The joy of eating Cheetos, new crimes on the rise in Japan, and some really "radical" kanji for you

One of the benefits to living the expat life is coming to value the things from home you used to take for granted. But if you ever live in a place with no Root Beer, no Peter Pan Peanut Butter, and no Rold Gold pretzels (or whatever happens to be dear to you), you will learn to appreciate them in a hurry. The other day I got a care package from my mother which contained our Thanksgiving stuff (since Japan can be quite pumpkin-pie-and-mashed-potato-challenged when it wants to be), and there was a general work stoppage while the J-List staff stopped to check out the various goodies that Mom had sent along. The gaijiin staff of J-List was especially happy with the Cheetos that were in the box, and we eagerly devoured them. Sometimes it's the little things that mean a lot.
There's a new type of crime in Japan. A few days ago, a small battery-powered wireless camera was discovered attached to the wall above an ATM machine in a UFJ Bank in Tokyo. The device was capable of broadcasting out to a receiver located outside the building, where a man watched with a small television, recording the passwords people used to access their bank accounts. Happily, the culprit -- a 36 year old unemployed man -- was caught by police before he could do any damage. There are other types of updated crimes in Japan, one of the most famous being ore ore sagi ("it's me, it's me!" fraud), where a con-man calls an elderly man or woman, pretending to be their grandson and asking them to send money right away because of some trouble they're in. Then there's the related furikome sagi ("pay up" fraud), in which, say, a female con-artist might call the wife of a doctor and say that she'd been touched inappropriately (chikan sareta, for owners of our "Beware of Perverts" T-shirt) by her husband, and that she was about to go to the police. However, she might reconsider if the wife sends 2 million yen to the following account right away.

Kanji may not be the easiest thing in the world to learn, especially those who don't live in kanji-using countries, but neither is it the invention of the devil designed to confound students of Japanese. In fact, it's actually quite logical and organized. When you need to look a character up in a kanji dictionary, you have several ways to go about it, including looking it up based on the total number of strokes (the number of lines it takes to write that character), or using its pronunciation. The most logical way, however, is to use the radical, which are quadrants on the left, right, top, etc. of kanji, which group them together based on meaning. One common type of radical are kanmuri, which means "crown" (aside: Toyota Camry gets its name from this word, based on a strange fixation the company has for making cars with names that mean crown in various languages). One type is take-kanmuri (tah-KAY KAN-moo-REE) or "bamboo crown," and characters that contain radical this are often things made of bamboo, such as fude (writing brush) or hako (box). Similarly, the character for rain (ame, ah-MAY) appears as a radical in related words, such as snow, lightning, fog, cloud, and electricity. (The popular Wordtank electronic dictionaries that J-List sells have full kanji dictionary functions built into them.)

J-List is looking for a webmaster/blogger for our jmate.com review/interview website. If you've got experience with the products we sell, have good web skills and would like to write some interesting content, please contact us through the "contact J-List" link on the site.

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.

	14 Degrees Mouse Pad -- Black ~ Elecom. I have a strict policy of only using Elecom mousepads, since they're very, very well made. Soft gel inside, sturdy fabric outside that never trips up the mouse, and they actually stick to your desk!
	Japanese USB Keyboard -- Black ~ Elecom. Another item from Elecom, this is a Japanese keyboard that's quite useful for Windows users who want Japanese on their keyboard. It's also usable with PS2!
	Koi Suru Oppai -- Kasumi Misato - Breasts that Love. I don't know why I love Kasumi Misato so much -- maybe she awakens my secret fetish for actress Misako Takana. Here's a nice photobook featuring her "oppai" (and a whole lot more).
	Hana's Holiday ~ Hanasan no Kyujitsu. This is a well-drawn manga done by none other than the famous Saigado, the popular doujinshi circle who have apparetly gone pro. Very nice art, lots of realism and subtle grace.
	Wine Kit Kat ~ Le Patissier Takagi. We should probably categorize this as a "wacky thing from Japan." This is Wine Kit Kat, basically wine-laced white chocolate Kit Kats made by the famous Le Paticier Takagi. Can you eat just one?
	Noir Kit Kat ~ Le Patissier Takagi. Another really special item this year, this is Noir Kit Kat, a velvetty smooth chocolate-covered Kit Kat with cocoa powder all over it. Truly delicious, this is sure to be a hit this year.
	Genki I ~ An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1. Learn Japanese and get "genki" at the same time, with this excellent textbook that really helps you learn the language. This is the #1 most recommended text in use in Japan today, especially with the JETtsters.
	Deep Kiss 20. A super new Deep Kiss offering from Soft on Demand, this allows you to watch as pairs of girls (best friends) are asked to kiss each other passionately. This is the product that put Soft on Demand and female JAV director (now the president of the company) Chie Sugawara on the map.
	The Fetish of Office Lady Black Panty Hose. Sometimes it's not enough to have a fetish for pantyhose -- you need to have a specific fetish for black panty hose, the kind that make everythinig below a woman's waist seem shrouded in mystery.
	Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex ~ Tachikoma File. I like this item a lot, because I'm a real fan of GitS:SAC, which blew me away with its quality. The perfect book-and-toy for Tachikoma fans.
	For the Best Onanie of you -- An Nanba (region 2). Ann Namba is a beautiful JAV star who's found a remarkable second career in the indies world (she performs only for Moodyz). This is a special item, a boxes set that comes with two DVDs and a latex replica of her, well, you know.
	Sumo Yukata ~ Japanese Cotton Kimono. We have a bunch of new yukata types on the site, really cool 100% cotton kimonos that can be worn in many settings, e.g. at home, at anime conventions, or just about anywhere else.
	O My Sadness. Enisode #1. A nice series of Ah My Goddess (which my wife always mistakenly calls Oh My Goodness) doujinshi, with very nice art featuring all the characters.

