Pouring your own beer in Japan, and what we could learn from the Japanese

You know you've lived in Japan too long when you're incapable of pouring your own beer. It's true -- in Japan it's customary for friends to pour beer or sake (sah-KAY) for each other, and "lifer" gaijin like me get so used to this that anything else becomes impossible. Pouring your own drink is called "tejaku," and it's rarely done in mixed company -- although in enka, the traditional sad music of Japan that fills the same niche as country music in the U.S., the image of a broken man pouring his own sake while he cries his eyes out over his lost love, is quite common.

Living outside of my home country as I do, it's sometimes possible to see things I wouldn't be able to see otherwise. Sometimes I feel the U.S. doesn't look as hard as it could at other countries when trying to come up with solutions to its problems. Japan has an annual tax on cars that's based on engine size that makes a lot of sense -- if you drive a car with a huge, inefficient engine, you'll pay around $800 a year, but for drivers with small, efficient engines the tax is just $30, and hybrid cars are free. And when the topic of health insurance was big in the U.S., the model that Japan uses -- a health insurance system with a 30% deductible that's available to everyone without insurance through their place of employment -- didn't come up at all. Now, some people are discussing how to improve schools in the States, and I fully expect there to be little discussion of Japan's approach to education. The one thing that Japan does differently is create competition among students: competition to have the highest score in the class, competition to get into a good high school or university, and so on. By and large, Japan's competitive education system creates students who are serious about setting goals and working at them over several years, and because they spend more time studying, they have less time for getting into trouble. Since the best national universities are also the most affordable, it creates a class of people who succeed through their academic skills and hard work, not because their family had money, which is a great idea for every society to strive for.

I'll be going to Kyoto over the weekend with my family, so we're doing a double-strength product update for you today. First and foremost, we've got the long-preordered Battlestar Galactica toys from Konami, and they are really something special for fans of the original series. In the tradition of Konami's previous sci-fi toy sets, this new set of all the vehicles and Cylons from the 1978 series -- known in Japan as Space Aircraft Carrier Galactica -- are extremely well made, a very special item for collectors. We've got both the basic set of 5 toys and the three "rare" items -- the Atlantia, the Pegasus and the gold Cylon commander -- available on the site. Since we know some fans will want extras of their favorite ships, such as sets of three Cylon Base Ships for display, we've posted individual items to the site too, with discount for buying multiples.

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.

	Battlestar Galactica -- Set of 5 ~ Konami SF Movie Selection. When Konami made its Space: 1999 toy line, which was the coolest thing you've ever seen, I said to myself, I sure wish they'd make one for Battlestar Galactica. God must have smiled on me, becuse the Galactica toys are here, and they are really something special. Made exclusively for the Japan market.
	Yulia Nova - Cosplay Series. You want o hear a strange story? Many fans of Japanese adult culture know of two people living in Japan, Peter (me) and Satoshi Kizu (the photographer of Yulia Nova, the popular Russian nude model). Through an credible coincidence, we live about 2 km from each other. That's neither here nor there, but I thought I'd pass it along.
	Megami Magazine Deluxe vol. 4. Some magazines are published to make money, and others, to give beautiful glossy artwork, posters and other goodies to fans. Megami Magazine falls into the latter category.
	Introvert Eros 4. A really nice manga by an artist named Youkihi, this is an exploration of sex and love by introverted people. Fantastic art that's very subtle in the way it's drawn.
	R2-D2 Talking Light Sabre Game. Long-time readers of J-List will say, hey, I've seen that before. Back when Episode 1 was coming, Tomy released this fun R2-D2 game, and we sold about 100 of them. Now we've only got two of them, so get one if you want one! They are really too cool for words.
	Illusion Salon ~ Mo-So Salon. This is a collection of very attractive nudes of amateurs, real girls who are just living their lives in Tokyo, and not wannabe adult video idols or anything. The essays that accompany each photograph are very interesting, although alas, in Japanese.
	Stop the Time! Wouldn't you want a device that could stop time? You could really have some fun walking around town, coping feels from pretty girls. Here's the first adult video that explores this interesting concept, brought to us by Soft on Demand.

New adventures at a Japanese immersion school, and the end of Doraemon as we know it

My son has officially finished the third grade, and will be beginning his new adventure next month, at an experimental school in which half the lessons are taught in English, half in Japanese The new school is coming together nicely, and we attended the orientation on Sunday, meeting the teachers and finding out which class our son will be in. It was our first time inside this completely new facility -- which looks like it was designed by the Ikea company, not exactly something you expect when you go to a Japanese elementary school. Because a partial immersion school funded with public money is such a bold project, it's attracting a lot of media attention, and there were TV cameras everywhere, recording footage for future broadcasting on the news. Since I'm the only American parent in the entire school, I stand out even more than I usually do in my daily life here in rural Japan. When we met our son's new homeroom teacher, who's also from the States, I asked him some questions in Japanese, and the cameras were there to record it all: there's nothing more interesting than two gaijin speaking Japanese to each other. During the orientation, many parents were buzzing about a new product that security company Secom has released, a portable GPS device that makes it possible for parents to see where their children are, and to send a signal that they'd like a Secom employee to go pick up their child if they're worried about them. A number of recent incidents, including the kidnapping/murder of a girl in Nara in November of last year, have made parents and teachers especially aware of the potential dangers that lurk out in the world.

The end of an era has been reached: voice actress Nobuyo Oyama is finally retiring after over a quarter of a century of performing the voice of Japan's most famous anime character, Doraemon, the nekogata robotto ("robot of cat type") who comes from the future to help keep his friend Nobita out of trouble. The show has consistently been ranked as the favorite anime of all time by the majority of Japanese viewers. In addition to Oyama, the voices for Gian, Shizuka, and Nobita himself are retiring. The final episode with the original cast aired last week with emotional farewell messages by the voice actors.

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter. Like Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day and Superbowl Sunday, Easter is one of those special days that are easy to lose track of when you're a gaijin living in Japan -- it's just a lot harder to be aware of these special events when living in another country. This year we had a rather traditional Easter, however, thanks to my mother coming from San Diego. She brought Easter chocolate and baskets and dye to color eggs with. My kids had loads of fun enjoying some American traditions in Japan.

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.

