Buddhism and Japan's identity, an air-raid siren at noon, and

Japan is a Buddhist nation, and despite many other influences such as the indigenous animistic Japanese religion of Shinto, Confucianism from China and Christianity from the West, Buddhism is really what's at the country's core. One observation foreigners who come to live for a time in Japan is that "everything is about death" -- and there are quite a few customs, such as avoiding giving gifts in sets of four since the number can be read as "shi" which also means death in Japanese, or lighting incence at the Buddhist altar each morning, that seem to show a fixation on the subject. One word I've always found interesting is Hotoke-sama (ho-toe-kay sah-mah). Ostensibly the word is a reverent term for Buddha, but in practice, it's used to refer to any deceased spirit, since Buddhism in Japan is largely about revering one's ancestors, without whom (my wife has pointed out to me) you wouldn't exist at all. Once, my daughter saw beautiful sakura blooming near a graveyard, and she said, "That's so nice, the flowers are so pretty, the people buried here (the Hotoke-sama) will be so happy."

Every day while working in Japan, I immediately know when noon has rolled around because a siren located in the center of town goes off. It's not just any siren -- it's essentially the same type of air-raid siren that sounded half a century ago when Japan was being bombed by Allied B-29's. The siren sounds every day at noon to let people know that it's lunch time, but it serves some other purposes as well. First of all, it's used to let people know when there's a local disaster such as a fire, and hearing the siren at night means everyone should check their neighbors to make sure everything is okay. In this way, it kinds of provides a little "community glue" for the people living in our city, unconsciously making everyone feel a part of the same happy group unit, since practically everyone in our city is within hearing distance of the loud siren. When I first heard it, it was somewhat un-nerving, since it's not a sound you normally hear outside of movies about World War II. But now it's just a part of life in my home in Japan.

The Japanese drink a lot of tea: hot green tea, thick matcha, refreshing Chinese oolong tea, an array of Western black teas, and an endless number of blends. In the summer, perhaps no tea is consumed more than mugi cha, or Japanese barley tea, refreshing beverage made with barley that's always served cold to combat the heat and humidity outside. When businessmen call on a client, they will be served mugi tea to refresh them while they wait, and in the J-List kitchen downstairs, barley tea is what you'll find in the fridge (we drink it all summer long). Naturally caffeine-free, Japanese barley tea is a refreshing and totally healthy drink that's popular throughout Japan. We just happen to have this year's mugi cha on the site for you, which make it easy to keep barley tea handy any time, with easy to use cold-water tea bags. We hope you'll try some!

J-List carries a great item for fans of yaoi / bishonen and all fans of great gothic style art, Animamundi - Dark Alchimist, the newest release by Hirameki International. A superb interactive game with 12 fascinating game scenarios to explore, it comes packaged with a great soundtrack/movie disc. Best of all, you can enjoy this great game not just on any standard Windows PC, but on Macs, too, since the game is fully compatible with Mac OS X. It's in stock -- order 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.

	Sabra Magazine 009 May 2006 Sabra, always a great addition to our fine website.
	Renzu A nice hentai offering for fans of H-anime.
	Non Non -- Nozomi Fujikawa Nozomi Fujikawa is, well, she's wow, that's what she is. This is her very nice hardcover photobook.
	Cure June 2006 vol. 033 We've become fast fans of Cure, the leading JROCK magazine in Japan, which we've started selling as part of our magazine subscription service (and occasionally in individual issues, as here).
	Yureru Omoi -- Hitomi Kitamura A very nice DVD featuring Hitomi Kitamura, a sexy, elegant Japanese woman who will delight you.
	Hime First -- Rina Himekawa Rina Himekawa is not someone I've noticed before, but she certainly is lovely -- I really like what I see in this DVD.
	Ayano Kunugi PVC Figure -- Welcome to Pia Carrot G.O. (Grand Open) Another really cute anime character recreated in 3-D dimensions.
	Nami SOS! ~ Naoko Black Bird Chataro is one of our favorite artists around here, and this is his newest Nami SOS! series release. Damn this guy's art is amazing.
	Walkie Bits -- Gamera The 40th Anniversary Limited Ver. Walkie Bits, despite the rather silly name, is destined to be the top product of the year, the way things are going. This is a cool Gamera Limited Edition.
	New Family Restaurant -- Full Set *Set of 10* ~ Re-ment Minna de Famires More super-detailed miniature food items from Japan.
	Kokeshi -- Harumachi An elegant authentic kokeshi doll, made of wood. I love the head tilt on this thing.
	Hiromoku Dragon Sandals -- Beige These are sandals that are worn a lot in Japan, especially by boso-zoku tough guys walking around the matsuri (festival).
	Tomica 30 -- Mitsubishi Pajero Mitsubishi's super muscle SUV, recreated in miniature by Tomica. If you speak Spanish, you might chuckle at the name, since pajero basically means, er, one who provides pleasure to himself with his hand. But the car is very cool.
	Tatami Pillow for Nap -- Dragonfly A pillow made of igusa grass for resting in the summer.
	Nekosuke Otedama -- Blue ~ Chirimen Type *w/ Zabuton* We like these cute Lucky Cats that are filled with beans. We live to find things like this to sell you.
	Mugi Cha Mugi cha is one of the great treats of the summer. Caffeine free and of course sugar free (er, don't ever put sugar in any Japanese tea, please), it's really something people around the world should pay more attention to.

We interrupt whatever I was going to show yu last time with....kittens! Our beloved cat Mimi-chan (who J-List's Kaori had found, and named Nyanko Sensei) died recently (hit by a car, and yet she trekked very far to come say goodby to us). Happily, we were given two very cute kittens to replace her.

Their names keep changing, but last time I checked they were Shiro and Kuu-chan.

This is Shiro. She's kind of rambunctious, and likes to play...then sleep.

Kuu-chan is more mature, and was able to use the litterbox right away -- very smart. If you ever want to bond a cat to you forever, get a good brustley brush and brush them, and they'll be as loyal to you as dogs

Coming soon...more on Pete's trip to Tokyo and Ueno Park.

Looking back on 15 years of anime fandom, Japan's culture of flowers, and pouring your own drink

Hello from beautiful San Jose. We've been enjoying the vibrant anime fans here at Fanime Con, and if you're in the area we hope you were able to attend the show (and the great music concerts held over the weekend). During the show, a convention-goer came by wearing a T-shirt from Anime Con '91, the very first anime convention held in the U.S., which we also attended right here in San Jose. We suddenly found ourselves waxing natsukashii (nostalgic) over all that had happened in the last fifteen years to anime culture and general awareness of Japan by the West. 1991 was very different from 2006, and no one was sure if Japanese animation was popular enough to support an actual convention all on its own -- the show attracted just 1600 fans, compared to 33,000 at the last Anime Expo. There were many top-named Japanese guests of honor at the first Anime Con, including Macross character designer Mikimoto, Nadia/Evangelion artist Sadamoto and Bubblegum Crisis artist Kenichi Sonoda (who ate breakfast with us every morning). Those were great days to be interested in Japan, and we all learned so much.

For myself, I've never really been that much of a flower person, aside from buying roses or carnations on Mother's Day, that sort of thing. But by and large, Japan is a very flower-centric place, with a lot of attention paid to flowers in many ways. There are many customs related to enjoying the various flowers that bloom in each season. In March, there are ume (plum) flowers, then sakura in April, and right now, irises are in bloom. Japanese have been known to eat flowers in kaiseki ryori, the traditional meals of Kyoto. Japan is a Buddhist nation, and many solemn flowers such as white lillies are featured in funerals. Once I committed one of the most embarrassing faux pas a gaijin could make: I went to a flower shop to pick out some flowers for my wife, and the ones I asked for turned out to be chrysanthemums, which in Japan are only used for placing on graves in memory of the dead. I was quite embarrassed after my wife picked herself up off the floor from laughing and explained it all to me.

You know you've lived in Japan too long when you're incapable of pouring your own beer. It's true -- in Japan it's customary for friends to pour beer or sake (sah-KAY, never "saki") for each other, and "lifer" gaijin like me get so used to this that anything else becomes impossible. Pouring your own drink is called tejaku, and it's rarely done in mixed company -- although in enka, the traditional sad music of Japan that fills the same niche as country music in the U.S., the image of a broken man pouring his own sake while he cries his eyes out over his lost love, is quite common. Back in the U.S., I've run into a little culture shock when drinking with friends as I wonder if it's okay to pour my own drink in their presence, or if we should the everyone-pour- drinks-for-each-other thing they do in Japan. Ah, it's fun to live with one foot in Japan and the other in the States.

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.

