The end of an era in driving convenience, Japan's Obon Buddhist holidays, and everything you wanted to know about what a kimono is

The end of an era for this particular gaijin has come. In the past, foreigners were permitted to drive in Japan with an International Drivers' License as long as they physically returned home at least once a year to get it renewed. Then a few years ago, the Japanese government started requiring that every resident change over to a Japanese license -- a very reasonable requirement, and I'm going through that process now. No one likes making a trip to their local DMV, but doing driving-related paperwork in a foreign language is a real drag. To make matters worse, I have to take the driving test because the U.S. isn't on the list of "blessed" countries whose residents can change from a foreign license automatically (too many differing standards for driving in the 50 states). Because the foreign population of my prefecture is a hodge-podge of people from around the world, I found myself taking the test alongside gaijin from Brazil, Peru, Vietnam, and a really big guy from Bangladesh. By the time we were done with the drivers' test we were all good friends, babbling to each other in various accents of Japanese about how hard it was while we waited for the results to be announced. Japan is a very rule-oriented country, and there's exactly "one" correct way to do most things, including driving a car -- one correct order of adjusting your seat, mirrors and fastening your seat belt, one correct way to hold your hands on the wheel while you make turns. Predictably, I failed the driving portion of the test this time around -- rats. (This little guy is Traffic Safety Horse, proof that even boring government offices can be "kawaii" in Japan.)

Next week starts Japan's Obon ("oh, bone!") break, which is a three-day Buddhist holiday to remember the souls of one's ancestors. Much of Japan shuts down on August 13, 14 and 15th as people journey to their "jikka" (real home, i.e. their parents' home or wherever their family's Buddhist altar is located) to spend time with family members and pay a visit the family grave, or maybe attend a festival and do the Bon-Odori ("bone odor-ey") traditional dance. Living in Japan for the past 15 years has taught me a lot about what the Japanese are all about spiritually. While I have to admit that I don't know much about Buddhism itself, not being able to tell a Bodhisattva from a Bodhi tree or Amida from Queen Amidala, I have known the Japanese to really care about their ancestors, aka family members who have gone on ahead, to use a less cliched phrase. My wife regularly looks to her dead grandmother for guidance and protection, and every morning my wife or my daughter will burn a stick of incense at the family altar to let the dead known they haven't been forgotten. Just as Christmas has grown into a big part of the culture of the West beyond its original meaning, many of these Buddhist traditions are practiced by all Japanese, even if they may of other religions. The Obon holidays are also a popular time to travel, and the rush of people headed for Narita International Airport officially started this morning. If you live in a place that receives many Japanese visitors like Hawaii, prepare to see a lot more of them over the next few days.

As you might imagine, what we call a kimono in the West has many variations here, such as yukata, a cotton kimono worn in the summer; happi, the short kimonos worn at summer festivals, often marketed to foreigners as "happy" coats; "hakama," a formal kimono that's similar to a tuxedo; or juunihitoe, the 12-layer kimonos worn in the Heian Period 1300 years ago. The word kimono is written with the characters ki (to wear, 着) and mono (thing、物), so it just means "something you wear," and there are many similar words in Japanese, like tabemono (something to eat, e.g. food), nomimono (something to drink, e.g. a beverage), and so on. Only Japanese-style clothes are called with the name kimono; dresses, shirts and other Western imports are always called yofuku, or "Western clothes." There's a Japanese grammatical rule that makes unvoiced sounds (like ki) change to voiced (gi) when they are on the end of a compound word, which can be seen in words like karate-gi or judo-gi, what you wear when doing Japanese martial arts (often just called gi in English, which is a little weird sounding if you must know). One of my favorite flavors of kimono is the jinbei (JIN-bei), essentially a short- sleeved cotton kimono that's equally good for use as Japanese-style pajamas (how I wear mine) as for wearing to your favorite festival or anime convention. J-List stocks several of these cool kimono varieties for our gaijin customers, including a great jinbei we got in stock today.

Remember that J-List carries hundreds of mind-blowingly beautiful manga volumes, with both books directly from Japan as well as the popular English translated works from Icarus Publishing. We especially love Comic AG, the great magazine of translated "H" manga that gives you an incredible 80 pages for a mere $4.99. It's available as a revolving magazine subscription, but if you're looking to pick up back issues, what many customers do is make use of our AGSET product, which lets you buy a batch of five AG issues at a time for a great savings. Why not browse J-List's outstanding manga selection today?

