Cool Products: Hello Kitty Watches, New Anime Magazine, Art Books

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.

	Hello Kitty Velcro Sports Type Wrist Watch -- White. These watches are great, extremely cute sports watches featuring Sanrio's most famous creation, and high quality bands that use "magic tape" (what Velcro is called here). Watch movement made by Citizen here in Japan.
	Nodding Cinnamoroll. Here's an incredibly cute item for the Sanrio shelf in your room, a cute "nodding" Cinnamoroll, who nods his (?) head lazily as he sits there watching you, eventually closing his eyes.
	HANA-NAMI Simple & Compact Bento Box Set - Blue, Red. Here's a really nice bento box set that has everything you need: a good sized two-tier bento lunchbox with separate areas for your steamed white rice and the rest of your lunch, matching chopsticks and a nice cloth bag to carry your lunch in.
	Tattoo Lifestyle vol. 19 Nov. 2007. This is the popular magazine that documents the current state of the art in Japan's irezumi (tattoo) culture, with tons of examples of the best tattoos being made in Japan right now, on both men and women.
	Glico Bakery Pretz Flat Style -- Bacon Cheese Sandwich Flavor. We're big fans of Pretz, the fabulous baked pretzel stick snack from Glico. Now there's a new version, Baker Pretz Flat Style, a delicious flattened pretzel with a great cheese taste.
	Kanji Practice Notebook 84 squares - Doraemon, Pocket Monster. The best way to learn to write Japanese is to write it -- and write it, and write it. Here are two kanji practice books with 84 squares per page, a good size for writing. These notebooks feature Doraemon and the Pokemon characters.
	Kodansha's Dictionary of Basic Japanese Idioms. This is a really outstanding book, a dictionary of useful idioms used in Japanese all the time, explaining what they mean and how they're used.
	Japanese Folk Tales ~ Book 3. Here's an interesting bilingual book for learners of Japanese, featuring old Folk Tales of Japan (Mukashi-banashi) which you can read in English or Japanese. Includes listening CD.
	Calpis Walkie Bits. One of the most popular products in recent years has been the Walkie Bits robotic turtles that are so much fun to play with. We've restocked several more types today, including the popular Calpis Limited series.
	Fist of the North Star Figures. Fist of the North Star is one of the most enduring anime / manga series from the 1980s, and the Seikimatsu ("End of the Century") series is the best toy line ever made. We've restocked Kenshiro and his brothers Raoh and Toki.
	WA ~ Stainless Vegetable Cutter - Japanese Leaf Shape. Here are two cool sets of "vegetable cutters" for bento, which will take a boring carrot and turn it into a beautiful bento beautification objet d'art that's shaped like traditional Japanese leaves. Also use it as a cookie cutter if you're so inclined.
	Dragon Yukata ~ Japanese Cotton Kimono. We've been on a roll with our traditional yukata (cotton kimonos), and we're posting another one today.
	Kiki & Tombo Propeller Bicycle ~ Tomica Limited Collection *Preorder*. Another awesome upcoming toy from Tomica, this is a figure of Kiki and Tombo on the propellor bicycle he built. A really special item for Studio Ghibli collectors.
	Yuiko Kurugaya 1/8 Figure ~ Little Busters *Preorder*. A fabulous figure of Yuiko from the popular PC game Little Busters, from Key, the company that brought us Kanon, Air and Clannad. What is it about half-undressed Japanese girls clutching samurai swords that I find so appealing?
	SUPPLIO ~ Aroma Mechanical Pencil & Leads -- for Refresh. A fantastic idea: mechanical pencils with leads that product subtle mind-improving aromas as you write with them! We've got two different pencils, which offer "healing" and "refresh" aromas.
	Dengeki Moeoh Reserve subscription. We're adding a new "reserve subscription" item you won't want to miss: the popular Dengeki Moeoh, or King of Moe, a super magazine that brings you Japan's amazing anime and game visual culture, with a constant focus on the beautiful girls in the genres. Each issue comes with lots of good free stuff, from posters to figures -- a magazine we highly recommend to everyone. Because this is a revolving subscription you can cancel at any time. Sign up now!
	Sabra Magazine Mar 2008. Aficionados of beautiful Japanese women know that Sabra is a great magazine, with each issue filled with fabulous girls, like Ai, or Anna Tsuchiya, or Maiko Inoue. Each issue comes with a DVD too.
	Bon Voyage -- Aino Kishi. A gorgeous hardcover photobook starring this beautiful Japanese idol and model who shocked fans by releasing this "hair" book that shows everything. Features beautiful photos of the star in many fun settings (on a yacht at sea was one of my favorites), of course with the incredibly high quality printing the Japanese are known for on every page.
	New Manga Volumes. Wow, some really good new "H" manga for you today. First, enjoy Sukufuku, a festival of "moe" (mo-EH) featuring cat girls who are also maids, girls with classes, and much more. Next, a collection of great stories surrounding the Japanese fascination with "oneesan" (older sisters, a term which applies to any older, more experienced, girl as well).
	Queen's Blade ~ Menace. We love the Queen's Blade books, which can be used as a book-based combat game, attacking and defending by calling out page numbers, or you can just collect them as seriously drool-worthy artbooks. 64 glossy pages and hardcover!
	Rondo Leaflet ~ Official Visual Fanbook. Here's an amazing item, an artbook from a popular PC dating-sim game set in Victorian England -- wow! Fantastic art that you never thought to see in an "H" game.
	Petra 1/7 Cast-Off Figure Illustrated by Shunya Yamashita. The awesome figure of Petra is in stock finally, and available for order. Unfortunately it was so popular that most of our stock sold out as preorders, but we have a couple left.
	Smoking Girls. Wow, here's a video featuring nothing but gorgeous Japanese girls smoking, and then smoking some more, all while wearing very little in the way of clothes. A fantastic concept from TMA for men who find women smoking to be sexy.
	Ero Nurse vs Black Man -- Io Asuka. Here's a really amazing release featuring drop-dead gorgeous Io-chan (pronounced EE-oh) going up against some big black dudes from the USA. Lucky dogs.