	E Treasure -- Yuko Ogura. The "teasure" in the title comes from takara, which means treasure, and for some reason comes to mean collecting rare photographs of cute idols back when they were obscure. Just as every manga artist in Japan started out drawing doujinshi, every famous singer or actress in Japan had a "sexy bikini idol" phase. This is a nice photobook with trading cards for Yuko Ogura's fans.
	Kogepan Mouse Pad. Kogapan means "burned bread," and what's what he is: bread that got burned at the bakery, and so none of the customers wants to buy him, the poor guy. This is a mousepad featuring this character.
	An Office Lady's Repayment. "OL" in Japanese means Office Lady, and it's the actual term you use to refer to a full-time female employee in a company. (The version for men is "salaryman".) Here's an H manga that's actually well done -- the turns and twists of how this lowly company employee ends up getting "return favors" in sexual form by all the ladies in the office is quite cool.
	Mashinen Krieger vol. 2. There's modeling, and then there's modeling. While my son and I like to put together Gundam models (we suck at it, but it's fun), this stuff is so well done you can't really think of it as the same thing at all. These are original creations, with lots of cool lunar walking mechs and suits, by master modeller Kow Yokoyama.
	Totoro *Knitting* Doll -- Neko Bus. I have one regret about these "knitting plush toys" Sun Arrow has come out with this year: they're too hard to find, and we can't seem to reorder them, so they disappear once they're sold out initially. This is a very stylized toy, and very well done, too, since Sun Arrow never does anything poorly.
	Japanese Sake Brand "Scissors Bag". Here's something cool: a handy bag that you can put on your belt or wear over your shoulder. Since these are what barbers in Japan use to hold their scissors and other tools, they're called scissors bags in Japanese. They come embossed with logos of famous sake manufacturers, like Shirayuki in the case of this one.
	Figures of Happiness. I do believe this is the best-ever G-Collections dating-sim game -- it's got a great story with dramatic elements, death, love, sex, and regret. It's got a long story that's very satisfying. And it's got some of the best designed characters to come along in a long time too -- while I like the main character Minamo, can you believe how cute Mao and Kokoro are? Man it'd be cool if they were real...

Video games in Japan, and information on tuxedos for Chihuahuas

Every few weeks my kids bug me to take them to the "ge-sen," or game center, and I give in and take them. Japanese video game arcades are fun, with lots of different things to do as long as you don't mind blowing $20 in a half an hour or so. In addition to the standard fighting, scrolling and sports-related games (which are always $1, and often $2, per play), there are usually some large-scale games that let you bang on Japanese taiko drums, play air guitar and even take a virtual dog for a walk. Lots of games are based on anime, like a Lupin the 3rd game in which you have to shoot fast to keep Inspector Zenigata from catching you, and a great driving game based on races from Initial D. My son and I have been hooked on a Gundam game in which you fight battles from the first two series, choosing any mobile suit you want. Gambling is a popular pasttime with adults, and many games give customers the thrill of betting on little mechanical horses that run around a track or let them put valueless tokens into slot machines. Japanese arcades are also well stocked with "UFO Catcher" machines, a.k.a. crane games with prizes you can grab, as well as Puri-kura, the "print club" machines that take your picture and print it on a sheet of stickers for you. It's common to find off-color games in arcades, too, like 1-on-1 video mahjong against a pretty anime girl.

As the number of children in Japan decreases, more and more people are turning to pets for companionship, especially dogs. Japan has been in the middle of a boom in "brand dogs" for the past few years, with famous breeds like Welsh Corgi, Shiba Inu and Miniature Dachshund commanding $1000 and up in pet stores. When high-interest finance company Aiful made a TV commercial about a man who needed to borrow money so we could buy a little dog tuxedo for his Chihuahua to attend his daughter's wedding, there was a huge explosion in Chihuahuas in Japan, and now you see them everywhere. The Groomy plush pets that J-List sells are a direct result of the popularity of dogs in Japan.

J-List brings you a little piece of Japan every month in the form of our revolving magazine subscriptions for popular anime, fashion, toy beautiful idol and other magazines from Japan. We're adding to our already excellent selection of subscription items, including SHOXX, a beautiful magazine devoted to Japan's "visual rock" bands with lots of great photography in every issue; Tokyo Journal, an avante-garde English magazine of life and culture in Tokyo; and Kateigaho ("Home Art Report"), a fabulous English monthly that captures the world of traditional art and culture for non-Japanese readers. When you subscribe to these magazines, we'll send you the current issue as it comes in, until you tell us to stop sending them to you.

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.

	Sola Aoi in Doll House. Sola Aoi (aka Aoi Sola, aka Aoi Sora -- we hate the fact that there are so many ways to write her name) is just about the most popular adult film star in Japan. This is a rather interesting photobook which postulates, what if you had a little Aoi Sora in a doll house that you can watch all the time. Those Japanese are so darned wacky ^_^
	Milfeulle Sakuraba Figure. In the old days, 1999 or so, the only figures that looked this good were really expensive, $200 and up, made of the real dealicate cold cast polystone stuff. Now they have improved the manufacturing methods so that soft vinyl looks as good. This is a great figure that comes with a stand.
	Sabra 005 Mar. 2005. Another issue of Sabra, and once again we're amazed at how unique the photograph is. Sabra has its own style that's as different from, say, what Eichi Publishing does as Urecco Gal is from the other magazines by Million. (Sometimes I think I know too much about Japanese skin mags.) Anyway, the photos are always slick as heck, and this magazine also has other information (like, a feature on the new Miata by Mazda, heh).
	Super Mario Magnets *2nd* . One of my favorite products of the past year has been the Mario Bros. dioramas (which are recreations of actual levels from the original Nintendo game), and these, "dot graphic" magnets of the elements from the game. They're cool, and you can put them on your fridge, on your clothes (with the metallic backs).
	Love Dreamer -- Mihiro. This is Mihiro's third release since she became a full adult star. I have been impressed with all of her works so far -- she's actually got an idea of who her fans are and how to keep her fans satisfied. If anyone remembers Chiasa Aonuma's awful move from nude model to actual adult actress, well, it was awful. She's really done well so far.
	SHOXX Reserve Subscription. We sell lots of differernt magazines at J-List, but this is the first all-JROCK magazine we've found. It's really good -- as always, we look for magazines with lots of big color art, since most of our customers can't read Japanese. If you like the colorful Japanese rock, which is known as "visual rock," this is somethiing you should consider getting.
	Kateigaho International Edition. This -- this! -- is a fantastic magazine we're carrying now as part of our regular reserve subscription model. It's big, perfect bound, has beautiful color pages featuring all manner of contemporary and traditional Japanese culture, and best of all, all the articles are in English. Put this on your coffee table and watch your reputation grow.