On the creativity of children, social change in Japan, and what's up with Steven Seagal

Children are very creative, and it seems there's nothing that a child is incapable of imagining, especially when it comes to inventing new words. When I was learning Japanese in college, I discovered that you don't have to be a child to have a child's creativity with language. As I studied Japanese, I experimented with the language every day, completely mangling the grammar as I got each vocabulary word and useful phrase down, sometimes inventing something new and interesting in the process thanks to the universal phenomenon of "not knowing what can't be done." The process is not unlike the way a child experiments with its first language, often creating ingenious Dr. Seussian words for things. Just as most of us have a special place in our hearts for the things we loved when we were small, be they television shows or comic books or 8-bit video games, I still feel natsukashii (nostalgic) about the anime I was watching in my college years, which represent my childhood as far as learning Japanese is concerned. So if you ever want to enjoy a second childhood, consider learning a second language!

It's said that Japan is between ten and 25 years behind the United States and Europe socially, and viewed from a certain point of view, the statement seems to be eerily true. Various social institutions that you or I might take for granted have taken a while to appear in Japan, such as laws against "seku-hara" (harassment in the workplace) or laws protecting the privacy of individuals. Over the past few years, Japan has been renaming some job titles that had a sexist slant due to the kanji they were written with. For example, the old word for a preschool teacher, hobo (保母, literally "protecting mother") has been updated to hoikushi (保育士, a professional-sounding word that means care-giver), and the former term for nurse (kangofu, 看護婦, written with characters that meant "nursing wife") is now kangoshi 看護士, which makes no reference to male or female. Some words haven't been updated yet, though. A family with only one parent is often called boshi katei 母子家庭, which literally means "household of mother and child," but this word doesn't serve its purpose very well if the single parent is male. And Japanese who spend several years overseas then return to Japan are called kikoku shijo 帰国子女 or "girl-children who have returned to their home country." The term is used for males as well as females, despite the fact that the "girl" meaning is built into the word via kanji characters.

I was flipping channels while shaving this morning and happened to see Steven Seagal being interviewed in Japanese by Dave Spector, which was funny since they're both Americans. He was talking about his latest projects, including a Japanese detective film and an energy drink with his face on it. Seagal is popular in Japan because he's fluent in Osaka-ben, the dialect of Japanese that more or less corresponds to New York American English, and it seems I can't go a month without one of his action films being shown on Japanese television. For marketing reasons, most of his movies have been renamed into the "silence" series, for example, Under Siege is the Warship of Silence, On Deadly Ground becomes Fortress of Silence, and so on. I guess it makes it easier to sell a boxed set of his movies to Japanese fans.

J-List sells our wacky Japanese T-shirts, with messages like "Support the Emperor, Expel for Foreign Barbarians" (a political slogan from 19th century Japan, just about the most esoteric thing we could think of for a T-shirt). Our shirts are popular for their original wacky designs, but they're also excellent quality T-shirts, hand-screenprinted by our San Diego staff with 16 years of screenprinting. We use top quality 6.1 weight T-shirts, add a white under-layer which prevents the color of the shirt from showing through the design, and cure the shirt at 330 degrees to give it long life (far superior to the quickie heat-transfer printing used by those "other" online shops). Our hoodies are great too, made of 80-20 blends, much softer and luxurious-feeling than the cheap 50-50 blends sold elsewhere. Why not browse our T-shirts and hoodies today?

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.

