Cool Products: Lucky Star Calendar, Metal Gear Solid Toys, New Hentai RPG!

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.

	Lucky Star School Calendar 2008~2009. Wow, what a treat! The official Lucky Star calendar has just come in, and it's filled with gorgeous all-new artwork of the popular series. This cool calendar follows the Japanese school year. Shipped in a protective box.
	Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi Figure Set. Gashapon are capsule toys, which come in those cool egg capsules, and this is a set of four cool Haruhi Suzumiya figures featuring all four of the main characters. Ready to display -- they even come with plastic bases for the figures!
	Animage Aug 2007 vol. 350. Animage is a fabulous anime magazine that's filled with visual pages of the top shows and movies running in Japan right now. Of course you always get free stuff in each issue, like the Code Geass artbook/episode guide in this issue.
	Figure Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary Ultra Detail Figure. For fans of the legendary Metal Gear Solid series, we've got a special item: the 20th Anniversary Ultra Detail Figures that are fabulous to play with or display. Five different figures, each representing a different generation of the game.
	Morinaga Choco Ball Choco Banana. The tastes of chocolate and banana are special to the Japanese, since choco-banana (chocolate covered bananas on a stick) are something children eat at Japanese festivals. Here's a new flavor of Choco Ball that brings these great tastes together.
	S Cawaii Dec 2007 ~ Super Cawaii. Super Cawaii is the top-selling fashion magazine at J-List, dedicated to celebrating beauty and style, Japan-style. It's an extremely visual magazine, with large pictures of the models as each page covers trends in Tokyo's street fashion world right now. Even the ads are fascinating to read through.
	Hello Kitty Ear Pick, Bento Box. A mimikaki is a traditional Japanese ear cleaner made of bamboo or other materials, and we've restocked our extremely popular Hello Kitty Bamboo Ear Cleaner. Also, see fresh stock of our Hello Kitty Tight Bento Box.
	"Leek Girl" Miku Hatsune Vocaloid T-shirts. Everywhere we look these days -- Wired, Geek Monthly -- we see the popular virtual idol Miku Hatsune, the darling of YouTube videos in which she sings with her eerily beautiful computer-generated voice. J-List has great shirts for guys and girls, allowing you to wear this popular Japanese icon on your chest.
	Totoro, Ghibli Items. Looking for cool My Neighbor Totoro items you can't find without trekking to Japan yourself? We've restocked some great items, including the Totoro Deluxe Cuckoo Clock (!) and the Bus Stop Totoro Statue by Cominica.
	Cup Noodle Mug Cup. One of our hands-down coolest items for enjoying coffee at work would be our Cup Noodle mug cup, which is a perfect replica of a cup of ramen, except that this is made of ceramic and will hold your coffee.
	Bento, Other Items Restocked. Check out our Ju-Bako (stackable box-style) bento box set which we've restocked for you now. Also, beautiful chopsticks that are good for the environment and a shamoji (rice scoop) specially designed to keep rice from sticking to it.
	Oden Catalog Sake Bottle & Two Cups. "Oden" (pronounced oh-DEN) has nothing to do with the Norse god. It's a delicious soup with good things inside, like fried tofu, octopus, hard boiled egg and konnyaku noodles. The trouble is, these items are rather hard for gaijin to identify, so to help you out, we've got this excellent sake bottle and cup set that makes everything clear.
	PIKACHU and POCHAMA from Pocket Monster Clear File. These are called "clear files," plastic document sleeves that you can use to protect your documents from spills or other things. The envelopes are oversized and will protect both standard "letter" sized papers as well as A4, the standard in Europe and Japan.
	Range Murata PSE Collection CDB Chair 1/10 Figure *Preorder*. Range Murata is one of the most influential artists in Japan today, and his works, from Blue Sun Six to Last Exile and his celebrated original works. Enjoy one of his character creations in 3D in this rare figure release. Due out in June.
	Lightning Warrior Raidy. As mentioned above, the first-person fantasy "ero" RPG Lightning Warrior Raidy has gone "Golden Master" and will be shipping soon. You still have a chance to order it and get free shipping when the game comes in, or reserve the Download Edition of the game when it becomes available two weeks later.
	Lightning Warrior Raidy II: ~Temple of Desire *Preorder*. Also, the huge sequel to the popular Raidy RPG "H" game has been posted to the site for preorder. With multiple dungeons and 3x the characters to fight as well as a gold-based game economy, his game is going to be great!
	The Center of Sayuri -- Sayuri Otomo. Gorgeous model who really shines in this new hardcover glossy photobook, filled with pictures of this amazing Japanese angel in fabulously sexy settings.
	New Manga Volumes. Fantastic new "H" manga for our customers today, including the awesome new "Sakuhara Man" by popular artist Chosuke Nagashima, great for fans of "OL" themes. Also, enjoy the collection of stories by Ryo Oshima with the fantastic title of Blooming Rapture of a Body.
	Comic AG Super Manga Anthology vol. 76. The only thing better than great "H" manga from Japan is getting it in English, and we can't recommend Comic AG enough. The new issue of the popular comic anthology features many authentic Japanese works, including my own favorite, Tuna Empire.
	Hiroko Takashiro 1/8 Cast off Figure ~ Bible Black *Preorder*. Bible Black is one of the most famous dating-sim game and "H" anime series in history, and the figures have always been popular at J-List. Enjoy this new cast of Takashiro-sensei that will be released soon.
	Dream Chijo Contest ~ Body Builder & Judo Woman. Get ready for two really bad-ass women, as female body builder Midori Takase ("muscle madam") teams up with judo black belt Towa Mitsui in a great release from Deep's.

