Greetings from J-List May 7, 2004

Hello again from all your friends in Japan!

Words say a lot about people, and in Japanese, words carry a lot of hidden nuances specific to each gender. There are different versions of the first person pronoun for men and women in Japanese, and which word a person chooses to use carries information about how that person views himself. For women, the words for "I" are watakushi (in formal situations), watashi (neutral, slightly feminine) or atashi (very feminine and cute). If a girl is tomboyish she might use a "boys" word for I, boku, and if she's trying to project an extremely cute image, she might even refer to herself in the third person. My daughter, who is seven, calls herself "Rina-chan," although some women in their 20s do this, to the annoyance of many around them. Men will use watakushi (formal), boku (neutral, slightly polite), or if they want to project a "manly" image, ore (OH-reh). Words for "you" include anata (slightly formal), kimi (used when talking to someone younger than you), and for men only, the masculine word, omae (oh-MY-ae). A common alternative to using a second-person pronoun is to refer to the person you're speaking to by his name, e.g. Tomo or Fujita-san, if you were talking to Tomo.

The second-person pronoun omae is an interesting word. Being very masculine, it's only used by men, and generally from a superior to someone below him, i.e. an upperclassmen to an underclassman, a parent to a child, etc. Choosing to use omae to refer to a person verbally reinforces a certain relationship, i.e. that you are above them in status, so the potential to offend someone by using it improperly is great. If a man says omae to a woman he's romantically involved with, he's basically implying that she belongs to him; some Japanese women strongly dislike having men address them with this word, yet others find it romantic and get all fluttery. Silly fool that I am, I learned much of my Japanese in college by reading Fist of the North Star manga, so for a while, my speech was a parody of macho-speak, and I had to un-learn a lot. For more on the subject of Japanese words that communicate meaning between the sexes, hunt down a copy of Womansword by Kittredge Cherry.

In Japan, all Japanese study at least six years of English by the time they graduate from high school, and so even if they have no useful, working knowledge of the language in their daily life, much of the grammar and vocabulary is locked away in their minds. This sometimes affects the way Japanese functions as a language, and it's not uncommon for English words to pepper Japanese when speaking or writing, especially in cities where people are more metropolitan. The Japanese also like the English word "the" (pronounced "za") and use it in many interesting ways. Ito Yokado, a large chain of department stores in Japan (they also own all 7-11 stores here and in China) has a biannual sales event called "The Sale" (za see-ru). A popular brand of curry is House's "The Curry," and not far from the J-List office there's a laundromat called "The Sentakuya" ("the laundromat"). The cute line of plush Japanese dogs and called "The Dog" also gets its name from this wacky phenomenon.

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

• First, just in time for summer, we're happy to announce two "spaghetti strap" tank tops, which look great and are printed with aesthetically beautiful kanji messages
  
• For Shirow Masamune fans, we've got a great collector's item, the complete storyboard collection and Roman Album for the new Ghost in the Shell Innocence movie
  
• Next, we've got two great oversized photobooks featuring two famous Japanese cute idols, Yuko Ogura and Chikako Sakuragi
  
• Also for lovers of Ghost in the Shell, we have the new Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, the first disc of the 2nd season of this ground-breaking TV series (region 2)
  
• Fans of Japanese cars, we've got in more of Tomy's Tomica mini-cars -- see the Honda Stepwagon and Toyota Hilux Bigfoot, two very cool cars
  
• Having grown up watching the Ultraman TV shows, I have a soft spot for the series -- we've got a new series of candy toys in stock featuring the Ultra Mechanics of the show, including all major vehicles (full sets are in stock)
  
• Also for fans of Japan's dynamite miniature toys, we've got a collection of delicious and famous cakes of the world -- with full sets in stock for this item too!
  
• Japanese smoke a lot, but they try to exercise good smoking manners, what one tobacco company calls "Smokin' Clean" -- we've got several small portable ashtrays in stock, which allow you to take your ash and butts with you instead of leaving them on the ground for others to see
  
• Fans of the Nyanko Restaurant series, featuring the super cute cats from San-X, we have a new series of plush Nyanko Onsen (Cats in Hot Springs), so cute you'll be amazed
  
• Also for fans of cute things, we have a Hello Kitty allowance-tracking book (but you can use it for many purposes), and a new Usagi Collection Friends cute item with funny English
  
• Snack items today include delicious rice crackers, traditional star-shaped Konpeito candy, high-grade cocoa you can enjoy, Hi-Chew soft candies, super-tart Genki Shigekix, and more!
  
• Enjoy making traditional Japanese Okonomiyaki with a cool metal spatula we've got in stock
  
• We've gotten in more of the popular Parody Post It Notes, which look like standard band-aids -- so wacky!
  
• For fans of the hit movie Finding Nemo, we have some cool 3D collectible cards, very cool and sold only in Japan
  
• We've restocked many wacky parody items, including various joke toilet paper types, Japanese headbands, and more
  
• Also, look for fresh stock of the best-selling Hello Kitty kigurumi mask that allows you to totally become Kitty-chan!
  