What's popular in Japan right now, and how to put your foot in your mouth in Japanese

Japan is the land of the "boom." One year it's health drinks laced with amino acids, the next it's ring tones for cellular phones that mimic sounds of the office, like the whining of a fax machine or fingers typing on a calculator. Currently Japan's experiencing a "coffee boom" as a result of a popular drama on Japanese TV, Yasashii Jikan (Gentle Time), the story of a middle-aged man whose wife is killed when his teenage son has an accident with her in the car. Unable to forgive his son, he moves to Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido and starts a small coffee shop called Mori no Tokei (Clock of the Forest) where people come to find peace and calm. In the show, the customers at the coffee shop grind their own coffee with hand-turned mills, which gives them a chance to relax as they take in the slow aroma of the coffee wafting up. As a result of the show, sales of coffee beans and mills are skyrocketing, and coffee shop used in the filming of the drama is a hit with tourists.

Before I came to Japan in 1991, I took four years of Japanese at my alma mater, SDSU, so compared to most first-time gaijin here I spoke quite a lot of Japanese. I could do many useful things, like ask directions when I got lost (which was a frequent occurrence, as there are no street names in Japan), and I knew just enough Japanese for me to put my foot in my mouth really well. Yes, I've committed many faux pas during my time here, such as trying to impress a pretty girl by speaking Japanese to her, but accidentally using onna kotoba, words that women use which are the bane of male students of Japanese, or committing a deadly slip when ordering mango juice, since "mango" is dangerously close to another word (the word is manko, and it refers to the female reproductive area, but don't use it as it's really bad). In Japanese hospitals, thermometers are always used in the armpit, but I put one in my mouth, causing much shock among the nurses, who had never seen anyone do such a thing. And then there was the time I bought my wife some pretty flowers, only to find out that I'd bought kiku no hana (chrysanthemums), which are only used as offerings to the dead on special Buddhist days -- that really got a laugh out of her.

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.

	Kanji Practice Flashcards version 2 - Level 4 & 3. We do love to promote the study of Japanese at J-List, and I usually try to find cool study aids that I didn't have when I was learning the language in the late 80s in San Diego. This is one of the best items we've ever seen -- a really cool set of kanji flashcards for learning Japanese. Finally got them in stock.
	Wonder Showcase Plus -- Evangelion ~ Ayanami Rei & Sohryu Asuka Langley. This has got to be the coolest Eva item ever -- super stylized figures akin to Pinky Street (but by a different company, I gather). Expensive, but very hard to find -- we blew through a few dozen of these last year but they disappeared from distribution after that time, until now. I would kill to have this company make different characters of these toys.
	Totoro *Knitting* Doll -- Large Totoro. This is another really cool plush toy from Japan: it's a "knitting" plush, made of sewn yarn rather than Totoro fur for that home-made look. A really cool item from Sun Arrow (the primary licensor of Ghibli toys), all three Totoros are part of this series.
	The Best Selection of Nurses & Female Doctors. The Japanese love their fetishes, which include leg/stocking, short skirt, bukkake and girls with glasses. Here's a compilation (4 hours) that features all nurse and female doctor fetish. Say "aah"!
	Fruits No 90 Jan. 2005. In addition to the Japanese love of cosplay (dressing up in anime costumes) and Gothic Lolita (dressing like 19th century French maids), you can see young people dressed in the "Harajuku fashion." This is a single issue of FRUiTS, which is usually only available as a regular monthly subscription. Amazingly, these magazines have no ads, only dynamite full-page pictures.
	Howl's Moving Castle Roman Album. In case you're wondering what a "roman album" is, you know how I felt in the mid 1980s when I started collecting them. Roman is a Japanese word that comes from the word romantic but which has come to mean "ideal." Here's a nice Roman Album for Hayao Miyazaki's hit film Howl's Moving Castle.

Part II of my (slightly drunken) train ride home the other day. Here I am, getting into the train.

Ah, my days as a single man in Japan

Hello again from Japan! Today is a holiday here, Shunbun no Hi, or the first day of spring. It's nice to say goodbye to winter, but it's still bitterly cold outside, and the wind is howling so loudly I have to use my noise-cancelling headphones to get any work done...

I remember with fondness my single years in Japan. There was an izakaya -- kind of a bar, but with good traditional Japanese food, too -- with the odd name of AIUEO, which was a favorite hang-out of gaijin in our city. You could always find us there on Friday nights, drinking enormous beers and eating such fare as yakitori (Japanese chicken, skewered and cooked over an open flame), grilled "hokke" fish (which my dictionary tells me is arabesque, but we never knew what it was called in English at the time), and fresh sashimi (raw fish without rice, i.e. the top part of sushi, served on a plate). Those were fun times when we'd unwind with a few drinks then I'd ride home on my mountain bike -- it was the height of gaijin fashion in the 1990s to have one. Then there was the thrill of waking up the next morning to find a girl's pocket bell ("beeper") number scribbled on a chopstick wrapper and try to remember how it got there. But time marches on: even though the old drinking district where we use to roam is still there, they tore down AIUEO a few years ago to make more room for parking. (Incidentally, we have some cool miniatures of sake and izakaya food on the site today.)

The Japanese love of saving money is world famous. Although the annual savings rate has dipped a bit in recent years, the average household still has an incredible US$100,000, usually held in cash in normal bank accounts making a laughably low return -- my own bank account gives me just 0.04% per year. Getting a 1% return on savings is considered great in Japan, what with the governments "zero interest policy" of keeping money practically free to borrow to try to keep the economy moving, and my wife is especially good at sniffing out better investments. There are some interesting cultural reasons why Japanese seem to enjoy saving money, and I think it starts with "otoshidama," the custom of receiving money from relatives on New Year's Day, roughly equivalent to getting presents on Christmas (although thanks to Toys R Us, this has become a part of Japan's culture, too). I've watched as my wife has carefully cultivated an interest in saving money in my son, and now he's got $500 in his bank account from carefully saving his allowance and New Year's Day money.

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.

