Thoughts on ordering "peanuts butter," a tasty Japanese treat in the winter, and a friend who can't receive New Year's Cards

You know you've been in Japan too long when your mother sends you a bottle of nutmeg spice for Christmas, and a Japanese person asks what it is, upon which you immediately answer, without having ever heard what the spice is called in Japanese, "This is nutsmeg, which is great in warm milk." For some inexplicable reason of phonetics, some English words are imported into Japanese in their plural forms. Words like shirt, suit, swimsuit, peanut, and sport always appear with the 's' sound on the end, even if you're discussing the word in its singular form. In Japanese, one refers to a suitcase as a "suitscase," and it takes the brain a few months to get over the weirdness of this -- ditto for learning to ask for "peanuts butter." Similarly, the anime Fruits Basket probably weirded a lot of fans out at first when they first heard the title. There seem to be three reasons for some English words being mapped to their plural versions in Japanese. First is the rather convenient lack of singular/plural in Japanese grammar -- saying hana ga kirei means either "the flower is pretty" or "the flowers are pretty" depending on how many flowers you happen to discussing. Also, the softer tsu ending on the plural forms is easier for Japanese to pronounce than a hard t consonant sound. Finally, converting some words to their plural forms also avoids the dreaded L/R confusion that can be a problem in the language. Because "fruit" and "flute" would have the exact same pronunciation when rendered in katakana, the writing system used for expressing foreign loan words, the musical instrument became furu-to and the edible stuff became furu-tsu.

A photographer that J-List has a relationship with came up in conversation in the office the other day. "Oh, he's mo-chu this year," my wife said, "so we can't send him a New Year's Card." It was a word I'd never heard before, so my ears perked up immediately -- it turned out to be formal state of mourning due to the death of a family member within the past year. By far, the most important holiday to the Japanese is Oshogatsu, New Year's Day, and part of the fun is receiving nengajo, or New Years Cards. But because of whatever sadness visited his family this year, we're unable to send him a New Year's Card. Also, when you see someone for the first time after Jan. 1st, you greet them with akemashite omedetou gozaimasu, literally "congratulations on opening the new year," but it's taboo to use this greeting for someone who has had a death in the family the previous year.

Do you hear that? It's the sound of our local "ishi-yaki imo" (ee-shee YA-kee ee-MOH, or stone-baked sweet potato) vendor, driving around outside my window now. Like an ancient Japanese version of the Ice Cream Man, baked sweet potato vendors meander through the streets with their special trucks which contain ovens that are constantly baking the sweet potatoes over heated stones so that they're steaming hot and delicious. Like getting a nikuman (meat-filled Chinese bun) from a convenience store or holding a hot can of coffee on a train platform, baked sweet potatoes are a great way to warm up when it's cold outside. When Americans see dead leaves raked into a pile, most probably think of taking a flying leap into the leaves. But in Japan, a pile of dead leaves is the perfect place to bake your own foil-wrapped sweet potatoes, and you can see this happening quite often in the cooler months. I love the sound of the song they sing (see video).

J-List is your source for cool T-shirts with aesthetically cool kanji characters, hilarious messages and cool original anime designs. We've posted our newest T-shirts today, featuring the cute image of the Kodama from Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki, on shirts for guys and girls. Like all J-List T-shirts, these new additions are hand-printed by our experienced staff in San Diego, and all sizes are full U.S. standard sizes. Why not browse our extensive line of cool original T-shirts and Hoodies? (They also make great holiday gifts.)

Do you have a blog or other website? Would you like to help us spread our brand of fun Japanese popular culture? If so, we hope you'll consider joining the Friends of J-List, our affiliate program (although we hate to use marketingspeak words like that). It's easy to show exactly the J-List products you want to show, and link to exactly the products you want to link to, and you get cash or store credit for every sale. For more information read this page.

Remember that J-List is having its first ever Domo-kun Free Shipping Sale, a great excuse for you to get that Really Big Domo-kun plush for your room and save big (yes, the sale applies to all Domo items, even big ones like that need to be sent via EMS). We personally think the Standard Domo-kun Plush is just about the coolest thing from Japan, and I'm sure friends or officemates would agree with us. Browse our Domo-kun selection 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.

	Megami Magazine vol. 75 Aug 2006. Vol. 75 of the amazing Megami Magazine has an amazing *14* double sided posters inside for you to gawk at -- 28 faces!
	Practical Business Japanese ~ Jitsuyou Business Nihongo. Learn business Japanese with this very nice book and CD ROM set.
	Super Low Angle. This is, you know, more of that wacky low angle stocking photography they love in Japan. I like the artistic nature of all these photos.
	No Mosaic OMANKO -- Hotaru Akane. Mmm, love Hotaru-chan, whose name means firefly in case you didn't know.
	Narikiri Lovers - Changing Lovers. I was extremely impressed with this book -- the story of a geek who made himself into someone cool to have sex with a girl at work. Great combination of story and art (I actually read through the whole manga while doing my update, it was such a cool story).
	Banana is a Snack? *Blue Stripe Ver* Figure -- Solid Theater. This is a very daring figure from Solid Theater, featuring a cute bishoujo character and a giant banana.
	Japanese T-shirt - Kodama (Men's Standard). Cool new Kodama shirt posted to the site. I like this one especially.
	Japanese T-shirt - Kodama (Girl's Fitted). This is a girl's version of our new Kodama shirt.
	Cure vol. 39 Dec 2006. Keep your finger on the pulse of J-Rock with Cure.
	Iori Yoshizuki Figure -- Is Pure. I don't know I's that much, but I am a die-hard fan of Video Girl Ai by Katsura Masakazu (read the manga if you get the chance, it's 1000% better than the old anime). I love his characters .
	Microman *MF2-01* -- Skymaster Hayate ~ Master Force. Microman (aka Micronaut) fans, here's a cool toy to get your natsukashii juices
	Kitty *Large* Plush Doll -- Red Check Pattern. When you need a Hello Kitty plush doll that packs a lot of impact...
	Hello Kitty Long Relax Cushion. This looks vaguely like a large, soft Hello Kitty vibrator, but it's in reality a Long Relax Cushion with a compartment for hiding things inside.
	Chu Totoro Fuka Fuka Doll -- Medium. Wow, this is an awfully cool Totoro plush toy. Has beans inside his bottom to keep him easily positionable anywhere.
	Ochaken Teacher Stamp Set -- Set of 4 ~ Green Tea Dog. These stamps with messages like Good Job, Let's Try Harder, etc. are very popular in Japan right now. We've got several new ones on the site.
	Oppai Key Mets. Is this not cool? Key covers that look like boobs. Never look at your keys the same way again!

Thought I'd throw down some (way late) pictures. Here's our Thanksgiving turkey which was, incidentally, killed by hand with a sharp knife in keeping with Islamic teachings, according to the outside of the package.

Daughter Rina going horseback riding on her birthday. She loves horses.

I joined the Gainax keitai club so I get to download a bunch of Gainax related stuff for my phone. Here's the Asuka phone animation that has her saying, "Anta baka?!" (Are you stupid?)

This is my most favoritist bento in the world, from a store called Torihei.

Not sure how good it looks to you, but it's thinly sliced pieces of chicken on rice with a delicious sauce over the whole thing. Mmmm... I've been eating it for 15 years and they have never raised the price once.

And this is Yakiori, teriyaku chicken on a stick that's delicious. Why, I wonder, is this not very popular in the U.S.? It seems like a natural to me.