Beautiful girls wearing Swatches, uses of the word "wa" and the concept of style in Japan

Sometimes you don't know what Japan will throw at you next. Once I was shopping in Tokyo, checking out the Tokyu Hands department store, when at least fifty beautiful girls appeared and started marching past me in a military-style line. They all had on Swatch T-shirts and sported attractive Swatch watches on each arm as they marched around advertising the famous brand name while I looked on. Trains in Tokyo are filled with advertisements for various products and services, and sometimes a company will reserve every single ad in a train to ensure that passengers see its message. Once I got into a train on the Yama-no-te (the convenient loop line that runs around Tokyo) and was surprised to see hundreds of Apple "Switcher" ads hung everywhere. When I first came to Japan, I didn't know about Coming-of-Age day, a ceremony for young people who have turned 20 to celebrate their new status as adults. It's common for females to show up in a beautiful new kimono, and when I saw about 500 kimono-clad girls walking past me to attend the ceremony, I nearly fell off my mountain bike in surprise.

One of the most enigmatic Japanese words out there is wa, which is generally translated as "harmony" and often used in English in sentences like, "Hey man, you're messin' with my wa." The character has other meanings, too, including "peace" as well as referring to Japan itself. It can be combined with other characters to form words like heiwa (peace), washiki (Japanese-style, as in a Japanese-style toilet), washitsu (Japanese room, e.g. a tatami room), and wagyu (Japanese beef, e.g. the famous beer-fed Kobe beef). If you put the character for big in front of wa, you've just written Yamato, the name of the first civilization to emerge in Japan and the term that refers to the main branch of the Japanese people, as well as the famous battleship from World War II.

Japan can be a very style-oriented place at times, and it seems that everyone is concerned about looking good. The universal word for "cool" in Japanese is kakko ii (KAH-koe EE, lit. "good style"), while the opposite is kakko warui (KAH-koe wa-roo-EE, "bad style," e.g. dorky). Another word that describes an absence of coolness is dasai (dah-SAI, out of fashion, uncool), which supposedly started out as a derogative word for people from half-rural, half-urban Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo. Not unlike the relationship between Los Angeles and Orange County, there's a perceived lack of sophistication among Saitamans as seen by Tokyoites.

We have another cool Japanese T-shirt for you today, one that we're quite proud of: it's a collection of interesting Japanese words that you encounter every day when you live in Japan, things like futon (Japanese bed) and hashi (chopsticks) and takoyaki (octopus-filled batter balls), with fun pictures of the words along with what they're called. We've posted a standard sized shirt for men along with a sexy fitted cap-sleeve for girls. It's a cool shirt that will teach you something you didn't know about Japan!

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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.

	Accelerando by Yuki Seto, Once again I am floored by the amazing artwork the Japanese are capable. This is a popular hentai manga with a style that's both classically Japanese and yet features some interesting "otherness" at the same time.
	Japanese T-shirt "Japanese Vocabulary Words." Here's somethiing we think is pretty cool: a shirt that actually teaches you a bunch of Japanese words, things you see every day here in Japan, like Japanese arch or futon or takoyaki. Available in both guy's and girl's versions.
	iMoc ~ Strawberry. This is one of the most timely product releases I can think of, but this line of personal massagers (or "vibrators" if you're not in the state of Texas) comes in fruity colors and has a parody "Intel Inside" logo on the package. Either this company works very fast or the had some insider information, I can't be sure. Although it's small, the force of this little guy is really exceptional.
	Figure Maniacs vol. 15. More ways to worship Japan's super cute characters, now in three dimensions. This is the new issue of Figure Maniacs, always popular at J-List because the pictures are just amazing, and there are so many of them.
	Nouveis Logic ~ Manga Artists vol. 7 . Koh Kawarajima is an artist (really two different artists) who are famous for their doujinshi and H manga published all over the world. His (their) style is remarkably similar to Satoshi Urushihara.
	Kabuto Plastic Model -- Tokugawa Ieyasu. At J-List, we pride ourselves on bringing you things you never knew existed. Here's one: a plastic model of the actual golden helmet worn by Ieyasu Tokugawa, the third and final unifier in Japanese history. This is really cool.
	Totoro Otedama -- Fuka Fuka Grey Totoro. This is a cute item: little beanbags of Totoro, which you can throw, juggle, or just toss up in the air. They're by Sun Arrow, so they're really well made.
	Oni Musume Figure -- Red. This is a very nicely sculpted and painted original statue made by artist Bome. Top quality, comes with stand, ready to display in your room or on your computer. We also have the blue "repaint" version.
	Kitty Chirimen Pen Case -- Red. Another nice Hello Kitty item, this is a very nicely made soft case that you can put anything in (pencils & pens would be a good place to start). Made from the same fabric as a kimono.
	Giant Pocky (24 Sticks). We are liars when we say that Pocky is gone from the site until Japan's humid summer is behind us, but we've got even more Pocky for you -- GIANT POCKY this time, the really big kind. Fun to eat, but hurry, since we've got very limited stock.

And with that. it was time for me to head out from Los Angeles and take the hop back to Japan, something I've done more times than I care to calculate. Doing the flight actually isn't that bad -- it's straight, with no annoying hops to other cities, and the drinks are free.

I do have a question however. I got on the plane and was surprised to see that all the magazines -- all of them -- had been taken, most likely by the other passengers. All that was left were several copies of the Bible. I know American has slid to the right while I've been gone, but does, er, anyone else consider this to be odd? (Visions of Escape from Los Angeles go through my mind.)

Back in Japan! As I always do when I get back to my adopted home country, I got some good, cold oolong tea and a delicioous onigiri, a riceball with fish inside, wrapped in seaweed.

The bus trip back home is always a blur, since I've got jet lag and usually sleep the whole way. This is the best way to travel though.