Golden Week in Japan, "indoctronating" my bilingual kids, and all about the otaku

We're right in the middle of Golden Week, a cluster of Japanese holidays that usually fall near each other. One of three extended holiday periods in Japan (the other two being the Obon holidays in August and the first few days of the New Year), Golden Week has become sort of a national icon of Japan's success in evolving to the point where its salarymen can actually stop working for a while and be with their families. It can be a difficult time for parents, though, with kids home from school, complaining loudly that they want to go somewhere fun. The problem is that there are potentially millions of other families in exactly the same situation, wanting to enjoy some quality leisure time during the holiday week, which means long traffic jams and lines everywhere. Tokyo Disneyland, for example, closes its doors very soon after opening each morning as it quickly reaches its occupancy limit. It can be just as bad out here in rural Japan, since Tokyoites are eager to get away from their asphalt and concrete jungle, so they come here. The other day I heard that the traffic jam to get to Karuizawa, a pleasant resort town in the mountains, was a whopping 27 km long. On Sunday there will be a mad rush to get back to the Tokyo area, with ten hours or more of sitting in traffic for everyone. Poor blighters.

My wife and I raise our two kids to respect both their Japanese and American halves, and we go out of our way to expose them to both cultures. I've made sure to "indoctrinate" my kids in various ways, introducing them to School House Rock and Star Wars and Raisin Bran and the Charlie Brown Halloween Special ("I got a rock" is a huge joke in our family). My wife handles the Japanese side of things, making sure they've got all the requisite cultural knowledge expected of them here, from how to say proper aisatsu (greetings) to people on the street to how to clean the family grave when doing haka-mairi (visiting the family grave to pay respects to family members who have gone on). She also handles their education, including drilling them in kanji writing. The day we feared as parents of bilingual children has arrived, though: our kids are starting to eclipse our own language abilities. My wife helps my son study for his Step test at level 2.5, usually only attempted by Japanese ten years older them him, and he often shocks her by knowing (or sensing) the correct answer to problems that completely stump her. I'm not off the hook, either: we sometimes have "kanji battles" between me and my kids, and all too often they eat me for lunch.

As awareness of Japanese animation and manga has grown over the past few decades, the word otaku has become quite well-known. Originally a polite word meaning "you" or "your family," otaku has come to stand for anyone with a strong interest in anime, manga, cosplay, or any other aspect of Japan's popular geekish sub-culture. Being an otaku in Japan does have its negative side, of course -- in the new Apple commercial with "that new digital camera from Japan," the Japanese woman says "Who is this person? He looks like an otaku" of the man representing the PC. There are several theories about how this everyday Japanese word attained this unique alternate meaning. According to one, the fact that "otaku" was spoken frequently by characters in the original Macross series caused fans to start using it, creating the beginnings of the otaku movement. Alternately, many of the employees of General Products, the model company that would go on to become the mighty Gainax, hail from Tottori Prefecture (the only part of Japan to sport its own desert), and in the local dialect, otaku is the most commonly used second-person pronoun.

Speaking of otaku, we just happen to have a cool new Japanese T-shirt that parodies the famous Oakley logo, changing it into a proud otaku badge you can wear for all to see. If you're in touch with your inner geek and appreciate Japan's unique pop culture, this is a great shirt for you!

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.

	Please Teacher! and Twins! Figure Special ~ Onegai Teacher and Twins Figure Special. A positively wonderful book documenting the best anime figures from Please Teacher and Please Twins.
	Bomb Jan. 2006 . New issue of Bomb. Jun Natsukawa (whose star is rising big time this year) looks great on the cover.
	Kekkai - Nature of the Heart - Clinical Interrogation. New hentai DVD, featuring excellent animation and the ability to watch it in English or Japanese (with optional subtitles).
	SOD Special Rock Paper Scissors Game ~ Bus Guide Version. More fun with Soft on Demand. These bus guides play rock, paper, scissors, and the loser has to take off their clothes.
	YX -- Yoshino Kimura. I am a fan of Yoshino Kimura, and was amused to hear that one of our customers met her she was in the U.S. working on a TV commercial. She's bilingual, and was very interested in the "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" shirt he had on.
	Roadside Japan ~ East Japan Version. This is a book I hope you'll pick up. Basically, it's a photobook that captures all manner of roadside forms of amusement, from stupid museums to various other kinds of tourist traps. Very nice pictures of a Japan few can see.
	Rising Carp T-shirt - M Size ~ Olive (Match Label). Another very nice made-in-Japan "match label" shirt, this time with beautiful carp.
	Natsumi Hinata Excellent Model -- Sergeant Kororo. Another figure, this time of the girl from Sgt. Keroro. Love the styling on this!
	Naruto Anbu Mask . Back in stock! A really cool, extremely well made Anbu Mask for Naruto fans.
	Fujiya Green Tea Milky. All I have to say is, YUM. These are so good, so delicious with a touch of matcha green tea flavor, I highly recommend to everyone.
	Tomica 5 -- Toyota bB *Black*. If you've wanted a bB but didn't have the cash, well, this is a much more affordable version.
	Unazukin -- Wisteria *Purple* ~ Fuji. Three new Unazukin colors today, including this beautiful one, Wisteria. All the Spring Unazukin have flower themes.
	Candy Sushi -- Tuna. What could be cooler than candy made to look like sushi? We've got a whole line in stock!
	Kitty *Flower* Bento Box w/ Lunch Belt. Hello Kitty fans, here's a very nice bento box for you to enjoy.