	Miniature Sake Bottles. The Japanese make many miniature toys these days, but none is as cool as this: a set of miniature sake bottles, with their boxes, and delicious food from izakayas. I just love these cool sets to death, they are so amazingly detailed. This is a full set.
	Hokago Dorei Club. This is one of the most incredibly penned mature manga I've seen in an age -- I'd gladly choose it for my top 3 favorite books. A creation of the illustrator Maguro Teikoku, which means Tuna Empire, this is a book that should be on every hentai manga fan's list. The subtlety and quality of his art is just amazing.
	Star Wars Bust-Ups -- Set of 6 *Full Set*. Another cool item from Japan, this is the Star Wars Bust-Ups, very detailed busts of Star Wars characters. They look great, much better than most of the 3.5 inch figures they've been making of late. I've got to got to get a set of these myself.
	Japanese Lucky Charm -- Sakura Print Omamori. These are Japanese good luck charms, which sounds dorky when you say it that way -- the Japanese word omamori is much cooler-sounding. They're sold at Shinto shrines and these are offically blessed at a shrine in the Tokyo area.
	Urecco Dec. 2004. Urecco is the top adult magazine at J-List, and we love selling it -- the photography is always sassy, always good. This isn't the best cover to come along for a while, but the insides of this issue are one of the best in several months.
	Go to Thailand while Young! -- Yuko Ogura. We've seen a funny trend over the past few years: girls who become popular at J-List hit the big time in Japan. I'm sure it's unrelated, but sexy idols like Yuka and now Yuko Ogura really seem to take off once they get popular at J-List. This is Yuko's latest DVD (it's region 2 though, so you'll need a special player to watch it, although a computer will do too).

The history of the Pocky company and Japan's tiny land mass

Hello again from Japan, the home of such products as Mapple (map book), Crunky (crunchy chocolate) and Quickle Wiper (floor cleaner).

Since Japan is such a small country, with half the population of the U.S. yet only 1/25 the area, people here have to be somewhat innovative when it comes to how they use their land. I see this smart use of space quite often: building a baseball field in the floodplain of a river or creating gas stations with pumps built into the roof, with a long hose reaching down to the car. They also have these funky tall parking garages that are basically giant elevators which store cars vertically. Graves are very space-saving, too: a small plot can hold the bones and ashes of dozens of family members. Think of old castles or temples and Kyoto might come to mind, but the culture of Gunma, where J-List is based, is ancient, too. Gunma has the highest number of "kofun," or burial mounds, which were built between the 3rd and 7th century, before kanji and Buddhism entered Japan through Korea. Since it's forbidden to build on land occupied by a burial mound, the Japanese often erect parks around them, which provide children with a fun place to play while instilling them with a sense of their country's past, another innovative way to make use of land.

The history of Japanese companies can be interesting. One famous company is Glico, purveyors of Pocky, Pretz and many other delicious snacks from Japan. At the start of the 20th century, the son of Riichi Ezaki died suddenly. Saddened, Ezaki went a seaside fishing village where he happened upon some children playing. They were exceptionally healthy, which caused Ezaki to look into the reason for their good health. He determined that a compound found in oysters called glycogen was a factor, and in 1919 he resolved to found a company that would manufacture sweets for Japan's children that would improve their health, to be named Glico, after the glycogen compound. The now-famous image of the Glico Running Man was adopted because one piece of candy contains the energy you need to run a 100 meter dash. He had trouble gaining traction against the other two large confectionery companies, Meiji and Morinaga, until he thought of an idea: package an omake (oh-MAH-kay) or small toy with the candy, which greatly increased sales. Pocky was created in 1965 and was in instant hit. The name comes from the sound the biscuit sticks make when broken (pokki!). J-List sells over 100 varieties of snacks including all flavors of Pocky (at least until Japan's humid summer arrives, when we temporarily remove them from stock).

J-List loves to bring you hard-to-find products from Japan, and we've been happy to make the DVD films of Hayao Miyazaki available to you over the years, like My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Spirited Away. Now there's a great new Ghibli DVD that features a documentary of the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, interviews with the creators, and shows the actual locations in Europe that the director has based his films in. The DVD is fully subtitled so you can enjoy all the great information. The disc is region 2, another great excuse to get a region free DVD player if you don't have one already ^_^

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.

	Gothic Lolita Fashion Maniac. This is a little different from the normal Gothic & Lolita Bible issues that are printed in Japan: it's a more conventional hardcover photobook with beautifully printed pages and nice photography inside. There's no actual pattern to pull as out with the normal G&LB issues. Still, I love this stuff to death. When I went to an anime con in Germany two years ago I saw many cute German teenagers doing G&LB cosplay. It was great.
	Group Hypnotism Convention. We thought this was one of the best ideas Soft on Demand had had in a while: girls agree to be hypnotized by men who will use them for nefarious purposes. They make them think that an old shoe is a baby or that they're really cats, or that they can feel the sensations of a big teddy bear being touched. It's really quite well done -- I'd recommend couples watching this together.
	The Venus of Sakura st. 1. We've always been fans of Chosuke Nagashima, one of the more popular H manga artists in Japan. His series, such as Pururin Seminar ("pururin" being a bouncy kind of sound) , have always been some of the top sellers at J-List.
	Super Mario Brothers Diorama Figure *2nd*. No doubt about it -- one of the coolest products we've had this year has been the Super Mario Bros. diorama toys, which recreate the original Nintendo games in 3D toys. This is the 2nd series, featuring a bunch of new plastic dioramas that you can display in your room. These are so cool!
	Urecco Gal Dec. 2004. Another issue of Urecco Gal, which should more accurately be written "gal" in lower case, but I dislike that (being a former English major and all). A great magazine becacuse of the style of the girls and the energy the photographers put into the shoots -- these are very tastefully shot photos.
	Hayao Miyazaki & Ghibli Museum (region 2). I was overjoyed when Tomo told me that the new Studio Ghibli Museum DVD has English subtitles: that makes is possible for fans of Hayao Miyazaki all over the world to enjoy this amazing documentary on the creation of the Ghibli museum, hear how it was conceived and created, and journey with the camera to Europe to see some of the places that Miyazaki used to base his works on.

