Education and high school dropouts in Japan, Japanese in touch with their history, and the biggest shock Japanese get when they go to the U.S.

I caught a post on Slashdot the other day about a surge in high school dropouts in the U.S., and was saddened at the news. In Japan, compulsory education covers six years of elementary school and three years of junior high school, and during that time the basics that everyone needs to know are taught -- math, social studies, kanji, morals, learning to respect your senpai, and so on. High school has never been required, and there's nothing keeping a sixteen year old who has something better to do with his time from not going on past the 9th year of school. Just the same, there's a heavy stigma -- the dreaded label chu-sotsu (中卒) meaning a graduate of junior high school -- against anyone who doesn't make it through high school, and the vast majority of students (96%) do go on. High schools in Japan function as a miniature version of the university system complete with entrance exams, and competition for the best schools -- Takasaki High and Maebashi Girl's School are the highest- ranked in our prefecture -- is fierce, requiring years of preparation to get in. Just as with universities, it's possible for students to aim too high and fail all their tests, and become a ronin, a word which used to mean masterless samurai but which now refers to a student who is in temporary limbo while he prepares for next year's tests.

When Japanese people go to the U.S. they're amazed at the variety of foods available in supermarkets, especially the staggering number of breakfast cereals. "In SAFEWAY, many kinds of corn flakes about one hundred have overpowered me," one of my former ESL students wrote at the time. "I felt a difference of the staple foods." In Japan, gaijin might say the same about the instant ramen, with supermarkets and convenience stores brimming with various brands of noodles in every shape, size, and taste. Instant ramen came into being in 1958 with the introduction of Chicken Ramen by Nissin, and the convenience of noodles that could be stored easily and eaten anytime made them an instant hit, if you'll forgive the pun. Today many large companies compete to bring the best noodle products to market, including such favorites as Nissin's popular Cup Ramen line, the delicious Akai Kitsune Udon ("Red Fox" noodles with fried tofu in each package, yum), and even high-end brands that cost $5 or more per serving. Some numbers for you: Japan eats 5.4 billion servings of instant noodles per year (42 per person on average), the amount of flour used to make this ramen would fill up half of Tokyo Dome, and there are 983 registered brands of instant noodles on the market. I can personally attest to the profitability of instant ramen. During my ESL days, I happened to teach English to the wife of the former president of the Sapporo Ichiban Company, and her house was easily the most beautiful building I've seen outside of Kyoto. Instead of learning any English, we'd often sit in her unspeakably gorgeous tatami room speaking Japanese, drinking green tea and eating delicious manju cakes. This is basically the holy grail of ESL teaching, to find rich people and get them to pay you while they teach you Japanese rather than the other way around.

The other night I went downstairs to my parents liquor shop to get something -- the Japanese custom of building shops and homes together can be quite convenient when you run out of soy sauce or coffee filters or beer, since you've usually got what you need right there in the store. My wife's father and mother were watching a jidai geki, or a historical drama, in this case about the years leading up to the Battle of Sekigahara, where Ieyasu Tokugawa finally defeated his enemies and unified the country under his shogun banner. They were having a very deep discussion about the actions of the main character, an underling of Tokugawa, and how he narrowly saved the day for his lord. Like Westerns back in the 1950's, samurai period dramas are a popular genre of television, with many different shows produced for all ages. The most famous jidai geki on TV is the megabudget Taiga Drama that NHK produced each year, telling dramatic stories from a different part of Japan's past. Perhaps it has to do with higher average age of Japanese people, but it seems they have a lot more interest in their history than folks from the States could ever conceive of, and even younger people like my wife can take quite an active interest in events 400 or more years ago.

J-List carries hundreds of delicious and fun to eat snack items from Japan, including Pocky & Pretz, Pucca chocolate-filled fish-shaped pretzels, candy sushi, and unique varieties of Kit Kat only sold in Japan. Today we're posting this year's first Melty Kiss, the yummy fudge cubes from Meiji that are not only delicious, they've got one of the strangest names of any product we sell. This year's Melty Kiss is excellent, with the delicate taste of cocoa powder on the outside and rich fudge on the inside. Look for Precious Cacao and Strawberry on the site now.