• Finally we have more of the Japanese Girl Nagomi artful items, restocked miso soup, Hello Kitty macaroni noodles, the popular Dr. Ion carrying cases, and more!
  

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

• For fans of Japan's super-cool 18+ magazines, we've got a special issue of Gokuh, Gokuh no Homura (Gokuh Fire), filled with nothing but the most famous top-name JAV stars and idols
  
• Then we have a treat: a special issue of Cream featuring Aoi Sora, Mihiro, Alice Ogura and more
  
• For photobook collectors, check out Maria Yumeno's super sexy "B 93" photobook offering
  
• Also, the glossy photobook of Honoka, who models many cosplay outfits for you
  
• We've also restocked several great photobooks including books by Yoko Matsugane, Nana Eikura and more
  
• For our H manga collectors, we've got some extra-special items for you today, including Madam Hisae's Diary by Toen Comics, Anzu Flake of Memory by Kirikaze, and the superbly illustrated Liberte by MD Comics
  
• Also, Go Nagai is famous for such creations as Cutey Honey, Devilman and Mazinger Z -- he also wrote H manga, and we've got a great collection of his works in stock today
  
• We've got some great doujinshi back in stock for you, including hermaphrodite themed books like Dulce Report, Look Maria Sama and more
  
• Also, over a dozen restocked manga volumes, including some of our most popular books
  
• For our DVD customers, we have some great offerings today, starting with "Let's Watch Karen Kisaragi's Growth," in which she is trained by some of the most talented JAV actors in the business (region free)
  
• Then enjoy a delightful series of costume performances by the elegant Ryoko Mitake -- she dresses as an elevator girl, a waitress, a cat girl, and much more for you (region free)
  
• Mai Sakashita is one of our favorite new actresses -- she's slender, vibrant and loves what she does. See her newest release on the Deep's label (region free)
  
• Then from Soft on Demand, enjoy the delightful female performances of Kao Sugimori and Yu Ichinose, just wonderful (region free)
  
• Also, enjoy the world of super-sexy female massage in a new exploration of a popular theme (region free)
  
• Finally, look for some great restocked DVD titles, including the wacky Animation & Marchen series, My Female Teacher is my Pet 2, and Make a Guess of your Friend's private parts.
  

Remember that J-List is having a special $1 shipping sale on all English translated dating-sim games. This allow you to get a great deal on a bunch of the best dating-sims ever and save a bundle. Buy 4 or more titles and you get 20% off automatically through the shopping cart, too.

Greetings from J-List May 5, 2004

Hello again from Japan, where drivers should always practice "safety driving."

When foreigners come to Japan for the first time, one of the first cultural differences they run into is the custom of taking shoes off before going into a house. Japanese homes (and some offices, such as J-List) have a lowered area at the front door called a "genkan," where you leave your shoes before going inside. After you've lived here a little while, it becomes second nature to open the door, kick off your shoes (or if you're the obsessive type, neatly line them up), and go inside. After you've lived in Japan a few years, seeing foreigners on TV wearing dirty shoes on plush, clean carpeting starts to look really weird after a while. To the Japanese sense of cleanliness, anything having to do with your feet is dirty under any circumstances -- actually, the genkan area where you leave your shoes is considered "outside" the house. Because you have to take your shoes off a dozen times a day in Japan, you tend to get very good at choosing shoes that can be put on easily -- high-top basketball shoes or boots are not recommended.

When you think of ramen, you may think of Japan, since the two go hand-in-hand a lot. Ramen is actually from China, although the Japanese have adopted it as one of their national foods. It's common for different regions of Japan to have a "meibutsu" (lit. "famous thing"), some food or other rare item that you can only find in that area, and many regions of Japan specialize in ramen noodles. The most famous shoyu (soy sauce based) ramen is Kitakata ramen, and can be found in Fukushima, about 100 km north of Tokyo. Sapporo, Hokkaido, is famous for Miso ramen, one of my favorite varieties. Kyushu, the southernmost Japanese island, is home of Tonkotsu ramen, a pork-based dish with white soup. And if you'd like to try Kani ramen, with a steamed crab sitting on top of your noodles, go to Niigata Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan side of the country.

Today is Children's Day, a day when families celebrate the health and happiness of their children, especially boy children. To help you celebrate, we have some traditional items for you, including Koi Nobori kites which simulate carp swimming upstream, delicious caramel corn that's sold only during this time of year, and a very cool traditional Mickey Mouse wearing a kimono. Today's also the last day of the Golden Week holidays, which means that right now, millions of Japanese are enduring hellacious traffic jams and crowded trains, trying to get back into the Tokyo area so they can start work tomorrow.

Announcing the May $1 bishoujo game shipping sale! J-List carries virtually every English-translated dating-sim game available, with all the great titles from G-Collections, JAST USA, Peach Princess and more. You can get any of these fantastic games and pay just $1 for shipping! Of course our "buy 4 or more, get 20% off" sale still applies, so feel free to stock up on a whole bunch of excellent titles now!

