Looking up when you walk, the Japanese custom of name stamps, and the J-List Year-End Party

I recently talked about how many Japanese professionals from businessmen to musicians to athletes seem to consider succeeding in the U.S. to be the Holy Grail of their respective industry, a kind of cultural Oedipus complex that we non-Japanese can't ever understand. In the case of musicians wanting to make it big in the U.S., many are no doubt hoping to follow in the footsteps of of Kyu Sakamoto, who claimed the coveted #1 spot on the Billboard charts back in 1963. The song was Ue o Mite Ariko, or "I Look Up When I Walk," a cheerful tune about a decidedly un-cheerful topic, a man dealing with heartbreak. It was released in the U.S. as the Sukiyaki song, even though it has nothing to do with my favorite Japanese winter dish, and defied all expectations by turning into a smash hit despite being sung in the original Japanese language. Back in the days when I had free time (i.e. before starting J-List), I'd sometimes take extended bicycle trips around our prefecture of Gunma, camping along the way, and once I headed out for a remote village called Ueno-mura to explore some caverns I'd heard about there. My wife shuddered when she heard where I was going. "I could never go out there, that's where that plane went down in 1985." She was talking about JAL Flight 123, the terrible crash that claimed the lives of 520 people, including the singer Sakamoto. Sukiyaki remains one of the most famous Japanese songs throughout the world -- I once bumped into my old nisei high school teacher singing it in a restaurant -- and it's been covered many times and in many languages. Here are some you can download in MP3 format.

It wouldn't be much fun if your job was to stamp documents all day long, but as usual everything works differently in Japan, and they take the idea of stamping documents very seriously. While signatures are the accepted way of indicating your approval in writing in the West, in Japan and much of Asia you usually use a hanko, or official name stamp that's registered with the city. This custom always strikes gaijin as odd -- after all, what's to stop me from stealing someone's stamp and taking all their money out of the bank? For some reason, you never hear of this happening, partially because for really important transactions you need to go to the local city office and get a document that proves that this stamp is the one that's registered to you, kind of a like a notary public for your stamp. Companies have official stamps, too, and when you order an Apple product your warranty card comes with an eerily cool red stamp that says Apple Computer Inc. on it in katakana and kanji. Japan can be quite a superstitious place, and when my wife made the official J-List hanko stamp she went out of her way to do it on one of the Buddhist "lucky days" (called Taian), paying I don't know how much for a hand carved stamp that would surely bring our company more luck than some "brand X" one.

It's once again time for one of my favorite events of the year, the J-List Bounen-kai, or Year-End Party, in which the entire staff of J-List will gather for good food and drink and will look back on all that we've accomplished this past year. And what a year it's been! Besides filling more than 80,000 orders and hopefully bringing Japan a little closer to you, J-List turned ten years old, which is really a long time when measured in Internet Years -- we're even two years older than Google. This year we've rented a stylish sushi restaurant that specializes in maguro, which is tuna sushi and sashimi, which will no doubt be followed by a hearty dose of karaoke and maybe some good late-night ramen at a little place I know of. We'll be making many a kampai to you, our wonderful customers. Thanks for your support!

In other news, we're happy to announce that our newest blockbuster dating-sim Yin-Yang - X-Change Alternative is in stock and shipping now! An all-new take on Crowd's popular X-Change concept, made by all-new team including scenario writer Q-Tron and artist Nao Tajima (of Eve Burst Error fame), this newest X-Change focuses on Kaoru, a Japanese boy who possesses a unique form of "yin-yang" DNA that's both male and female. When he accidentally drinks a potion that serves as a catalyst, he's surprised to find his body transformed into that of a girl. What bizarre adventures will Kaoru-chan face as he struggles to find a way to return to normal? We're plowing through the many preorders now, and hope you'll pick it up now that it's available!

One lesson I learned soon after coming to Japan was, this is a very seasonal place, with different activities done at different times of the year, and if you miss out on, say, the time for rice cake-making, it won't be back until next year. This statement is meant as a clever segue to tell you that we currently have a huge number of great2007 Japanese calendars, including anime (Ghibli, Negima), JPOP (Gackt, Ayumi Hamasaki), traditional (bento, sushi, kanji calligraphy calendars), beautiful Japanese idols (Yuko Ogura, Yua Aida) and more. But they're going to go fast, and then they'll be gone, like so many sakura petals scattered in the wind. Just a week ago we had more than 200 different calendars in stock, and now we're down to 150 or so now as they sell out and are removed from the site. Why not go through our calendar pages and pick out what you want to have on your wall next year?

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.