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" (a yes/no verification screen will be displayed to filter products from our mature site). To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link. We also recommend watching our "new products" RSS feed

	Urecco DVD April 2007 vol. 269. Urecco now comes with a DVD with tons of material for you -- 300 minutes!
	B's LOG June 2007. This is a great magazine for any yaoi fan who wants to follow the BL game market. Also available as a subscription item.
	Shiko Shiko JAPAN. Beautiful girls pick up otaku in Akihabara.
	Special Body Restriction -- Yuri Matsushima. If you want to see what the Japanese consider to be the "perfect" female body, this DVD is for you.
	Kera July 2007 vol. 108. Kera is the super stylin' Japanese fashion magazine. We have this issue in stock for you.
	Heaven's Prison 3 ~ Tengoku Limited Box Edition. Here's a fabulous figure + manga combo item for you.
	FUURIN ~ Japanese Summer Bell -- PIG. Delightful Japanese wind chime, in stock now.
	Bust Emperor 2nd Season ~ Bubble Matrix -- Full Set (Set of 12). For those who weren't satisfied with the Hip Parade Trading Torso line, we offer .... Bust Emperor!
	JINBEI / Relax & Cool Homewear -- Black with Checker Stripes . A really excellent kimono variation for you. I sleep in these every night!
	Women's Pro-Wrestling Anthology Comics ~ Jyoshi Proresu Anthology. Anthology manga about female pro wrestlers.
	Sonsaku Hakufu Fighting ver. 1/7 Figure ~Ikki Tousen (Dragon Destiny) *Preorder*. Positively amazing "Cast Off" figure of Hakuru -- what an amazing pose!
	Mikuru Asahina Figure - Konami Figure Diorama Collection ~ The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Fabulous new Mikuru figure, made to scale with the other Konami figurs so you can make a really excellent diorama.
	Herbal Mosquito Coil - Katori Senko (Mosquito Killing Incense). This is a great way to kill mosquitoes, a "mosquito killing incense" that kills them by blocking their air ducts, or whatever the nasty bugs breathe through.
	Surprise Octopus Key Chain . A handy strap with a cute red octopus on it.
	Xylish Gum -- Rosehip Mint Flavor. Delicious new rose flavored gum, which will make your body smell like roses!
	Hello Kitty Desktop Cleaner -- Pearly Red. Make your desktop kawaii with this -- available in two pealy colors!
	Kimono Hime 1~ Kotohajime ver.. In case you'd like to know more about kimono culture from Japan, we recommend this great item.
	Totoro *Acorn* Alarm Clock w/ Sho Totoro. The popular Totoro alarm clocks are back on the site.
	Surfing Daruma Mug Cup - Namitatsu Daruma. Surfing Daruma coffee cups are back in stock.
	Brilliant Style "Gothic Lolita" Deluxe Bento Box Set Ah, one of our most popular bento boxes ever...

Here's the world famous gaijin, studying for his test...

Don't ask me why they're trying to make you avoid driving your car off the top of a building. It can't happen that often, even here.

I'm probably breaking some law by showing you the written part of the test. Oo, I'm a rebel.

This is the course we had to memorize. It never changes so it's just a matter of learning to do what they expect, but what a frustrating thing to have to take the actual driving test at my age.

I failed the first attempt, possibly because I went to fast, or maybe it was them trying to bring me down a peg, cocksure American that I was. The Vietnamese girl who was nearly in tears who went before me passed, even though she kept stopping in the middle of the road for no reason. Oh well...

Japan as a "Matrix of Strange English," on the strong-willed (and unattractive?) women of our prefecture, and language error "best hits"

Japan is, of course, the home of funny English. It's everywhere, like a bizarre Matrix of Strangeness that pervades the very air around a foreigner living in the country, despite the inability of Japanese people to perceive it. You can see funny English when you look out your window and there's a big truck with DUCK! printed on the side, or when you go to shave and notice that your shaving cream says "shake a can well," or when you visit the public bath and notice that the air conditioner is called "Clean Poo." You can feel it when you address a letter to a friend who lives in an apartment building called "Maison Cream Soda"... when you go to a coffee shop that advertises "flavorous and delicious communication"... when you crack open a beer and notice that it contains "esteemed quality with fine barley, malt, aroma hop and natural water." Often funny English comes from marketing products to people, like the Paradise Hair Resort I happened across the other day, or the famous Pocari Sweat, designed to elicit the image of light clouds on a hot day (pokkari is a Japanese word that describes floating on air). Sometimes the funny English in question isn't even made up of words, as in the case of a shirt I saw the other day that featured the famous "I (heart) NY" design, with the heart replaced by the GOP Elephant for no reason that we could comprehend. The Japanese are unique in that they generally learn a lot of English grammar and vocabulary -- important for passing college entrance exams -- but since it's such an isolated country, there's no real need for the language in day-to-day life. I guess is what leads to Japanese wanting to display English in so many odd ways.