The nature of competition in Japan, and all about Japanese bathing

One unique aspect of Japan is how many industries have to deal with competition from the government, which interferes with the private sector in ways that wouldn't be acceptable in the U.S. When you think of your local post office, you probably think of stamps and mail delivery, but the government-run Japanese Post Office does a lot more: it's the world's largest bank with some $3.2 trillion in cash deposits in postal savings accounts. The Post Office has so much money sloshing around that it uses it to build subsidized entertainment facilities around the country, like hotels and a giant sprawling indoor pool near Nikko which never has anyone using it. It also sells life insurance, something that's totally unnecessary in Japan, a country with a strong and competitive insurance industry. Prime Minister Koizumi aims to convert the Japan Post Corporation into a private company, hopefully repeating the successful privatizations of the Kokutetsu railroad monopoly (now known as the six JR companies), Japan's largest tobacco company JT (once operated directly by government, ugh) and Japan's old telephone company (now known as NTT, one of Japan's most vibrant businesses).

My son just finished with his final tests, his last of the third grade. He did really well in his science final, only missing one question, which was about the shadow cast by a stick in the ground. Over the course of several hours, the position of the shadow moves -- why? My son, who is no fool, wrote that the Earth is moving, but he was disappointed to find this marked wrong, however -- "the sun moves in the sky" was what was in the textbook, and that's what he was expected to write. We took the teacher to task on this, which surprised him, since questioning educators is seldom done in Japan. In the end, I think we taught our son an important lesson about not automatically accepting what he hears.

I love Japanese public baths (sento) and hot springs (onsen, pronounced OWN-sen), and take my kids almost every week -- sometimes twice a week. Public baths hail back from the Edo period when people didn't have private baths in their homes, and had to go to community facilities to bathe. Volcanic hot springs also have a long history, and popular onsen towns like Kusatsu, located in the mountains near J-List, have been in use as resort towns for hundreds of years. Once my son saw a young boy in the bath and asked me why he had a blue bruise on his rear end. This is the Mongolian Spot (mokohan in Japanese, "the Old Spot of Mongol"), a blue bruise-like spot which is found on Chinese, Japanese and Mongolian children, including my own kids when they were young. The spots go away when the children reach age five or so. In Japanese, the word for someone who is still a wet-behind-the-ears greenhorn is ao ni-sai (AH-oh NEE-sai, "still blue 2-year-old"), which probably has something to do with this spot.

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.

	FRUITS Reserve Subscription. Meet FRUiTs, the most popular magazine in our revolving monthly subscription system at J-List. A really cool magazine that just shows page after cool page of young people in Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku area. And no ads! Apparently everyone at this magazine is working for free.
	Japanese Patch -- Hisshou *Certain Victory* Another cool patch from Japan, something we've been working on selling for some time. It may look like just a patch, but it's really a wappen, the badges that are worn by tough and rebellious young people in Japan's society. They have some right-wing affiliations, but nothing worse than, say, Stars and Bars.
	Azumi 2 Death or Love -- Aya Ueto. Aya Ueto is the currently darling of Japan, a young actress who distinguished herself and now has many popular roles, including Azumi and Azumi 2 (both directed by Ryuhei Kitamura) and a great drama on NHK right now. Here is her latest photobook.
	My Melody Plush Pencil Case. We love to bring you cool things from Japan, and this caught our eye immediately. A plush pencil case (useful for things besides pencils of course), it's a plush My Melody character. There's a Hello Kitty one too. When I was attending SDSU, I'd go out of my way to bring cool items like this to class to get comments from other people.
	Kimono Collection 4 Hours. Among the many fetishes in Japanese adult video is "kimono fetish" which is understandable, since this is Japan and all. This is a 4 hour DVD featuring nothing but wafuku (various kimono styles, yukata, hakama and so on).
	March of Koala -- Melon Soda Cream. Sure, it's not that hard to find March of the Koalas, or Koala no March, in the U.S. -- they even sell it at the San Diego Zoo (which freaked me out more than a little). But can you get Melon Soda Cream flavor? Huh? Okay then. That's what I thought.

White Day in Japan, and the many ways to learn Japanese

Today is White Day, the day that Japanese confectioners and retailers have decreed that men give a return gift (o-kaeshi) to women who gave them chocolate on Valentines Day, one month ago. While white chocolate is a favorite, other popular items include candy, cute character goods that say "thank you" and more. As with many aspects of gift giving in Japan, there's often a lot of giri (obligation, what you're expected to do) and very little kimochi (feeling, what you earnestly want to do), so that there's a built-in falseness to the whole thing -- but of course, no one is supposed to take a day like White Day too seriously. If you're a man and got some chocolate from a woman on Valentines Day, be sure and give her something today to show your gratitude!

Ever since the first steam locomotive started operating between Tokyo and Yokohama in 1872, trains have been a large part of Japan's transportation system and economy. Rail lines run everywhere in Japan, and if you live in a large city, it's usually quite easy to forego owning a car entirely. During my time as a teacher, I've taught English to many young people who were huge train otakus, who loved to travel around Japan to take photos of and ride on famous trains, like the famous Yufuin no Mori express in Kyushu, the Tsubasa, the only shinkansen that can also run on normal tracks, or the Nozomi 800, the fastest train in Japan. Like all boys here, my son went through a phase when he decided that he loved trains more than anything else, and I had a lot of fun learning all the names of Japan's famous trains with him. Our favorite one of all is the double-decker MAX, which stands for "multi amenity express" in case you were wondering.

There are many approaches to learning a foreign language -- the Army Method (stress on learning through memorization), the Grammar Translation Method (learning a language by parsing its grammar), the Communicative Method (leaning by speaking and listening in the target language), and the Natural Approach (trying to replicate the steps that children go through when they learn a language). Then there's the "get attention" method, which I'll label the Social Feedback Method to give it a proper name. Basically, you learn whatever vocabulary and phrases that will make you the life of the party among your new linguistic group, be it cute ways to begin conversations with attractive Japanese girls or interesting phrases that will amuse people around you. I have a friend who worked his way across Asia using this method, learning just enough of the local languages to be social and have fun with his hosts, and he swears by it. For myself, I learned Japanese at the excellent language program at SDSU, and added to my studies by reading manga, transcribing songs to memorize them for singing at karaoke bars, and making friends at the Japanese-American Friendship Club at our university.

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.

