Peter tastes local politics, the Joba horse-riding machine, and more info on blood types

Today I took a couple of hours off work to participate in local politics, heading down to sit in on a session of the Prefectural Assembly about my son's special English school. Although the lawmakers have voted to financially support the school, which teaches the standard Japanese curriculum but with all classes except for Japanese and social studies taught in English, there's an impasse due to opposition by the Prefectural Governor. At the most recent debate on the issue, a few dozen parents gathered to show their support for the school, and I brought a little "gaijin power" to the mix, since having an American in a group will get attention -- the local TV station was there and kept zooming in on me during the debate. It was my first time to see the law-making process in Japan up close, and although it was like watching C-Span dubbed in a foreign language without the ability to change the channel for 90 minutes, it was educational, too. I certainly learned that my prefecture has plenty of money in its budget for beautiful facilities for its legislators to work in, although the educational budget is stretched to the limit...

All companies must come up with fresh and interesting products to interest their customers. When National (as Panasonic is known inside Japan) announced their horse-riding exercise machine, there was a lot of snickering on the Internet. But the company has turned this wonky product idea into quite a profitable category, selling 120,000 of them so far. The Joba ("horse-riding") device, which looks like a scaled-down bucking bronco machine, simulates riding a horse and tones muscles as the user struggles to keep balance on top of the machine. We broke down and bought one of these last week, and have been putting it through its paces. It's nice and low-impact, and it's a fun way to pass thirty minutes. Supposedly they're selling it in the U.S. now, under the name "Core Trainer."

Anime fans know that a written profile of an anime character is likely to include their name, place of birth, interests, "three sizes," and usually, their blood type. The Japanese believe some interesting things about a person's blood type, mainly that there's a correlation between blood type and a person's personality. Supposedly, type A are straight-laced, serious about everything, very organized, and make good accountants; type B are "my pace" (e.g. they go at their own pace, live in their own world), quickly get bored with things that don't interest them, and speak their minds to a fault; type O are bold, hate to lose and have good leadership skills; and AB people are supposedly so smart they look strange to everyone else. This fascination with blood types is the subject of semi-regular TV specials, which investigate which blood types are most common among famous athletes, politicians, actors, business leaders and so on. In one experiment they separated kids by blood type and asked them to move water from one aquarium to another one, them filmed the results. The type A kids used small spoons to carefully move the water from one tank to the other, while the type B children tried to come up with a good way to move the water, but got bored and gave up in the middle. The type O kids lifted the first tank and poured the water into the second tank, not caring how much water they spilled on the floor in the process, and the type AB kids got smart and moved the two tanks around, so that it appeared that they'd moved the water when they hadn't actually done so. One possible explanation about why the Japanese are so concerned with blood type is, it adds a dash of individuality in a country that's otherwise very homogeneous, not unlike an American taking pride in the various countries that make up his ancestry. My son is a very organized, meticulous kid, and my wife had always assumed he was blood type A. We had him checked the other day, and darned if he isn't AB instead, which caused her blood type-influenced world view to come crashing down.

We've got two new wacky shirts up on the site for you. Starting off is the first-ever shirt by Dan Kim, the extremely talented artist of the Clone Army web comics, including Nana's Everyday Life, Penny Tribute and Kanami, as well as the new "H.H. - The H-Game Webcomic." The shirt features the deliciously bizarre (and gory) art from one of our favorite comics, Tomoyo42's Room, which parodies the relationship of Sakura and Tomoyo from Card Captor Sakura. It will be produced in 1-2 weeks, but we're posting it for preorder now. Then, everyone knows that the Japanese take their shoes off before entering a house, which helps separate the "uchi" (inside) from the "soto" (outside) and of course keeps your house clean. In some homes or businesses there are signs that specifically ask you to remove your shoes. It occurred to us that a wacky T-shirt incorporating these signs would be great for our customers, and hence our new "No Shoes Allowed" shirt was born, which sports a bizarre warning message that "It is forbidden to wear shoes indoors." Totally cool!


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 Gal June 2006. A really nice issue of Urecco Gal, filled with beautiful amateur "kogals" from Tokyo.
	Dynamite Dancing Gals vol. 02. Sexy women dancing in skimpy outfits is a hot theme in JAV land. I think it's pretty cool.
	Clone Army Shirt #1 - Tomoyo42's Room. New shirt, from Dan Kim's Clone Army works. My favorite of his comics is Tomoyo42's Room. Here's a sample.
	No Shoes Allowed. A wacky T-shirt that warns you to take your shoes off. "People with smelly feet can leave their shoes on."
	Cawaii Hit Hair Show 280 style. A great special issue of Cawaii! (a clever respellig of kawaii, meaning cute, if you're confused), specializing on hip hair fashions in Tokyo right now.
	Comic AG Super Erotic Manga Anthology vol. 41. Time for another issue of Comic AG, the best "H" comic you can buy for $4.99.
	Miss Wizard 2. Miss Wizard is an "H" comic (well, soft core H anyway) that's published by Square Enix. Color us surprised.
	Jiji Acryl *Medium* Blanket -- Half ~ 100 X 140cm *Kiki's Delivery Service*. Not only do we have Totoro blankets on the site, we've even got some cool Jiji blankets too.
	Could you Enter a Hot Spring Bath with Only a Towel? 6. Interesting adult video from SOD. They offer a girl money if she'll go into the men's bath with just a skimpy towel. Would you do it? (Being male, I'd have to say yes.)
	Naho Ozawa Selection Best 10. Spend 4 hours with Naho Ozawa. She'll make it worth your time.
	Black Cat Maid Costume -- Moe Moe Neko Mimi ~ L size. A nice maid costume for Halloween. Be a sexy maid. After Halloween you can wear it with your boyfriend.
	Tsundere -- Momo Iizawa (region 2). One of the many fetishes out there is Tsundere (TSOON-deh-reh), essentially a quick-to-anger woman who secretly has soft, loving and vulnerable side (the character Satsuki Kitanoji from Ichigo 100%, if you're lucky enough to have watched this anime).
	Dr.Ion A6 Multi Mesh Inside Case . Dr. Ion is a line of handy canvas and mesh organizers that surround you with "minus ions" (negatively charged ions).
	Frog Style Official Guide Book. Frog Style is, well, a line of very stylish frogs, and this is the "perfect guide" to all of them.
	Glico Grape Mild Chocola Decorer Pocky. New Pocky for 2007! We have the delicious new Grape Mild Chocolate and Apple Decorer Pocky, which is basically a "cake-on-a-Pocky" formlation (and very good).
	Nintendo DS Shitajiki. DS users, here is youe pencil board. Aside: the way to say "be buried alive" in Japanese is "shitajiki ni natta." Interesting anime trivia.
	Zenmai *Puran Puran* Netsuke -- Zenmai Samurai. Super cute little, er, wind-up samurai.