Understanding How the Mind Recognizes Patterns, Eating Oden

The human mind is very good at recognizing patterns, which is why we can see floating rabbits when we look at clouds in the sky, or little bears and big dippers when we gaze up at the stars. Pattern recognition is quite important when learning a foreign language, of course, and one of the many skills your brain must acquire is the ability to make educated guesses about meaning that isn't clearly understood based on a few clues. Kind of like the time I was "randomly" picked to conduct a symphony playing Beethoven's 5th, but when I got up on stage, I didn't understand the questions the MC asked me, forcing me to make a guess about what she would likely have said and reply accordingly, all while being watched by a few hundred people. One thing I've noticed is that when the brain encounters new information, it tries to break it into familiar chunks like a computer might, but if the the information is totally alien, like an unfamiliar word or phrase of Japanese, the brain can have trouble even registering it, as if it'd heard static. Alternately, the brain may try to force unfamiliar words into similar-sounding holes, like the first time I heard the -san name suffix and was sure it means "song" because that's what my brain kept insisting. Today we're posting a rather cool sake bottle set that features the various ingredients of the traditional Japanese soup oden (oh-DEN), like tofu, boiled eggs and squid (aside: I actually married my wife partially because her mother's oden was so good). Because oden isn't very familiar to people outside Japan, however, the term might just conjure up images of the famous Norse god, despite there being no relation between the two whatsoever. Does your brain have trouble with new or unfamiliar concepts like this?

Um, Playboy Bunny Socks?

Obi-wan Kenobi said it best: a lot of the reality we perceive depends on our point of view. I've talked before about how foreign visitors to Japan are sometimes shocked -- shocked! -- to see what appear to be Nazi swastikas on maps here, but of course these are different symbols entirely, left-facing swastikas called manji that are used to denote the location of a Buddhist temple. The other day I attended a musical performance held by my son's elementary school in which the students proudly showed off their considerable brass band skills while the parents listened. After the performacne was over, I volunteered to help put the heavier instruments away, and I happened to notice that one of the female students was wearing socks with a rather famous logo embroidered on them: the iconic Playboy bunny. I'm just guessing, but I'll bet most sixth grade girls in the U.S. wouldn't have socks sporting this particular image, however in the context of Japan, the logo is just a general image of America and thus, kakko ii (cool). It's similar to the tendency of Japanese to wear funny English T-shirts with messages like "Hamburger Friend: I feel happiness when I eat him" and never consider what the words might actually mean. Not that there's anything wrong with wearing shirts with interesting phrases written in foreign languages or anything.

