just a "gasoline stand." I was amazed at the beautiful ceramic tiles on Japanese houses, which made them look, well, very Japanese. And the vending machines -- you couldn't drive a kilometer without passing twenty or thirty of them on either side of you. But one of the biggest shocks was that all but the largest streets in a Japanese city have no names. To give directions in Japan, you tell someone to turn left at the beauty shop, go straight, then turn at the pachinko parlor, or you draw them a map. I distinctly remember wanting to get my other gaijin friends together and name all the streets in our city.

English that the Japanese have invented themselves is quite famous all over the world. They're also quite good at coming up with new words based on initials of English words. If you visit someone's home in Japan, remember to take your shoes off by the front door or it will be NG, a Japanese word that means "not good" and refers to any kind of general screw-up (bloopers on TV are also known as NG). To get on a Japanese freeway, you must drive to the nearest IC, or "inter change," the freeway onramp. If you get tired of driving, pull off at the nearest SA ("service area") and get some canned coffee to wake yourself up. TV commercials are known as CMs, and a direct mailing sent out by a company is called a DM. Finally, whenever you do something, consider the TPO of the situation -- that is, the time, place, and, er, whatever the "o" is supposed to stand for (we think it means object, but that's just guessing). In other words, consider the overall situation you're in before taking any action.

There's a really useful phrase in Japanese that can be used in a variety of situations, either to be polite or to really surprise some Japanese people you may know. The word is "okage-sama de" (oh-KA-gey-sama-deh, with a hard 'g' on 'gey', as in 'gay") which literally means "thanks to you." For some reason, the Japanese often respond to compliments by turning the thanks on the person doing the complimenting. For example, if someone were to compliment me on my being able to write a certain kanji character, I could say "Okage-sama de" to them -- "Yes, thanks to you." This seems to imply that I'm thanking that person for teaching me the kanji, even if I'd never met the person before, but that's the way the phrase is used. If you want to have fun with Japanese people, pull the phrase out suddenly and watch how they react.

For the first update of the month, we've got some great items for you, including:

• First, we've got several nice new magazines for you, including the excellent new Gokuh, crammed full of dynamite Japanese AV idols for you
  
• We've got a few more back issues of popular magazines posted, as well as new discounted magazine items, too, for fans of our $5 and up magazine pages
  
• For photobook fans, we've got some really nice new swimsuit and nude photobooks, both hardcover and softcover
  
• We've got another great volley of newly published hentai from Japan, by some of the most popular hentai manga studios
  
• Also: a major update of back-in-stock hentai manga, including a dozen volumes that had been sold out-- check out the newly restocked items!
  
• For DVD collectors, we've got some super new titles for you, starting with the Soft on Demand Cosplay Best Selection, featuring the very best costume play (nurse, waitress, bus guide, teacher) in the history of SOD (region free)
  
• For fans of anal themes, we've got the great DVD release of Anal de Fuck DX ("DX" means "deluxe," see above), featuring a full range of AV, from anal virgin to CCD camera plan and more (region free)
  
• The beautiful and busty Megumi Osawa is an up and coming AV model, and in her latest soft porn release from Bauhaus you can enjoy her pure loveliness -- and with no censorship to get in the way! (region free)
  
• For fans of lesbian love, we've got a great new release: Lesbian Maniax, a super *240 minute* lesbian release featuring the "abnormal pheromone performanced by 32 lecherous ladies" (region free)
  
• For fans of the very popular Milky Cat, another extremely bold and erotic bukkake race queen performance, with one girl taking on an incredible 130 men! (VHS)
  
• For indies fans, we've got the debut DVD of a girl who was scouted in a cake shop, whose name is Monbu Ran (the Japanese pronunciation of Mont Blanc, a famous French dessert). This is an MVG production so it's highly recommended to bukkake fans (region 2)
  
• For fans of the lovely Madoka Ozawa, enjoy her latest new production from Moodyz, in which she assists your masturbation with a variety of fresh and interesting costumes and tekoki play
  
• Finally, we've gotten fresh stock of many DVD and video titles, including excellent titles featuring the busty Emily Yoshikawa, Miki Sawaguchi, and more!
  
• For anime fans, we've got some excellent toy items for you, including a rare fully posable Rei Ayanami doll from Evangelion, a super Totoro coin purse that is really cool, and more
  
• Also: two lovely anime figures from the Angelic Layer universe for you (only 1 of each, though)
  
• We've restocked some of our most popular Totoro items and also gotten in more of the sold out "The Dog" cups and pens
  
• Fans of CLAMP, the creators of Card Captor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth, we've got the *excellent* X TV Animation cards from Cardass in stock
  
• We've restocked our surprisingly popular Japanese miso soup, with several new varieties in stock for you
  
• Other newly added snack items include delicious gummi Doraemon candies, a unique traditional Japanese hard candy known as "salt candy," and "Mogi Mogi Fruits," a little gummi tree with little gummi fruits hanging from it
  
• Also: if you've ever wanted to taste the famous Calpis, we've got a delicious Calpis Soda candy in stock!
  
• If you want to try your hand at various fried rice dishes, we've got some nice easy to prepare mixes on the snacks page, too
  
• For fans of beautiful Japanese idols, we've got new idol photobooks and other fun items for you
  
• The Japanese "Maneki-neko" ("inviting cat") is famous all over the world, and we've got several nice Inviting Cat piggy banks for you
  
• We've added stock of several cute and fun Hello Kitty items, including cups, erasers, toilet paper, and a major restocking of our runaway seller, the Hello Kitty vibrators!
  
• Also, a special item: a real Japanese flower that unfolds into silk panties!
  
• Finally, look for more chopsticks, including chopsticks recommended for fathers (?), a funny Japanese ice cube tray, Japanese "days of the week" magnets (great for use on white boards), delicious dried, shredded ika (squid) which goes great with beer, more cute Licca-chan stickers, Japanese food erasers, and more!
  

Besides thousands of great items from Japan, J-List also stocks some U.S. released manga and comics in our San Diego location, including the excellent AG, the magazine of "art, sex and CG culture." A great English-language manga magazine that features great hentai artwork and stories. Also, some of the most popular Japanese artists at J-List will be appearing in AG, along with articles by yours truly. We certainly hope you'll support the publisher's efforts! AG is available via single issues as well as by resolving subscription through J-List.