Happy news at Torino, things foreigners find odd when they come to Japan, and all about Japanese heaters

The Torino Olympics have been going on for two weeks, and Japanese fans have been eagerly watching all the events as they cheer on their athletes and hope for some strong performances. Sadly, Japan had been having one of the worst outings ever this time, with not a single medal to show for their athletes' years of preparation and hard work -- not a gold, not a silver, not a bronze. All this changed this morning when Shizuka Arakawa slam-dunked her figure skating routine and earned Japan not only its first medal of the Torino Olympics, but its first-ever gold medal in figure skating, too. As is common- place in Japan, she bowed petitely to her fans, showing the famous Japanese modesty that I've talked about before -- a bit of a change from the emotion and exuberance displayed by most athletes from the U.S. and Europe. In Japanese, athletes get a special suffix on the ends of their names, similar to -san or -sensei, which is -senshu, 選手, meaning player or team member. Good job, Arakawa-senshu!

It's getting warmer, but winter is still very much with us, making the momohiki (Japanese for long underwear) a requirement for survival for this San Diego boy. One of the problems of winter in Japan is that there is no central heating, and you always heat just the room you're currently using, usually with an electric kerosene heater that blows hot air, or with a simpler free-standing kerosene heater, which the Japanese call a "stove." Going from a heated room to one that you haven't been using brings a huge drop in temperature, and one big problem is trying to sleep in a freezing bedroom if you forget to pre-heat your room. I've found the perfect solution to my heating woes, however: an oil-filled radiator-type heater with a 24 hour timer. I can program it to turn on 2 hours before I go to bed, switch off during the night, then come back on again in time to make the room toasty in the morning. It's a life-saver for me.

When foreigners visit Japan, there are many things that stand out as odd to them. Using coins for the equivalent of $1 and $5 bills, which Americans aren't used to (although it's really convenient, trust me). Horizontally oriented stoplights (except in Northern Japan, where heavy snowfall requires that the lights be vertical, to keep the snow from piling up). Stores which let you know they're about to close by playing Auld Lang Syne through store speakers. Drinks with names like Pocari Sweat and Calpis. High school girls wearing those outrageous bulky "loose socks." Toilets without seats. It's all very odd, but then again, that's the fun of going to another country, seeing what it has to offer and comparing it with things back home.

Perhaps no word describes the heart of otaku culture in Japan better than moé, pronounced moh-EH. Originally meaning a seed budding as it grows into a plant, the term has come to describe the super-stylized "ideal girl" characters with big eyes and pure hearts that you see so much in anime, manga and dating-sim games. So-called moekko characters are loyal, honest, and dedicated, and of course impossibly kawaii (cute). Similar to the word otaku itself, a formal term which means "you" or "your family" but which has come to describe aficionados of just about anything (train otaku, karaoke otaku, there are even Louis Vuitton otaku out there), the term moé can also refer to a "burning passion" for anime-related hobbies. If you love the bikini idol Yuko Ogura, you are Yuko Ogura moé, or if you like girls wearing anime costumes, you are probably cosplay moé. We've created a new J-List original T-shirt incorporating the moé kanji, a super way for otaku to show their love of Japan popular culture with pride. And we think it looks great!

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.

