Greetings from J-List May 3, 2004

Hello again from Japan, where a hickey is known as a "kissmark" and a convertible is an "open car." Because I'm fortunate enough to flit back and forth between the U.S. and Japan several times a year, I get to enjoy the best of both sides of the Pacific. I've lived in Japan so long that there's always some reverse culture shock waiting for me when I go home again. For example, after getting used to the smaller but quite adequate portions served in Japan, some of the food amounts in America really floor me. In Japanese restaurants, you nearly always pay for your meal at the cash register as you leave, but in the U.S. you usually ask for the check and pay at your table -- I sometimes have to think deeply to figure how which to do. Although Japan has been making strides to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, it's still okay to smoke in restaurants. Forgetting where I was, I strode into a Denny's in San Diego and asked to be seated in the non-smoking section, receiving a funny look from the employee, since all the seats are non-smoking in California. Reorienting myself to driving on the right side of the street, instead of on the left as in Japan, is not as difficult as you might imagine, despite the fact that I am mildly dyslexic. As long as there are other cars on the road, I can just do what they do. Now that Japanese pop culture is so popular all over the world, it's interesting to see awareness of manga grow, too. While English-speakers use the word manga to refer only to Japanese comics, the word as used in Japanese can refer to both printed comics and anime, and older Japanese will often to call refer to anime as "manga." The term manga literally means "whimsical pictures," and has its roots in the Edo Period, when ukiyoe artist Hokusai created humorous drawings of 19th-century Edo. Tezuka Osamu, the so-called God of Manga, brought Japanese comics to their highest cultural level by penning dramatic stories about subjects ranging from a flying robot boy to the life of Buddha, and his works have had an incredible effect on modern manga culture. Manga is everywhere here -- to the chagrin of some parents and teachers, more than 40 percent of the books published in Japan are manga comics of one form or another. The most popular manga comics are serialized weekly in telephone-book sized weekly comics like Shonen Jump and Shonen Sunday (Shonen means "boy" in case you ever wanted to know), and these comics are enjoyed by Japanese of all ages. At my family's rural liquor shop, it's very common to see a Japanese man wearing an expensive suit to get out of a BMW and buy his favorite weekly comic on Sundays. At J-List, we're happy to make all kinds of great DVDs from Japan available, from the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki to great Japanese movies subtitled in English and more. Because many of these discs are zoned for region 2 (Japan and Europe only), we also sell region free DVD players that allow you to watch DVDs from around the world. Not only have we restocked the popular Lasonic DVD-7890, our popular low-cost player, but we've added a new high-end transportable DVD player, the DVB-8292, a super-small unit with many high-end features including progressive scan. We've also reduced the price on our best-selling DVB-8092 small-footprint player to just $82. For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:

• First, for fans of the highly detailed food miniatures from Rement, which are based on the realistic wax food displayed outside restaurants in Japan, we've got a new treat: Europe Gourmet, featuring 10 superb meals from the Old World
• Want to help your study of Japanese? We've gotten in several great study books for practicing your hiragana, katakana and kanji
• Another very cool item for students of Japanese, we've got the entire series of the Bilingual Princess Knight manga series by Osamu Tezuka, with both English and Japanese on the page!
• Fans of high-quality PVC anime figures, we've got two great new items from one of the most popular anime series in Japan now
• Dragonball fans, we've got a great new capsule toy series featuring very detailed DBZ toys -- full sets are available
• For fans of our Japanese snacks, enjoy some great treats, including miniature apple pies, the original strawberry Pocky, delicious grapefruit soft candy, and more
• Also, tea bags of delicious Oolong Tea, a traditional tea that's a favorite in Japan
• We have a huge restocking of our snack pages, too, including Toppo and Pocky, super-tart Shigekix soft gummies, the funny Funya-Q gummy happy face you can play with and eat, Raspberry Collon, Hi-Chu , and more
• We've also got restocked Japanese chewing gum for you, including Lotte's Black Black, Blueberry, tasty Strawberry and No Time, the gum that brushes your teeth for you
• Also, two cool interior items featuring the fabulous kimono artwork of Seiichi Hayashi
• From Sanrio, a super cute Cinimaroll character item to wash your body in the bath or shower
• Enjoy more wacky Japanese stickers with funny messages for your room -- they're reflective so they help keep you visible to cars, too
• Finally, we've got super-long bamboo tongs that you can use in the kitchen, various restocked bento related items, fresh stock of various Studio Ghibli items, and more!
• For our 18+ customers, we've got many new products. The new items include:
• For fans of Japan's professional 18+ magazines, we've got the new issue of Gal's Dee, filled with beautiful Japanese women of size D or larger
• For photobook fans, check out the lovely offering of Yuina Mizuki, in her last hardcover photobook
• Also, the glossy photographs of Aya Koizumi are wonderful in her newest photobook
• For fans of super sexy bikini gals, check out the first photobook of Lucky Seven, a new idol team that will blow your mind
• Also, we've got a super item for fans of stockings, high leather boots and flare skirts -- wow
• H manga fans, we've got more great works for you, starting with an exploration of "unfaithful widow" themes, superb manga work by Yumi Yuuki, and other classic H manga themes
• Also, various restocked manga volumes for collectors of Japanese comics
• For our DVD customers, we've got some super new items in stock, starting with 4 hours of the best of Kasumi Misato, a pure and feminine JAV star from Million (region free)
• Then catch a delectable "full course" of all-female action with Asuka Sawaguchi as the star, taking on four other delicious girls (region free)
• Next, Soft on Demand's Deep Kiss series goes international in Hawaii, asking pairs of Japanese girls to experience their first "deep kiss" for the camera (region free)
• Then, explore the first dark performances of 50 of Japan's most famous JAV idols, in a great new release from Deep's (region free)
• From U&K, we have another series of super deep kiss performances by beautiful actresses (region free)
• Then from the famous Garo Aida, a great new DVD capturing the loveliness of Miyuki, age 19 (region 2)
• Finally, look for many restocked DVD titles -- check the tops of the DVD pages or browse all with the "view updated products" link!

The JMATE.com website has been updated again, with two new reviews for you: Maria Takagi's "Illusion" and top-name JAV director Haruna's first "Deep Kiss" release. The URL is http://www.jmate.com/ Remember that J-List carries authentic Japanese "loose socks" in two different sizes, and also carries "socks glue" which you can use to glue your socks to your legs to hold them up. Enjoy a little slice of Japanese fashion culture courtesy of J-List -- they also go great with the authentic high school uniforms we sell, too! Great for cosplay at anime cons. J-List customers tell us that the #1 way they hear about J-List is through word-of-mouth. We're very glad to hear this, and we're always happy to have you recommend J-List to your friends! If you've got a friend who might be interested in our unique brand of Japanese pop culture, why not tell them about J-List, or ask them to sign up to our J-List updates? Thanks!