	Absolute Secrets. We love products that cross lines, and this is one such item: it's a comic about sex between boys and girls, but done with the subtle artistic styles of yaoi or shoujo (girl's) manga. Probably intended for female readers more than guys, I liked it because it focuses on the shy, unsureness of that first encounter.
	Wata Gum -- Cola and Orange. A fun treat from Japan, this is Wata Gum, cotton candy like gum that you shread and put in your mouth. As you chew it, it turns into delicious cola and orange flavored gum. A popular item at anime conventions.
	Omusubiya-san Six Colored Pen w/ Mascot. An omusubi, also called an onigiri, is a triangle shaped rice ball with delicious food like salmon inside and usually, nori on the outside. This is a great new character line by San-X featuring little characters who are rice balls, so cute the way they smile at you. This is just about the coolest pen I can think of existing.
	Hanabi -- Rika Ishikawa. I picked this book up and was instantly amazed by the beautiy of the model, wondering who she might be -- then I saw that it was Rika Ishikawa, the drop-dead gorgeous member of Morning Musume, and I slapped myself for not seeing it. The only member of this bubbly JPOP group I've ever cared about except Maki Gotoh (and when she does her hair right, Kaori Ida), Ishikawa-chan is a really shining example of how beautiful Japanese girls can be.
	Picchipichi Onesan - Fresh Older Sister. An H manga (comic with sexual content) by Sho Katase, one of the more popular artists. Oneesan means "older sister" but in this context refers to older, more experienced girls aged 19-23. We had to laugh at this book a little since every girl inside had exactly the same expression on their face as the girl on the cover.
	Maiko Kazano (region 2). Maiko Kazano used to appear very often in adult magazine in Japan as a "nude idol" like Mai Hagiwara, who got nude but never did anything hardcore. Now that Maichy (as Mai-chan is called) has gone AV (which means "adult video" in Japan), I'm wondering if we'll see her do the same. This is a softcore DVD that excellent blends Japanese imagery with Western bondage.

What the month of March means to the Japanese

The month of March means different things to different people. In Japan it's a time of partings (wakare no kisetsu), the end of the school year, when young people who are going on to different schools make teary farewells to their friends. It's also the time of year that drivers have to endure Japan's "road construction hell," as local governments hurry to use up their budgets before the end of Japan's fiscal year. Everywhere I drive, I know I'll face constant delays as roads are torn up and put down again, in an eternal cycle of government-sponsored inefficiency. The main problem is a law that dictates that 100% of the taxes collected on cars and gasoline must be used to build more roads, with no exceptions, despite the fact that Japan already has plenty of roads that work just fine. It's a major political issue here, with most of the old guard in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party supporting the ongoing wasting of resources because of effective lobbying by construction companies. Japan spends a whopping $9 billion a year on its roads, an amazing sum considering that the U.S. spends $11 billion yet is 25 times as large. The idea that Japan's leaders are so ineffectual that they can't fix this terrible situation makes me grieve for my adopted country.

Besides Akihabara, Japan's electronics and "otaku culture" hub, there are other parts of Tokyo that are popular with foreign visitors. Akasaka is one such place, the home of one of the most famous Shinto shrines in the area, the Hie Shrine. A fun corner of the city that sports hundreds of shops and restaurants, it's a good place to visit if you're coming to Tokyo. Another famous shrine is Meiji Jingu, a beautiful and solemn island oddly located in Harajuku, a hip playground for the FRUiTs generation. Finally, one of my favorite spots in the Kanto area is Kamakura, a small city south of Yokohama that features the second largest statue of Buddha in Japan (the largest is in Nara). The capital of Japan during the Kamakura Era (1185-1333), the city is just beautiful, with many fabulous shrines and temples to explore. Make sure you ride the Enoshima train line, an old-style train from the early Showa era that's as famous as the cable cars in San Francisco.

Japanese love to wear American brands on their clothes, because sporting corporate logos for U.S. companies is very kakko ii (cool). Now you can do the reverse, with our latest wacky Japanese T-shirt, an elegant parody design based on the "i-Mode" mobile telephone service of NTT Docomo -- one of the most famous corporations in Japan -- with the kanji for the love (pronounced the same, ai) in place of the capital "I." We've got a beautiful gold men's shirt and stylish pink-and-sparkly fitted tee for girls. Gaijin usually seem to be especially fascinated with the kanji character for "love" (which is one of the most complex and aesthetically beautiful characters), and we hope you like this new original design.

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.

	H Corporation ~ H shoji -- Nana Toriike. One of the reasons I don't mind selling adult products from Japan is that much of it is very subtle, artistic and worthy of the terms wabi and sabi (basically, "less is more"). This is one such book: beautiful woman, beautiful photography, but nothing "dirty."
	Hello Kitty Gamaguchi Keychain. This caught my eye immediately -- a little plush coin purse with keychain, which opens up, allowing you to put anything small inside. Looking for a really elegant way to carry your SD cards around?
	Pinky:St . -- Brown Pants ~ Space Invader Ver. Pinky Street is a very popular figure series of modern Japanese girls, with stylish clothes that you can change by popping the head off and changing bodies. I love the newest series, which features Space Invaders motiffs. Pretty durned cool.
	Kogepan Fortune Keychain. Another bizarre character line from Japan, this is Kogepan, e.g. Burned Bread. a cute little who is bread that got burned in the oven, so none of the customers wants to buy him. These are cute keychains based on these characters.
	Electric Fighting Princesses 3. Doujinshi are amateur comic books from Japan which often (but not always) feature adult parody artwork with, say, the famous game girls from Street Fighter. Here's a cool item, an anthology manga that collections doujinshi into a handy RPB manga for you to read and enjoy.
	Japanese T-shirt "Ai-Mode" - Fitted Girly Tee. Here's a rather nice T-shirt design, if we do say so ourselves: the I-Mode logo, a famous cell phone service in Japan, but with the I replaced with the kanji for love (ai). We have posted a guy's shirt as well as this really cool pink-and-sparkly girl's fitted tee.

