Comparing cars in Japan and America, culture shock I get in my home country, and Americans don't like to say "goodbye"

Japan and the U.S. are very different places, and the cars that people choose to drive are different, too. In the U.S. the top-selling cars tend to be sedans like Civic (#1) or Camry (#3) or larger vehicles like Toyota's RAV4 (#9) or the Chevrolet Tahoe (#10). The top selling cars in Japan are usually small and stylish, often of the type known as "one box" (basically, boxy hatchbox cars), like the Suzuki WagonR (#1), the Daihatsu Move (#2) or the Honda Fit (#4), all very stylish cars that are marketed to hip young people who want to buy an inexpensive car but still have something fun to drive or pimp out. These cars tend to be "K" class vehicles, meaning that they have engines of 1000 cc or smaller, making them very fuel efficient -- the standard-gasoline WagonR gets 47 mpg/21 kpl, not bad at all. Besides the obvious fuel savings, another reason people are buying more efficient cars is that Japan's road taxes are set up to encourage them. Drivers of vehicles with large engines would pay a "road tax" of almost $1000 every year, but drivers of "K" cars pay around $60. Not all cars on the roads in Japan are small and efficient, of course, and you can see a huge range, from BMWs to the really big Land Cruisers, and even a surprising number of Cadillacs and Jeep Cherokees on the roads. But it's nice to have a choice.

Because I live outside the U.S. and only come back to visit a few times a year, it's interesting to see what changes I notice. During the 15 years I've lived in Japan, I've often been on the receiving end of culture shock in my own home country, feeling like Rip Van Winkle, or perhaps his Japanese counterpart, Urashima Taro. When I went to Japan, it was not that common for manufacturers to print Spanish or French on their products, but then one year I came back home and bam, every package was shouting New! Nuevo! Nouveau! at me. Back in 1991, you completed a credit card transaction by signing a piece of paper, but overnight (from my point of view, anyway), everyone went and got those computer terminals you sign on directly. Today we ate dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours, Gaetano's Pizza in Tierrasanta, one of the few businesses to change very little over the past 30 years (despite Walmart, etc.), and I noticed that the sign had been replaced since the last time I'd been there, something I probably wouldn't have spotted if I'd been seeing it on a daily basis.

Something about living in another country makes a person think introspectively about themselves. The features that make Americans Americans and French French are collectively called kokiminsei" in Japan, translatable as national personality." Basically, this word refers to the list of traits that people from a certain groups tend to share, some of which are certainly stereotypical but which may nevertheless be largely accurate. When I started J-List back in 1996, I started tapering off my ESL teaching, saying goodbye to my students as J-List grew to devour all my waking hours of free time. One school I taught at held a party for me, with karaoke and all the trimmings. Afterwards, I got a ride home with one of my students, an interesting lady in her 40s who was studying English because she wanted to live abroad for a few years. "Well," I said as we neared my house, "I'll see you later." "No, you won't," she replied. "A person has the same number of 'sayonaras' in their lives as first meetings, and we won't see each other again. But please be 'genki' in your future life." For some reason, being told "goodbye" in such absolute terms was more honesty than I was used to, and I was somewhat unsettled by her words. It seemed to me that Americans (or at least, this particular American) tended to substitute light-hearted parting words ("see you later") even when this clearly wasn't the case. Maybe we as a people don't like to say goodbye?

Remember that X-Change 3, the excellent dating-sim game by Crowd, is in stock and shipping now. One of the most popular interactive "H" game series ever, the X-Change trilogy follows the life and times of poor Takuya, who has a habit of changing from male to female at various points in his life. If you haven't ordered the third chapter in the series, we hope you will, as it's one of the best games Crowd has done in a long time. Of course, all our PC dating-sims are fully translated into English and mosaic-free, so you can enjoy everything about the story. Why not browse our game selection now?