	Japanese T-shirt - Moe (Standard men's shirt). Ah, Moe, what a great kanji character, which sums up the way we all feel about manga, anime and those cute characters. I think this T-shirt came out great.
	Sola Aoi 120% ~ Aoi Sora. Sola Aoi, aka Sora Aoi (darned transliteration), continues to wow with the new photobook with DVD.
	Dolce -- Yumi 1st photobook. You know about Japan's idol culture, of course. This is a "classical music idol" who was picked up by Sony. She looks darned cute in that swimsuit!
	Lewd Hospital -- Tsugumi Nagasawa. Tsugumi...isn't that a nice name? She certainly is a very pretty girl, and looks good in this new "doctor and nuse" play DVD from SOD.
	Kijiro Paint Soup Bowl. There are miso soup bowls, and then there are the really good ones. This is one of the good ones, made of real lacquered wood and heavy to hold.
	Totoro Music Box -- Dondoko Matsuri. We have new Totoro music boxes today, beautiful ceramic ones that play Totoro music.
	Kokeshi Kendama. It's a traditional kokeshi doll, but it's also a kendama. Fabulous idea!
	The Roommate 2 ~ Kininaru Roommate 2. I have to say, the art in this book is really weird, but really cool. The Japanese title is Ki ni naru Roommate, which translates as "Roommate I can't stop thinking about," which kind of works.
	One Piece ~ Color Walk 2. Eichiro Oda's amazing One Piece has become a huge hit all over the world, and we've got the new art book in stock for you.
	Laputa Keyring -- The Castle in the Sky. I am a big fan of Laputa, one of the most well written and concieved anime films ever, and this keychain of a Laputian robot rocks.
	Oni Musume *White Oni* -- Repainted Ver ~ Kaiyodo Bome Collection. New version of the popular Bome figure.
	Asahi Natto MIso Soup (3 Packs). Ready for a challenge? This is miso soup with natto in it (fermented soybeans, if you don't know).
	Naruto DX Pen Case. Japanese pencil cases are fun to use, and this is a really good one, with lots of compartments for holding your stuff.
	Tea Dog "Pata Pata" Action Ball-Point Pen. If I were going to write something with a pen (I don't it very often because we're so computerized here), I'd want to use a pen like this.
	Hello Kitty Teacher Stamp Set. Hello Kitty stamps that say things like "thank you" and "you did a good job."

Here is a "stove" in case you're wondering what they look like. Didn't have a "fan heater" around to take a picture of the other type.

This is what they look like with the lights off. Actually, if you're looking for a romantic evening with a girl on a budget, these will fit the bill nicely. (No fireplaces or bear rugs in Japan.)

Talking about moé. This is the maid cafe that appeared in Densha Otoko. I really dig on the cat ears.

"As seen on TV."

Wacky Japanese holidays, gift-giving and Kobe beef receiving, and what's up with the word "gaijin"

Although the Japanese have a reputation for being diligent and hardworking, there are actually more legal holidays in Japan than there are in the U.S. -- fifteen, versus just ten in the States -- and unlike the period of high economic growth of the sixties and seventies, people actually take them off now. While some of these holidays are similar to special days in other countries -- for example, National Foundation Day, which commemorates the traditional founding of Japan in 660 B.C. -- most are culturally unique to Japan. Among these are Coming-of-Age Day, when 20-year-olds officially come of age in the eyes of society; Children's Day, a day for celebrating children; Marine Day, to celebrate the sea; and Respect for the Aged Day, when the country honors the 20% of Japanese who are 65 or older. It's popular for organizations to "brand" certain days, too, such as May 3rd, Trash Day, a day to think about environmental issues, set on this day because 5/3 sounds like gomi, meaning trash; August 2nd, Pantsu-no-hi, or Underwear Day, an important day for undergarment manufacturers here; Nov. 11, Pocky Day, since 11/11 looks like four Pocky sticks lined up; and the recently mentioned February 9th, Meat Day, since 2/9 sounds like niku meaning meat. Incidentally, today is Neko-no-Hi, or Cat Day, as 2/22 somehow sounds like nyan nyan nyan (a cat's meow) to Japanese ears.