Reflections on Japanese TV, and the history of Loose Socks

One of our favorite Japanese TV shows is Trivia no Izumi (the Fountain of Trivia, a title that sounds similar to the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome), which brings totally unnecessary knowledge to viewers every Wednesday night on Fuji TV. Originally a late-night show with a large cult following, the show hit it big when it was moved to "golden time" (9 pm), reaching incredibly high ratings of over 20%. The trivia they present is always fun and always useless. Which Japanese snack would world-class pastry chefs in Paris choose as the most delicious? (Lotte "March of the Koalas") How fast does a piece of fingernail fly when you cut your nails? (39 km/hour) If you shot a Smith & Wesson .44 bullet at a samurai sword, which would win? (the sword cut the bullet in half every time, until they used a machine gun on it) Every week a panel of celebrities that includes popular swimsuit idol Megumi, half-Japanese/half-British actress Becky, and of course the Chairman, aka famous comedian Tamori, gives points to each bit of trivia by pressing buttons that make a sound like "hey!" (but in reality, heeh is a sound that Japanese say when they're told something thought-provoking, meaning, "You don't say?"). Incredibly, the show is showing in the U.S. as Hey! Spring of Trivia on Spike TV on Thursdays at 10 pm ET, and we recently caught our first episode on video. My son was thrilled to see the show in English, although he said the voice-overs were a little dasai (dorky). The official page for the show is here.

Another program we often watch is NHK's Eigo de Shaberanaito ("I've Got to Speak English"), an interesting show that helps Japanese trying to learn English stay motivated. Every week, actress Yumiko Shaku and (slightly annoying) American talent Patrick Harlan take up various topics related to language learning, usually featuring Japanese guests interviewing stars from the U.S. like Jodie Foster, Julie Andrews and Matt Damon. Because the show is produced by NHK, they're able to get many interesting guests, like former undersecretary of the U.N. Yasushi Akashi, and Natsuko Toda, the "Queen of Subtitles" who translates all the top American films into Japanese. It's always an interesting program for anyone interested in learning a language.

Loose socks are the bulky, oversized socks that are worn by millions of high school girls in Japan every day, which look sort of like leg warmers to the untrained eye. They were invented by Akira Tokita, the "God of Socks" whose created the trend at the beginning of the 90's, and they were an instant hit. The socks are so bulky and heavy that they'd fall down unless held up some way, so Japanese use water-based glue called "socks glue" to glue the top of the socks to their legs. J-List sells 70 and 120 cm length versions of these socks, which are very warm in addition to being a cool pop culture item from Japan. We've even got socks glue.

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.

	Operation Daisakusen DS9. At J-List, a lot of erotic manga crosses my desk, but seldom does one stop me in the middle of what I'm doing like this book does. Fabulous art, really amazingly crafted characters, and prime erotic illustration as only the Japanese could do.
	Mr. Cook -- Puchi Kitchen. Re-Ment is the company that makes very, very detailed Japanese food and other items which are incredibly meticulous. Now, to go with their tiny refrigator, they've got a full kitchen playset, which you can use to display your miniature toys. We are so jazzed to have these cool toys for you!
	Stand Up Gloomy Bear -- Camouflage. There are so many characters competing for the public's attention in Japan that it's hard to get noticed. Here's a rather interesting guy, Gloomy Bear (a pun on gummi, which is pronounced "goomi" in Japanese). He's a maniacally suicidal bear who often kills people with those long claws of his. So cute.
	Totoro Keychain -- Totoro & Chu Totoro. Another really cool item from Japan, this is a pair of PVC Totoro toys that are very detailed. Use as a keychain, these little guys are too cute to believe.
	Good-Bye Sister ~ Chikako Sakuragi. Photobooks are very popular in Japan. Basically full sized hardcover (or softcover) glossy books of photographs, they're a staple of the publishing world, and the quality of the printing is very high. Here's the photobook of "sexy idol" Chikako, popular on late-night Japanese TV.
	Japanese Patch -- Kimigayo, In Japan, there are street punks called Bosozoku who ride loud motorcycles. They're like the bike gang The Clowns from Akira, but with a junior high school education. They love to wear patches that show their love of Japan, though, and now we've got some for you.

Japanese dentists and the food people in Japan eat

We woke up to a world of white this morning, as the Kanto area (the flat plain where Tokyo is located) got its third snowfall of the season. It was actually only a few centimeters of snow, but it managed to cause a minor panic, since snow is rare enough here that people aren't used to it. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you like snow like I do), most of it has melted away.

Ask any gaijin living in Japan about dentists here, and you'll be sure to hear some complaints. While Japanese dentists are good at fixing teeth, they're famous for making you come back dozens of times to finish your dental work, instead of getting it out of the way in a few visits. I've finally finished having three teeth worked on, which somehow managed to take 18 months. I believe Japan's dentists take so long to work on teeth because of the way insurance is structured here -- they're only allowed to charge a certain amount to the system each day, so they spread it out as much as they can. Like men whose job it is to stand by the road and wave a flashlight to let you know there's road construction going on and NHK employees who knock on millions of doors to collect the $20 monthly fee from households in person, Japanese dentists are an unfortunate symbol of Japan's lack of efficiency in some areas.

Since I'm very busy with J-List, I don't get time to watch television as much as I'd like, especially the news. One show I try to catch on weekends is Broadcaster, a show which encapsulates the news events of the past week by ranking how many minutes of coverage each received. Last week's show included such news items as Princess Aiko (the 3-year-old daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito) learning how to ski for the first time; the father of sumo wrestler Takanohana's battle with esophageal cancer; the tragic suicide of South Korean actress Lee Eun-joo; the latest on Michael Jackson, which is followed carefully here; and all the current goings on with maverick Livedoor president Takafumi Horie, whose recently separated wife was found working in a supermarket for $6 an hour to make ends meet despite the fact that her husband is incredibly wealthy.

When I came to Japan to live, I knew about the famous foods like sushi, sashimi and ramen, but I had a lot to learn about the finer points of Japanese home cooking. As with other Asian countries, noodles are eaten frequently, with soba (thin grey noodles) and udon (fat white noodles) being the most popular. Many dishes commonly served at home aren't Japanese at all, such as curry rice, a version of the mild, thick curry brought here by the British, or spaghetti, really good with tuna fish and asparagus on top (my Japanese father-in-law can't eat spaghetti because it looks too strange to him). A lot of Chinese foods like chow mein (yakisoba) and fried wonton dumplings (gyoza, known in English as "pot stickers") have been a part of Japanese kitchens for so long they're not thought of as having come from anywhere else. Soy-based dishes are also very popular, with miso soup, tofu and natto at the top of the list. While the Japanese have come to eat quite a lot of bread and even adapt it in interesting ways (curry-pan, bread with curry inside), when all is said and done, rice is a big part of the their daily life. The basic unit of "fast food" in Japanese homes is the rice ball, called omusubi or onigiri, basically a triangle shaped ball of white rice with nori on the outside and different good stuff (ume, salmon) inside. We have some cool new products celebrating Japanese food on the site today -- check them out.