	Aim for the Top! -- Gun Buster ~ Kaiyodo Figure. I am, first and foremost, a fan of Gainax, the great animation company that has brought us so many treats. Before Evangelion, before Nadia, there was the 6-episode Gunbuster, which is still one of my faves. Here's the Gunbuster robot.
	Lapin - Elegant Personal Massager. From ToysHeart, a popular maker of private massagers and other toys for adults, comes a really well engineered vibrator. Features excellent controls, silent operation, waterproof design. Plus the name ToysHeart is kind of cool.
	Lotte Sasha Mousse & Bitter -- Silver Flakes on It!!. Here is another treat from Lotte, who make such nice chocolate snacks. It's basically melted strands of chocolate that criss-cross over each other, so that the whole thing melts in your mouth. This actually contains silver flakes on top of the chocolate,
	Paper Stichlock -- Wanko (Dog). Stitchlock is the cool Japanese device that "knits" sheets of paper together so you never need to buy staples. The knitting can be easily undone, and yet is sturdy and secure. This is a cute "Wanko" (a child's word for dog) version.
	Paper Stitchlock -- Panda. Another cute "character version" of Stitchlock, this is the Panda version. So very cool!
	Gekkan -- Jessica Michibata. This is the lovely Jessica Michibata, half-Japanese, a quarter-Spanish and a quarter-Itallian. A former runway model, now appearing in a "gravure" photobook. Man, this girl does it for me. *ahem*
	tiara -- Misako Yasuda. Like most recently sexy idols you see in Japan these days, Misako Yasuda got popular by appearing in commercials for one of Japan's high-interest loan companies, Aiful, the company that single-handedly brought on the Asian Chihuahua boom with their 2003 commercial about a man who had to borrow money so he could buy a tuxedo for his dog.
	CLEAVAGE ART ~ The Art of Seishoujyo. This is a popular bishoujo game with the odd title of Cleavage, which probably sounds mysterious to Japanese ears than it does to us. Very nice art in this photobook, which is hardcover (not firmcover).
	DEATH NOTE 2006 Calendar *EMS only*. Death Note is an interesting manga about a guy who can kill people by writing their name in a book. Very, very nice art in this calendar, which is a flat-panel box (so we ask you to order it with EMS shipping). Incidentally, "note" here means "notebook" in case you are as confused as I was until a few seconds ago. "Note" in Japanese would be "memo." ^_^
	Neko Bus Mini Tissue Plush Case. A cute plush tissue holder for fans of Totoro, which will accept the pocket tissue you get with (most) every order from J-List. I say most every order because sometimes we can't include tissue if it would damage your order (if you ordered, say, a single book that would be bent if tissue were included).
	Let do Sex with Nurse (region 2). Now you can enjoy nurse-fetish sex on your Sony PSP with this new UMD format movie. Unfortunately it's region 2, meaning you can only play it on Japanese and European PSPs.
	If she were my dearest girl... -- Hime Kamiya. This DVD asks, what would you do if Hime Kamiya were your girlfriend, or your "dearest girl" (to use the English phrase). Well, I'll bet you can think of something you'd do.

Community spirit, Japan style, and what to do with old schools you don't need anymore

J-List is based in a small city in central Japan, about 100 km north of Tokyo, and it has a real down-home feel to it. Yesterday the annual Green Festival was held, an all-day event where residents of our city could gather and engage in what's locally known as fure-ai (ふれあい, foo-RAY-aa-II). The word literally means "touching each other," and it calls up images of pleasant interaction with one's neighbors and getting to know each other a little better -- a very nice word (no sexual connotation). At the festival, a dozen groups set up tents with various activities that people could take part in. My daughter is in Girls Scouts, so we sat at their booth helping children make various crafts. Elsewhere, kids hammered away making wooden chairs or tables, learned tea ceremony, practiced outdoor activities with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, ate local foods like yakisoba (the Japanese version of chow mein noodles), and browsed the flea market area (complete with the requisite misspelled sign proclaiming FREE MARKET). There were performances by several local clubs, too, including Japanese taiko drums, a brass band that played anime theme songs (that was pretty interesting to hear) and my favorite, the local Hawaiian Hula Club. It was a fun day of community-building, a regular Amish barn-raising, Japan-style.

At the festival, I was not surprised to attract a lot of attention, as I was the only gaijin present. Everywhere I went I ran into people who knew me, although in a few cases I couldn't remember who they were or where I'd met them -- but I smiled and used the all-purpose Japanese polite phrase, "Domo!" Kids, especially, flocked to me, curious about this strange foreigner who could speak Japanese, and before long I had a good group of Japanese kids trailing me, making me feel like the Pied Piper, or perhaps Jesus on the Mount. It sounds corny, but I'm always careful to present a positive view of America to Japanese children, answering any questions they have and asking what they know about my country. If I find myself around children when I'm wearing sunglasses, I take them off no matter how bright it may be outside. A big foreigner wearing dark sunglasses like a yakuza is likely to be a little scary for Japanese kids, and I'd hate for anyone to get a bad impression of foreigners because of me.