Why it's Fun to Build a House in Japan: Tatami Rooms!

One of the joys of being a long-term gaijin in Japan is eventually building a house here. Houses in Japan are almost never pre-built by a developer as part of a community of homes as is often the case in California, or bought "used" from people who have lived in them previously. Instead, at least outside of large cities like Tokyo where people tend to live in "mansions" (an apartment that's owned rather than rented), houses are generally built from scratch, starting with an architect who will create a design based on your specifications and budget. For a foreigner, this is a great opportunity to go crazy designing the Japanese home of your dreams, adding tatami rooms, shoji paper doors, and perhaps a toko-no-ma recessed area for displaying some ikebana flowers. Of course, houses in Japan don't go up in value like they (historically) do in the U.S. and Europe -- unless you're talking about a huge house that a movie star lived in, only land has value here -- so when you build a home you're building just for yourself and your family. Which is actually kind of nice, since your house becomes a place to live in and enjoy, rather than a potential source of stress. For the record, buying a plot of land in our prefecture, about 100 km north of Tokyo, will set you back about $100,000. For a custom-built house, budget around $300,000, although you can cut that down a bit by considering one of those "import homes" where all the materials, from wood to concrete to nails, are boxed up in Canada and shipped over by container.

Cool Products: Ah My Goddess Figures, Sushi Sake Bottle, Queen's Blade Case Off & 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.