The link between North Korea and Japan, Japan's many seasons, and imitation being the sincerest form of flattery

The major link between North Korea and Japan is a cruise ship called the Mangyonbon-go, which makes regular trips between the ports of Wonsan in North Korea and Niigata here. In addition to being the most difficult-to-pronounce word according to a poll of newscasters (trying saying MAHN-gyon-bone-goh five times fast), the ship represents the only normalized link between the two countries, and for many Japanese of North Korean descent, the only way to journey back and visit relatives. The ship has caused trouble between the two countries because of concern that it's being used to funnel forbidden electronics from Japan back to the communist state. North Korea has a nationally-sponsored program of printing U.S. and Japanese currency, and also manufactures industrial-grade drugs to smuggle into Japan, which they use to fund their government and destabilize their enemies. There are concerns that the ship is being used to smuggle these items into the country, and every time the Mangyonbon-go makes a call into the port at Niigata, there's a huge flurry of negative news reports about potential problems with the ship's visits, especially with all the anger here over the kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s.

"You've been in Japan too long when you believe that the country only has four seasons." The Japanese are exceedingly proud of the fact that their country has four distinct seasons, compared with only two in the U.S. (or so people who have never been anywhere but California believe), and there are many customs designed to enjoy each seasons in its own unique way here. In reality, of course, there are about 12 seasons in Japan if you count the in-between ones, like sakura season, a brief week in early April when the cherry blossoms are so beautiful; rainy season in June, when it drizzles most every day; hayfever season, when Japan's policy of using one tree and only one tree in its national forestry program (the Japan Cedar, or sugi tree) causes massive problems for allergy sufferers throughout the country as the trees pollinate; and typhoon season, when massive Pacific storms batter the country every few days in September. A few weeks ago we had a bad bout of "Asian Dust," a strange seasonal phenomenon throughout the region where "yellow sand" (kousa, in Japanese, 黄砂) blows from China's Gobi Desert across Korea and Japan, dirtying our cars and creating various health problems. Sometimes I wish there were only four seasons in Japan...

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and if so, the Japanese are very polite indeed. Due to the tendency for people here to look up to Europe and America as "higher" cultures than their own (which is known as seiyo suhai shugi, literally meaning "worship of the West-ism"), Japanese have a great tradition of copying good ideas they find abroad. You can see signs of Japan's fixation with the West in many places -- Tokyo Tower is a scale replica of the Eiffel Tower that they built just for the fun of it, after all. If you go to Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, you can see Japan's version of the beautiful Dover Cliffs. There's a range of mountains called the Japan Alps, and in Tokyo's Shibuya area, a hill called Spain-zaka (Spanish Hill), named after the famous Spanish Steps in Rome. Japan has its own Academy Awards ceremony where Japanese directors and actors receive awards for Japanese films (not that there are that many made). Most recently I stumbled across the website of the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, which names itself MoMAT, in imitation of MoMA in New York.

Remember that Mothers Day is not far away (May 14 this year), and J-List has plenty of unique ways to say "thanks" to your Mom. From cool traditional items for the home to the amazingly cute toys like Hidamari no Tami or the adorable head-nodding Unazukin -- remember, there's one of these that has "thank you" written right on it. We also have J-List gift certificates, a super way to send the gift of wacky things from Japan to anyone -- let her pick her own gift!

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.