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Gokuh vol. 175 Feb. 2006 Ah, always love Gokuh, which is one of the best classy nude magazines in Japan.
	Twenty Years Old Eyes -- Hitomi Kitamura Hitomi Kitamura is a lovely thing to behold, and her body is just amazing (and of course, all natural).
	Continuing Whale Shower --- Mana Youki Whale Shower is a popular fetish in Japan, and with a lovely girl like this, I can see why.
	REGGAE Dance Style vol. 02 This is rather interesting -- stylish, hot dancing girls getting down on the floor. Very sexy dancing with nudity.
	Flare and Pleated Mini - Jun Seto Hehe, Shinkosha is back with another elegant leg fetish work, and this time they ups the ante with pleated skirts that flare out so prettily. Man, they know how to push our buttons.
	Innocent -- Shizuka Kondo Shizuka Kondo is a lovely creature from Japan, and you can enjoy her new glossy photobook, on the site now.
	Infernal Boys I am playtesting the 2nd Yaoi game we'll be releasing, so I've got quite a lot of yaoi on the brain. Anyway, here's our latest yaoi manga.
	Tokyo no Kocchigawa This is quite cool, a collection of "a day in the life of Tokyo" style pictures, from festivals to normal people doing normal things.
	Sushi Candle *A* -- Toro, Uni & Ika Sushi candle -- a bunch of sushi that you can light as a candle! Wow!
	Neko Bus Planter --Tonari no Totoro More Totoro planters, great for anyone with a garden who wants a very special addition to it. This is the Cat Bus.
	Secret Love Secret Love is a charming H manga about an H manga artist, who seems to be writing himself into his own stories.
	1086 Kodama Figure -- White *Standing* Nice, nice Kodama figure, a popular character from Princess Mononoke. We love to sell these special Hayao Miyazaki products.
	Folding Fan for Display -- Hanaguruma This is a really nice fan for displaying anywhere. Gold leaf, very pretty.
	Hello Kitty High School Bag -- Dark Blue Hello Kitty school bag. Take Kitty-chan to school with you.
	Morinaga Bake -- Chocolate I wish I were in Japan right now so I could eat this. A tasty chocolate snack for you.
	Umino Kuma Plush Keychain -- Orange ~ Honey & Clover This is...cute? You will have to be the judge, of course. Kind of too cute to be called cute.
	Tatami Pillow for Nap -- Red Dragonfly Another tatami pillow, great for taking a nap on a lazy afternoon.

Pictures of the Miata run. It was a lot of fun, although no matter how I cranked the Initial D soundtracks, it didn't transport me back to Mt. Akagi.

A gaggle of Miatas.

Went to a newphew's birthday party. He was ten. If he were Japanese I'd make a job about him being tensai which means "ten years old" but also "genius" (therefore, everyone who is ten years old is very smart).

My newest nephew Nick wasn't the birthday boy, but he was the star of the show.

"So, why does this guy keep speaking Japanese to me?"

That was quite a good picture. Nick has five brothers and sisters so he will never be alone, even when I'm back in Japan.

Heh, we asked Joey, the birthday boy in question, if he had any profound wisdom to pass on to little Nick. He said: "All I know is, that in ten years of life, I've never learned what the word 'profound' means."

The value of spending a year abroad, various definitions of "bilingual," and observations on Japanese females

If you ever find yourself in the position of giving guidance to a young person, try to turn them onto the idea of spending a year outside their home country, preferably as an exchange student in college. Dorothy was right -- there's nothing that can make you realize that "there's no place like home" than going away for a while and learning to deal with the differences found in other countries on a day-to-day basis. Just taking a trip for a week or two doesn't seem to do the trick -- you have to spend a few months or a year to get the full effect. Since I'm back in San Diego now, everything from Mexican food to Pop Tarts to Peter Pan peanut butter seems a little more precious to me than before I first went to Japan so long ago. Last night I pulled a Bud Lite out of the fridge and savored it slowly, just because I could -- there are hundred other beers I'd rather be drinking, but because you can only get Bud Light in the U.S. of A., it was somehow more special to me. I had the same experience when I lived for a year in New Zealand as a boy -- I remember when the first Pizza Hut in Aukland opened in 1976, and we cried tears of joy to eat something familiar from back home.

The concept of being "bilingual" in a language is an interesting one. After four years of studying at SDSU and fifteen years of living in Japan, I'm as bilingual as I could ever need to be -- I can discuss various subjects, read a newspaper, and so on. But no matter how much you study a language, there's always an undiscovered linguistic country waiting around the corner, a new aspect of the language that can throw you. My father was a nautical engineer, designing high-speed boats and writing books on the theory of marine dynamics, and once he asked me to translate a patent he had created, which was certainly an interesting journey into a bizarre world of arcane kanji and Japanese grammatical structures. Contracts are another highly specialized area of the language, with some features that are no doubt left over from ancient China. For example, when dealing with a contract in Japanese, you quickly become familiar with two kanji, koh (甲) and otsu (乙), which in Japanese law signify the concepts "your" company/entity, and "ours."

The subject of the Japanese female (feminas japonesas) is quite a complex one, and if I should ever find that I am immortal, I might have enough time to pen a book on the subject. I've known quite a few Japanese females in my day, between girls I've dated, students I've taught and my wife, and have come up with some general observations. First of all, Japanese females are usually so organized it's scary, and I've observed female friends whip out little diary books and set a time to meet a month or more in the future. This tendency towards organization is a big plus when managing the household finances, and if you ever marry a Japanese woman, by all means take advantage of this and let her handle the family's savings. Whereas most guys will not split hairs when dividing a restaurant check, I've known Japanese women to meticulously calculate the correct division down to the nearest penny, making sure that no one overpays. Most all Japanese females are constipated, no doubt since they eat so much rice (although they will deny that there is a connection). Finally, I've noticed that a high number of Japanese females have bizarre fetishes, like the urge to pull a man's whiskers out of his face by the roots with tweezers, or an obsessive-compulsive desire to make sure their boyfriend/ husband's ear canals are completely free of wax.

