History and our "national personality," famous Japanese of the world stage, and putting dogs to sleep in Japan

History is in all of us, and each nation has its own unique quirks or features that come about as a result of its own past. For the Japanese, the arrival of Perry's black ships in 1853 brought them face-to-face with the fact that Japan couldn't stand against nations like the United States and Great Britain. After the "respect the Emperor and expel the foreign barbarians" revolution that ejected the last Tokugawa Shogun in favor of a government formed around the Emperor (which "restored" the Emperor to power, hence the term Meiji Restoration), the country underwent an unprecedented crash program of modernization, retiring the old system of feudal domains (han) for a modern prefectural system based on that of France and introducing education to the people. One of the forces driving this was Japan's desire to be seen in a positive light by foreigners from the powerful countries of the West, and today, the Japanese are still very concerned about how they appear to gaijin (usually translated as "foreigner," although a more accurate translation of the term would be "outsider"). Many large-scale public works, such as the first Shinkansen line, seem to be created to coincide with international events like the Olympics, when foreigners would visit Japan in large numbers and "oo and ah" over their technical achievements. It's like Japan is still trying to prove to the West that they've left the backwards feudal nation they were 150 years ago behind.

This tendency to be concerned with the opinions of the International Community manifests itself in many interesting ways. For one thing, the Japanese love nothing more than to have one of their own number recognized internationally. From writers like Kawabata and Mishima to directors like Kurosawa and Miyazaki and the many Japanese athletes who have made names for themselves abroad, the Japanese are always tickled when a local boy makes good. One of the most respected Japanese today is Etsuro Soto, one of two main sculptors working on the Sagrada Famila cathedral in Barcelona, Spain, which gives people here enormous pride. Another Japanese active on the world stage is Ken Okuyama, one of the main designers at Ferrari and the lead force behind the Enzo, who has won design awards for his creations, to the great happiness of Japanese.

Every country is different, and I bump into these little differences just about every day in Japan. Our family dog Chibi passed away last week, but a few months before I remember having a discussion about him with my wife's family. Although he was old, Chibi was still quite genki (a word that can mean many things, from "I'm fine" to "cheerful" to "energetic," but in this case "healthy"). But if Chibi were to really get sick, so that he were in pain, I asked, would we have him put to sleep? The room suddenly got very quiet -- apparently this is one of those topics you just don't bring up in Japan, much like estate planning for people before they die or how a person who's last name means "the rice field by the mountain" can actually believe his ancestors were samurai. Chibi is happy to be alive, I was told, and we would never think of interfering with the number of his days by ending them early. In this, I sensed an incredible respect for life, although the issue of euthanasia for a beloved pet in pain is certainly a difficult question.

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.

	Urecco Oct 2005 with DVD. Urecco is the top-selling magazine for men at J-List, and it's just gotten a little better -- there's now a 2 hour DVD for you to browse. Man, I love the pic of Aoi Sora in this mag (the sort of slutty tennis girl).
	Bomb No. 305 Jul. 2005. Bomb is a magazine promoting the worshipping of Japan's bikini idols, like Yuko Ogura, Chisato Morishita, Megumi Yasu and so on. This isn't really "a" magazines, but rather it's "the" magazine, since it's been around for like 27 years. Which means they started publishing back in 1979, when we were all waiting for Empire Strikes Back to come out. Wow...
	An Afternoon like the color of Lemon~ Lemon Iro no GoGo -- Ayumi Kinoshita. Super cute idol in her newest photobook, which has a really colorful name too. Ayumi-chan was the cute girl in Deka Ranger, last year's "Power Rangers" type show.
	Love Da Nyan -- Lyrian (Ririan). I'll tell you about one of my own fetishes: it's beautiful models photographed in professional settings, with big, bright studio lights reflecting in their eyes. I don't know why, I just like that. And I love this girl, whose name is either Lyrian or Lilian, you decide.
	Mejiri -- Yuma Asami. The Mejiri series has been going on since as long as I've been into JAV, and that's a long time (we used to rent them from a store down the street in 1992). This is the latest offerings, featuring Yuma Asami, no related to the great state of Arizona.
	Female Announcer Shameful Report -- Mio Ayase. A popular genre in Japan is "female announcer" (which means newscaster). Here is debut offering by Mio Ayase in which she reports the news with a real twist.
	Yunomi Set with Paulownia Box~ Renzan (mountain range). This is a new set of two Arita Ware (read: some of the nicest, lightest and most well made) tea cups from Japan's Arita region, located in Saga, Kyushu. They even come in a wood box. How's that for cool?
	Hakkutsu Oppai Daijiten. The amazing Kabou Kikkawa (whose name would really be written Kikukawa, but he prefers the slightly stylized version) has penned a new hentai manga for his fans. Very nice art, cute characters with bells in their hair.
	Renai Cinema ~ Cinema of Love. Another killer manga from Setsuna, who always impresses me with her clean art and beautiful characters. A female H manga-ka.
	Glico "Tsubu" Strawberry Pocky. New Pocky, with even more fresh strawberries than last year's version. We're talking, half the weight of a Pocky is now strawberry pulp! That's delicious!
	Dead or Alive 4 Best Shot. The new Dead or Alive game for Xbox 360 is darned cool. Here's the new Best Shot art book which gives you the CG pics from the game, as well as the moves to win.
	Odd Jobs Art Works of Atsushi Kaneko -- w/ Special Kubrick ~ Limited! This is really cool: an art book by Japanese illustrator Atsushi Kaneko, and it comes with a Bearbrick, er, I mean a Be@rbrick too.
	Petit Bit -- Capuccino. Do you think Petit Bit is a rather odd name for a snack food? Well, I do too, which is why we went out of our way to get this tastety, if oddly named, item for you.
	Frog Style Kuru Kuru Swing -- Full Set *Set of 6* ~ Gashapon. Frog Style are really stylish frogs from Bandai. Here is a set of phone straps that you will treasure for a long time.
	*Yellow* Tweety & Hello Kitty Pen Case. More Hello Kitty + Tweety Bird goodness. Good for your kids.

More random pics from my Flickr account. These are the buttons that call waitresses to your table in restaurants. WHY??? do they not have this in the U.S.?

Hanging out in a bookstore. The latest Mazda fun book.

Beat Takeshi, who is really quite famous (it must be all those fans of Johnny Mnemonic), has a new book out

The #1 busybody in Japan, this is (sort of) fortune-teller Kazuko Hosoki, who is on TV five nights a week.

Cool clothes from a "frea market."