	Miniska Daizukan DVD Feb. 2006 ~ Mini Skirt Illustrated vol. 81. My favorite leg-related magazine, this is Mini-Skirt Illustrated.
	Kera vol. 86 Oct 2005. Kere is fast becomming one of the top magazines at J-List. It's similar to Gothic & Lolita Bible and Fruits, and is always a great read. Chiaki Kuriyama fans take note of this new issue.
	Lesbian Ward - 2 Disk Box Set. New "H" anime boxed set. Very nice, and you can watch it in English or Japanese (with subtitles).
	The Maid Sisters. Now, one of the things I like about Japan's adult videos is the sense of elegance. Could you find some equisitely created costume acting in a similar production in the U.S.? I've never seen anything that was as interesting to me, to be honest.
	Koushoku Seifuku Zukan ~ Lusty Uniform Picture Book. A nice manga focusing on various uniforms, maid, stewardess, you name it.
	Totoro *Utatane* Towelket -- 140 x 190cm ~ Take a nap. New towelket colors for you. These are really handy to have around in the summer, trust me.
	HMX-12 Multi Bodysuit Ver Figure -- To Heart. To Heart was the really big bishoujo game that marked the mantle of "best b-game company" moving from Elf to Leaf in the late 1990s. This is Multi, the maid robot that is so cute.
	Unazukin -- Hopi ~ World Ver.. New Unazukin, this one based on an American Indian design. Very nice.
	Unazukin -- Coral *Orange* ~ Sango. And here's one that represents coral in the sea. I love the sense of design that goes into these things.
	Asakusa T-shirt ~ Zen (Buddhism). A new made-in-Japan shirt, this time sporting the kanji for zen as in, "it's really zen of you to sit there in the lotus position like that."
	Bamboo Charcoal Body Soap. Why not clean your body with black body soap made from charcoal? It's cool!
	Charmmy Kitty De Catch. I personally love Charmmy Kitty -- she's actually a cat for one thing, not a cat-like human. Here's a new Kitty de Catch mint dispenser for you.
	Kabaya Engi-Do Honpo Mascot Key Chain w/ Cockies. Engido Honpo is back! Basically, this ia a box of cookies with one free netsuke toy, a little Lucky Cat to bring you good luck, or one of the Seven Gods of Happiness, or a Daruma. Such a great item!

So, they have these limited edition cars, see, not unlike the Harley Davidson Limited Ford F-150. This is a car branded with Miki House, an annoyingly cute makers of children's toys.

I mean, cute culture is good, I'm all for it. But this is just awful...

Maybe it's a rip-off job or something, someone made the stickers themselves and pasted them on.

"The mild flavor, carefully prepared from the high quality milk, will enrich the taste of cuisine." For the record, the English word "the" is really hard for people from other countries to use.

Frustrations common in Japan, and the current state of Pachinko, the national gambling game of Japan

Anyone who's ever worked in a Japanese organization for any length of time probably knows the frustration of having a pet idea shot down by the larger organization around them. It's a common occurrance here: a foreigner who naturally sees things through different eyes makes a heartfelt suggestion about something that can be improved, some new way of doing things that's more efficient. Although the Japanese person listening to his idea will repeatedly use the phrase so desu ne which literally means "yes, that is so," in reality the suggestion willusually not be deemed appropriate for the organization and the person be very politely rebuffed. After I finished my career as an ESL teacher, I worked for a few months in our local city office as the "facilitator for city internationalization" or something like that (basically, I was the bilingual person who could translate documents and help out other foreigners when they came in to use city services). During my brief time in the public sector I repeatedly ran across areas I felt could be managed better, but I was told "this is the way it's done here" all too often. My wife and I are involved with Japan Girl Scouts -- I'm the guy who brings interesting things from America for the girls, like the easter eggs we colored two weeks ago -- and we recenty experienced this aspect of Japan while trying to explain the economics of Girl Scout Cookies to the local regional leaders. Our suggestion was to see what we could to do recreate the same experience -- the girls of our troops selling something that both raises money for events as well as advertises the goals of the group to a wide range of people. Unfortunately we might as well have been speaking greek, and our ideas were rejected in record time. I'm not saying that my suggestions are always right, of course, only that there seems to some sort of inbred resistance to new ideas in many organizations in Japan.

One of the most popular pasttimes in Japan is pachinko, a kind of vertical pinball game that can be found in the more than 15,000 pachinko parlors here. A form of gambling, you basically buy $20 worth of steel balls from the counter then shoot them into the machine, holding your hand at just the right angle to make the balls fall into special holes that cause more balls to be paid out. If you do it right, you end up with more balls then you started with, which you "exchange" for "valuable" "prizes" that you can sell for cash at a separate building next door (since pachinko gambling for money is not actually legal). Our prefecture of Gunma happens to be a regular "pachinko central," with most major manufacturers of the machines located here including Sankyo, who employs Nicholas Cage for its commercials. Sadly, pachinko often goes hand-in-hand with organized crime and the yakuza, and it hardly seems a month goes by withour hearing "the man arrested was the propeieter of a pachinko parlor" on TV. Then there's the odd connection with pachinko and North Korea, with many pachinko-related businesses being operated by Japanese of North Korean descent, which leads through various mechanisms to profits being sent home to the mother country. Um, anyone else want to trade places with me? I like living in Japan, but being next door to North Korea is not really the most fun thing in the world...