	Koi Photo 2 (DVD 120min) A really nice photobook with fresh and interesting content, and beautiful models.
	Goth Loli vol. 7 Gothic Lolita fans, this is a really nice new photobook filled with information and picturs.
	Bizarre Cage - 3 Disc Box Set Another nice "H" DVD boxed set.
	Miss Magazine -- Ourei Harada (region 2) We just *love* Ourei Harada -- she's so pretty and yet so, well, unique.
	Aoba's Skill Up -- Aoba Aoba is an up-and-coming star in Japan, and we love her newest release.
	Fu -- Natsumi Abe Natsumi Abe is the former member of Morning Musume, a super cute singing star who has charmed fans for many years. This is her new photobook.
	Kitty *Rose* Chawan Set -- Rice Bowl This is a nice rice bowl featuring Hello Kitty's famous image.
	Kaname Chidori & Theresa Testarossa Bome Collection Vol.12 -- Full Metal Panic A really nice set of figures from the Bome Collection.
	A Wonderful Feeling 2 ~ Nantonaku Iikanji 2 Another manga from the master, Azuki Kurenai, which we're happy to have back on the site.
	Square Tatami Sandals ~ L-Size -- Snow Hanao Looking for unique Japanese footwear this summer? We recommend these.
	Glico Salted Prawn Pretz -- 2006 Summer Limited When normal Pretz just won't do it for you.
	Tomica 81 -- Honda NSX-R ~ White The Tomica die-cast cars are really cool. We've got a bunch of new ones for you.
	Red Gunma Kokeshi -- Hana-Guruma We also carry traditional Japanese items, which are made in J-List's home prefecture of Gunma. Enjoy these great wooden Kokeshi dolls.
	Animal Sounds Mug Cup Another wacky item from Japan, featuring Japanese animal sounds on a coffee cup.

Aya Ueto's hit drama in Japan, how my son perceives English grammar as music, and what a "cat's tongue" means

The most popular "unit" of television in Japan is the drama, which usually run for 15 weeks of hour-long episodes, with a clear-cut finale that resolves all the issues and love triangles in the story. Dramas star famous faces like lovely actresses Misato Itoh or Akiko Yada or national heart-throb Hayami Mokomichi, and the most successful shows get very high ratings of 20% or more and are usually watched all throughout Asia. Currently one of the most popular dramas on TV is "Attention, Please," starring cute teen idol-turned- serious-actress Aya Ueto, who is attending stewardess training to become a flight attendant. Produced in cooperation of Japan Air Lines (no doubt eager to turn their sagging fortunes around by being affiliated with the popular star), the show follows the adventures of the lead heroine as she goes from being a headstrong girl to someone who really understands what it is to be a professional flight attendant. We've always wanted to get our daughter interested in this career and we've been watching the show with her, dropping subliminal hints about airlines must surely be eager to find flight attendants who can already speak English and Japanese well, like her.

I continue to watch my kids grow up, fascinated at how they go about acquiring English and Japanese. My wife is helping my son study for the Step Test, level 2, a test that's usually taken by students in their third year of high school (and for students who aren't putting a special effort into learning English, not at all). Like most Japanese, my wife has learned English in a very analytical way, memorizing the grammar as if it were a collection of complex formulas. Verbs in English come in three varieties, present tense, past tense and past participle, and Japanese have perfected the memorization of these verbs into a science, spitting out "go, went, went" "eat, ate, eaten" "drive, drove, driven" very easily. My wife naturally tries to impart this to my son, but he refuses to learn English in this way -- he can usually "sense" the correct answer on a test and doesn't need to make it more complex by trying to understand the grammar like his mother does. When she asked him how he was able to get the right answer without consciously knowing the rules of English, he replied, "I can just see the patterns. It's like music." Kids sure are amazing things.

Do you have a cat's tongue? If so, it means that you can't eat hot food or drink hot drinks, just like a cat. The Japanese say that anyone who avoids hot food has a cat's tongue (neko jita). What is you have a lazy eye? If so, then you are rom-pari which is Japanese for "London, Paris" -- i.e. one eye is looking at London and the other is looking at Paris. If you're thinning on top, you might have "bar code hair," as the Japanese say. And if you sneeze, the Japanese say that someone must be gossiping about you (this comes up in anime quite often).

I've always been fascinated with the artistic works of Mitsuo Aida, who took traditional Japanese calligraphy and turned it into a beautiful medium for poetry and fascinating observations on life. I've used his works to study Japanese, and find his insight into life, the universe and everything very interesting. Now we've gotten in two great collections of his unique calligraphy works, complete with English translations, a super item for anyone interested in seeing a new side of Japan. It's something I'm really happy to have on the site.

If you're at San Jose, we hope you'll come to Fanime Con, a great anime convention that runs from May 26-29. We're proud to co-sponsor a great collection of JPOP bands, with five indies bands performing live music at the show, a great way for you to experience some fantastic cutting-edge music from Japan. For more information, go to http://www.fanime.com/

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.

	Karami 22 -- Akane Sakura The lovely Akane Sakura, in a photomagazine dedicated to just her lovely self.
	Bomb Mar. 2006 with DVD (Region All) A nice new item for fans of Japan's swimsuit idols, which definitely includes us.
	Isaku - 3 Disc Box Set Isaku is one of the darkest and most popular "hentai" anime series out there. Based on a popular game from Elf.
	Welcome to Max Soapland -- Mihiro We love Mihiro, that's true, and her new DVD featuring her as a "soap girl" is a great one. Get squeaky clean with Mihiro!
	Sushi Kanji Yunomi ~ Green Tea Cup A nice green tea cup for fans of "Kutani Ware," the popular porcelain with 400 years of history from Japan.
	Sohryu Asuka Langley 1/5 Scale Figure -- Sculpted by Yamamoto Kurisaku ~ Evangelion A really, really nice Eva figure. Makes me want to start collecting again...
	Totoro Tatami Type Slippers -- Green ~ Morning Glory Slippers with Totoro images on them. Isn't that cute?
	Hoppe ga Ochichau -- Full Set *Set of 10* ~ Re-ment Puchi Sample New Re-Ment miniature toy line, featuring tiny replicas of famous foods.
	Hawk & Tiger T-shirt - LL Size ~ Brown (Match Label) A new "Match Label" shirt, featuring a design taken from matchbooks used in Japan a century ago.
	Kitty Long Type Wallet -- Pink A really stylish Hello Kitty wallet, just right for Paris Hilton or you (or your significant other).
	Sakura Saku ~ Sakura Blooms A nice ero-manga featuring superb art and really good themes of kyonyu.
	Nabisco Picola -- Green Tea More green tea treats from Japan. Mmm, good.
	Tomica 24 -- Toyota New Soarer A nice Tomica die-cast car for people who are interested in Japanese cars.
	Melon Chan -- Hitomi Kitamura (region 2) We're all instant fans of Hitomi Kitamura, and are excited about her DVD. Recommended for all bikini idol fans. This disc is region 2, so we also humbly recommend our inexpensive DVD players, which start at just $68.

More pictures from our trip to Ueno, Tokyo.

This is right outside Ameyoko, the former black market area of Tokyo, now transformed into a wild bazaar of shops and import companies.

Freshness Burger, the best burger in all Tokyo (well...the best chain food burger). Plus the name is cool.

What's this? The famous Trevi Fountain of Rome in the heart of Tokyo?

No, it's just a picture and mini-fountain outside a restroom.

All about Pizza in Japan, how Japanese social relationships work smoothl, and things I've learned about my brain

I remember my first time ordering Pizza over the phone in Japan. I'd studied four years of the language at SDSU and figured this was a linguistic challenge I was up to, but to my surprise I couldn't make myself understood to the person on the other end of the phone line. Could it be that a pizza delivery company employee didn't understand the word "pepperoni," that most universal of all pizza-related concepts? It turns out I needed to be asking for "pepperoni sausage" instead, and that subtle difference, no doubt coupled with my gaijin-accented Japanese, caused the breakdown. The varieties of pizza that are sold in Japan are always, ah, interesting from a foreigner's perspective. Among the toppings I spied on a recent trip to Pizza Hut (which everyone thinks is Pizza Hat, but I digress) were Gorgeous Salmon, Sea Urchin Glory, and Queen of Crab & Shrimp. Thankfully, more conventional pizza toppings are readily available, too (like the much more reasonable tuna, mayonnaise and corn pizza).

There are some interesting concepts at work in social relationships in Japan. One is enryo, a word which means restraint or as a verb, to refrain from doing something. My Japanese teacher at SDSU explained it to us like this: a Japanese person comes for a visit to your home. You offer them a drink, and they say no thanks, they're fine. You offer again a few minutes later, and again they decline your offer. Finally you make your offer a third time, and they gladly accept. It may sound odd, but enryo is a kind of politeness that's important for getting along in a country with so many people crammed into a small space. It seems to be related to Japanese humility (kenson) -- if you tell a Japanese woman how pretty she is or compliment her English, she'll probably disagree with you strongly, a way in which Japanese avoid being boastful. There are many phrases in Japanese that illustrate this tendency to show humility in front of others. For example, when you give someone a gift, you usually say "Here's something that's not interesting" (tsumaranai mono desu kedo...) or if you bake someone a cake, you say, "I'm not sure if it tastes good or not..." (Oishii ka dou ka wakaranai kedo).