Women from J-List's home prefecture of Gunma have received a slap in the face from an article in the weekly magazine Shinkan Shincho which asked readers to rank females from Japan's 47 prefectures according to beauty -- and they came in last. Each part of Japan is famous for something, whether it's soba noodles from Nagano or white rice and sake from Niigata or "Akita Bijin," the beautiful girls from frigid Akita Prefecture, whose skin is so white because it's too cold to go outside most of the time there. Gunma is famous for several things too, including yaki-manju, bread-like cake that's coated with sweet miso sauce and cooked on a stick; daruma, those red round little things that bring good luck to your home or business; and really strong winds in the winter called kara-kaze (empty winds). Rather than being renowned for their beauty, Gunma's females are famed for being extremely strong-willed, usually able to make their husbands do what they tell them to. These bossy Japanese females are known as kakaa-denka (kah-kah-ah DEN-kah), and this concept is such a staple of life in Gunma that there is -- I am not kidding -- a shopping street in our city called Kakaa Town where all the strong-willed housewives supposedly do their shopping. There are some theories about how Gunma women got to be so forceful, including the lack of a fishing industry in land-locked Gunma and the early growth of a silkworm cultivation which placed women in the role of primary breadwinner of the house. Or according to another theory, the strong winds caused women have to yell really loud to be heard, which made them lose their feminine characteristics.

Making errors when speaking a foreign language comes with the territory, and smart language learners will do what they can to embrace their own screw-ups as a positive way of moving forward with their language studies. At the very least, it's important to avoid being so scared of making an error that you never open your mouth, which is a problem a lot of Japanese learners of English have. Wanting to avoid linguistic slip-ups, they prefer to pre-load their "brain cache" before speaking rather than just opening their mouth and letting the words fall out naturally. I've made plenty of large and small errors over the years, for example there was the time I confused the word hinan (to evacuate) with hinin (to use a contraceptive) in mixed company, and the standard problems of the word "mango" and a similar term that refers to the female reproductive parts, but everyone can make errors. Before I married my wife, we were planning what photographs we wanted taken at the wedding, and she kept asking us to take pictures of her standing on "the glass." I couldn't understand what she was saying -- did she want a picture of herself standing on a reflective surface while wearing her dress? -- but it turned out she was talking about the grass lawn in front of the chapel in San Diego. Poor Jun, J-List's toy-and-snack buyer, had an embarrassing experience, too, while in Chicago ordering espresso from a Starbucks. The coffee was very bitter, so he shouted niga! (nii-GA), which means bitter in Japanese. All in all, this wasn't the best thing to shout in the middle of a coffee shop in Chicago, considering the potential for misunderstanding. (A more standard word for bitter is nigai, "nii-GA-ee"; niga is a slang form of this word.)

Since J-List is physically located in Japan, we're able to bring many amazing products to fans all over the world, and our revolving monthly magazine subscriptions are among our most popular items. Today we're posting two new "Reserve Subscription" magazines for our otaku brethern, the popular Dengeki Maoh super-thick monthly manga magazine, and Dengeki Hime, a great mag about Japan's oh-so-cute anime characters with just a little bit of "H." Both are loaded with free stuff in each issue, from posters to mousepads and more. As with our other magazines, you can always get them on a month-to-month revolving basis, which means you can quit or switch from one magazine to another at any time, and there's never any obligation. (You can also pre-pay for a year's worth of issues and get one month free.) Why not give Japan's most famous anime, fashion, toy, hobby or men's magazines a try today?

One of the most famous products J-List has ever sold would have to be the Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager, a licenced Sanrio product for easing tension in the neck muscles (what else?). Now this cult favorite is back again, in the form of a great new Hello Kitty x Rody battery-powered massager that's just the ticket when you or someone near you needs release from stress. It features Hello Kitty wearing a "kigurumi" (full body and head costume) of Rody, her horse friend. There are six colors in the set, and all feature a strong massaging motor and easy to access switch, with a battery that's fully replaceable. Get just the color you want or collect the entire set!