Here are today's "really cool products." 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.

	Domo PVC Character Strap. Domo-kun, the cute mascot of the NHK broadcasting system in Japan (their version of PBS), is the cutest thing around. Now you can carry all the Domo-kun characters on a cool traditional phone/camera/PDA strap.
	The Manager is a Pretty Girl -- Mai Hagiwara. Mai Hagiwara, the vixen who went from being the most famous softcore nude star in Japan to suddenly doing real adult films, is back again in a new release from Alice Japan. Maichy, as she's nicknamed, was such a primo cock-teaser for the longest time, it's hard to get used to her doing the "real" stuff.
	Gohan Mada?! -- Is Dinner Ready Yet? Re-Ment is the really cool company that makes those tiny, tiny food toys, and now they've got a new item, famous Japanese home-cooked meals, complete with plates, knives, chopsticks, cups and everything else you need. They look good enough to eat!
	Omusubiya-san Pencil Case. Although Sanrio is the most famous character goods company from Japan, the really avante garde stuff is done by San-X, creators of such famous hits as Tare Panda (dropping panda), Kogepan (a character that's a piece of bread that got burned), and Afro Dog. The newest character is Omusubiya-san, or Rice Ball Shop, cute little characters that are rice balls.
	MAKA-MAKA vol. 2. Pardon the tiny spot of nudity in this product, but sometimes a guy has to stick a naked picture on his blog. This is a really excellent manga, done all in color, documenting the love of two women. It's one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.

Japanese Universities, and the Michael Dell of Japan

There are two types of universities in Japan, public (operated on a national or prefectural level) and private, and as you'd expect, public universities cost a lot less to attend than private ones. One big difference between Japan and the U.S. is that the top schools in the States are venerable private institutions like Harvard and Princeton, which cost a lot to get into. In Japan, however, the most popular universities are public ones like Osaka or Kyoto University, because the education is so much cheaper, and getting into one is such an accomplishment that it brings a halo you carry with you all your life. In the Japanese test-based system, the universities with the most applicants are the hardest to get into because of increased competition, and it can take years of preparation to get ready for your test. Although the system of "entrance exam hell" certainly has a lot of drawbacks, one big benefit is that it's almost completely meritocratic -- only students who study very hard will be able to get into the legendary Tokyo University, regardless of how much money your family has. There are probably some big changes in store for Japanese universities over the new decade or so. First of all, Japan's national universities are increasingly being administered as private institutions, forcing them to be more creative and competitive if they want to survive into the future. Also, despite the sharp drop-off of children in Japan, new public universities are being constructed every year.

Every country is unique, and each country's economy is unique, too. While the multi-tiered distribution system Japan is famous for has gone through a lot of changes over the past decade, resulting in the removal of many layers of unneeded distribution, the route that goods take from producer to consumer can still be hard for Westerners to comprehend. While efficiency has increased greatly during Japan's painful decade-long quasi-recession, many products, such as toys, books, CDs and computer software are still bought and sold through a strict system of distribution that adds significantly to the price to the end user. The distribution system for beer and alcohol is also very inefficient, with products changing hands two or three times before they come to the small liquor shop that my wife's parents run. In industries where inefficient middlemen have been removed, allowing, say, Hitachi to sell its products directly to electronics stores rather than through several distributors, I've noticed some other problems. Without a third party between supplier and reseller, the manufacturers are able to put restrictions on shops that would probably not be legal in other countries, such as forcing them to buy huge amounts of stock, requiring that they purchase unpopular products if they want to get the popular ones, and so on.

There's another difference between Japan and the rest of the world -- hostile takeovers of companies just aren't done here. But that's what up-and-coming Internet provider Livedoor is attempting as it makes a bid for controlling interest in Nippon Broadcasting and through its holdings, Fuji TV, the most influential television network in Japan. The brainchild of Japanese whiz kid Takafumi Horie (ho-REE-eh), a Michael Dell-like persona who started his first company in his Tokyo University dorm, Livedoor has been buying Internet startups left and right as it elbows its way into the business headlines. Horie, whose nickname is Horiemon (ho-REE-eh-mon) in parody of the anime character Doraemon, is famous for working alongside his employees at a desk that's placed in a long row of identical desks, the Japanese version of a cubicle farm. He also doesn't even own a suit -- my wife hates him because he's a multi-millionaire yet dresses worse than I do.

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.

	Room Service -- Rika Uesugi. I love Japan's photobooks because they can take an already beautiful model and make her so much...more. Here's a color photobook featuring a very sexy model, Rika Uesugi (OO-way-su-gi), a girl I haven't seen before but would like to see again.
	Ghibli Image Model Collection X. Another really cool item from Cominca, this is a trio of figures with display backdrop from Howl's Moving Castle. I like it becasue it's got the scarecrow, who is the most interesting character in the show except for Calcifur the fire demon.
	Wild Berry Porte. All I can say is, mmmm, this looks good. This year's chocolate trend is to have tasty cocoa powder sprinkled over the outside of the snack, making something that was already good just amazing.
	Nagatanien Asage Miso Soup. Some of the things we bring you on J-List are flashy and really cool, like Hello Kitty toilet paper. And sometimes we just sell...soup. This is a popular item at J-List over the years, healthy "nama type" (fresh) miso soup in individual serving packets. Miso soup for the soul!
	Lesbian Secretarial Office. Japan's adult world has gone through some interesting changes since J-List began. I remember in the old days, there used to be nothing in the way of lesbian stuff available. Now there's plenty, from every studio. This is a "lesbian secretary" fantasy DVD.

A shot of my car after the most recent snow we got. I know that snow isn't interesting to most people, but I am from San Diego, so I've always got a warm place in my heart for cold snow.

I take my kids to onsen (OWN-sen, Japanese hot springs) quite often, and at one place we go to, called Genki Land, which is a really stupid name if you think about it. Here is the video monitor as I sang a song by Yoshi Ikuzo (famous singer from Aomori, at the top of the main Japanese island of Honshu). My son has decided he loves this singer, and since I know many of his songs, I thought I'd sing with him. The song is about a guy who lives in a village with no electricity declaring that he's going off to Tokyo to make his fortune.

Finally, this is the mat outside my dentist. It makes me so happy.