When you use another language you learn a lot about how your own brain works. I've noticed someting interesting -- no matter how much Japanese I've studied, my eyes will naturally lock onto English on a sign full of Japanese, no matter what the content. When traveling throughout Japan it's rather useful to know the place names in kanji, since it's easier to memorize and visualize. Yokohama takes just two memory "units" to memorize if you know kanji (yoko meaning horizontal, and hama meaning beach), whereas the name in English takes eight letters. And yet, if I see a sign with both kanji and English on it, my eyes will go for the English, even if it's written in small characters. The brain is just too used to dealing with the familiar to do anything else.

We've got some good news for fans of bishoujo games, the fascinating interactive dating-sim games for Windows PCs. The long-awaited Doushin - Same Heart is finally in stock and shipping now! This is really a special item from Crowd, a game in which you play the interactive story through the eyes of the three Suruga sisters, Ryoko, Maki and Miho. The three sisters have a special power: when one feels a sensation such as pain, the feeling is broadcast to the other two sisters immediately. And if one of them should start to get turned on...well, let's just say that amazing things will happen. The most deep and complex game released by Crowd yet -- and it's finally shipping!

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.

	eonna Jan 2006 ~ e onna with DVD Region ALL. We are always happy to have a new issue of eOnna in stock. And featuring Yuko Ogura on the cover, too!
	FETISH YUMA -- Yuma Asami. A very lovely star from Japan. This is a multi-region DVD, so you can enjoy the action from any angle.
	Replicant Works 4. I *love* these books, can sit around and read them for hours. This is a really deluxe book too, much thicker than individual issues of Replicant.
	Lion Portrait T-shirt - L Size ~ Olive Match Label Another Match Label shirt, featuring a classical image of a Japanese lion.
	Aki Hinata Excellent Model Series -- Hinata Heroines ~ Sergeant Keroro New anime figure from Sgt. Keroro. We really love the creations of this artist.
	Understand Through Pictures: 80 Simple Kanji Workbook ~ E de Wakaru Kantan Kanji 80 A fun way to learn Japanese through pictures. Why didn't they have useful books like this back when I was studying?
	Kitty *Rose* Yunomi Set -- Green Tea Cups Hello Kitty green tea cups. Very attractive design. Of course you can put anything you like in them, hot or cold.
	A Wonderful Feeling 1 ~ Nantonaku Iikanji 1. This is a reissue of one of the most popular H mangas we've ever sold, by master illustrator Kurenai Azuki.
	Totoro Place Mat Set -- Set of 4 ~ Tatami Type A nice selection of Totoro place mats. The gift for the anime fan who has everything.
	Kitty Key-Met -- Lesser Panda ~ Key Cover I just love these cute key covers, that turn something as boring as a key into kawaii central.
	Glico Green Pea Pretz Pretz are really tasty, sort of long pretzle sticks with flavoring like grilled corn and so on. This is a new taste, yummy, er, green pea flavor.
	Kingyo Tatami Slippers -- Red What would a blog about Japan be without some slippers every once in a while? These are lucky goldfish slippers!

Pictures from a Pizza Hut. Hmm, salmon pizza...

Sea urchin in sushi form I can handle. On pizza?

Crab on pizza...hmm. Honestly, I couldn't see this, but tuna and mayo pizza isn't that bad.

Some other varieties. Pizza Hut Gourmet (a bunch of toppings), Bacon Mushroom, Tuna Mild and Hawaiian. I love Hawaiian pizza, but most people here hate it more than root beer... Incidentally, the sliced, baked tomatoes they have on pizza here really are to die for.

When we went to Tokyo, we found a more traditional (to Italy, not to the USA) pizza restaurant. The margarita pizza was quite good.

Our trip to Tokyo, Japan's strange connection with Peru, alcoholic green tea, and what Jabba the Hutt can teach you about linguistics

We wanted to do something fun with the kids over the weekend, so we shinked (gaijin-speak for "took the Shinkansen," e.g. the Bullet Train) down to Tokyo to check out the special exhibition on the mysterious lines and geoglyphs in Nazca, Peru at the National Museum of Science. The strange shapes, which form images of a spider, a hummingbird, a condor and so on, were made 1500-2000 years ago, and are a big mystery. It was quite an interesting display -- we looked at many pieces of well preserved pottery with beautiful designs, and even a real mummy they'd brought over. I've always been amazed at the special interest the Japanese seem to take in Nazca, which is featured in some television show or another just about every month here. Maybe it has something to do with the twin connection Japan has with the region, due to the little diaspora of Japanese to South America at the start of the 20th Century, and in prehistoric times, since the same Mongolian stock that colonized Japan also made it to South America. Any trip to Tokyo with kids in tow is a potential stress-fest considering the sheer number of people around you, but it was so crowded at the museum we were all beside ourselves with claustrophobia. As always, going to Tokyo makes me appreciate living in a smaller, slower-paced part of Japan.

As a card-carrying Star Wars fan, I've heard my share of alien languages from all corners of the Lucasverse. I remember watching Return of the Jedi back in 1983 and wondering at a line of Jabba the Hutt's dialogue, "You weak-minded fool! He's using an old Jedi mind trick." The line was spoken in Huttese, an invented language, but the phrase "Jedi mind trick" was in English, and I believe it's the only instance of mixing of languages in Star Wars. Language mixing is known in linguistic terms as "code switching" and if you have two bilingual individuals it's quite natural for them to jump back and forth between the two languages, depending on the ideas they want to express, the environment they're in, and so on. I've got a American friend who recently got his doctorate in Cultural Studies from a Japanese university, and whenever we hit the onsen together, we naturally mix quite a lot of Japanese in with our English conversation, usually to the amazement of Japanese in the bath, who try not to be too obvious as they eavesdrop on us. Of course, part of learning a foreign language is separating the two languages in your mind, easy for adults but a challenge to bilingual children -- my son and daughter got confused when neighborhood kids in America didn't understand their Japanese. There's a great deal of experimentation that goes on in the mind of a child during the separatation process, and it can be fascinating to observe. When he was two or so, I went to a bath with my son, and he commented to me that the cold bath (which you go in after you get heated up in the sauna) sure was "cold-katta." This amused me, since he was mixing the English word cold with the Japanese past tense ending katta.

If Japan had a national drink it would have to be green tea, which is consumed in massive amounts and rivals coffee in popularity. Green tea is a major crop here, with Shizuoka Prefecture claiming it as its meibutsu (lit. "famous thing"), building its tourism industry in part around the stuff like Napa or Sonoma do with wine in California. Green tea is very healthy and has been shown to be effective in various areas including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, cholesterol control and weight loss, but in Japan its popularity is based on its wholesome and mildly bitter taste, which people find delicious. More and more, green tea is finding its way into other products, from caramels to cookies to bath salt ("green tea...it's not just for ice cream anymore"). Kirin has even pioneered the first alcoholic drink using green tea: Ocha no Chuhai, a blend of cold green tea and shochu, a traditional Japanese spirit distilled from anything from rice to barley to sweet potatoes. In the picture above, the one on the right is Green Tea Chuhai, and the one on the left is genmai cha, er, unhusked rice tea.

Summer is coming, and that means summer anime conventions! If you're looking for a super costume to wear, J-List humbly recommends the excellent uniforms that we sell in an exclusive arrangement with Matsukameya of Japan. Each uniform is sewn just for you, to the sizes you specify on our detailed chart, and the quality is unbelievably -- honestly, I've never received anything but lowing praise and feedback from J-List customers who have purchased these uniforms. Several styles available, from girl's summer and winter uniforms to the excellent male "gakuran" school uniforms.

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 Feb 2006. Urecco Gal is a nice spin-off from Urecco, featuring girls that are done up in an extra fashionable way, like kogals in Tokyo's stylish Shibuy area.
	Love Para -- Mihiro. How do we love Mihiro? Let us count the ways. I'm glad to see her doing down-to-earth photobooks like this actually, which is where her roots are.
	Kera vol. 87 Nov 2005. Kera is the super hip magazine of gothic and street fashion and urban culture. And Becky (half Japanese, half British) looks so fine.
	Imma Seiden - Volume 4 - 6 Box Set. A very popular "H" anime series, and something we've wanted to carry for a long time.
	Nihongo Journal 5 May 2006. Nihongo Journal is one tool I used to learn Japanese. This is the newest issue.
	Maihime - My Hime Artbook Special. My Hime (aka Maihime, aka Mai Hime) is a really good anime from Sunrise, in which 12 girls are hime (princesses) with special powers. The fun thing is, you don't know who the next hime will be, so it's fun to watch. The title comes from a famous novel by Mori Ougai in the 19th century and means "Dancing Princess."
	W Cast -- You Kitajima & Rio Kitajima (region 2). Nice offering from Moodyz with two gorgeous women whose last names are Kitajima (altough the kanji are different, so they're not, er, related).
	The Art of the Japanese Garden. Nice new book from Tuttle. Gives background on Japanese gardens, where the tradition began, and so on.
	My Teacher Reina ~~ Sensei ~ Mata Aoune ver. Boku no Reina. I've always loved the works of Chataro. His stuff is so polished and enjoyable to look at. Here is his newest Reina Sensei offering.
	Hawk & Tiger T-shirt - M Size ~ Navy (Match Label). More Match Label shirts, in three sizes (M, L and XL). Really cool original design.
	Totoro 80 Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle w/ Frame. Three new Ghibli puzzles, which you can use as picture frames too, if you want to put pictures of loved ones in there. The frames are real wood and feature Soot Sprites on them.
	Konomi Yuzuhara 1/8 Scale Figure -- To Heart 2. New figure from To Heart 2, the popular bishoujo game and anime.
	Square Geta w/Navy Snow Hanao ~ Lacquered Paulownia . New block-style traditional geta sandals, these are great for large feet.
	Perfect Plus -- Black Sesame & Nuts. Healthy Calorie Mate-like snack food with lots of roughage.
	Keroppi Gamaguchi Shoulder Purse -- Kero Kero Keroppi. Kero Kero Keroppi is really making a comeback this year, and here's another good item, a plush should bag/purse to hold your money.
	Kabaya Mamegomarium. This is rather hard to describe. Basically, Mamegoma means "bean sesame seed" and these are cute animals basaed on this concept, i.e. roly poly creatures that you keep as pets. So cute!
	Kitty Key-Met -- Pig ~ Key Cover. The coolect Hello Kitty key covers we've ever seen. Transforms something boring into pure kawaii!