Money in Japan

You've been in Japan too long when, on a visit home, it takes you three tries to write a check. It's funny but true. Japan is a very cash-based society, and there are no such things as using personal checks to pay for goods. On payday, employees at many Japanese companies in Japan get a fat envelope of 10,000 yen notes as their monthly salary, which would be unthinkable in the U.S. A couple of years ago we bought some land in order to expand the J-List facilities, and I remember going to the owner's house to pay them for the land in cash, which was certainly an interesting experience. As a result of this lack of personal checks, foreigners who live in Japan for a long time completely forget how to write them and have to re-learn it every time they go home. When you need to pay for something in Japan, you usually do a direct transfer to their bank account, called furikomi in Japanese. It's inconvenient and the bank fees are high (around $6 to send $200 for some hard drives I bought recently), but that's the system that's used most commonly in Japan.

Do the Japanese Say "I Love You"?

Do the Japanese say "I love you"? It's an interesting question that touches on cultural issues as well as linguistic. There are several ways to express the concept of love in Japanese, with the most casual being suki desu ("I like you") or dai-suki desu ("I 'big-like' you"), both of which imply romantic love when used with a person as the object; or the phrase ai shiteru, which specifically means "I love you." As a general rule, Japanese couples verbally express love for each other a lot less than is done in the West. Part of this is just the culture here -- strong feelings like love are not displayed openly since (I've been told) saying a thing over and over again can rob it of its real meaning. Instead, Japanese couples in love rely on a concept baffling to foreigners called mugon ryokai, or "wordless communication," a kind of telepathic text-messaging that enables an idea to be perfectly understood by both parties even though it's never stated overtly. The concept of love can seem quite abstract in Japanese, and there are multiple Japanese words for the term. The word koi usually describes romantic love, while ai is a higher kind of love that is used for family or anyone who's very dear to you, or the steady, slow-burning love of marriage. These two words are combined into a compound word to make a general word for love that marries both sides, which is ren'ai.