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" (a yes/no verification screen will be displayed to filter products from our mature site). To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link. We also recommend watching our "new products" RSS feed

	No Meaning -- Masami Nagasawa. This is a great photobook featuring the lovely Masami Nagasawa traveling from Japan to the U.K.
	Athlete Cosplay Collection 4 Hours. 4 hours of "ero" involving girls wearing different athletet uniforms, from leotards to kendo girls.
	Mihiro Kaikin -- Mihiro (region 2). I am a Mihiro fan, and have been for some time. She has now gone from being a photobook only girl, to being a "pro" JAV actress, and now she's debuting in the "indies" world. An amazing day, to be sure.
	New Hello Kitty Vibrator ~ All Color Set. It's an auspicious day, folks: the Hello Kitty Vibrator (which is in fact a shoulder massager, and is a licensed Sanrio product) is back!
	Cure June 2007 vol. 45. New issue of Cure, the magazine of Japaneseque Rock and Visual Style. Really cool.
	Kohaku no Hana ~ Amber's Flowers. This is a charming adult manga about three girls, set in the Meiji Era.
	Cosmode 017. New issue of the #1 cosplay magazine in Japan, loaded with pictures, reference images, and even an entire pattern (!),
	Yuki Nagato Figure - Konami Figure Collection ~ The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Positively fantastic prepainted figure for fans of Haruhi Suzumiya, who is (IMHO) the star of the series, space alien robot that she is.
	Dengeki Hime Reserve subscription. New "reserve subscription" item added to the site. Features great art for fans of Japan's anime and games and lots of free stuff inside.
	Dengeki Maoh Reserve subscription. Another dynamite "reserve subscription" item, featuring 500+ pages of great art and free posters and more!
	Tsuruya-san Maid Costume 1/8 Figure ~ Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi *Preorder*. A super item for Haruhi Suzumiya fans. Preorder yours now!
	SHISA / Okinawa Setta with Black Snake Skin Style -- M Size. Very stylish Okinawa style sandals, on the site now.
	Furikake Soft & Moist Type ~ Salmon. Furikake is just any kind of food you sprinkle over white rice, and shake (SHA-kay), or salmon, furikake is the best.
	Hello Kitty Microwave Safe Food Containers -- 3pcs . Tupperware style Hello Kitty containers, very useful
	DOREI ~ Japanese Earthen Bell -- PIG. A charming little earthen bell in the shape of a pig.

All about Saiou and his horse, update on our summer school trip decision, and enjoying Japan's seasons through bug noises

The Japanese have a saying that they got from the Chinese that I mention from time to time: ningen banji, saiou-ga-uma (nin-gen BAHN-gee, sai-OH ga OO-mah), which literally means "all things in human affairs are like Saiou's horse." Saiou was a guy whose horse ran away one day, and when everyone said what a bad thing that was, he asked "How do you know for sure?" The next day, the horse returned with another one, so it was good luck, right? Then Saiou's son falls off the new horse and breaks his leg, which was a bad thing. But because of his injury, he didn't have to ride off to war the next day and be killed. It just goes to show that you can't tell if something will turn out to be good or bad in the end. If, for example, you're injured in a car accident, it might really have been a good thing, since a more serious accident or worse was avoided -- which can really change how you view events over the course of your life.

This is all a clever segue to talk about the trip my daughter was supposed to take with her fifth grade class this summer, which I mentioned here a few months ago. All kids in the fifth grade take a trip in the summer called Seaside School where they learn about the sea and have fun with their friends (they have it in high school, and it's also a common plot device in anime and dating-sim games). Because my daughter spends most of the summer in the U.S. doing "American kid" things like horseback riding at Girl Scout Camp, she wasn't going to be able to attend Seaside School, and we got some pressure from the school to "get with the group" even if it meant changing our plans for the summer. (The trip was smack dab in the middle of Japan's six-week long summer break, making tweaking our schedule a little difficult.) We debated the issue back and forth and got a lot of useful advice from readers (thanks!), but in the end we decided that we had to choose the U.S. since my little girl gets so little time to practice her English otherwise, and we're especially concerned about keeping her reading up to speed. It turned out to be the best decision we could have made, since the place where the fifth graders were to have gone was Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan side of the country. Which just happens to be the location of the nuclear power plant that spilled radioactive material during the offshore earthquake two weeks ago, causing Seaside School to be cancelled, nuclear waste one of those things parents aren't too keen on. All in all, we're quite happy with the decision we made, even though it was hard to choose between Japan and the U.S.