We're off to Tokyo. We took an Asama, the red-white-and-blue trains, but I was hoping for a Max (the double-decker trains), which are much cooler.

Japan is always fun when speeding along at 150 kph.

Lady with the food cart.

Finally, we were in Ueno Station. This is a really old, really large station that I usually just pass through. But today, this was our destination. It's pronounced "oo-EH-no" by the way, and you can tell a gaijin who learned Japanese in romaji, rather than kana, because he will pronounced the "U" in Ueno as "you."

Homeless man...check. Yes, we're in Ueno alright.

The subject of international marriage in Japan, how foreigners live in Japan, and fully perceptions of other countries

One subject of interest in Japan is kokusai kekkon, or international marriage involving a Japanese and a person from another country. The fact that there's a defined word for this concept indicates that it's treated as a rather "special" idea, seemingly separate from normal marriage between two Japanese despite its increasing frequency. As Japan's society progresses, more and more men and women here seem open to the idea of finding spouses from other countries, especially in cities like Tokyo, where the rate of international unions can reach as high as 1 in 10. There are, of course, various hurdles to overcome when choosing to marry someone from another culture, be it Japan or anywhere else: you've got language issues, cultural barriers, and many other factors that must be kept in mind. The question of finding someone with compatible values is perhaps the biggest challenge, and keeping an open mind about alternate opinions and ways of doing things is important. An American woman I went to SDSU with married a Japanese man and ended up living very close to me here in Japan (small world). When she got pregnant, she made plans to go back to work soon after having the baby, which isn't uncommon in the U.S. but is quite rare here, and she was surprised at how strongly her Japanese husband and his family opposed her plan. A male friend of mine from the U.K. married a Japanese girl from Iwate, Japan, far to the North of Tokyo. After their wedding, his bride wanted him to try out the hot springs at the hotel, but he wasn't too keen on the idea of group bathing with other males (which no one thinks twice about here), and this caused some strain. Of course, there's no such thing as getting married a "country" -- every person is unique, and when you find someone you want to be with, each side must be flexible and open to new ideas.

There's an interesting show on TV every week that follows the life and times of a married couple, perhaps intended as a subliminal message to single people about the joys of being married in order to boost Japan's sagging birthrate. Recently they've been focusing on couples made up of Japanese husbands and foreign wives, and seeing how they went about their daily lives. One American woman who'd been here for ten years was quite interesting: she'd organized her apartment building into a co-op group so that they could buy food in bulk and save money, which is not something the average Japanese housewife would do. The show followed the couple around, discovering what subtle differences there were in their household compared to a normal Japanese one, how they did the shopping, what kinds of meals the wife prepared, and what friction she experienced with her Japanese husband (she hated his smoking). Language issues were also covered, including one that I could really feel for, how do you make your bilingual kids speak to you in English when they know you understand both languages?

It's funny how a person's perceptions work. Growing up in the 1970s, I knew nothing about Japan, except that Japanese people's lips didn't sync up with their mouths when they talked (this was due to the English dubbing of Godzilla and Gamera movies I watched). I distinctly remember thinking that Kimba the White Lion (Osamu Tezuka's Jungle Emperor Leo) must have been produced in Africa, not in Japan, because of copyright issues related to the animals, or something like that. Japanese people form some interesting perceptions about the U.S., too, and I've enjoyed learning about these during my time here. Japanese eat white rice with most every meal, and there's even a word that means "the main course of meat or vegetables that you eat with your rice" (okazu, also used to describe the main course you bring with your bento). The J-List Japanese staff reports that when they were kids, they thought Americans ate bread the same way, taking a plate of rolls or sliced bread with all three meals a day, no matter what you were having. It's common for famous American professional wrestlers to tour Japan, and J-List's Tomo says that his first impression of all Americans was based on those big gaijin wrestlers (it made no difference Andre the Giant was from France and Abdullah the Butcher was Canadian). I had a friend who was sure that Sony was an American company because of its English-sounding name, and once a housewife asked me in total seriousness if we had McDonald's in the USA. As always, it's fun to compare cultural differences.

J-List is proud to be cosponsoring the upcoming MusicFest 2006 at Fanime Con in San Jose this coming Memorial Day weekend (May 26-29). It's really a great event: six Japanese indies bands who will be performing on a live stage for fans at the show, several for the first time in the U.S. A once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear some great cutting-edge Japanese music live, a micro-Woodstock for the otaku generation, with all musical genres represented. If you want to hear some great JPOP/JROCK/JRAP, we hope you'll make it to the show. For information on this great convention, see this page.

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 Jan. 2006 vol. 174. Gokuh, always one of the most popular adult magazines we sell. This issue has Aki Hoshino on the cover, which is rare since once these girls hit the big time they usually don't do any adult mags at all.
	robot 5 -- Super Color Comic. I love the art in Robot, and this issue is even better because it's about 1.5 as thick as the others I've read. Top quality all around.
	SHOXX vol. 152 Oct 2005. Single issues of Shoxx, the really cool magazine of visual JPOP/JROCK, loaded with photos of your favorite bands.
	Joytoy no MNP no M -- Inrin of Joytoy. Yinling is a Taiwanese-born sexy model and former race queen, who's had a great career as Yinling of Joytoy, a series of bizarre Communist-themed Russian/Chinese erotic photobooks from Japan. This is her most daring work yet.
	Asakusa T-shirt ~ Dragon. Nice new T-shirt, in a very large size (equal to 2XL U.S. size).
	Maison Akiho Part 2 -- Akiho Yoshizawa. Part II of the Maison Akiho parody of Maison Ikkoku. This episode parodies the black mourning clothes, which is a sub-set of adult imagery you see in JAV.
	Teach me More -- Tomo Anna. Another lovely creature from Soft on Demand, who makes me question why she's in this line of work???
	Bye Bye Pierrot (Clown) ~ Sayonara Piero. A nice hentai manga by Hirohisa Onikubo and Team IBM, two talented artists we used to carry in doujinshi form before they went pro. We're 99% sure Team IBM is no relation to Big Blue.
	Japanese Black Paulawnia Sandals (5072) for Women w/Red Hanao -- Flat Sole. We got some really nice new sandals made of jet black polished wood with kimono strap tops, very stylish. Look great this summer in traditional Japanese geta shoes from Japan!
	Nausica 80 Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle w/ Frame. Studio Ghibli jigsaw puzzles with cool wooden frames, yes!
	Sonolar 1/8 Scale Figure -- Summon Night 3. As usual, I don't know what this figure is from, but it's darned cute.
	Elecom *Small* USB Keyboard -- Silver. *Really* nice small USB keyboard compatible with Mac or Windows, complete with hiragana on the keys. A super cool item, in black and Powerbook silter.
	Kitty DX Key Holder -- Pink. More Hello Kitty brand products. I really like the design of these, all Louis Vuitton style and all.
	Kabaya Rilakkuma Throat Treatment Candy. Al, Relax Bear candy. I can feel my throat relaxing already...
	Lucky Jade Magatama Strap. So, I'm watching Ikki Tousen like, last night, and it's got these magatama things all over the place (along with panty shots, but that's another thing altogether). I had no idea I'd be writing about these the next day.
	Hello Kitty Bamboo 16.5 cm Chopsticks. Nice retro design on these chopsticks.
	Tomica Toyota Prius Die-Cast Car - Japan Hot Wheels. Back in stock today, the Tomica (which means Tomy Mini Car) Prius, the best-selling Tomica we've ever had (natch).

We stopped off at a PA, which is a Parking Area on the freeway, an enclosed place where you can buy gas, hot udon, or shop for omiyage, souvinirs for friends. Here are some Gunma limited dry ramen noodles. Sounds yummy.

Hello Kitty cream cakes, officially called Yokohama Chiffon Cakes.

Rice cakes with baked soybeans on them.

They also sell ice cream, since you can buy ice cream anywhere in Japan, in any season. Note Lotte's Crunky, Morinaga's Monaka, and my favorite, Suica Bar, a watermelon ice cream bar with chocolate seeds. Mmm!