On Being Unique: Japan's First Black Enka Singer

If you're thinking of breaking into Japan's tarento (talent) world, here's a bit of advice: you gotta be original. Japan's entertainment world is filled with singers, comedians and other famous people who often occupy mind-share with fans based on their originality, like the interesting twist that small-bodied cute girl Gal Sone brings to the TV screen as she shoves twelve plates of sushi down her throat. The foreigners who have found fame in Japan also depend on being unique, such as Bobby from Nigeria, who can really spice up a variety show about cooking, or the most famous Japanese-bilingual Italian in Japan, Girolamo Panzetta, who happens to be the only Japanese-bilingual Italian in Japan. The general rule is, if there's already a foreigner who can make jokes in the dialect of rural Yamagata prefecture, there's no need for a second one, so it's important to have a Unique Selling Proposition if you want to make it big. Now the world of enka, the eerily beautiful traditional music of Japan, is getting an injection of soul with the debut of the first black enka singer this week. His name is JERO, short for Jerome, and the quarter-Japanese, three-quarter African American singer has been nicknamed Kurobune by the Japanese press, after Admiral Perry's Black Ships. He grew up listening to his Japanese grandmother's enka records, and he came to Japan after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with the specific goal of becoming a singer in mind. His first single is Umiyuki, a song that captures the loneliness of the Sea of Japan in the winter, and it's available on the Japan iTunes Store along with lots of other great Japanese songs from every genre.

Cool Products: New Queen's Blade figure, bento, art books and more

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.

