Greetings from J-List November 19, 2003

Hello again from all of us at J-List!

I remember back to my first few weeks in Japan. It was a thrilling, exciting time, and I was captivated by everything I encountered, from vending machines selling UCC canned coffee to hearing the "when a body meets a body coming through the rye" music that plays at intersections as a signal to the blind that they can cross the street safely. One of my first impressions of Japan was that it wasn't a very safe place for kids. From the extremely steep hardwood staircases in the homes I visited to the lack of child carseats (Japan's first carseat was passed in 1999), I was often surprised at potential dangers to children. Japanese kids also do what would be unthinkable in the U.S.: walk up to several miles to school, with nary a school bus to be seen. Of course, it's very common to view things in other countries as being not as good as they are back home, so you always have to keep an open mind about other countries (Americans, I've learned, especially need to do this). On the other hand, Japan has definitely benefited from the collective observations of foreigners living inside the country, who point out things which could be improved, like requiring parents to put their kids in protective child seats when driving.

It's always interesting to compare the differences between Japan and the U.S. In America, many products like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Wriggley'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. Japanese consumers, however, seem to favor new products when they shop, forcing manufacturers to come up with new ideas at a faster pace. While there are some solid Japanese standbys that never change -- Original Pocky, or Peko-chan Milk 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. The red-hot Japanese beer industry is an example of this: even in the small-town liquor store that my wife's parents operate, I constantly see new twists on Japanese beer, like beer formulated for ladies, or beer with dietary fiber added, or beer that tries to recreate the beers brewed in the Meiji era. I've had Japanese tell me that this is because Japanese themselves have short attention spans, and move onto the next big thing rather quickly. While it's always nice to find a new flavor of Pretz or a new blend of green tea on store shelves, it's also good to have a core of old favorites that never change.

J-List carries all the Japan-release anime DVDs from director Hayao Miyazaki, the famous creator of My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Now we're extremely pleased to have the Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind DVD in stock for you. Nausicaa is the film that really demonstrated to the world the genius of Mr. Miyazaki, and marked the start of his great rise to international prominance. Now you can enjoy the complete and uncut film with the deluxe 2-DVD release, which includes many extras added by the director himself. We've got the DVD with first-press soft case and the DVD with limited-edition ceramic figure set in stock for you now! (The Nausicaa Deluxe Collector's Box will come in on Dec. 5.)

For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, we've got more calendars in stock for you, various anime, idol and traditional calendars that have come in stock
  
• We have a fantastic sexy manga for you, Gun Dragon Sigma, featuring live-action Taiwanese Race Queen Yinling acting in a beautifully drawn manga story by Cobra creator Buichi Terasawa -- don't miss this!
  
• Enjoy the cute photographs of Mitsuho Ohtani and her great hardcover photobook, Chance Meeting, filled with beautiful imagery of this vibrant Japanese idol
  
• Also, the delightful Kasumi Nakane looks great in her deluxe new photobook, which comes with a DVD, too
  
• For fans of delightful swimsuit idols like Yuko Ogura, we've gotten in fresh stock of the bargain-priced Hyper Product Revolution 2003, a great item for you
  
• For fans of unique toys from Japan, we've got some cool plastic model replicas of a fanciful weapon of the future, the Panzer Tier Road Skipper
  
• Our Japanese traditional music CDs have been well received, so we've posted more of these for you, including traditional songs of the sumo wrestling world, and beautiful folksongs from northern Japan
  
• For Kitty fans, we've got some rare and cool items, including Kitty pocket tissue, more delicious Kitty ochazuke and limited stock of the Hello Kitty hair dryer -- so cool
  
• We've got other fun snack foods and other items from Japan, including traditional plum nori, soft senbei rice crackers, more Fujiya chocolate crayons that you can eat, and fresh stock of various chewing from Japan, like Black Black caffeine gum and more
  
• We're big fans of the meticulously made miniature toys from, called "candy toys" since they usually come with candy inside the box -- see a very cool replica of a friendly Japanese cafe, rendered in every detail (full sets available)
  
• We've got a very detailed series of detailed toy figures from the famous Yamato company, great for fans of this popular anime
  
• For fans of the Kubrick-style block toys, we've got the cool Electronic Virus figures from Yujin, which come in a great display canister
  
• We love wacky Japanese signs, and we've got fresh stock of some fun plastic "sign plates" for you
  
• Look for a fun "happy face" pencil case, for fans of the "Niko Niko Club" character items from Japan
  
• Finally, for those who hate being cold in the winter (like me), we've got fresh stock of the large-size "nukukko" Japanese hand warmers, cloth packets that keep you toast for up to 18 hours.
  

For our adult customers, we've got many new 18+ products. They include:

• First, we've got the new issues of Penthouse Japan and Penthouse Special, two beautiful magazines filled with only Japanese girls, photographed by Japanese photographers
  
• Then enjoy the new issue of One-X (oh-NAY-X), for fans of the "oneesan" (older sister/girl in her mid 20s) type sexually experience females
  
• For photobook fans, we've got some great new hardcover offerings in, starting with Akira Watase's super erotic pictorial
  
• Also, enjoy fresh stock of the dynamite Japanese Eros and Russian Eros -- great to compare the two!
  
• For fans of Japan's famous erotic manga, we've got some new works for you, starting with Sketching Doll, an erotic tale of naughtiness by Mujin Comics, Shinobu Naka's delightfully erotic Pure Heartea, and other great hentai manga works from Japan
  
• Also, we have a giant update of superb hentai manga comics, with a dozen items back in stock for you
  
• Also, for yaoi lovers, we've got another great new issue of the very hardcore Gush Mania, this time volume 5, with 280 pages of great content for you -- as well as fresh stock of several other yaoi comic works
  
• For DVD fans, we've got great new titles for you, starting off with Open Legs, a silky and erotic leg and pantyhose fetish release from Shueisha (region free)
  
• A new work from Soft on Demand's famous director Hajime, beautiful amateur girls are asked to look at men's penises from behind a curtain and guess which one belongs to their boyfriend (region free)
  
• Kirari Koizumi is a bright, happy adult star from Japan -- see her best-ever erotic performances in Remix of Kirari Koizumi (region free)
  
• European girls performing with Japanese actors is really popular in Japan now -- enjoy the sweet eros of girls from Sweden and Denmark (region free)
  
• We've been fans of the sultry Akira Watase ever since she appeared on the Japanese adult video scene five years ago -- now see her great new erotic release from Momotaro (includes underwater sex, a Japanese favorite fetish) (region 2)
  
• Then enjoy a treat, 4 hours of the most erotic Dream Woman series from Moodyz, a super item for bukkake fans everywhere (region 2)
  
• Then, we've got a major restocking of erotic DVDs for you, with fresh stock of Big Breasts Battle 8 Hours Special, Ran Asakawa 4-Hour Non-Stop Ecstasy, Natural Gokkun Girl with Nao., the superb Photo Shot DX DVD version, and more!
  

J-List loves DVDs, and we stock over 800 titles for our customers, including a wide range of innovative and fun discs only sold in Japan. Order 4 or more DVDs and get a great 20% discount off the total, automatically calculated at checkout. And we've also got special discs marked-down in price, and with free shipping too! Please take time to browse our great selection of only-available-in-Japan DVD titles.

There are just 36 days til Christmas. If you've got any Japanophiles on your Christmas list, why not check out the J-List site and see what unique items from Japan they'd like to have? From calendars to wacky T-shirts to tasty snacks from Japan to really cool toys, we've got items everyone on your list is sure to love. We've revved our staff up too, so we're able to get packages out the door very quickly. Let us know how we can serve you this Christmas season!