Gift-giving in Japan is quite formal and complex. There are two gift-giving periods, Ochugen in July and Oseibo in December, when families will give gifts such as canned coffee, laundry soap or cooking oil to the people who help them in some way, such as teachers or others in the neighborhood. When you receive a gift, you're supposed to give a return gift, called okaeshi (oh-KAH-eh-she), worth about half the amount of the original gift. (Birthday and Christmas gifts are strangely exempt from this, perhaps because these customs were imported from the West.) There are times when a Japanese company gives cash "congraulations bonuses" (in Japanese, o-iwai kin) to employees for happy events like getting married or the birth of a child, and okaeshi gifts are also made in return. J-List's Jun (the guy who works hard to keep our J-Snack selection so well stocked) became a father last month, and his return gift to us was something very special: the famed Kobe beef, just about the most expensive steak you can buy. Coming from cows that get daily massages and are fed beer to bring out the famous marbling quality of the meat, it was certainly the most amazing steak I've ever tasted.

The word for foreigner in Japanese is gaijin (外人), written using the characters for "outside" and "person." While it simply refers to foreigners, the word is kind of harsh and can sound derogatory depending on how it's used. For this reason, it's common to hear the word gaikokujin (外国人) or "outside country person," a better term that sounds much softer to the ear. One thing about foreigners living in Japan: while they usually don't appreciate Japanese calling out to them by saying "Hey, gaijin!" they're more than likely to use the term amongst themselves openly without a second thought.

J-List strives to bring you thousands of fun and hard-to-find products direct from Japan, and we sell hundreds of snack and chocolate items, from the new Green Tea Pocky to delicious Melty Kiss and Japan-only Kit Kat varieties, with new and interesting snack items updated three times a week. Today we've posted an old favorite, Every Burger, which are chocolate hamburgers surrounded by cookie buns -- so fun to eat! By the way, all food items we sell are stamped with a "freshness date" and we unconditionally guarantee that everything we sell is within this date.

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.

	RIO -- Rio Kurusu. Super sexy idol from Japan, this is her nude photobook, Very nice photos.
	Zenra Rhythematic Gymnastics. A new release from SOD to commemorate their 10 anniversary, this is a new All Nude Female Rhthematic Gymnastics DVD. And these girls are really good!
	Deeps Female Employees with Megumi Tsuchiya Bus Tour! "Bus trip" seems to be the fetish de jour in Japan, and girls having sexy with guys on a moving bus is all the rage. This is a new Deep's Female Employee release featuring the very pretty Megumi Tsuchiya.
	Dengeki Comic GAO Feb. 2006. Dengeki Comic Gao (which means "Roar" and is an inside joke on the Air anime/game, since the main character always says Gao all the time) is a LOT of manga, as in, 500+ pages. And you get a free figure.
	Totoro Music Box -- Neko Bus ~ Scene Collection. An excellent Totoro music box, it's made of ceramics and plays the Totoro theme song. We have several new ones in stock today.
	Love Friends. A manga about a circle of friends who also support each other sexually.
	Comic AG Super Erotic Manga Anthology vol. 28. The new issue of Comic AG is in, and as usual it's great, with art from five or six top named artists. We hope that fans of the hentai art style will consider signing up for a regular subscription to show their support for the publisher.
	Carmine from Septem Charm Magical Canan -- Kaiyodo Bome Collection. Great figure from Bome, this seems to be from an "H" anime. This is the top figure sculptor in Japan today.
	Dot-s *Set B* -- Super Mario Brothers. Nintendo fans, we've got a cool new item: a cool little puzzle you can build any Super Mario Bros. icon from.
	Kururin AIUEO -- Wooden Educational Toy. Learn to read Hiragana with this fun set of wood blocks. A really cool item from Japan.
	Miniature Yachiyo"Ohina-Sama" . Another cool Ohina Ningyo or Girl's Day Doll, they represent the Emperor and Empress of Japan from ancient times.
	Samurai Sword Ear Cleaner w/Red Strap. Japanese ear cleaners are metal or bamboo scoops that you use to (carefully, of course) remove ear wax from the inside of your ear. It defies logic, but they feel great.
	Bourbon Every Burger. Every Burger, little cookie bugers with chocolate inside. A great item from days past, back in production again.
	Momoya Kimchee Base. Kimchee is Korean, not Japanese, but it's darned good, and everyone here loves it. This is concentrated kimchee base, which you can add to just about anything. Kimchee ramen anyone?
	Jiji Pouch -- Medium ~ Jiji's Zakka Shop Series. Kiki's Delivery Service is one of the most touching films of Hayao Miyazaki, and we're all big fans. Here's a great pair of pouches featuring Jiji the black cat.
	Totoro Soot Sprite Keychain ~ Makkuro Kurosuke. This little guy is the Soot Sprite, whose name in Japanese is Makkuro Kurosuke. Really cool plush toy from Sun Arrow.
	Oppai Ball *G Cup* -- Breast Ball. Sometimes a man (or woman) needs something soft to squeeze, and the Oppai Ball is always there for you. One of our most popular items ever!