I talked about pro wrestlers today, and this is the most famous one of all, Antonio Inoki, who (among other things) is credited with introducing Tabasco sauce to Japan. I happened to meet him at LAX once, and politely asked if I could take my picture with him. He was awfully surprised to see a foreigner speaking to him in Japanese (since he's fluent in English and Portuguese).

The subject of patriotism in Japan, bilingualism and the mystery of translation, and J-Culture in H-Games

One debate going on in Japan right now is what role patriotism should play in society. Currently, Japanese are perhaps the least patriotic people on the planet, with 47% of respondents answering that they didn't feel any particular sense of pride in, or love for, their country. This is something the government wants to change, but it's a sticky wicket, since an overabundance of patriotism coupled with a runaway desire to emulate Great Britain is what lead to the country running roughshod over its Asian neighbors seven decades ago. I caught an interesting TV show on this topic hosted by Japanese director Beat Takeshi, which featured Japanese-bilingual foreigners from a dozen countries including Korea, China, the U.S., Canada and Europe, who explained their own views on what patriotism meant to them. The show compared "patriotic" education in each country, including the lengthy steps countries like Korea and China take to produce loyal citizens who love their countries (including museums dedicated to Japanese attrocities). All nations do this to some extent, of course -- think of George Washington cutting down a cherry tree or throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac, for example -- but Japan has almost no mechanisms in place to make its people feel a reasonable sense of love-of-country, no Pledge of Allegiance. The Japanese flag and Japanese national anthem were only given official status by the Diet in 2000, and the national anthem isn't played regularly at sporting events like baseball and sumo wrestling, only at major events like the end of a championship or the last day of a sumo basho. I wonder what Japan can do to make its citizens feel more patriotic?

When you become bilingual in a language, you learn a lot about how your own brain works. Every act of learning involves a physical change in your brain, the creation of a new synaptic bridge from one cell to another, and sometimes it seems you can feel this at work in your head. The "mystery of translation" is also fascinating: the act of moving from one language to another takes place deep inside your brain, on a level below your conscious thoughts, almost like a background process in a computer. When I'm translating something from English into Japanese, I mentally place the phrase into my internal "translation buffer," wait half a second for the processing to complete, and then retrieve the result, without really being aware of how it's actually accomplished. The act of translation is actually quite separate from being able to speak a language, and really must be developed in tandem with general language skills. My daughter is quite fluent in both English and Japanese, and the other day I thought it'd be fun to ask her to translate some of the sentences from the book we're reading, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Although she understood the English sentences I read to her, she was unable to render them in Japanese -- it wasn't a skill she'd ever had to develop in her nine years on the planet.

One reason I like the PC dating-sim games that we sell is that they offer an alternate window into Japan's culture that can't be experienced any other way, since the games are quite long and involved and are interactive -- you're in control of the story. In the soon-to-be-released Doushin - Same Heart, there's an amusing scene in which Cham, a girl from Thailand, comes over to see Maki, the middle of the three Suruga sisters. Ryoko, the youngest sister, is totally shocked to see a "gaijin" at the door, and tries to speak broken English to her despite the fact that Cham is speaking Japanese -- something that happens quite a lot here. One of our favorite restaurants in our city is La Bodeguita, great ethnic place run by Peruvians of Japanese descent, and the spit-roasted chicken they serve is to die for. We like to go for the international atmosphere, to enjoy beers from South America and eat food that's very different from what's normally eaten in Japan. Although the restaurant is popular with our city's foreign population, we seldom see Japanese people eating there, and whenever we invite Japanese friends to go with us, they're invariably nervous about trying anything as exotic as Peruvian cuisine. This timidness on the part of Japanese people to take life by the horns and try new things is captured in another scene, also in Doushin, in which one character is inviting another to eat ethnic food, but the person is nervous to try it. It's fun to see what interesting cultural elements you can find even in Japan's bishoujo games.

J-List strives to show you a new side of Japan every day -- if we didn't, we wouldn't be J-List! We stock some cool DVDs that help you learn about the country and its language and people. If you've ever wanted to visit the country but didn't have the opportunity, why not check out Seven Days in Japan, a documentary about one man who realized his dream of coming to Japan. Or if you'd like to learn some fun Japanese phrases (including "how to be annoying in Japanese" and "Date with Keiko" episodes), we recommend the Best of YesJapan, a 4 hour DVD of fun topics related to Japanese that's very approachable for people with no Japanese skills at all.

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.

	More and More! -- You Kitajima. A nice issue of More and More, a photomagazine dedicatd to the works of one actress (and only one actress), with a DVD that's great to watch, too.
	Marshmallow? -- Nana Saotome. Um, wow, is all I can say about this new photobook idol, Nana Saotome. A nice photobook in which she actually keeps her clothes on.
	Folding Japan with Origami in English ~ Nihon wo Tsutaeru! Eigo de Origami. Learn to fold origami with this fascinatng bilingual book. This is honestly the best origami related book I've ever seen, and I've seen a few.
	Tattoo Lifestyle Jan 2006 vol. 08. Nice new issue of Tattoo Lifestyle, a magazine that's filled to the gills to cool tattoo culture from Japan, from yakuza to artistic young people and more.
	The Samurai Sword (A Handbook). Learn all about how samurai swords worked with this interesting book from Tuttle.
	Aoba Makes You Erection! -- Aoba. The titles of some of these releases are really out there. The Japanese version of this is, "I will make you genki," with genki having a special meaning here. Aoba is one of those girls who makes me wonder why someone so pretty is in this line of work?
	Swimming Suit Complete Best 4 Hours. Another fetish to explore, this is "high end racing swimsuit fetish."
	Hello Kitty Taiko de Don -- Japanese Drum. Hello Kitty drum toy. So cute.
	Dengeki Comic Gao June 2006. We're big fans of Dengeki Gao, since it brings the authentic "phone book o' manga" feel to you. More than 500 pages of art here, and all of it just beautiful to look at!
	Hello Kitty Rice Bowl w/ Lid. Another nice item, this is a rice bowl w/ lid for your kitchen. Really cute. We have a larger version too.
	Relax Bear Name Holder -- Rilakkuma. Relax Bear (aka Rilakkuma) is turning into one of the most popular San-X characters around. Here's a cute plush name holder.
	Relax Bear Bento Box Set *L, M & S Size* -- Rilakkuma's Everyday. And we have Relax Bear bento, or more accurately, a set of "nesting" tupperware style containers.
	Pentel Deluxe Brush Pen (Fude Pen) -- Bold Line - XFP5M. Why write with a normal pen when you can create Japanese brush writing?
	Doushin - Same Heart *preorder*. I'm a big fan of the games of Japanese game maker Crowd, and Doushin is really a great title that's got a lot to offer H-game fans. I especially like the depth of the stories in this game, all the things you can do, thanks to the "zapping" aspect of this title.

More pics from Joyful Honda, the big store that has lots of art related stuff, and also home interior related products as well. These are name plates that you have custom made and stick outside your front door. For some reason, I find them absolutely fascinating to look at.

There are many different kinds, some etched in stone or steel, some carved out of glass. This one is cute.

That's how you write Toyota in kanji, in case you were wondering.

They have acitate sheets for artists, too, for all the old school guys out there who aren't doing their shading in Photoshop.

Styrafoam hemispheres, for various art projects. I was of course compelled to wear obe on my head and walk around like a Buddhist priest, which I can get away with since I'm a gaijin...

Ways to save the Japanese from extinction, the darling of figure skating, and cell phones for kids?

With Japan's population having already peaked, the country is undergoing a national debate about how to raise its brith rate. There are a lot of reasons why Japan's birthrate is so low, at just 1.38 children born per couple, including the pressures of urban society and those "rabbit hutch" apartments in Tokyo, a less-than-optimal environment for kids, the general march of social attitudes and of course, the costs involved with raising a child. Add to these factors the reality that people no longer need to have eight kids to ensure that some will survive to take care of them in their old age, and you've got a crisis. The ruling LDP is suggesting paying all birth-related costs for couples and giving an additional $50-per-child monthly stipend to families. These might be good ideas, but I have another one: an American-style day-care system. The time-honored way for working parents to raise a child in Japan is to have Obaachan (grandmother) babysit during the day, since many families live with their parents, or else put your child in your city's municipally-run pre-school, if you can get in. Adding an American-style private day-care system to the country would give people more choices about how and when to have children. Although U.S. day-care system might not be perfect, it's still better than the nonexistent system here.

The Japanese have a great interest in sports, especially in international events where they can compete on the world stage and show their best to other nations. With Shizuka Arakawa's gold medal in Torino Olympics, figure skating has become hugely popular, and many Japanese skaters are featured on TV almost daily. Leading the pack is the charming and talented Mao Asada (no relation to the former Chinese leader or to a Carne Asada Burrito), who at just 15 has already won a huge number of accoladaes for herself. In yesterday's Japan Open 2006 skating event she aced her program, helping put Japan over the top to beat out Team Europe and Team North America. Competing on the ice since the age of 5, she and her older sister Mai (who is also an accomplished skater) are the current darlings of the Japanese media. In addition to her cute face and incredibly graceful style on the ice, she has oversized ears, which (according to my Japanese wife) means that she'll be very successful and wealthy in her life, since money is meant to pour into large ears, or something like that.

