Lack of rain in Japan, methods for teaching English to our kids, and how I met Yoko Ono, sort of

Something's wrong with Japan's summer. This is supposed to be rainy season, a time of heavy rains that helps the newly planted rice to grow, but so far we've had very little rain and record-high temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius (98 Fahrenheit), unheard of for June. As usual, Japanese companies are putting out many refreshing products to help people beat the summer heat, including new types of ice cream (my favorite is Coolish, a foil pack that contains ice cream that you squeeze out to eat), delicious Asian teas, traditional shave ice, and more. One new product we've enjoyed so far this summer is Water Jelly, basically a fruit drink that contains gelatin inside. It's somehow satisfying to suck the cold gelatin out of the bottle and let it slide down your throat when it's hot.

Every language is unique in some way, with its own interesting grammatical and phonetic structures. In Japanese, there are two kinds of vowels, short and long, and if you ever seen the Japanese family name Sato written as Satoh or Satou, this is because the second sound in the name is really a long vowel, which is often expressed by adding an "h" or a "u" to the English spelling. Back when I taught English as a Second Language, I had a student named Yoko Ohno (whose last name meant "big field"). I made the obvious joke about what a thrill it was to have a famous person in my class and consoled her on the loss of her husband John, but she had no idea what I was talking about. It turns out that the more famous Yoko Ono's last name uses a short vowel, meaning "small field," and in the minds of Japanese, the two vowels are so different that my student never once made any kind of connection between the two names. And so, one of my best jokes of the day fell flat...

Because my family lives in Japan, my kids have Japanese down pretty well, between learning kanji in school and using Japanese on a daily basis. Teaching them English can be more of a challenge, since my kids know I'm pulling their leg when I pretend not to understand what's being said to me in Japanese. One fun game we hit on recently to help force my kids to use English is to take long car trips and play Twenty Questions. The kids love it, and repeating questions like "Is it alive?" "Is it a fictional character?" "Is it something in our house?" helps their English. I also managed to get my kids hooked on the old Schoolhouse Rock shorts, and everywhere we go I've got the songs on my iPod.

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	The Debutante! ~ Shinjin -- Kaya Yonekura. I just realized why this series of magazines w/ DVDs is called what it's called -- apparently someone in planning thought that "debutant" means "one who debuts at something." This is a nice sampler of this girl's first works, with a color mag.
	Heen Water Ball -- Howl's Moving Castle. This is special -- a water ball (which I thought contained snow, but apparently it doesn't) for fans of Hayao Miyazaki's great new movie. Features Heen, the athsmatic dog.
	Dancing Pingu -- Viens Jouer! We've got a lot of French stuff for you today. This is a cute dancing penguin Pingu, who dances when you turn him on. Very cute and original.
	"Yago" Cell Phone Holder. This is spiffy -- a traditional looking cell phone holder that you clip to your belt with a carabiner clip. Has cool kanji on it.
	Deluxe "Urara" Bento Box Set -- Blue. A great bento box from Japan, this dual-tiered lunchbox (one space for rice, the other for your okazu, or the main course of your lunch) comes with everything you need, including chopsticks, case and a cloth bento bag.
	Tokyo Nobody ~ Masataka Nakano. Tokyo is a bustling metropolisit of 11 or 14 million people, depending on what time of day it is. But what if there were no people in Tokyo? Here's an amazing photobook that shows you Tokyo with nobody in it.
	Erotic Office Soldier Lovezo. A funny hentai manga about OLs, Japan's female office worker, whichi is a major source of fetishism among males here.
	Natalie's French Goods. A new series of highly detailed miniatures from Re-Ment, this is really cool: they are knick-knacks from the 1970s, with many French things, harkening back to a time when Japan was gaga for al lthings French. If you have a dollhouse or just like to play with teeny tiny toys, we recommend this series.
	Lucky Cat Baby -- Gold. The Lucky Cat Baby series has been a best-selling product at J-List for months, Now there are new colors including yellow and blue, and this great all gold one. They wave their hands and rock their heads, through the miracle of solar power.
	Domo & Hachimaru Pin Badge. A new pin for Domo-kim fans, a metal pin that you can wear anywhere. Features Hachimaru (which means "eight oh"), the character that commemorates NHK's 80th year on the air.
	The Otherside of October ~ Kannazuki no Uragawa Plus. A must-buy doujinshi for fans of, er, hermaphrodite themed manga, this doujinshi is the latest release by the famous Behind Moon. They really bring this genre to an amazing height.