Getting ready to open the wagyu. It comes in a special box that looks like wood but is really styrafoam. Those Japanese are so talented.

Jahn! This meat was incredible to look at, marbeled with white throughout and very high quality. Of course, you have to like meat prepared this way -- this is a steak fit for a wealthy Japanese industrialist, not particularly someone who wants lean meat.

This meat comes with a certificate indicating where it was raised, what kind of Kobe beef it was, and amazingly, the name of the animal I was about to eat.

Building blocks of words in Japanese, on Japanese modesty, and

Studying a foreign language is fun because it helps you learn about your own language, too. I've always been interested in the idea of morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning in a word, and how they work in other languages. A word like "unladylike" has three useful chunks of information, un + lady + like, while a word like "communism" consists of two morphemes, commune (a group of people sharing their possessions) + ism (indicating a doctrine or theory). Just as many of the words used in the West came from Latin or Greek, Japanese vocabulary are usually kanji-based. Indicating a nationality or a language is easy -- just add jin (人, meaning person; it rhymes with "seen") or go (語, language) to the country name. A word like "communism" is expressed by breaking down the original meaning, in this case kyousan (共産, produce together) and shugi (主義, main belief, which corresponds to the morpheme "ism" in English). All countries have kanji that represent them, allowing you to make some very efficient words, like Perry + come + sun (Japan) for "the coming of Admiral Perry to Japan"　（ペリー来日) or sun + rice (America) + relationship for "Japan-American relations" (日米関係） Although learning how to read kanji is no picnic, it's nice that there are no exceptions with kanji-built words. Suffixes for nationality in English can be confusing -- is someone from Burma a Burminian or a Burmite or a Burmese? -- but in Japanese, you only have to remember that jin character.

Compliment any Japanese on how good their English is, or how pretty they look if female, and you may experience that famous Japanese modesty: the recipient of your praise will likely deny your kind words vehemently. This is because in Japan, modesty is considered a good trait to have, and someone who flaunts his or her talents openly rather than hiding them politely would be seen in a negative light. Sometimes Japanese modesty can be quite ridiculous: if you bake a cake for someone, you usually give it to them while saying something like "This probably doesn't taste good..." I've noticed that Japanese modesty stops short when it comes to money, however. I once caught a talk show which featured a big slope, and various famous guests would come, make some small talk with the host, then go sit somewhere on the slope to indicate how much money they a made annually. Poor swimsuit idol Yoko Kumada was stuck near the bottom of the hill, while famous actor and former baseball star Eiji Bando was happy to saunter to the top, indicating his considerable wealth.

It's still February, but signs of Spring are popping up everywhere. Suntory has brought out their new Spring-limited Sawayaka Harunama ("Refreshing Spring Draft Beer"), specially formulated to taste good while sitting under the cherry blossom trees enjoying the beauty of the sakura petals falling all around you. Along with School Sports Day in the Fall, Spring is one of the primary seasons for buying video cameras, and Panasonic is pushing their lineup of products to parents of first-graders who will be entering school -- who wouldn't want to record that event for posterity? This year's Panasonic commercial is really beautiful, filled with images of children running through dancing sakura trees while a loving mother records the scene. See it here (Flash required).

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.

