I've made the long hop from Japan to New York, and I'm now enjoying the 19 degree (with wind chill) temperatures. We're here to attend the New York Anime Festival, Dec 7-9, and can be found either at booth #408 or #340, with our great Domo-kun T-shirts, hoodies and hats as well as manga, PC dating-sim games and more. This show is going to be a really excellent one, with thousands of fans of many great companies all coming together, and we hope to see you there! Update: if for no other reason, come for the Domo-kun booth babes!!!!!
Its fun to "surf the culture shock" wave when in a new city, and New York has been a great place for this so far. I've stood on freezing subway platforms that look like they came out of a level of the game Max Payne (no relation, by the way), done power-shopping at the multi-story Toys "R" Us in Times Square, and narrowly avoided staying in New York's worst hotel. It's been extremely exciting, and we haven't even gotten started with the convention yet. Everyone knows that New York is an extremely international city, but the Star Wars Cantina-esque variety of cultures and languages around me has really been a surprise. I've gotten into a political discussion over delicious pasta with a family from India, debated similar issues with a taxi driver from Pakistan, and gotten into interesting conversations with people from the top of the world (Sweden) and the bottom (Australia). I'm staying in a very Jewish neighborhood, so I'm getting to see what a real Hanukkah celebration is like, too. It struck me that New York must be the perfect opposite of clean, homogenized Japan, where even speaking your a regional dialect of the language is frowned upon, at least in Tokyo.
Transliteration is the act of transcribing from one writing system into another, for example from Japanese to the Roman alphabet, and it's not an exact science, which is why we have alternate spellings for words and names in other languages, like good old Muamar Gaddaffi/Khadafi/Quadhafi, Mao Tse-Tung/Zedong, or Hanukkah/Chanuka for that matter. There are several aspects of Japanese that make writing Japanese words in English an inherently vague and challenging process. For example, there are long vowels in Japanese that are meaningless when written out in English since they don't change how foreigners pronounce the words. The correct way to write "pretty girl" in Japanese is "bishoujo" with the extra 'u' in the middle, and yet it's often shortened to "bishojo" for brevity's sake. Is it better to leave the long vowels in the word, although it complicates pronunciation and makes the words harder to remember, or should they be omitted? There's no simple answer -- although writing long vowel words with the shorter spelling is "wrong," it's no worse than the way meanings and pronunciations changed when French melded with English after 1066. Famous place names like Tokyo and Osaka also have long vowels that are cut to avoid making the name needlessly long -- since no one wants to write Toukyou and Oosaka. Another area where there is vagueness about how to write Japanese words or names in English is L and R. Actress and Tokyo University graduate Rei Kikukawa's first name could be transliterated as Lei without it being wrong, so is it okay to do this? There's often little agreement and so both names might be used sometimes -- there's no "right" way to write it. It can be very confusing, especially to search engines that can't tell that two similar words are the same.
Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.
 | Rilakkuma Fluffy Plush (Huge Size). This is the perfect item to put under the tree of a San-X fan. Talk about huggable! This is one of the coolest plush toy we've ever gotten in -- measures 30 inches. |
 | New Japanese Snacks. We carry tons of delicious Japanese snacks, and today we're posting Meiji Matcha Chocolate for green tea fans, Lotte Fruit Chocolate, and new Mushroom Mountain featuring vanilla chocolate cookie mushrooms. |
 | Ryomou Shimei 1/6 Cast-Off Figure Maid and Bunny Suit ver. ~ Dragon Destiny *Preorder*. Ikki Tousen (Dragon Destiny) figures are always popular, and today we've gotten in a cool new preorder figure featuring Ryomou dressed as a maid, or a cute bunny girl. Awesome low angle, too. |
 | Matsu 1/7 Figure ~ Sekirei. A cool figure we've got in stock for you now is Matsu from the manga Sekirei, a series with many sexy fighting cyborg mecha. |
 | Aria the Natural Solid Works Collection. For fans of Aria the Natural, a set of really well made characters, rendered in cute SD ("super deformed") style. This is a full set with all characters included. |
 | Metal Gear Solid Kubrick Collectors Edition Full Set of 5. Fans of figures from Japan know that the Kubrick line from MediaComToy is one of the best, popular for their great quality and minute attention to detail. Here are figures from Metal Gear Solid, with full sets, partial sets and individuals in stock. |
 | Great Sanrio Items. We've got some really great Hello Kitty items today too, including a large "Donburi" bowl with a cute lid, and a charming chirimen bag for you to carry your stuff in. |
 | Endless Bubble Wrap, Sake Skin Lotion. Not only have we restocked our Sake Skin Lotion which cleans your skin with the magical power of sake, you can now get freaky with Endless Puchi Puchi, the "bubble wrap simulator" that pops every time you hit the buttons. |
 | Back-in-Stock Bento Items. Bento fans, we've gotten in some great new items for you, including the Happy Time Animal (Frog) bento, more cute soy sauce bottles, and a cool way to steam many traditional asian foods. |
 | Dengeki Comic Gao Jan 2008. The new issue of Dengeki Comic Gao ("roar!") features more than 500 pages of dynamite manga for you, including Those Who Hunt Elves KNIGHTS and many more. Highly recommended item. |
 | SHODO ~ Traditional Calligraphy Explore the traditional Japanese art of Shodo, or brush art calligraphy, with the deluxe calligraphy set we've posted today, which comes with brush, ink stick, inkwell and paper. |
 | Vegetable Theme Sunshine Buddies Relieve stress with the new Vegetable Sunshine Buddies, aka Nohohon Zoku or "super relaxing people," which uses solar power to rock his head from side to side for all eternity (well, until the sun goes out anyway). |
 | Sabra Magazine Dec 2007. Everyone who has opened an issue of Sabra knows that it features the most beautiful women in Japan, hands down. This new issue has many hot stars inside, including the lovely Marrie Kai, and you can order it now. |
 | Chinkame Pocket Photobooks. The "Chinkame" book series lets you see Japan's most beautiful girls captured in small pocket-sized photobooks. See the dynamite Ai Nagase, Madoka Ozawa and Bunko Kanazawa in this, three fabulous queens of JAV. |
 | Super New Manga Volumes. Today's hot new manga include Red Corolla featuring stories about serious wish fulfillment, and an exploration of naughty, naughty wives. |
 | Active Cartoonist AV Debut!? Japan is famous for taking famous newscasters or mainstream actresses and getting them to "go JAV." Now this popular manga artist (and all around cute girl) has agreed to let herself be ravaged for the glory of SOD and her fans. |