The festival was held in what used to be a local high school, which had been converted into a general-use community center. As Japan's population contracts, they need fewer schools to support the population of students, and so schools are decommissioned all too frequently. While many schools just sit there as creepy reminders of Japan's all-too-low low birth rate, this school had become quite useful, with the interior made available for community meetings and clubs and housing various municipal employees. They also turn it into a voting center on election days.

We've got a great new category of product for you at J-List: various types of traditional kimonos, which are still worn in a variety of places and situations in Japan. We have silky, stylish kimonos for men, great yukata (cotton kimonos) that can be worn anywhere or used as a bathrobe after a hot bath, and short cotton kimonos called happi (sometimes called "happy coats" for the benefit of foreign visitors) with colorful kanji designs on them. If you order with EMS shipping, you can get these items before October 31st, too (but hurry). See all our new kimono items on the newly renamed Traditional Footwear & Kimono category.

We've updated our "top 5" links which appear on the main J-List or JBOX.com pages, increasing the number of top-selling products that display when you click each category link. These links make it easy to browse the best-selling dating-sims, T-shirts, snacks, DVDs, Domo-kun toys, and other items on the J-List site, over the past 7 days. You can also browse all "top" items with the
new link we've placed at the bottom of the box. We'll also be updating the contents every other day, allowing you to browse different categories every time you stop by.

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.

	DX Oh! Super Milk Chan Super Figure 001. Super Milk Chan is a really odd character, popularized by a late-night indies TV show that showed short films and animation. This is a reall -- and I mean really -- cool soft vinyl figure for those who want to have this wacky Japanese thing in their rooms.
	Lotte Sugarless Chocolate Zero. Chocolate that contains no sugar, that's not a bad idea. And it tastes pretty good. By Lotte.
	Fujiya Peko Pie. The cute face on this package is Peko-chan, the spokescharacter for the Fujiya Confectionary Company, which has a very long history. These are little pies filled with milk chocolate filling, mmm.
	Elecom Folding Mobile Game Pad -- Silver. We liked the look of this item right away -- it's a small game pad that you can close up and take with you anywhere. Unfold it, and it's a very useful HID-compliant gaming controller.
	Happi-Coat ~ No. 1. A "happy coat" from Japan, a short cotton kimono that's very colorful. The kanji message is "ichiban" (No. 1).
	Megami Magazine Deluxe vol. 5. Megami Magazine is the best selling "reserve subscription" item at J-List, and it's not hard to see why, with the fabulous quality in every issue. This is a special issue of Megami, which comes out every few months, and features page after lovely page of beautiful anime girl, from all the top shows in Japan right now. It's so totally worth $14!
	Negimaru 3. A nice doujinsh that we got in, parodying the Negima characters. Unfortunately stock is limited on most of our doujinshi (often to just one copy), so if you want it, click through and get it fast.
	Love Angel 2. Another cool doujinshi parodying the Dirty Pair, one of the most excellent anime series of the mid 1980s. In a spooky coincidence, I was watching some Dirty Pair on my Mac Mini last night, not knowing that the J-List staff was preparing this for posting today.
	Pinky St *Post Pet Ver* -- PKA008 ~ Pink Hair & Sailor Uniform. Another cool Pinky Street figure, which comes with neat accessories including a stuffed PostPet toy, cute pink ears, and a bow.
	Sophie Plush *Old ver* -- Howl's Moving Castle. Howl fans, here is one of the coolest items we've seen: a plush toy of Sophie, complete with walking stick. Very nicely made by Sun Arrow, the famous Studio Ghibli licensees, we hope you'll pick it up before it's gone.
	Rodeo Queen -- Natsumi Akimoto. A major fetish in Japanese adult video is "kijoi" or "horseback riding position." Here's a nice DVD from Moodyz featuring Natsumoto Akimoto doing this just for you.
	Kanji Yukata ~ Japanese Traditional Bathrobe. Another cool yukata item for you, this features kanji printed all over it, for a very cool look. A nice cotton kimono for all your cotton kimono needs!

This is the school-turned-community-center. It's a nice use to put a building to. Remind me to post something on Japan's "neo Chernobyl" building style for schools and other public buildings sometime.

The drummers in the taiko group were very good.

One of the sellers warms yaki-manjuu, basically a bun cooked over coals and painted with delicious miso sauce.

They had some interesting food items for sale, including the first shrink-wrapped hamburgers I've ever seen in my life.

There was plenty of cool used stuff for sale. I bought a Tamagotchi for my daughter, a killer Ultraman toy for myself (natch), and I managed to find some Rose of Versailles figures for ten yen each for my wife. Here someone is selling clothes with wacky English messages on them.