For the record, it's hot, hot, hot in Japan right now, with the kind of humidity I think of as "East Coast summer weather" from my days living in Maryland and Virginia. Japan has just about the best air conditioning technology in the world, enabling the J-List staff to stay cool enough for the most part while we work, although this doesn't help us at home, where walls and ceilings are still torn up from the remodeling work we're doing -- no air conditioning, except for one cramped room of our house. One of the most memorable sounds of summer in Japan are cicadas, called semi in Japanese (although I joke that they're so loud, they're "auto" -- sorry), happily singing their semi song while they bask in the heat, which they're doing right outside my window right now -- if you want to hear what they sound like, view the movie on the J-List main page. Japan is a country that really values its four seasons, and a whole class of poems have been composed about enjoying the little differences between this season and that. The Japanese love to celebrate the imagery of each season...cicadas and eating shave ice in the summer, the beautiful colors of the leaves in the autumn, eating piping hot baked sweet potato in the winter, and getting drunk with friends with the cherry blossoms falling around you in the spring. Ah, living in Japan is fun.

Among the many cool Japan-related products J-List carries are our line of original T-shirts, which feature wacky messages in Japanese, for all those who want to bask in the beautiful of kanji characters. Our most popular T-shirt ever is our "Japanese Girlfriend" design, featuring a funny kanji logo that says "now accepting applications for a Japanese girlfriend" -- it's even been known to work in a few cases! By customer request, we've issued this popular shirt in its original color of white, which allows the "red circle of Japan" to blend with the white of the shirt to nice effect. In stock 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" (a yes/no verification screen will be displayed to filter products from our mature site). To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link. We also recommend watching our "new products" RSS feed

	Karami 09 -- Miko Hayama. Gorgeous photomagazine featuring Miko Hayama.
	Iris 1/7 Figure ~ Princess Waltz. Princess Waltz is a great PC dating-sim game we'll be releasing soon, and we've gotten in the cool figure if Iris, one of the main characters in the story.
	Breeze -- Rina Akiyama. Rina Akiyama is back, and looking better than ever.
	Bomb Jun. 2007 vol. 328. New issue of Bomb, the Japanese sexy idol magazine with 30+ years of history.
	"The Girl With No Name" 1/8 Figure ~ Tre Donne Crudeli *Preorder*. Another gorgeous figure from Japan, available for preorder right now.
	Make a Virtual Date with Leah! -- Anna Kanzaki. Leah Dizon is the incredibly popular idol and singer in Japan today, and you can go on a virtual date with her in this new video offering.
	Chronology of Japanese History ~ Nihonshi Nenpyo. This is a fascinating book -- the entire history of Japan in order, in both English and Japanese.
	Animage June 2007 vol. 348. Animage is the magazine that coined the term "Anime," published by Hayao Miyazaki's homeboys, Tokuma Shoten.
	Shoxx vol. 172 June 2007. Shoxx is the popular magazine of gothic visual J-ROCK, loaded with color photos. This is a new issue for you.
	Deco-Doughnut (Gift Photo Book & CD-R & Message Card) -- NEW BABY . An ingeneous item, this is a gift card that includes a CD-R that you can burn pictures on.
	Hip Parade 4th Season Latin Carnival -- Full Set (Set of 12). The ass-tastic Trading Torso line is back!
	Gaisokyu -- Yoshitoshi Abe. Great new artbook from Yoshitoshi Abe, or yoshitoshi ABe if I were to write it the official way. He is the creator of Serial Experiments Lain.
	Japanese T-shirt "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" (White). Our venerable "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" T-shirt is now available in white, too, and at a lower price.
	Japanese Map ~ TOKYO~. Put a little bit of Tokyo on your room's wall with this killer map.
	KAKIKOURI / Japanese Shaved Ice Cup -- 6pcs . Enjoy shave ice in these little cups this summer.
	NATSU-MATSURI / Japanese Summer Festival Fan with Bamboo frame . Keep cool this summer with this great lightweight fan made of bamboo.
	TARAKO / Cod Roe Cream -- Spaghetti Sauce . For people without enough cod roe spaghetti in their lives.
	Makkuro Kurosuke Window Mascot -- My Neighbor Totoro. Cool Soot Sprite plush toy for your car.

Okay, got a few more pics from Comicon to throw at ya before I forget. A shojo manga version of Labyrinth? Great idea!

Maybe it comes from hanging out with the 4chan people too much, but one of my "you know, this is something new" moments for this year are that Americans seem to be less scandalized at the subject on this person's T-shirt. There was a lot more general discussion of "fapping" by both girls and guys, which you wouldn't have seen in the past. Remind me to tell you all about the time I had a deep discussion with a Japanese person drinking next to me about which was better, being with a woman or, er, lightsaber practice with captain solo. It was one of those strange discussions that was nevertheless interesting...

The interesting T-shirts just keep coming, don't they?

These were the Darth Vader helmet art series. I loved this one...

But this had to be the coolest thing in the lineup.

Goth-Loli Bible coming out in English? Interesting.