As with most other countries, cell phones have become ubiquitous in Japan, and more than 90% of high school students carry a "keitai" (portable phone) everywhere they go, with even higher rates of adoption in other age groups. The market has gotten so saturated that Japan's major cellphone companies have turned to elementary school-age children as the next potential area for growth. The idea of kids carrying phones around with them takes some getting used to, of course, but companies like KDDI have done a good job thinking up features that are important to parents, such as GPS sensors that let parents find where their children are by viewing a website, or a function that sends a parent an IM when their child reaches a preset destination, like home. A big reason for the popularity of phones by younger students is related to Japan's group-oriented culture -- there's nothing worse than being nakama-hazure (na-kah-mah ha-zoo-rey), excluded from the larger group by, say, being the only one unable to exchange emails with friends. One side effect of Japan's widespread use of keitai phones is that people think of email or instant messages as something you do with a phone rather than with a computer. I wonder if this will have have a long-range effect on Japan's technical skills down the road?

Manga is a big part of Japan's culture, and J-List carries the popular Comic AG, the leading English-language magazine of "H" manga. Each issue is a treat, with 80 pages of English-translated manga, faithfully produced from the artist's original pages (not scanned from the printed Japanese editions, like many translated works), and will full detail on all art. Each issue is jut $4.99, perhaps the best bargain in the manga world. In addition to offering regular subscriptions to AG, you can buy blocks of back issues at a special price with our AGSET offering. We've updated the AGSET with the next five issues of AG, making it easy to pick up the back issues you need and save.

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.

	Bomb Feb. 2006 . Ah, another issue of Bomb, our favorite bikini idol magazine. Great for Yuko Ogura fans!
	Words Worth One - 5 Disc Box Set. A superb hentai DVD series, Words Worth is a great fantasy anime based on the popular H game from Elf. We have both series in stock.
	Shojo -- Reina Tanaka. Reina Tanaka -- not to be confused with Rena Tanaka, the cute actress who does bad commercials now -- is the current heartthrob of the Morning Musume crowd. Enjoy her surprisingly spicy photobook.
	Mecha Ii -- Yuna Takizawa. One problem with writing Japanese in romaji (the Roman alphabet) is that you get pronounciation errors, like "mecha" (prounounced 'meh-CHA' meaning 'fuckin') which looks like "mecha" (the stuff from Gundam and Macross). Oh well.
	W Chijo Lesbian (region 2). J-List is having a boom in "chijo" DVDs lately. Basically a "chijo" is a woman who likes sex, the female version of a "chikan."
	Ayumi Higetsu PVC Figure -- Ringetsu. A sleek new prepainted anime figure, this is Ayumi Higetsu from an anime based on (I think) a doujin game, Ringetsu.
	Kitty DX Purse -- Pink. This is the coolest Hello Kitty item I've seen in a while, and I see rather a lot. It's very nicely designed wallet featuring Hello Kitty in a Louis Vuitton design. Kawaii!
	Jumbo Lucky Cat Coin Bank Yellow. What could you do with a really big Lucky Cat piggy bank? Save lots of money and make good luck for yourself.
	Comickers Art Style 1 ~ Latest Color Techniques. We like to carry art books at J-List. This is Comickers, a stylin' book that teaches art, character design and lots of other good stuff.
	Sakura Tatoo T-shirt - L Size ~ Navy. Another cool Match Label T-shirt, featuring a design that was inspired from matchbooks from the Meiji Era. Totally cool, totally.
	Keroro Talking Alarm Clock -- Sergeant Keroro. Good item for Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunso) fans.
	Maison Akiho -- Akiho Yoshizawa. Silly me, I forgot to post this last time. Sorry about that. It's, ah, quite an interesting item for Maison Ikkoku fans.
	Morinaga Uji Green Tea Cake. More fun with Green Tea, with this box of tasty cakes from Morinaga.
	Cherry Mochi. This is something I hope you'll try. It's basically a traditional treat from Japan's past, very sweet and very chewy, like gummi but more wholesome somehow.

After waiting, like, a year, I finally took my Star Wars posters to the store to be framed. The store we like to go to is Joyful Honda, basically a massive sprawling store that sells anything art related. Plus it's fun to say "Joyful Honda."

If something's worth hanging in your office, it's worth getting a nice frame for it, I always say.

Here they're selling massive slabs of beautiful wood for various projects. I guess most people would make tables out of these.

Artistst sit inside the store and hand-create stuff while you watch. Here a guy was carving stone wells for use in Japanese calligraphy.

Among other things, they had a corner where they sold replicas of old keys and locks ("key" and "lock" are the same word in Japanese) which was not something I expected to exist in the world.

A bunch of old stuff, some of it pretty cool.

How universities work in Japan, my fond memories as an ESL teacher, and battle of the sexes, Japan style

Some of the biggest differences between Japan and the U.S. can be seen in higher education. Japan has an extensive system of public and private universities which educate 44% of graduating high school students. In the U.S. the top universities are private schools like Harvard, Princeton and MIT, while State schools are lower in the rankings. In Japan this is reversed: the public universities are where everyone wants to go, in large part because they're much cheaper than their private counterparts like Waseda or Keio. Students study hard to get into top-ranked national institutions like Tokyo University at least in small part to lessen the financial burden on their parents and show oya koko (filial piety, e.g. thanks and respect to their parents for raising them). While Japan's national universities might offer a good education, they're dependent on the public purse for their operations and are generally running out of money all the time. A visit to some of these campuses with their drab brown concrete buildings built in the "Late Contemporary Chernobyl" style can make you think you've been transported to the old Soviet Union. The money problem has gotten so bad that some schools have started licensing their name -- if you want to try a Kobe University- brand steak, you can find them for sale in finer shops. One of the biggest problems with Japanese universities is that students must work so hard to pass the entrance exams that it's generally expected that they'll goof off once they get admitted. This makes me sad, considering all the ways my mind was challenged during my own time at college. Another problem: too many universities. Despite the sagging Japanese population and dearth of students, new universities continue to be built every year.

I really enjoyed my career as an ESL teacher, and during that time I came into contact with many different kinds of Japanese people, from kids who were being exposed to English for the first time to high school students who wanted to learn how to actually use the language they'd spend six years learning the grammar and vocabulary of. I always tried to show a positive, cheerful face to my students (Japanese people expect Americans to be "cheerful" at all times, I've learned), and let them know how great it is to learn English, since it allows you to make friends all over the world. I've met interested students, bored students, and housewives who thought that studying English was the most thrilling thing in their lives (clearly they needed to get out more). I'll never forget one student I had who drove a tanker truck delivering white kerosene to gas stations. Whenever he couldn't communicate something in English, he's try saying it in Japanese with an outrageous American accent. It's not considered good form for the teacher to laugh himself into a ball during class, but it was difficult keeping my amusement bottled up sometimes.

The subject of how men and women interact in Japan is a complex one, and I've come to realize how closely related it all is to language, despite the obvious "which came first, the social attitude or the linguistic term" question. For the most part, English is largely unisex, with the same words being used by both men and women, with a few exceptions (like profanity). Japan is quite different, and much of the language is "hard wired" for use by women or men only. For starters, there are different pronouns for boys and girls to use. Guys generally use the polite "boku" or the manly-sounding ore (OH-ray) to refer to themselves, but girls get the more feminine watashi or atashi (or if they're trying to be annoyingly cute, they refer to themselves in the third person, like characters sometimes do in anime). For the second person pronoun, men often use masculine omae (OH-mah-aye) or the slightly condescending kimi, both of which contain an element of talking to someone at a lower social level, like an underclassman. Women usually use the neutral anata, and both sexes will often substitute a name, e.g. Fujita-san, in place of a second-person pronoun. There are quite a few words which the Japanese use every day but which sound incredibly sexist if you analyze their actual meanings. The most common word for husband is shujin, which really means "master" if you look at its kanji. Two words for wife used by older Japanese are kanai (lit. "in the house") and okusan ("Mrs. Interior"), implicitly stating that wives never leave the home. Of course, these are just words and no one considers their meanings all that deeply, just as we don't tear English words apart for their Greek and Latin origins that much, but it's interesting what you can uncover when you dig deep into a language.

J-List loves to bring you the best PC dating-sim games from Japan, translated into English. We've got dozens of great CD-ROM and download games for all tastes, with hilarious stories, extremely dramatic love themes and all manner of cute characters. Our latest game is Doushin - Same Heart, a fascinating title in which you play from the viewpoint of the three Suruga Sisters, Ryoko, Maki and Miho. At any time in the game you can "zap" from one character to another and continue the story from their point of view, which adds an incredible element of depth to the story. A great game by Crowd, the company that brought us X-Change, X-Change 2 and Tokimeki Check in!, so we know it'll bring you many hours of enjoyment (and lots of in-jokes from the other games). It's being duplicated right now, but you can still order now and get free shipping on it!