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

• First, for fans of Panda Z, the super cute panda mech piloted by young Pan Taron, we've got plush toys featuring all the characters from this super-cute universe
  
• Gundam lovers, don't miss the excellent new Mobile Suit Gundam Ultimate Operation series of toys, with full sets in stock for you
  
• Hello Kitty fans, we've got some cool items for you, including a nifty notebook you can write in
  
• We love Tomy's die-cast Japanese cars -- newly added to the site are the new Prius and WiLL Vi, two unique vehicles from Toyota
  
• We have more uniquely Japanese items for your kitchen, including attractive chopsticks and lovely traditional Japanese coasters
  
• Also, a bamboo tube that makes it easy to get your barbecue going this summer
  
• For fans of our delicious Japanese snacks, we've gotten in many new items including strawberry Calpis candies (yum) and Amino Shiki health tablets that are fun to eat
  
• Also, new varieties of unique gum from Japan, including Watering Kissmint (which quenches your thirst) and fresh stock of the very delicious Recaldent sugarless fruit gum with Xylitol
  
• Our restocking of the snack pages continues as well, with many new items in, including Every Burger (original), Doraemon Gummi treats, the super-cute Bright Lighton and Relax Bear cookie-and-toy sets, and more
  
• Fans of Japan's unique and sexy Race Queens, we've got a special Gal's Paradise trading card set for you, very nice
  
• Experience life during the Edo Period on a small scale thanks to a cool series of Edo buildings -- very realistic and fun to build a little town out of
  
• Like funny English? We've got a wacky tin from Japan that you can store many things in
  
• Blythe fans, we've restocked the attractive Blythe Plum Blossom figure for you
  
• We've restocked FX Neo, the incredibly popular Japanese eyedrops that wake you up with a burst of freshness
  
• Want to study Japanese? We've added stock of the handy Japanese Study Cards, which help you learn many Japanese words, as well as hiragana and katakana
  
• We love to bring you Japanese films on DVD with English subtitles -- today we've got Get Up!, a hilarious film with an all-star cast (region 2)
  
• We've restocked the authentic 70 and 120 cm "loose socks," the oversized socks that are so popular with Japanese high school girls
  
• Ghost in the Shell DVD fans, check out our extensive selection of these great discs -- we've reduced our prices on all of them for you!
  
• Finally, we've got more wacky Japanese signs for you, more cute hamster erasers, a great item for frying food in the kitchen, more wiener cutters for bento enthusiasts, and more!
  

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

• For lovers of classy Japanese women, we've got the new issue of E*Onna ("ii onna" = "good woman")
  
• We love the highly stylized photography we've come to call "Japanese girls in Underoos" -- check out the new issue of Smart Girls, a magazine so elegant that it's sold to Japanese women as well as men
  
• We have a great photo-magazine featuring the incredibly lovely Rei Yoshii, photographed in an amazing way for a dreamy visual effect
  
• For fans of Japan's glossy photobooks, we've got a great new work featuring Juri Hirota's beautiful body
  
• Then enjoy the super hardcover photobook of Erika Sawajiri, a delightful swimsuit & sexy idol from Japan
  
• H manga fans, we've got some great manga for you, featuring super sexy artwork and themes, including the excellent "Hinaco" by Momohime Comics and many other new offerings
  
• For our DVD customers, we've got some great new items for you, starting with 4 hours of fun and sexy performances by Miyuki Uehara, a delightful and clean JAV starlet (region free)
  
• Next, the gorgeous Kyoko Ayana dresses up in dozens of great anime and game girl costumes for you, a great new cosplay DVD (region free)
  
• From Soft on Demand, Mai Sakashita fulfills your ever desire, a very wet and interesting production for your enjoyment (region free)
  
• Also from SOD, a sexy teacher takes on a "beauty boy" played by female Sayaka Kusunoki (region free)
  
• See how far Moodyz can take super sexy dancing in a bold new release (region 2)
  
• We've also reduced prices on several popular titles, including DVDs for stocking lovers, Deep Kiss, the Dream Shower series, and more!
  

Yulia Nova fans, the upcoming Yulia Nova DVDs vol. 1-3 have gone golden master and are being printed right now. Yulia Nova is a fantastic Russian model whose gorgeous body will really knock your socks off. Her DVDs can be preordered for immediate delivery as soon as the discs are pressed. All three discs come with additional footage that's very interesting to see, and all spoken lines of Russian have been re-translated to English so that fans can learn more about Yulia than ever before. We hope you'll preorder these great DVDs!

Remember that J-List stocks great "region free" DVD players in our San Diego office for you. Made by Lasonic for the U.S. market, these players allow you to enjoy DVDs from around the world, including both PAL (Europe) and NTSC (North America/Japan) discs as well as discs from any region (including RCE discs). They come with full 1 year manufacturers' warranties, and are great for use as primary or secondary players. Best of all, they're very affordable. Check out our current models now!

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!