	WoMP!! Womp! A wacky magazine of beautiful nude women that comes with a DVD.
	Yin-Yang! X-Change Alternative. We're extremely glad to have this game finally out and shipping -- and it is really a special game, one of the best Crowd has ever released.
	robot 7 -- Super Color Comic. Range Murata and his 18 other artists are at it again with a new issue of Robot, the best book you can buy if you want to see the cutting edge of Japan's manga and illustration culture. Fabulous color and art throughout.
	No. 1 Cabaret Club Hostess -- Kaede Matsushima. This is a rarity -- a JAV star I love is actually one of the top sellers. How often does that happen?
	C-372 Cybertron *Star Convoy* -- Return of Convoy ~ Takara Transformer Retro DX Series. This is a really cool giant Transformers toy that moves with battery power -- wow!
	Kousaka Tamaki *Black Bikini Ver.* 1/7 Scale Figure -- To Heart 2. Dynamite bishoujo anime figure from Kotobukiya, the best company out there as far as I'm concerned.
	New Post Coin Bank -- Red. A rare item from a UFO Catcher machine, this is a coin bank (I hate the word "piggy bank" since they're not pig-shaped) that looks like a Japanese post office.
	Kitty Gold Lucky Netsuke -- Turtle & Koban. The Japanese version of the Biblical phrase "pearls before swine" is "neko ni koban" or cold coins before a cat -- making this a pretty deep concept product.
	Lotte IQ Supplement Gum. Gum that makes you smarter?
	Ryofu Housen *School Uniform* 1/8 Scale Figure -- Ikki Tousen. Have you seen Ikkitousen? It's nothinig but panty shots and girls fighting. Which means I love it.
	Hot Pot (Nikomi) Ramen -- Soy Sauce Flavor. Peter's 2nd favorite dish is this ramen from Nagatanien. My first favorite is sukiyaki.
	Hello Kitty Mini Tote Bag ~ Black. Carry your stuff with this Hello Kitty tote bag.
	Strawberry & Cucumber Sauce Bottle. You don't usually hear "strawberry and cucumber" together like that.
	Sakura Key Met. Beautify your keys.

How Japan's writing system works, a summary of the past few years in kanji, and Japanese learning to deal with "hen na gaijin"

Kanji (KAHN-gee), the Chinese characters that the Japanese use to express most words in writing, is fascinating to Westerners because they're so unlike the Occidental way of doing things. Kanji may be meaningless to the untrained eye -- I've always liked looking at Van Gogh's copies of famous ukiyo-e paintings, wondering what thoughts went through his mind as he tried to replicate the kanji strokes in his own work -- but of course there's a lot more to kanji that's not immediately apparent. First, the characters are organized into groups based on meaning, with "radicals" (parts of the kanji, usually the left, top or bottom segments) giving a clue about the meaning. For example, words related to speaking, reading and recording of information have a unified part on the left that looks like a stack of books, and words like sea, fish, wave, and steam all share the same left portion which means "water." When you need to look up a character in a kanji dictionary there are three ways to do it: by the pronounciation (not so good as some sounds can be written with dozens of different characters); by the overall number of strokes it takes to write (tedious when trying to find a complex character with 20+ strokes); or by what radical it's written with (the recommended method). Of course this being Japan, there's one and only one correct way to write a given kanji, and children who don't follow the exact stroke order will get points marked off on their tests -- although in reality, no one writes kanji properly once they get out into the real world, and styles differ widely, just like handwriting variations in the West.

One cool thing about kanji is the way it can promote an idea with a picture, create an emotional response with a single image, something we have tried to capture with our line of original Japanese themed T-shirts. Every year the Japan Kanji Foundation, the organization that promotes regular testing of kanji skills to encourage students to study harder, holds a contest to choose one Kanji of the Year, the one character that best sums up the events of the past twelve months. It's quite an interesting way to look back at years past and reflect on what has gone before. Previous Kanji of the Year have included ai (愛, love, 2005) because of the Expo held in Aichi Pref. and the popular drama Train Man, the story of an anime otaku who finds love with a beautiful woman he meets on a train; wazawai (災, disaster, 2004) after the destruction of the quake in Niigata and far worse disaster in the Indian Ocean; ki (帰, homecoming, 2002), to commemorate the five abductees who returned from North Korea; and ikusa (戦, war, 2001), from the terrible events of that year. The Kanji of the Year for 2006 has been chosen, and it is....inochi (命), a word meaning life, in the sense of precious life, a thing to be treasured, in response to both good events (the birth of a new Imperial Heir) and very sad ones (the horrific number of ijime-inspired suicides by young people that has plagued Japan this year).