Besides bringing you thousands of rare and fun things from Japan, J-List sells Apple's iTunes Japan prepaid music cards, the only way you can buy Japanese music from the Tunes Japan store unless you happen to have a credit card registered here. Music from the iTunes Japan store is fully compatible with the iTunes on your Mac or PC and with any iPod, which have made these cards incredibly popular with J-List customers. Now the cards are even easier to buy than ever, since they've been reissued in 1500 and 3000 yen increments -- on the site now!

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.

	Eye-Candy Sabra DVD mook -- Aki Hoshino. Any time we can see this much of Aki Hoshino, it's a Good Thing. Great photobook, with a DVD too. Judging on calendar sales, she is really on a roll (her calendar is the #1 seller this year, even more than Yukorin).
	Bachelor Dec 2006. Bachelor is a quality adult magazine for fans of busty women from America and Europe, and it's always got some good Yulia Nova stuff for you.
	Newtype Aug 2006. Nice recent issue of Newtype, loaded with pictures of what's popular in Japan right now.
	Chijo Dream Match. Chikan is, if you are familar with J-List enough, a word that means pervert, specifically referring to the men who grope women on trains. Chijo is the opposite, also meaning slut or a woman who likes "H" too much.
	Cosplay Digital Mosaic -- Tsugumi Nagasawa. Tsugumi-chan is looking mighty nice in this collection of cosplay works.
	Transformers Hybrid Style 02 -- Convoy. Optimus Prime is pretty cool in this new die-cast toy from Takara. This is the coolest Transformer item we've seen in a long time.
	River Current. We've got new yaoi manga for our yaoi lovin' customers today.
	Utopia of Wonder Film. Nice erotic manga that manages to blend heroic fantasy with swords, sex, a giant dragon, sex, and cute maids, and sex. Really an outstanding book.
	Ureshiko Asaba 1/7 Scale Figure -- Okusama ha Mahou Shojo. A nice figure from Okusama wa Maho Shojo, aka Bewitched Agnes, aka My Wife is a Magical Girl, aka the biggest Bewitched joke anyone could ever think of. (The old Bewitched series was extremely popular in Japan and spawned the Magical Girl anime genre.)
	OTOKO - The Symbol of Japan Tofu Keychains -- Full Set *Set of 8*. What could be cooler than tofu packaged in unique shapes for men to feel good about eating? This is real man's tofu!
	Retro Electronics Series -- Full Set *Set of 10* ~ Re-ment. So, Re-Ment makes these detailed toys, including tiny consumer electronics. And now they've made consumer electronics from, like, the 1970s. Totally wacky!
	Men at Work! 4 visual Fan Book. I wasn't familar with this H game, and offhand I wouldn't have thought Men At Work was a likely title for a bishoujo game work. Kind of sounds yaoi, but this is definitely not yaoi.
	Lotte Winoa Wine Chocolate. Chocolate with actual wine inside. Cool!
	"O-Tachi" DX Long Samurai Sword Keychain -- Black Sheath. This is an extra long version of our samurai sword toy keychain. The blade can be used for things like opening letters, swatting at flies, other fun stuff.
	Meiji Melty Kiss -- Precious Cacao. The 2007 Melty Kiss is in! The 2007 Melty Kiss is in! Definitely delicious to munch on, but warning: don't put them in your pocket, they will get all, well, melty.
	Mitsuo Aida Tea Cup Set w/Box. Mitsuo Aida is the innovative artist who created works using Japanese calligraphy, turning hiragana and katakana and kanji into art as well as poetry. These are teacups (and rice bowls) that feature his beautiful writings. And they are pretty cool.
	Mario Can Badge Collection -- Full Set *Set of 20* ~ New Super Mario Bros. Hard to get used to , I know, but "can badge" means a button that's made out of the same materials as a can, or shaped like a can, or something. Anyway, we now have full sets of the Mario Bros. buttons.
	*Green* Kerori Puppet Cleaner -- Next Day Kerori. New Day Kerori is back in plush form. And he's ready go keep your phone clean .

Because I'm late with the daily post, I'll give you some pictures. Here is a giant offering to the goddess Yuko Ogura. Bummer that the power lines had to get in the way...

Outside our window the other day, a real rainbow! There is hope for us all!

Wao! It's a banana!

In reality, it's a banana shaped cake with banana cream inside, packaged in a gift box for giving as omiyage (souvinirs).

Christmas Cake. Do you have yours ordered yet? To our friends in the UK, I know the core concept for this comes from your side of the pond, or specifically from Scotland or something like that, but do you guys have shops marketing Christmas Cakes all over the place?