	Oh My Goddess Beachside Collection Full Set of 5 Color. Wow, this is an amazing collection of figures from the legendary Ah My Goddess series. Enjoy Belldandy, Urd, Sculd, Peorth and Lind as they head out to the beach in the summer! Two different color schemes, with full sets of both available (no need to buy duplicate figures and throw them away).
	Dear My Sun!! Official Visual Fanbook. Here's the official artbook for the popular game Dear My Sun!! which is a great bishounen or BL game for the Playstation 2. It's a "raising" game in which you, as a female, have to raise one of two character from a child and see what kind of men they become.
	Meiji Kiwi 100% Juice Gummy. J-List always has something new for you in our Japanese snack pages, and today you can find the amazing Meiji 100% Fruit Juice Gummy in Golden Kiwi Fruit flavor. Delicious!
	Works SCAJI illustrations. We've restocked the popular artbooks of SCAJI, an artist with a talent for drawing gothic maids with...shotguns? Enjoy this great artbook.
	Sushi Sake Bottle & Two Cups. We've gotten in some great boxed sake bottle sets recently, and today we're posting a new one which features all the types of sushi printed on the bottle and cups, along with the names in both English and Japanese. Awesome!
	SAKURA OMAMORI ~ Lucky Charm from Buddhist -- Blue. Omamori are traditional good luck charms from Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines which are carried by almost every Japanese. Here's a great new good luck charm with sakura petals on it, which you can attach to your backpack, keep in your laptop bag or put just about anywhere.
	The Side of Fuji No One Has Ever Seen. Mt. Fuji is the single most famous image of Japan, and here's a photobook filled with various images of the beautiful mountain you've never seen before. Fabulous!
	Restocked Traditional Items. For example, see our Pink Feng Shui Lucky Cat, our Sakura Jelly Aroma Candle, and this great Edo Style Accessory Pouch, a really unique way to carry all your stuff, or just use it as a wallet.
	Detective CONAN Blank Note Book. A great item for fans of this long-running anime and manga, this is an all-purpose notebook with blank sheets inside, great for drawing, writing or taking any kind of notes.
	DORAEMON HIRAGANA Learning Puzzle. Want to learn to read the Japanese hiragana and katakana writing systems? This cool puzzle might help. Featuring famous Robot Cat from the future Doraemon, this puzzle teaches recognition of both writing systems and can help you start to learn. A great item.
	Zebra "Check Set" ~ Best for Memory Retention. Really great item for anyone trying to memorize a lot of information (of course it's useful for students of Japanese too). We've been evangelizing the use of these innovative Japanese study tools for a long time, and think you should give them a try, no matter what you're studying.
	NINJA Shuriken Ice Tray. Traditional ice cubes are so last century, and in addition to our fun Hello Kitty ice cube trays, we're restocking this fantastic ice cube tray that makes little ice shuriken, the weapon of ninja everywhere.
	Animal ONIGIRI Bento Box, Chopsticks. For fans of our bento products, we've restocked the cute "Onigiri" bento from the niKyoro series (niko niko "smiling" + kyoro kyoro "looking around"), which includes a section in the top for you to put two triangle-shaped rice balls. Also, handy chopsticks for enjoying your bento.
	Lily Salvatana 1/8 Figure ~ Tre Donne Crudeli *Preorder*. Here's a gorgeous preorder figure of Lilly from a popular eroge Satsuriku no Jango (aka Tre Donne Crudeli), set in a version of the American old west that only could be conceived of by the Japanese. A great figure that's incredibly detailed -- just look at that hair!
	Japanese Brush Pens. Fude pens are the cool Japanese brush writing pens that let you write in calligraphy style, and we've restocked the DX 12 color set from Sun-Star that's just fantastic. This is one of our most popular pen related sets.
	PUMA Semi-Hard Stylish Pencil Case. Here's a really cool "semi-hard" zippered pencil case from Puma, a unique item that's made exclusively for the Japanese domestic market, making it something special to carry around. Holds all your pens, pencils and other good things. An officially licensed item.
	Juicy Honey Premium Edition ~ Inner Box (18 Cards). With a name like "Juicy Honey," you know this has to be a special item. A collection of 18 gorgeous gorgeous trading cards of famous AV stars in all their glory. A rare treat for JAV collectors.
	Queen's Blade vol. 17 ~ Yuumil (Iron Princess). With her mighty battle axe, you know the Iron Princess Yuumil means business. The subject of the latest Queen's Blade hardcover artbook, a book-based RPG series that most fans just collect as drool-worthy artbooks, you'll thrill as you see her many sexy attack and defense moves. Her figure is also available.
	Airi 1/8 Cast-Off Figure Repaint ver. Excellent Model Core ~ Queens Blade *Preorder*. Airi is one of the most popular of the Queen's Blade characters, a beautiful gothic maid who fights with a large scythe. The figure was extremely popular and sold out before, so Mega House is being kind and is releasing a new version for us. Best of all, this figure is fully cast-offable, allowing you to remove her maid uniform for some one-on-one combat.

All About Tokyo and What To Do Here

Tokyo is the sprawling capital of Japan, home to 12 million people, a number which rises by several million during the day as people commute to their jobs from the surrounding areas. It's not a city at all, but one of Japan's 47 prefectures, although it's got a special status as a "metropolis," not unlike the District of Columbia in the U.S. Some of the more famous areas of Tokyo include Shinjuku, a shopping and business area with many famous anime landmarks and lots of good food as well as Japan's largest bookstore; Shibuya, a hip area for young people and home of Japan's most famous dog statue; Harajuku, where people dress like they do in FRUiTs magazine; stylish Ginza, with many famous brand shops; and Asakusa, home of Tokyo's most famous shrine. People interested in anime and related culture will want to spend time in Akihabara, of course, where you can pick up the latest electronics and have it wrapped up for you by a girl in a maid costume (just kidding about that last part). For a more "off Akiba" experience, hit Nakano Broadway in Nakano, a down-and-out shopping arcade that re-invented itself to be more otaku friendly, or Otome Road, a shopping street for females interested in yaoi and BL culture, located in Ikebukuro. If you ever plan a trip to Tokyo, you'll have plenty to see!

