NOVA goes "nova," the latest trends in women dressed up as men, and little "incompatibilities" between Japan and the U.S.

Well, what everyone feared has come to pass: the chain of English schools called NOVA has gone, well, nova, officially filing for bankruptcy protection. While I'm happy to get that damned pun off my chest, it is unfortunately a dark day for English teachers everywhere. Nova is (has been) the largest of Japan's "big four" McEnglish conversation schools, with a staggering 4000 native English teachers in its employ, and most of these teachers are now in the market for other jobs. Sadly, they haven't been paid for a month or more, and the status of their back pay is up in the air thanks to the bankruptcy. Nova brought these troubles on themselves through massively bad management, preferring to railroad students with "discounts" that involved multi-year contracts -- and you thought the U.S. cell phone industry was bad -- rather than satisfy their customers by teaching them well. Now, its the poor eikaiwa teachers and former students who end up paying the price. Having worked for a failing ESL school in the past, I do feel the teachers' pain, and I hope they'll all be okay. The president of the company, Nozomu Sahashi, has done what many Japanese company presidents do when things get rocky by going missing, and if I'm right he'll mysteriously take ill and have to be checked into a hospital soon, as a way of staying away from the news cameras.

The only constant in life is change, and in that tradition Japan's otaku world is always coming up with something new for us. Everyone knows about Maid Cafes, where beautiful Japanese women dressed in exotic maid uniforms pour coffee for their (usually male) customers, whom they address as "Master." Now women who are interested in yaoi comics, anime and PC gaming culture can enjoy Japan's first "BL Cafe." In Tokyo's bustling commercial district known as Ikebukuro there's a street called Otome Road (Maiden Road), fast becoming the yaoi answer to the more traditional otaku culture found in Akihabara. On that street is a restaurant called Lily Rose, staffed with incredibly attractive men who look like they stepped out of a BL comic. Oops, scratch that -- the staff is actually all women who are dressed as yaoi-esque males, complete with male names like Keisuke-kun. The employees of the restaurant are known as gyaru-son, which combines the word "gal" (i.e. hip young Tokyo girl) with "son" to make garcon, a really fabulous joke. Why would women want to eat in a restaurant staffed by women dressed as effeminate men? One patron said: "Because the staff are really women, I can eat without fear of a man trying to pick me up, allowing me to take in the beauty of the 'men' around me as I enjoy my food."

Japan is a great place, and I do love living here. That's not to say that things aren't plenty of large and small "incompatibilities" that foreigners need to get used to when coming here. First of all, the Japanese use the metric system, so if you're from the U.S. you'll find yourself learning to think in meters, kilograms and degrees centigrade, to the great annoyance of friends back home, and before you know it you'll be like me, unable to remember your weight or shoe size under the American system. In lieu of paper sizes like "letter," the Japanese use the A4 stanard, which takes time to get used to but is very logical -- A4 is similar in size to letter, A3 is twice that size making it similar to tabloid, and so on. Japanese plugs are the same shape and voltage as used in the U.S., but they nearly never have the third prong for a ground (or "ass" as they say in Japanese, the local pronunciation of "earth"), and this causes you to get pretty savvy about carrying a plug adapter with you in your laptop bag. DVD regions are different, of course, with most discs sold in Japan encoded as region '2,' although we've got our region free DVD player at home to take care of that for us. The air nozzle for bicycle tires is a special type used in Japan (and France), so if you bring a bicycle from the U.S. like me, prepare to be unable to add air to your tires. Finally, there's probably nothing taken for granted less than paper coffee filters, but they're quite important to us: the large filters are not available in Japan, with its tiny "girly man" coffee makers, so if we want to have our morning coffee we need to plan ahead.

Remember that J-List has great products for people interested in JPOP, JROCK or other forms of Japanese musical culture, including a huge number of great 2007 calendars, as well as photobooks, revolving magazine subscriptions, and more. Another great way to learn more about Japan's music scene is with the iTunes Japan Music Cards we sell, the only way to purchase iTunes Japan music unless you happen to have a Japanese credit card. Purchased music works great with the iTunes and iPod setup you already have. J-List makes it easy to get closer to Japan's musical culture -- browse the site now!

We're moving forward with some new features, including more useful product images and links on our front pages and soon, our J-List update emails, which will improve the J-List shopping experience. As always, if you notice anything odd in your browser, please shoot us an email and give us feedback. Thanks!

Here are the especially cool products for today!

	Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~ Haruka Swimsuit. First, for fans of "The Eternity that you Wish For," a super figure of Haruka, everyone's favorite former coma patient.
	Hello Kitty USB Optical 3-button Mouse / Mousepad. Life is better with a little Hello Kitty in it. Here's a high-quality USB optical mouse with mousepad for fans of the eternal "Kitty-chan."
	Aegis 1/8 PVC Figure ~ Persona 3. This is a really fantastic prepainted anime figure from the popular Personal 3 from the Playstation.
	Dengeki Maoh Oct 2007. Popular (and very thick) monthly manga that's loaded with cool stuff. including FVII and Tales of the Abyss
	New Japanese snacks. Today we've gotten in some delicious new items including Glico Almond Premio chocolates, Ume (Plum) pretzel sticks and teeth-whitening gum in fabulous Jasmine Mint flavor.
	Microman Rei & Asuka Plug Suits. As a former fan of the Micronauts toys from the 1970s, I am happy to see the blending of Evangelion and Microman figures.
	Natural Indigo Dyed Tote Bag with Bamboo Handle . We go out of our way to bring you some cool traditional items from Japan, and this definitely falls into that category.
	Theater of Abandoned Things - Nakigaragekijyo. Fascinating look at abandoned places in Japan, from pachinko parlors to amusement parks and even an old hospital. Fantastic.
	Cocona 1/7 Figure ~ Designed by Shunya Yamashita . Anime girls with swords are cool, and this awesome figure from our mon Shunya Yamashita is in stock.
	Huge Hello Kitty Pen & Pencil J-List carries some interesting Japanese pens, but never any quite as large as this. A giant Hello Kitty ball-point pen and pencil that really work!
	Hello Kitty Bento Box Set ~ Sealing Bento Box & Sliding Case w/Chopsticks. Fans of bento, or Japan's aesthetically beautiful boxed lunches, know that we've got a great selection. Here's a new Hello Kitty bento set w/ chopsticks.
	Living Japanese Style 2 - Nihon e toki Jiten. A handy book full of information on life and culture in Japan, back in stock!
	New Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager ~ All Color Set. Got fresh stock of this most popular item. Great gift idea!
	Restocked traditional items. Newly restocked items include the Samurai Sword keychain, an "Omikuhi" good luck charm keychain, and our gorgeous made-in-Japan T-shirt with the characters for NIPPON.
	Black Franco 1/8 Figure *Preorder*. Those Japanese are incredibly creative, aren't they? Here's a preorder figure from the popular parody (?) of an American Spaghetti Western.
	Cannabis Works. J-list carries many popular artbooks, and we've restocked the popular Cannabis Works by Toshiyuki Tanaka.
	Mutsumi Sasaki Artworks 1998~2005. A nice artbook filled with the illustrations of this popular artist and character designer.
	Hello Kitty Chrimen Box KOPPORI Shape ~ Red. We've restocked several Hello Kitty traditional items, including the Chirimen Boxes that look like traditional Japanese shoes, kawaii
	Rocobo Interactive Doggy Pets. They look like a cross between a Tamagotchi and the old fruity iMacs, but the Rocobo electronic pets are really cute and fun to play with. Full English instructions included.
	Restocked Japanese snacks. Newly added items include Black Sesame and Okinawa Black Sugar Caramels, Wata Pachi cotton candy w/ pop rocks, and Green Apple Ramune candy
	And a whole lot more. Finally, see restocked items like authentic chopsticks, interior cups for bento, bath milk made from sake, and more!
	Mikie Hara ~ Sabra Mook. Mikie ("mi-ki-EH") looks quite delicious in her new Sabra "mook" photobook.
	Restocked Photobooks. See several restocked photobook items, including Motto ii? Naomi 1st Photobook, My Love Sign, Love is in the Air, and the always-fun The Scene of Hips.
	New "H" manga. J-List always carries top-quality manga comics from Japan's best artists. Today we've gotten in Double Lip by Unagimaru, and a bold new Fairy Saver Double release from Masaki Kamitou.
	Various restocked manga. We've restocked a fistful of "H" manga, including Flower Garden of Temptation, Heaven's Kitchen, Love Body, First Dog pt. 2, and Teach Me! My Sister Teacher.
	Restocked yaoi manga. See restocked yaoi manga too, including vol. 9 of the popular Kinniku Otoko series.
	Silfietta Ruacia 1/6 Figure *Preorder*. An incredible "cast off" figure based on a popular fantasy eroge. A remarkable figure that you can preorder.
	Shiko Shiko JAPAN in Shonan. Shonan is a famous beach south of Yokohama, and the naughty girl idol group Shiko Shiko Japan is going there to nampa guys.
	Futanari Shojo -- Nana Sakura. Futanari ("the two being one") is immensely popular in Japan, and here's a great release starring Nana Sakura that might just redefine the genre.