	mu-bot Robot Earphones. Wow, this is cool: a cute little robot called Mu-Bot that's really advanced earphones for your iPod or other music player. His arms detach into headphones that you can put into your ears, and you can wear him around your neck.
	Sabra Magazine Reserve subscription. Fans of extremely beautiful Japanese women photographed by the country's top photographers know that Sabra is something special. Now available as a revolving monthly subscription from J-List!
	JU-BAKO style Square Bento Box Set -- Rabbit & SAKURA ~ Red. This is a gorgeous new deluxe bento box set, in the "ju-bako" (stackable box) style. Includes 2-tier bento box, chopsticks with case, protective belt to keep your bento from opening at the wrong time, and a cloth bag to put it all in. Nice big size, too.
	Ceramic Handy Lucky Cat, Lucky Rabbit. Cute little ceramic figures for displaying, which come with protective boxes, See a traditional Lucky Cat along with an attractive Lucky Rabbit figure, both of this can give you a massage!
	Girls Girls Girls! 2 Japan Local Girls -- E2 Illustrations. Positively gorgeous collection of pictures of girls from various regions of Japan, with art contributed by dozens of top-name artists. The section showing beautiful bishoujo girls from Japan's various prefectures is especially cool.
	Egg Mar. 2008. Keep your finger on the pulse of Tokyo's most fashionable district Shibuya with Egg, the magazine that features awesome street fashions being worn right now. Includes pictures from Tokyo's Asakusa, too.
	Japanese Study Books. Various restocked study items on the site today, including the Genki I textbook that's been the most popular study related item in our history, as well as the Genki Answer Key. Also, one of my favorite books is back in stock, Catchy Japanesae Phrases, for excellent situation-based learning.
	Restocked Bento Items. Sanrio fans, we've restocked the popular Hello Kitty Bento Box Set and Slide Trio Set.
	Authentic Japanese Loose Socks. Yasu would like me to tell you that loose socks, those extra-baggy socks that Japanese high school girls wear, have been restocked, too. A great way to bring some Japanese to your character!
	Female Paladin Figure ~ Etrian Odyssey *Preorder*. From the popular game Etrian Odyssey comes this great Female Paladin figure that you can preorder now. Fabulous detail everywhere.
	Totoro Retro Bus ~ Tomica Limited Collection *Preorder*. Here's a really esoteric item for the Studio Ghibli collector: a gorgeous die-cast replica of the old Showa-era bus that the family's father arrives on in the scene at the but stop. There's quite a lot of nostalgia for these old buses, and creating a toy version of the bus from Totoro is just fabulous. Preorder it now.
	Mag-nup Board ~ Stylish Magnet Board. We love to carry stylish things from Japan. One item we like a lot is the Mag-nup Board, a replacement for your bulletin board that's got metal below the soft outer surface so you can stick notes, reminders and anything else to it with the included magnets, or use your own favorites.
	Pentel New Slim & Knock Type White Board Maker ~ Red & black. If you have a white board at work, here are the pens you should be using: great capless "knock type" whiteboard markers with tips that live inside the pen and slide out when needed, just like a ball point pen.
	Beautiful Legs Race Queen and Campaign Girl DVD. Race Queens and Campaign Girls are the beautiful models who promote F-1 racing in Japan, and their sexy uniforms are world famous. Here's a collection of super naughty Race Queens, showing what happens when the gorgeous girls get off work. Comes with a 240 minute DVD as well as the color magazine!
	Railway and Girl. Outstanding collection of photographs of beautiful girls standing on or around trains, this is a photobook you won't want to miss. The mix of really beautiful girls from rural Japan with lonely train stations in the middle of nowhere is amazing.
	New Manga Volumes. Enjoy some great new ero manga today, starting with Sweet Thang, a collection of fabulous stories of gorgeous girls and "moe" (mo-EH) couplings. Then try Mochi Mochi Flour Dumpling, a collection of twelve stories of huge "oppai" and milky cow cosplay.
	Sweet Dreams ~ Shunya Yamashita. Shunya is da man around here, creator of beautiful art that become really fantastic sculpted anime figures. His first art book is now back in stock.
	Cattleya 1/8 Cast-off Figure Excellent Model Core ~ Queen's Blade. It's not every day we get a figure in like this, that's for sure. A gorgeous 1/8 scale figure of the character Cattleya (as in bovine) from the popular Queen's Blade book-based combat system. One of the most incredible "cast off" figures we've ever carried.
	Ex-Nezumikko Club Ami Yamazaki Perfect Collection. Former member of the popular JPOP group Nezumikko Club Ami Yamazaki made a big splash when she debuted as a JAV actress. Here's her collected best works all in one place, a super release from SOD's Natural High label. 230 minutes.
	CFNM ~ A Study with Innocent Girls 6. For fans of CFNM, which means clothed female, nekkid male, we offer a new "study" video in which girls get a good close-up look at something they usually don't see with the lights on. Their shy reactions as they poke and prod the men are priceless.
	New Yulia Nova DVDs. Remember that J-List carries the DVDs and photobooks of the amazing Russian model Yulia Nova. The two newest releases of this lovely angel have come in stock and are ready for you to order right now.

Who Are the Role Models of Japanese Women?

It's interesting to watch the evolution of the various female role models in Japan over the years. Everyone has actors, singers, writers or others that they look up to for one reason or another, and in Japan these famous faces provide inspiration to millions of females throughout the country. Often the current female role models can be tracked by watching how many TV commercials they're in, and you can tell right away that a lot of young Japanese girls really love model and actress Yuri Ebihara (Ebi-chan), who always looks genki in her commercials. Angelina Aki is another popular role model who is half-Japanese and half-American and who grew up in rural Japan. She's made a great career for herself by letting her American side show while she sings, which of course makes her seem quite exotic to fans. Then there's the enigmatic Ataru Nakamura, a popular singer who was born male but suffered from Gender Identity Disorder, which drove her to finally receive reassignment surgery and become female. The unique story of Ataru's decision coupled with her one-of-a-kind singing voice has won her many fans throughout Japan.