As with any industry, the pachinko makers must evolve and change in order to keep its customers happy, and the pachinko industry has been quite smart about finding ways of attracting young blood into its establishments. One way they've found to keep the interest of customers in their twenties is by tying the game to popular anime shows, with pachinko machines branded with images and art from anime classics like Fist of the North Star, Lupin III, Golgo 13 and Evangelion. When a new Space Cruiser Yamato series by Leiji Matsumoto was cancelled due to lack of funding, it lived on in a line of pachinko machines that featured the newly designed characters and ships. Do you like the British rock group Queen? Come to Japan and play the Rock You Queen pachinko machines that Aruze has created. There's even a pachinko machine for fans of the heart-rending Korean soap opera Winter Sonata, a smart move to improve the game's image and get female customers in the door. But the coolest new trend in pachinko might be the new moé pachi (mo-EH PA-chi) in Akihabara, where attractive girls in gothic maid costumes will wait on you while you pour your buckets of metal balls into the machines.

At J-List, we live to bring you new and unique products from Japan, including rare Totoro and Studio Ghibli items. Every summer Japanese often use towelkets, a kind of giant towel that's useful as a light summer blanket. I like towelkets because you can use them on hot summer nights to keep the heat at bay, and you can also take them to the pool, since they're fully functional giant towels. Today we've got two cute new Totoro towelkets in stock, great items for collectors this season!

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.

	Mihiro photobook NAMA with DVD. Mihiro is back in a new nude photobook that's very nice -- see Japan's most lovely JAV starlet in a variety of great places and poses. And it comes with a 70 minute DVD. Back in stock.
	Shusaku - 3 Disc Box Set. New hentai DVDs in stock. This is the famous Shusaku series, based on a popular Elf game of yore.
	Nana Vira -- Nana Natsume. A very nice photobook for fans of Nana Natsume, some very elegant photographic works to be found here.
	Megami Magazine vol. 66 Nov. 2005. Ah, we just love Megami Magazine to death -- tons of posters, tons of pictures, and even a writing board (shitajiki) for you.
	Male Virgin Hunter -- Yui Ikawa. One of the various fetishes that's at work in Japan is chijo, which translates as "slutty female." Basically, in a country where women are a lot less forward about sex, it's a valid fantasy to watch wmoen who are, well, extremely forward about it.
	Train Girl -- Fastech 360S. They made a new Shinkansen that has "ears" to act as airbrakes, so naturally they've made a cute character to represent this new creation. Meet Train Girl, a great new item for your collection!
	Walkie Bits -- Blue *Soda*. The Walkie Bits, electronic pets that walk, run, race, dance and sing, are off to a great start. We've added new colors including this "ramune soda" one.
	Tamaki Mukouzaka 1/8 Figure -- To Heart 2. Really cute figure for fans of bishoujo games like To Heart.
	Totoro *Sora Iro* Towel Ket -- 140 x 190cm ~ Blue Sky. We have "towelkets" for you, which are light blankets/oversized absorbant towels for Totoro fans. Very nice to have around in the summer.
	Black & White Coffee Cup & Saucer. This is, well, a rather nice coffee cup w/ saucer. We liked the look of it so we got some for the site.
	"Pass the Test" Mini Daruma. A cute little ceramic Daruma doll. We have larger ones in stock too, of course.
	"Hanamusubi" Kimono Cel Phone Holder -- Light Blue. New varieties of the Hanamusubi cell phone case, that's really cool -- use it to carry your cell phone, iPod (w/ headphones), you name it. Made from kimono fabric.
	Lotte Santa Rosa Gum. New flavor of Lotte chewing gum, this is a delixious "sour peach" that is really smooth in the mouth.
	Genkou Yoshi - Japanese traditional report paper (horizontal type) This is what you write reports with in Japanese -- my kids use it all the time, and I remember using it back at SDSU. Good for practicing your kanji writing, too.
	Kimono Hime 3 ~ Momen Kimono ver. A nice book for fans of Japanese kimonos, this is Kimono Hime, back in stock now.

This is one of our favorite places up in the mountains, a restaurant that serves traditional Japanese sweets (meaning manju and stuff like that).

This is the cabinet where they have wax versions of the various foods they sell. Very delicious looking. This is what manju is, basically a bun with sweet beans inside (sounds bad, I know, but it's good when you've been here a while).

Among other things, they sell neri-ame, basically liquid candy that you whip with two chopsticks until it turns to a solid candy you can eat. It's really fun, but pure sugar.

Part of the reason we like this place is, the house is like 150 years old, brought here from some other part of the country. The floor is dirt, like all floors used to be back in the old days.

This is one of my favorite foods, yaki-manju, basically white bread (sans beans, although they have both versions) roasted while a sweet miso and brown sugar sauce is basted on top. Really yummy.

This was the door to the women's room. Er, I'd have thought this was really corny if I'd seen it in the States.