The Japanese have been dealing with gaijin for 153 years now, but it seems that they'll never get used to our strange ways. We do things like wearing bathroom slippers while standing on a train platform, riding mountain bikes with those funny helmets on, driving our "open cars" with the top down in December, sleeping in the tokonoma, the recessed part of a Japanese room that's used for displaying objects d'art, and buying chrysanthemums, a flower usually reserved for putting on gravestones, as a token of love for our wives. Although some Japanese think there are a lot of foreigners in Japan, I find this quaint, since only around 1.5% of the population of Japan comes from elsewhere, compared with 9% or more in Germany, and that figure includes a large number of Japan-born Koreans who choose not to take Japanese citizenship although they could easily do so. Of course, people aren't evenly distributed over the landscape, and there are communities in which the foreign population has clumped together enough to alter the local culture, such as the nearby town of Oizumi, where around 20% of residents are Brazilians, including many of Japanese descent. As the 21st Century progresses, I think Japan is going to have to take a long, hard look at its homogeneous traditions and learn to embrace alternative ways of doing things.

Remember that J-List is hiring! We've still got two open positions in our office in San Diego. J-List is a company that values an interest in Japan, working hard to satisfy our customers, and having a lot of fun along the way. If you're interested in reading more, see the link on the left of the J-List and JBOX.com websites.

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.

	Blue -- Yua Aida. Yua Aida is far and away my favorite adult video star in Japan these days. She's happy, bright, cheerful, sexy, and is shaped like Japanese women really are shaped.
	Futagami - God of Futanari. When H-manga artist Fusen Club (Balloon Club) named this work, he was really inspired. It is truly the God of Futanari.
	Fruits No. 111 Oct 2006. Fruits continues to delight, bringing Tokyo's hip fashion world to you. These are some more individual issues.
	Midnight Seminar 1 ~ Mayonaka Seminar 1. An etertaining manga about a very lucky guy and a beautiful teacher at a night school.
	Yuutsu na Gakuen - School of Melancholy. If you haven't seen Haruhi Suzumiya, I hope you're planning on it, as it's the only anime series deep enough that Nitche would approve of it. Or something like that.
	Totoro Mini Check Stamp Set -- Set of 9. Cool new OTtoro stamp set for the site.
	Glico Pretz -- French Toast Flavor. New flavor of Pretz for all you Canadian Maple Syrup loving types.
	Rilakkuma DX Bento Box Set. Cool bento set with everything you need.
	Sukeban Deka 80's Yoyo & Iron Mask Set. Cool item for fans of a classic TV show.
	Kitty Accessory Case -- Set of 3. Cool little containers to put all your little stuff in, from jewelry to SD cards.
	Symphony Music Box -- Jiji *Kiki's Delivery Service* ~ Ghibli Orgel Collection. Great electronic music boxes featuring Totoro and Jiji the cat.
	PSE Products #04 UJ14 -- 1/8 Scale PVC Figure ~ Range Murata. Another home run for Range Murata, who is bringing his incredible artwork to the three dimensional world.
	Beck Guitar Collection -- Set of 9 *Full Set*. BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad is a popular anime and manga about what else? Rock music. And now you can own the killer guitars from the series.
	Authentic Japanese Super Loose Socks ~ 120 cm Looking for authentic loose socks from Japan, the kind high schools wear? Look no further!
	Japonica Japanese Practice Notebook (8 squares) Another item near to my heart which I'm glad to be able to make available now. I remember driving up to Little Tokyo to find these things since you couldn't get them anywhere else, back then.

We're, ahem, a little busy these days, okagesama-de. This is Monday's invoices from Japan only. Hope you're having a nice holiday season so far ^_^

Thoughts on my father and Buddhism, the Mac-PC connection with being bilingual, and our cute American, Japanese daughter

Sunday was my father's meinichi, the anniversary of the day he died nine years ago (although Japanese are always puzzled that we use a happy-sounding word like "anniversary" to describe this). Peter Rowland Payne was an engineer who created many things in his 70 years on Earth, including high-speed boats and hydrofoils, early crash-test dummies, VTOL aircraft, and not least of all, me! (Thanks, Dad.) Although Japan blends many different religious traditions as they see fit, drawing on Shinto for baby naming ceremonies and prayers for happiness on New Year's Day, and Christian themes for that special "white wedding," at the end of the day it's a very Buddhist country. Japanese Buddhism, at least the Nichiren sect that my wife and mother belong to, tends to be focused on one's ancestors, your mother and father and those who came before them, and there are many ceremonies or daily customs that let the dead know they've not been forgotten, from burning a stick of incense at the Buddhist altar in the morning to visiting the family grave on a person's meinichi. Here's to my Dad, much loved and not forgotten!