Our "Second Childhood" Through Anime

One thing I like about being involved with Japan and anime is the "second childhood" it allows us all to enjoy. In a very real sense, a new part of your brain is "born" when you start to learn a new language, and just a children are less sophisticated than adults, that new part of yourself is closer to the intellect of a child, and just as precocious, creative and impressionable, too. Last night I was geeking out while re-re-re-watching the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie, one of the watershed films in the development of otaku culture as a worldwide movement. My wife guffawed at me: "Why don't you at least watch something new?" She didn't understand, of course, that we all love what we're exposed to in childhood, be it X-Men comics or Scooby Doo or Star Wars, and we take it with us forever. Just as Japanese in their twenties and thirties now will always have a place in their hearts for the original Mobile Suit Gundam or Fist of the North Star because they saw it when they were young, the first shows we otaku were exposed to will always be special to us, even if we were 18 years old at the time. In the context of this exciting new language and culture, we were seishun shitemasu, or "living the springtime of our lives," a phrase I've used from time to time. What Japanese anime show is especially important to you?

Adapting to Group Culture when Living in Japan

Living in Japan has certainly made me a more considerate person, and I generally thinks of others before acting on my own personal whims. This wasn't necessarily the case when I first came to Japan, and it took me a while to pick up on the "group mentality" all around me. I remember in one of my first ESL classes, I noticed the clock in the room was wrong, so I stood on a chair to adjust it, which led to a gasp from my students. "That chair is everyone's chair! What about the next person who sits there?" one of them admonished. Japan really considers shoes to be filthy things, and because I'd stood on the chair without removing them, the faux pas I'd committed was significant. As a rule, Japanese walls are thinner, occasionally even being made out of paper in the case of tatami rooms with shoji doors (although these are not that common anymore); people here learn to make less noise, lest you cause inconvenience to other family members who might be sleeping. Another aspect of Japan's group culture is enryo, a word that means "to hesitate" or "to refrain from doing" and which is a major feature of polite Japanese relationships. While Americans might fight over the last slice of pizza, it's common for Japanese to stand there, offering the last piece to each other while its gets cold: "No, you take it. I'm full" "Oh, no, I couldn't eat another bite, you take it." The name for the last slice of pizza that no one wants to admit they really want to eat is "enryo pizza." Maybe that's the secret of how the Japanese stay so thin?

Cool Stuff: Modern Ruins, Revoltech Toys, Happo Bijin art book, Green Tea Chocolate

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.