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.

	Lilac Time Harajuku -- Aya Seto. I like this approach a lot -- a magazine devoted to one girl, organized in a "virtual date" format in which you go on a date with her in Tokyo. It's got its wabi and sabi thing going.
	Dolly Dolly vol. 9. I am not into dolls at all, and yet, and yet...this book is so cool to thumb through. Filled with tons of pictures of Japan's most avante garde doll culture.
	Kera vol. 90 Feb 2006. A new issue of Kera is always welcome on J-List. This issue is filled with gothic & lolita shots, accessories, hair pictures, you name it.
	ism vol. 005. For yaoi fans, we bring you a new issue of Ism, a popular anthology manga series.
	Goukakudekiru Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken 3, 4 Kyu ~ You Can Pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, Levels 3 & 4. For students studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, this is the actual test for levels 4 & 3 (the two easiest levels).
	Shima Katase Extra Story Image Figure -- Stellvia. I am so taken with way this figure looks, it's just incredible. We only have three in stock though, so hurry if you like it as much as I do.
	Neko Bus Finger Puppet. A cute new finger puppet featuring Neko Bus, aka Cat Bus.
	Lovers Soul. A very nicely stylized "H" manga about love and sex in contemprary, urban Tokyo. Very clean art and beautiful characters.
	Asakusa T-shirt ~ "Bu" (Fighting). A beautiful T-shirt that's made right here in Japan, this is a very rare shirt that shows Japan's various martial arts on the back, along with the kanji for "fight" ("bu") on the front.
	Manga Bible 1 ~ Light and Shading. A nice book about manga, art and character design. In Japanese, but featuring lots of images and information that would be of use to any budding artist.
	Rilakkuma Chara SP -- Relax Bear Audio Speaker. It's cute "Relax Bear" that plays music from your iPod!
	Hello Kitty Oyatsu Box -- Snack Case. A cute Hello Kitty Otaku (snack) box, which you can take on picnics, to school, anywhere.
	Snoopy Gamaguchi Purse -- Light Blue ~ Japanese Style.
	Welcome To Pia Carrot One - 3 Disc Box Set.
	Full Set of Tea Dog "Uchciwa (Fan)" Strap w/Ramune. Here's a cute set of Tea Dog Mascots, which you can hang from your window, use as phone straps, or do anything. Full sets or random individuals both in stock.
	Lotte Fusen no Mi Gum -- Tropical Fruits. Famous bubblegum from Lotte. You never know what flavor you'll get. Yum!
	Morinaga Uji Green Tea Cookie. You can't have enough green tea, and these new green tea cookies, made with Uji Cha (green tea from the town of Uji, near Nara) are just delicious.
	Japanese Sake Serving Bottle & Cups -- Mum. Japan wouldn't be Japan without sake. Here's a fun sake bottle with matching sake cups.

The Japanese eat a lot of noodles, and we are no exception. This is a meal from our favorite udon/soba restaurant. Today I got the udon with the mini-bowl of curry that was delicious.

My daughter got Curry Udon, a delicacy of Nagoya, and we kept raiding her bowl because it was so good. It's basically a giant bowl of curry soup with udon boiled in, mmmmm!

It's nice to have a beer after a hard day's work (especially on update days). This is Asahi's invention, a one-serving "Steiny Bottle" with a pull top, a way to sell more beer to consumers.

These are a local famous food called sansai, a kind of edible wild plant found up in the mountains, and since we've got mountains coming out of our ears here, there are a lot of sansai. They are frankly delicious, although it took me a while to come to terms with them. If you've ever played the classic bishoujo game Season of the Sakura, Mio was going to the mountains to pick sansai, but since I didn' thave space to explain what the heck this was, I changed it to mushrooms.

Experiments with Japanese literature, my impressions on positives and negatives education in Japan, and squid ink pizza

Coming to Japan brought many surprises for me, and not just the usual things like beer vending machines and ikasumi (squid ink) pizza. One revelation I had was that Japan's education system, which back in 1991 seemed the envy of the entire world, was in fact far from perfect. Japan introduced compulsory education as part of the sweeping reforms of the Meiji Period, when the country abandoned its feudal system and became a Constitutional Monarchy trying to immitate the powers of the West. Currently, Japanese children are required to attend 6 years of elementary school and three years of junior high. High school is optional, although nearly all students go, and there is competition between the various city-run and private high schools in any given area, e.g. Maebashi Commercial High School is best for students who want to learn a business-related trade, but Takasaki Boy's High School has the best academic reputation, etc. Unlike schools back in the States in which each student had his own schedule of lessons for each hour, Japanese classes are always together for the duration of a school year -- the same students in the same classrooms, all day long -- while teachers come and go each hour to teach lessons. This difference alone is representative of the "individualism" of the U.S. (each student going to his own class on his own schedule) compared to the "group identity" of Japan (all students together as one defined group).

It's hard to come up with an exact list of the issues I have with education here, since nothing is as simple as it looks at first glance. On the one hand, the near-absolute stress on "uniformity" of education, of treating every child as if they were exactly the same, rubs me the wrong way as an American. Japan's top-down education structure, in which almost all cirriculum is decided in Tokyo and followed to the letter from Hokkaido to Okinawa, is somewhat necessary if for no other reason than because of kanji, which has to be learned in a standard order for people to become literate. But what about "special" kids, like my daughter, who is fluent in English? When she enters junior high she'll have to take English along with all the other kids, starting with the phrase "this is a pen," despite the fact that she'll probably know more than the teacher. On the other hand, having students stay together as a cohesive unit for the entire school year teaches students the importance of wa (harmony) and gaman (putting up with things they might not necessarily like), important skills to have in any society. This group- based learning tends to foster lifelong friendships among classmates, too, and my mother-in-law still gets together with the people she went to high school with 50 years ago. (For a good look at how class relationships work, I recommend the excellent Ghibli film Ocean Waves, one of my favorites.) While I've come to see the many standardized tests for subjects like kanji, abacus and even penmanship as a positive force on kids -- my son really wants to pass the next level of the Step test, and this motivates him to study his English -- I am fearful of the effect of the dreaded entrance exams on my kids. Also, Japan's education system relies too much on facts and too little on overall understanding. My wife can tell you what date the Kamakura Shogunate was founded (1192, which the Japanese memorize using the phrase ii kuni o tsukuro or "let's make a good country"), but generally can't explain how it was important to Japan's history as a whole.

I've undertaken many areas of study in my quest to understand Japan from as many angles as possible. I've hitchhiked from one end of the country to the other, meeting various people along the way. I've toured hundreds of kilometers on my bicycle, explored Japan's culture of onsen bathing in a dozen prefectures, and learned (or tried to learn) traditional calligraphy. I've delved into Japan's manga culture, from true works of literature by Osamu Tezuka to the lighter offerings of more contemporary mangaka (manga artists). I even went through a phase when I wanted to study Japanese literature, exploring the classics of the Meiji and Taisho eras using a book intended for junior high school students (much more approachable for me). I enjoyed reading through some excellent books, like Kokoro by Souseki Natsume (the tragic story of a love triangle between two friends and a landlady's daughter, told from several points in the story) and the short stories of Dazai and Akutagawa. One day I got it in my head to read my favorite novel, Flowers for Algernon, in Japanese, which was a bizarre experience -- in places where Charlie makes spelling mistakes in the English edition, he makes kanji errors in the Japanese version. Hemmingway also translates very nicely into Japanese.

Do you want to help J-List evangelize its unique brand of Japanese pop culture? Got a website? If so, we hope you'll consider joining the Friends of J-List, our affiliate program set up to help give back to people who link to us. The program is excellent, with many ways to link to either the J-List or JBOX.com websites using graphics (hosted by us, so there's not even a bandwidth cost to you), text links, category links, and more. Go here for more information!

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.

	Sabra 008 11th May 2006. New issue of Sabra, which comes out every other week, in case you're wondering why it shows up so often.
	Wind Of Ebenbourg - 2 Disk Box Set. Nice "H" anime with good art and beautiful maid themes. Ah, maid themes...
	Hip! Step! Jump! -- Nozomi Araki. Super cute photobook featuring Nozomi Araki's beautiful photos.
	Ace -- Misaki. Sexy new debut release from Soft on Demand. I am quite taken with the eyes on this girl.
	Dreaming Maid Mansion (region 2). More fun with maids in this release from Moodyz.
	The 47 Ronin Story. We do like to bring works of literature, since there's so much good stuff available. Here's a great read from Japan's past.
	Laquerd "Housenka" Sandals w/Purple Flower Hanao. New variety of "geta" sandals for our female readers. Love the look of these.
	Chu Totoro *Blue* Finger Puppet. More cute Totoro finger puppet plush action.
	Doraemon Kubrick -- Medicom Toy. A nice toy from Kubrick, the famous Japanese toy company. Cute Doraemon, Nobita and Doraemon's time machine (the stource of many adventures in this show).
	Blush 1. Gorgeous artwork in this new release from Maya Miyazaki, one of our favorite artists.
	Slip "S" Manga Collection. Manga is a part of the Japanese, that's for sure. Here's a breathtakingly beautiful color manga for you.
	Manmo Soft Vynil Figure -- Gyatles ~ Hiru no Sougen no Manmo. Gyatles is, like, this 1970s anime that I vaguely remember. It's really cool, and this Manmo (Mammoth) large figure is one of the most amazing things that's crossed my desk in a while.
	Geisha "Kasane" Purse -- Red. A really nice looking bag that's made from chirimen, the fabric kimonos are made from. And the price is very attractive,
	Ninja Wrist Band ~ Navy Blue. These are cool, although I can't say what good they are. It looks like we'll sell out quickly so we'll get more in stock as fast as we can.
	Ninja Shinobi Choker -- Shuriken. More fun for secret ninjas, this is a new choker with a ninja weapon on it.
	Kitty Lunch Belt w/ Puppy *Poodle*. Lock down your bento with this bento belt.
	Thomas Bento Box -- Thomas & Friends. Thomas the Tank Engins is very popular in Japan, and this is a great and very rare item for collectors.

