All about our bath in Japan, the concept of Japanese-style "trust," and what's up with Vermont Curry?

Bathing is very important in Japan, and almost all Japanese take time to enjoy a slow bath at the end of the day, which provides time to reflect on recent events or enjoy some "skinship" with the kids, two things that can be lacking in modern society. When we built our Japanese house, we chose a "unit bath" with a nifty computer that fills up the tub with the push of a button. You can set the bath to fill up at a certain time or change the temperature of the bath, or push the "extra full" button when you're especially tired and want a really good soak. Unfortunately our bath computer broke recently (it kept turning on spontaneously and running all night in parody of The Sorcerers Apprentice), so we had to get a new one installed. After the work was done, I asked my wife how much it cost. "I don't know, I didn't ask about money. I left it up to the man K-san sent, and knew it would be okay."

This brings us to one of the concepts I really like about Japan, shinyo (SHEEN'yoh, meaning "trust"), a wonderful idea that's used on a daily basis here. For ten years we've always used the same contractor, K-san, whenever we wanted to get some work done on our house, like when we "reformed" (renovated) my wife's parents' liquor shop or redid the kids' rooms. We like him because he does good work, and he makes sure his work is always good because he's got our trust. The electricians and carpenters and others who work with him are part of his "trust network" and they make sure they don't ever do wrong by us because it would amount to "smearing mud on the face" of K-san. The trust extends to money, too -- we can be sure that what we're charged probably won't be outside what is reasonable, even when my wife forgets to ask what it will cost beforehand.

"You've been in Japan too long when you no longer find anything amusing about the concept of 'Vermont Curry.'" Although you may think of certain foods like sushi, sashimi, tempura and sukiyaki as popular Japanese dishes, the honorary national food of Japan has got to be curry, or as the Japanese call it, curry rice. Curry spread from India during the 1700s and from there went all around the world, a gift from the British Empire, enjoyed in Japan now more than any other kind of food save rice itself. Japanese curry is thick and delicious, and many companies compete to make the best curry for the marketplace, with products like House The Curry (the Japanese love to add the word "the" to product names), Java Curry, and Vermont Curry, flavored with the mild kiss of Vermont apples, or something like that. One of the rules of curry-eating is, curry takes even better after it's been left to sit out all night, and "second day curry" is heavenly (although my son discovered that "second day Chef Boyardee ravioli" is pretty good, too). Curry is available in many forms in Japan, poured over a fried pork cutlet; as udon noodles in a curry soup, a popular dish from Nagoya; or as curry bread, a doughnut-like ball of bread with curry inside. Unlike countries like India, Thailand and Korea, the Japanese are wimps when it comes to spicy food, and when we order curry in a restaurant I have to ask them to make it spicier.

Remember that J-List sells great products for people who appreciate the aesthetic beauty of kanji, from our wacky Japanese T-shirts
with many lovely or wacky kanji messages to coffee cups
with beautiful kanji calligraphy by Mitsuo Aida to or cool kanji magnets, keychains and patches. You can learn kanji through manga, or learn to write using our many Japanese study aids. Search for cool kanji items on the J-List site!

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 DVD vol. 243 Sep 2006 . New issue of the new Urecco DVD, which gives you a free 2+ hour DVD of video to enjoy.
	Gothloli Collection -- Tina Yuzuki. Ah, another creative way to use the "goth-loli" cosplay boom...
	Japanese Navy Flag Zippo Type Lighter -- Kaigunki. Cool lighters that might be in use by the Japanese Navy. Note: lighters sold empty (since I don't think sending filled lighters through the mail would be that easy).
	Fate Stay Night Trading Figure -- Set of 8 *Full Set + Rare Item*. Oo, these figures are great to look at.
	Wagamama na Karada -- Masa Sato. Beautiful new model in this dynamite photobook. This is an example of the Japanese creating something more erotic than say, a nude woman.
	Nagisa Trip -- Nagisa First photobook. Beautiful first photobook of Nagisa, for your enjoyment.
	View of Dried Fish ~ Himono no Aru Fukei. We've gotten too many beautiful girls at J-List recently. How about a new approach to considering Japan?
	BLT ~ Burning Love Twin. Yaoi fans, we've got lots of nice books for you to read, including this new one, Burning Love Twins.
	Rider Suit Heroine 2. A hentai anthology manga about girls who ride motorcycles and who are invariably chased by "naughty tentacles."
	Totoro Storage Bag (M) -- My Neighbor Totoro. This is cool -- a Totoro storage bag that you can fold up into almost nothing when it's not holding stuff.
	Soft on Demand Presents Jukujo Rice. So, Soft on Demand, having conquored the world in indies adult videos, has brought out the first ever white rice (in a microwaveable container that's ready to eat) branded with their brand. Great for, er, lonely guys. The stunning Mariko Kawano is on the cover.
	Lotte Crunky Walking Bar -- Cereal Mix. New Crunky Walking Bar variety. Mm.
	Doraemon *Dorayaki* Keychain. Hard to explain. Doraemon loves a food called Dorayaki, essentially two little pancakes with anko (sweet bean paste) inside. Here's a plush toy of this that you can actually stick your keys inside, pretty handy.
	Three-Dimensional Lucky Poop Stickers -- Unchi. Ah, more lucky poop stickers, complete with lucky toilet paper stickers.
	Tattoo Shirt -- Irezumi Shirt. Unlock your inner yakuza.
	Virgin Roster . Best-selling dating-sim game by G-Collections.