I bought my son one of those spiffy new iMacs that can run Mac OS X and also function as a full PC for Windows-only applications and games. (Aside, if you're a Star Wars fan and haven't played Battlefront I and II, you don't know what you're missing). While taking our weekend dip in the local onsen bath my son and I were talking about how a bilingual individual's personality can change depending on which language he's using -- my own Japanese-speaking "self" is quite different from my American side, even capable of inadvertently bowing to the other party while speaking on the phone. My 11-year-old son agreed. "When I speak English, I'm one way," he observed, "but when I switch to Japanese, everything changes inside." It was, he concluded, a lot like his iMac booting from Mac to Windows. Intrigued, I had to ask him which language was Mac and which was Windows, and he answered that the Japanese side of his brain was like Windows because there are more rules, virus software you have to run and so on, but the English side is like the Mac because it's more "free." Interesting.

I wonder about my daughter sometimes, though. If my son has a dual-booting OS with Japanese and English sides, my daughter seems to be American all the way. The Japanese Ministry of Education is trying to be more effective at teaching Japanese kids English, so now all Elementary School kids get a few hours a week with a native speaker AET. Despite having 40 of her non-bilingual class- mates surrounding her, my daughter has no problem with conversing naturally with this teacher, a very un-Japanese attitude to have. One important mechanism in society here is enryo (EN-ryoh), which means to avoid doing things that will inconvenience others, and deferring to those who are older than you. But my daughter regularly does the impossible, turning kids who are older than her (and thus, her senpai) into friends, treating them as if they were the same age and thus eliminating the barrier between them. This is a rarity in Japan, a country where you use (slightly) more polite language when talking to someone who is your senior. She makes friends with kids she doesn't know, too, and when she was smaller and took baths with us in the men's onsen, my son and I would watch and see how long it would take her to organize the other kids in the bath and start playing games together. While there are occasional issues of "TPO" (a convenient Japanese word which means "time, place, occasion"), my wife and I totally support my daughter's desire to be an American girl in Japan.

Remember that J-List is loaded to the gills with great 2007 calendars printed for the domestic market, but available to you through us. The calendars feature large, poster-sized pages with gorgeous glossy printing, and they're a great way to bring a bit of Japan into your year. We've posted new stock of some of our most popular calendars, including Yuko Ogura, Bleach, Naruto, Evangelion, Rozen Maiden and this year's smash hit, Domo-kun! Why not browse our calendar selection now and find some great items for you or those on your gift-giving list this year?

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 25 -- nao.. Nao. (she writes her name in lower case with a period at the end, Morning Musume. style) looks might good in this new issue of Karami.
	Genkai DNA - Limit DNA -- Yoko Matsugane. Yoko Matsugane is one hot lady, and we've gotten her hot photobook in.
	Shoxx Jan 2007 vol. 167. New issue of Shoxx for the website, for J-Rock types out there.
	Mejiri -- Naomi Miyaji. Great new release in the Mejiri ("ass of woman") series from Alice Japan.
	Japanese T-shirt - Soot Sprite (Fitted Girl's T). New Soot Sprite (aka Makkuro Kurosuke) T-shirt for girls.
	*Black* iPod Dock Speaker -- Elecom. Black version of the iPod dock with speaker. Cool.
	Buri Kitty Plush Doll -- Robot Three-Colored Cat. What would Hello Kitty look like if she were a calico three-colored cat? Now you know.
	Feena Fam Earthlight 1/8 Scale Figure -- Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na. Really nice figure from a popular game in Japan. How do they make these things look so good?
	Lotte Crunky -- Vanilla White. When normal Crunky is not weird-sounding enough for you, there's Vanilla White.
	Hana-Usagi Noren -- Navy. Noren (NOH-ren) are curtains you hang in doorways to add a touch of Japan to any home. This is a really nice one.
	Totoro DX Wooden Ball Pen w/ Case. Okay, there are some cool things in this world, but this is definitely one of them! An all natural wood Totoro pen with matching case. Wow!
	Nagakaku Bento Box -- Beige *Strawberry* ~ Yumeji Takehisa Series. New styles of Bento Boxes abound.
	Rei Tachibana PVC Figure -- Pani Poni Dash ~ Wafudo. Delightfully naughty PVC figure of Rei Tachibana from the wacky anime series Pani Pony Dash.
	Kitty Telephone Style Clock -- Brown. Is this not cool? A retro Hello Kitty telephone style alarm clock.