Took the kids to McDonald's, which I dislike a lot less now that you can order a "shaker salad" instead of french fries. McD, which has been having to reinvent itself in Japan as well as elsewhere, has started making ebi, er, shrimp products, like a new Shrimp McSomething (some kind of chicken fillet with shrimp substituted, I forgot the name) and the new Shrimp McNuggets, pictured here.

One of the sad things about the Japanese is, they're not that charitable. It's hard to see, but this Donald McDonald Foundation (yes, Ronald's name is Donald here, deal) is filled with 1 yen coins.

They have these cool video games kids get to play for free (with purchase), which spit out trivia cards. One of the questions was, what is maneki neko called in English? "Lucky Cat" sounds so funny to the Japanese.

So, we're driving in our MPV, enjoying out navi system, as they're called here. Somehow, the computer seems to know when traffic is slowing, and it colored our road red for us. How does it know to do that?

Technology is sure amazing.

Being fixated on Japanese, bittersweet themes in anime, and my recent culture shock

When you spend many hours focusing on something, whether it's building a model train set or learning a foreign language, it's natural to get a little obsessive over it. I've known many gaijin students of Japanese who had favorite kanji characters that they especially liked to write, a slogan or poem or proverb they were fond of, and so on. One Japanese word I myself like is setsunai (set-tsoo-NAI), translatable as painful, lonely, wistful, or heartrending. It describes the deliciously bittersweet blending of sorrow and happiness that's quite common in many Japanese stories. Enka, the traditional music of Japan that's similar to American Country music in some ways, often deals with such tear-jerking themes as crossing the Tsugaru Straits between Honshu to Hokkaido in the ferry to search for your lost love, longing to return to one's furusato (hometown), etc. Artistically beautiful stories of sorrow can be found in anime, too, like the melodramatic tales of Leiji Matsumoto (Space Cruiser Yamato or Galaxy Express 999), and of course the classic A Dog of Flanders. Another anime that uses setsunai emotions to tell a great tale is Maison Ikkoku, the story of university ronin Godai's long battle to win the love of Kyoko Otonashi, whose husband Soichiro died leaving a hole in her heart. When Godai finally finishes college and finds a job, he's finally able to propose to Kyoko...

Godai: "Please marry me. I'll never do anything to make you cry. Give the remainder of your life...to me."
Kyoko (after an agonizingly long pause): "Make me one promise. Please...even if it's just for one day...live longer than me. I could never be alone like that again."

(Peter reminds himself to write that "Everything I needed to know about Japan I learned from watching Maison Ikkoku" post...)

You'd think after living in Japan for fifteen years, I'd be pretty immune to culture shock. But when I went with my daughters Girl Scout troop on their annual barbecue yesterday, I had more than my share of surprises. Besides the usual types of meat or sausages, a "barbecue" in Japan can include bean sprouts, eggplant, cabbage, yakisoba noodles and even seafood like scallops. While we were doing the cooking, I was mortified to see the other mothers pull out a bag of squid and plunk the contents down on the grill next to the beef we were grilling, so that the juices ran together -- as an added bonus, there was a sardine that had apparently been in the squid's stomach, that they also grilled that too. Not exactly your average American BBQ experience. Then it was time for S'Mores, or as they call them in Japan, Some Mores, for reasons of simplicity. These were S'Mores with a cultural twist: since there are no graham crackers to be found in Japan, we made them with Saltines. In addition to the standard white marshmallows, one of the mothers had brought along...coffee flavored marshmallows! It all went very well with the dark chocolate they had prepared.

You often hear about Japan being a place divided into in-groups (uchi) and out-groups (soto), and foreigners here generally have the image of not really being accepted into society -- the term gaijin literally means "outsider" after all. I often wonder if this is really true, though. My own theory is that language determines about 70% of how we interact with others, and if the average person could converse in his own language naturally with someone from another culture, he'd generally treat the person as he would want to be treated. I certainly didn't feel like an outsider as I talked with the other mothers in Girl Scouts about our kids, and a friend of my son's spent several years in the States and speaks English perfectly, making him just like any other American boy even though he's Japanese. Our city is quite an international one, with 3% of the registered population being foreigners from Brazil and Peru, working in factories or in construction and providing many valuable services in the community, since they're willing to do the so-called "three K" jobs that are kitsui, kitanai, and kiken, meaning hard, dirty and dangerous. There are so many children from South America here that our city has a special elementary school for them where they can learn in Portuguese and Spanish. I'm sure that it seemed like a good idea to teach the children of foreigners working here in their native languages, but to my mind it's a very bad thing: it erects barriers between the local Japanese and the kids from other countries and keeps them from getting to know each other. A much better approach would be to teach all kids in Japanese (this being Japan and all), including kanji, with special classes available to kids that need the extra help in their native languages.

J-List carries dozens of great original T-shirts and hoodies, which feature wacky or aesthetically beautiful Japanese messages, and cute original anime designs, too, like Totoro and Cat Bus. We've received word that the Carolina Blue hoodies we print the Cheshire Totoro designs has been discontinued by the manufacturer. This is just a heads up -- if you like the look of this warm, soft hooded sweatshirt, you might want to pick one up before your size is gone.

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.

	Sweet Goddess -- Mika Kano. Mika Kano is on TV all the time, and she really looks good in this new photobook, her first ever nude.
	Pure Mail - 2 Disc Box Set. A nice erotic anime based on a bishoujo game, this is Pure Mail. I like the love-based H anime myself.
	New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary. If you're a serious student of Japanese, here's a kanji dictionary tha we can recommend.
	Origami Activities. I distinctly remember seeing the book Flying Origami when I was in the third grade, and wondering how the heck anyone could pronounce such a hard word. Origami (ori = fold, gami = paper) is a great hobby to get into, and this book can help.
	Hyper Magic Mirror Box Car ~ Lesbian Version 3. The Magic Mirror videos from SOD and Deep's are always fascinating. In this series they entice women inside and get them to agree to let other women (or their friends) kiss and touch them. Fascinating to see their reactions.
	Hello Kitty CD Case. Why not store your CDs or DVDs in style, with this cool Hello Kitty CD case?
	Japan at a Glance ~ Nihon Marugoto Jiten. Another excellent bilingual book that gives you information on Japan's culture, society and much more, in both languages.
	Totoro *Kazaguruma* Towelket -- 85 x 115cm ~ Pinwheel. New Towelket, a great soft blanket that can be used as a giant towel, or else as a light blanket in the summer.
	Makie Sasaki Figure -- Magister Negi Magi ~ Maho Teacher Negima. Super cute anime figure from Magister Negi Magi, which probably has an official English name, but I'm not sure what it is.
	Tamagotchi ~ Chara-Pucchi. If you like the design of the Tamagotchi characters, we've got a new series of cute soft vinyl toys on the site.
	Laquerd "Housenka" Sandals w/Blue Flower Hanao. New traditional Japanese sandals, made from a single piece of wood and kimono fabric on top.
	Full Box of Candy Sushi (36 Sticks) w/Decoration Box. Sushi lollipops, dude! This is a great idea.
	Ninja Shinobi Choker -- Ying Yang Sword. Release your inner ninja with this cool Shinobi (which literally means "to sneak" and is the nin in ninja) item.
	Keroppi Bento Box w/ Lunch Belt -- Kero Kero Keroppi. Enjoy super cute bento with this Kero Kero Keroppi bento box from Sanrio.

Our barbecue was a lot of fun, except for the squid. I guess most people don't associate barbecues with chopsticks?

After eating, we worked off some calories playing dodgeball.

Then it was time to add the calories back. Here are the fixins for the S'Mores, which (in case you're not from the States and are reading this) are a magical treat from America consisting of graham crackers, a toasted marshmallow and melted milk chocolate. About 800 calories per serving...

Coffee marshmallow.

The toasting commences.

This one came out the best. Really, the chocolate and marshmallow are so sweet, there's no great loss from the lack of graham cracker. But still, it's a bit like not having spaghetti sauce and substituting ketchup.

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.