	Monthly UNDINE 04. fabulous item for fans of Aria, this is a great artbook filled with information and visuals of the characters from the popular anime show encased in a gorgeous box. You also get figures of Aria-shachou and Hime-shachou.
	Evangelion 00 - Tamashii Spec XS-04. Then, enjoy this fabulous deluxe Evangelion toy from Bandai, capable of making every pose the human body can, with a huge range of movement and dozens of additional parts.
	More Revoltech Toys -- Robots! For Macross / Robotech fans, we've gotten in fresh stock of the Valkyrie VF-1S Skull-1 special, one of the coolest toys from the series ever made because you can pose it more ways than any Valkyrie ever made. Also for old school fans, see the awesome Megatron Revoltech!
	Revoltech Evangelion Toys. Eva fans, we've restocked the red-hot Revoltech Fraulein figure which can be posed in so many beautiful ways -- this is a figure you won't want to miss! Also see the cool Eva-01 Type F AFC Experiment toy back on the site.
	Lotte Tea Ceremony Green Tea Chocolate. Wow, Lotte has really outdone themselves with this deluxe chocolate loaded with matcha powder from Uji, the region of Japan most famous for its green tea.
	KERA Dec. 2007. Kera is the incredible Japanese street fashion magazine that tracks what young people are wearing in Japan right now, from the latest trends in Harajuku to the coolest new "Goth-Loli" outfits.
	Restocked Traditional Products. Finally, see some great restocked DVD items, including our Sake Style Cup, our Natural Stone Magatama Strap, and that really nice "Omikuji" phone strap that tells you fortune, just like the boxes they have a Shinto shrines.
	More Classic "Geta" Sandals. J-List sells some really cool traditional wooden shoes from Japan, and we've restocked the classic Okaku White type, one of our most popular types of wooden sandals.
	HOKUTO NO KEN ~ Parody Comic Balloon Eraser. "You wa Shock!" One of the greatest anime and manga from the 1980 is now...an eraser! We've gotten these cool miniature Fist of the North Star erasers in which look like little volumes of the manga, but which have funny eraser speech balloons inside.
	High School Uniforms from Matsukameya. Just a reminder, J-List authentic high school uniforms for both guys and girls, made by the famous Matsukameya of Nagoya. All uniforms are made to the size you specify and the quality is so good, I can truthfully say I've never gotten negative feedback from a customer. A highly recommend item for cosplay fans!
	New GENPI-CHA / Diet Tea ~ 20 Tea Bags. There are many kinds of tea in Japan beyond "green tea." One of the more famous is this genpi-cha, a tea based on oolong that's designed to make you lose weight. Easy to make by adding tea bags to hot or cold water, your choice!
	P:Chara Mikuru Asahina Pinky Street *Preorder*. I don't know about you, but I'd love to have green tea served to me by Mikuru from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, who is a time-traveller. (Note, for the full Haruhi experience, read the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons.) Here's a great Pinky Street figure set with changeable bodies!
	Yuumil (Iron Princess) 1/8 Cast-Off Figure Repaint ver. Excellent Model Core ~ Queens Blade *Preorder*. Then for fans of the popular Queen's Blade RPG that uses hardcover artbooks with gorgeous art to allow players to fight each other, enjoy Yuumil, the goth-loli fighter who wields a huge battle axe. Preorder this figure now!
	Restocked Ghibli DVDs. See fresh stock of the official Studio Ghibli releases of their films, complete with optional English subtitles and dubbed tracks. Today we're reposting Castle in the Sky Laputa, one of the all-time best anime films ever made, as well as Spirited Away and The Cat Returns.
	The Scent of Puppy Love ~ Hatsukoi no Kaori -- Yinling of Joytoy. What is it about sexy Taiwan-born Race Queens wearing cowboy hats that affects me so? I'm not sure, but I love this massively thick new hardcover photobook from Yinling of Joytoy (name also written Inrin) , a woman so bold she has posed for photos in the Forbidden City in China. Love her new photobook.
	Haikyo Hyoryu - Images of Destruction in Japan. What's cool of looking at old dilapidated buildings and the ruins of our modern society? Ask the Japanese, who seem to love books like this. This is a deluxe size photobook loaded with images of broken, ruined modern places.
	Restocked Manga. Look for some great restocked manga titles, including Blue Eyes vol. 9, Midoku - The Fascinating Poison, Pink Sniper (I love that title for some reason), My Lovers, and Tames.
	Boin Best Selection. We're happy to report that the legendary artbook by Happo Bijin, Boin Best Selection, is back in print and available again. Filled with some of the best art you'll ever see, this is one item no collector should be without.
	Queen's Blade Artbooks. Look for fresh stock of two volumes in the popular Queen's Blade series. Enjoy Mellona, the cute shape-shifter who has telepathic appendages that, er, cover her body or allow her to fight. Also, the gorgeous Claudette, who looks so good with her lightning sword.
	Moerutan. Moetan is the super-cute anime and mana that was based on a bizarre series of English conversation phrasebooks that taught otakus English using cute anime characters. This is a super cosplay parody starring Hinata Seto, who will fulfill any wish for you.