	Gokuh DVD vol. 171 Oct. 2005. I love Gokuh a lot because they really take good photos, with good design of each shot. Also, you get a DVD and that DekaManPos (which means Dekai Manzoku Poster, or Huge Satisfaction Poster). It's basically a life-size poster of an adult film star from Japan.
	DX Laputa Robot Statue -- Cominica. Despite the rather amusing name in Spanish (where it means "the whore"), Castle in the Sky Laputa is one of the very best works Hayao Miyazaki has ever done. This is a superb Laputaian Robot toy for serious fans.
	Yasashiku Shitene!! Nov. 2005 ~ Be Gentle With Me Nov. 2005. This is Yasashiku Shitene, or Please be Gentle With Me, one of the main hardcore magaznies in Japan. I like their blend of traditional Japanese kimonos and Japanese rooms, that's very inventive.
	RUN -- Ran Asakawa. Ran Asakawa is one of the sexiest women in the adult world in Japan. This is one of her best photobooks.
	If you were... ~ Head Doctor. What males among us can say they've never wondered what it'd be like to be the Head Doctor at hospital staffed with sexy females?
	nao. Selection Best 10. Nao., who writes her name with a lower case N in violation of the rules of English punctuation, looks mighty good in this 180 minute erotic production.
	Concentration Peach Ass. A brand new Concentration DVD release, this time focusing on sweet asses.
	COSMODE 011 ~ Costume Mode Magazine 11. The premier magazine about costumes and cosplay, featuring loads of photos for examples. Also available by revolving subscription.
	Chocola Parufe Visual Fanbook ~ maid cafe Curio. A really cool H game from one of Japan's top companies, it blends fabulous art and sexy, willing maids.
	Shisen Do 1000 Pieces Puzzle -- 75 x 50cm ~ Kyoto Temple Series. Another gorgeous puzzle showing images of Japan.
	Moped Collection -- Full Set *Set of 6*. The Japanese are nothing if not meticulous when it comes to detail, and you can see this quality in the new Moped Collection toy set, featuring every cool scooter or moped ever made!
	Kabaya Green Tea Chocolate. Green Tea and Chocolate go together really well (maybe Reese's will make a Green Tea Edition for Japan?). Here is some chocolates for you to try.
	Rocket Pencils w/Traffic Sign Eraser (Set of 3). When I was a kid, I rememember having Rocket Pencils, but I don't know if they were from Japan. Anyway, these are pencils with "stages" like a rocket, so when you need a new lead, just bring up the next rocket stage. The erasers are cool too.
	Hanamaruki Miso Soup -- Barbequed Egg Plant. My wife is on a miso soup binge, so I thought we'd bring some to you, too. It's heathy, helps you lose weight, and even lower cholesterol, according to the TV here.
	Rabbit Hina Doll. March is coming, so get your Hina Matsuri dolls now. This is a full set of super cute Rabbit Hina Dolls and everything you see here.
	Arashi Shinozuka 1/8 Scale Figure -- Gad Guard. God I love anime figures like this. They're so real, you can look at them from any, er, angle. Not that I would, of course.

More pics from Tokyo. Although Akihabara is a great place to go for electronics, they have almost no good food places, and no Starbucks at all. So I chilled in a Mr. Dounut, whic is pronounced Mr. Dounuts in Japanese for phonetic reasons.

You can never tell if something is for real in Japan. Here's a little lion whose mane is made out of a dounut, called Pon De Lion. Is this a joke on Juan Ponce de León, the colonizer of Florida, or a weird accident?

The Japanese word for bread is "pan," since the Porguguest brought it to Japan many centuries ago. In case you don't know what you're looking at, it's Melon Bread and Curry Bread. Melon bread doens't contain melon, it's just called that because it looks like a honeydew melon, sort of. It's also said to look like brains.

This is what's known as a kanban musume　or "signpost girl" because her cute face sells more melon bread. It certainly sold some to me. Man, I love living in Japan.