We've got two job openings at our San Diego location, for an experienced T-shirt silk-screener and a general order fulfillment assistant. If you're in the San Diego area and are interested in helping J-List spread our unique brand of Japanese pop culture, we hope you'll apply! For more info see this page (T-shirt printer) or this page (order fulfillment assistant).

A big shout-out to Playboy today, who plugged J-List's extensive line of Japanese snacks in their current issue -- thanks! Some J-List readers will note that we don't currently have some of the items shown in the picture in the magazine, like chocolate Pocky or Green Tea Kit Kat. Because summer in Japan is so hot and humid, we're forced to remove some chocolate items, or they'd turn into so much Melty Kiss, but we'll have these items and many more for you in September, when things start to cool down.

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.

	Mecha Ii -- Syo Nishino ~ The Catcher in the Room - Sho Nishino Mmmm, Sho Nishino... (I'm meditating on how good she looks)
	Miko Collection 4 Hours For all those who have developed a fetish for Shinto shrine maidens, here is your DVD.
	Bomb ~ Misako Yasuda Trading Card 2 Misako Yasuda continues to thrill, a truly gorgeous swimsuit idol from Japan. Here are her newest trading cards.
	Love Letter -- Honoka Honoka is a lovely example of Japanese women (today's topic). This is her new photobook offering.
	Final Fantasy VII Advent Children - Reunion Files New art book for FF7AC fans. Very nice illustrations throughout.
	Shutsugen! Photomo ~ It's Arrived! "Photomo" Photographic Models A guy who takes old pictures of Showa-era Tokyo and cuts them out, creating 3-D recreations.
	Hourei -- Ourei Harada Ourei Harada, you truly are a national treasure for Japan. Here is her latest DVD release.
	Lesbian Triangle A new lesbian release featuring a love triangle of three gorgeous gals.
	Izumi Sawatari 1/6 Scale Figure -- He is my master A super cute figure from He Is My Master, for the "moe" (mo-EH, I can't type the slash correctly because EG Bridge Universal has taken over the option+8 key on my MacBook) crowd.
	Sleeping Totoro w/ Mei Planter I *love* these cool Totoro planters, and hope we can get more for you. These are the coolest things imaginable for Ghibli fans. Click the link and see the Ohmu one we have on the site too -- it's basically a planter that's a dead Ohmu carcass from Nausicaa, such a cool idea!
	Kimono Netsuke -- Fuku ~ Yellow More fun netsuke from Japan, featuring kimono themes and colors.
	Tomica Limited Porsche 356 / 911S -- Set of 4 Want to own four Porsche legends? Here is your chance, thanks to the Tomica line.
	Kyoto Doll ~ Small -- Gion Yuzen A new Kyoto Doll for the site. Very traditional and kawaii.
	Crefer -- Maple Custard Delicious Maple Custard cookies. I am weak when it comes to products with the word "custard" in them.
	Instant Green Tea Powder Cool! Green tea powder, aka matcha powder, which has many uses (I recommend you sprinkle it on vanilla ice cream, yum).
	Dots -- The Legend of Zelda Legend of Zelda Dots -- woo hoo! Build your own graphics from the game, or create new variations.
	Tatami Pillow for Nap -- Navy Kasuri Take a nap with this handy tatami pillow, which is made of real igusa grass. Sounds like something out of The Lorax, doesn't it?
	Gamakuchi Coin Purse -- Gold Fish A handy way to hold your money, with cool Japanese patterns on the outside.
	Classic Pocket Purse -- Dragonfly This is cool too, a cloth purse that holds your paper money and coins, just like they used to use back in Old Edo.

During the show we hit a supermarket, one we always hit in Anaheim. I just had to get my camera out.

I mean, they have marketing in Japan too, of course, but I'm not generally overwhelmed as much as I was in this store, which had tons of PotC stuff in my face, big time.

Another thing you don't see, pricing structured in a way to make you buy more. Which may explain why Japanese people are thinner than us...

This struck me as extremely cheesy for some reason.

I'll have to do a post on ceral one of these days. America, of course, has as many varieties of cereal as there are species of insects in the Amazon basin, give or take. Japan has, like, 8 varieties, if that. This is my all time favorite ceral, Sugar Corn Pops.

Another product name that wouldn't fly in Japan...

They had Lotte Choco Pie! We had to get some of this and eat it with our Romulan Ale (Vodka + Blue Kool Aid). I hate to say it but the consistency was quite different from what is sold in Japan -- the only way I can say is, it seemed to be firmer inside, like, containing more lard. But they were good.