Cool Products: New Nintendo DS Kanji Game, Haruhi Figures, Pocky, Death Note, 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.

	Shonen Ace May 2008. One of the most excellent manga monthlies in Japan, this is the incredible Shonen Ace, loaded with 450+ pages of excellent material, from Macross F to Sgt. Frog to Evangelion.
	Nagato Yuki Classroom Diorama Figure. I've said it often: everyone needs a replica of the classroom from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in their rooms. This is a great figure of Yuki Nagato, who is really an android sent by the Data Integration Thought Entity to observe events on Earth, especially surrounding Haruhi.
	Ryoko Asakura Classroom Diorama Figure. Also, here's Ryoko Asakura for your Haruhi classroom. Like Yuki, she's got a rather interesting secret that will take you by surprise.
	Faces Stamp ~ Emotion Transforming Soft Stamp. We're all used to adding happy faces and other "emoji" (picture characters that show emotions) to email. Here's a fantastic idea, a soft rubber hanko style stamp that can be squeezed to make the normally happy face show other emotions, including angry, sad, confused and so on.
	Super Kung-fu Kanji Dragon. Another innovation from Nintendo DS: a "kanji battle" game in which you must write the readings for the characters that pop up on the screen. Get them right you perform kung-fu on your enemies, but miss the reading and you'll take damage.
	Cure vol. 52 Japanesque Rock and Visual Styling Magazine. The visuals inside this gorgeous issue of Cure are stunning, with all of Japan's best "visual-kei" bands present in a big way. Keep plugged into Tokyo's music and fashion world with Cure, available as a regular subscription item, as well as limited individual stock of this issue.
	Restocked Evangelion Head Interface. Transform yourself into Asuka or Rei from Evangelion, which were so popular the manufacturer had to make more. Totally cool!
	COSMODE 18 ~ Super Cosplay Magazine 018. Cosplay, or dressing up in your favorite anime costumes, is more than just a hobby for millions of otaku around the world: it's a way of life. COSMODE is the #1 magazine for tracking great costume creations, and this great issue is back in stock for you.
	Glico Dessert Pocky -- Banana Tart Chocolate. Spring is here, and that means one thing -- summer isn't far away, that sad time when we cannot sell chocolate from Japan, as it would arrive at your door smooshed together like so much Meltykiss. But that's not for another month or so -- until then, enjoy this fabulous new Dessert Pocky flavor!
	DX Men's KIMONO with Tiger & Dragon pattern ~ Beige Gold. Fans of our Japanese kimonos and other items, we've posted another gorgeous satin kimono to the site, great for a gaijin who would like to try this beautiful Japanese outfit on. Features full instructions in English on how to care for it, as well as information on the history of the kimono itself. This is large kimono, suitable for big foreigners 5'9" to 6'1" or so.
	Lucky Charm for Safety Driving -- "HANNYA" Car Window Mascot. We've posted two beautiful "HANNYA" omamori luck charms specifically ,made to promote "safety driving" [sic]. They are window mascots that attach to the inside of your car with a suction cup, and feature a chromed gold Noh mask.
	Kanji Practice Flashcards vol.1 version 2 - Level 4 & 3. J-List carried a wide selection of Japanese study tools, including the best flashcards known to man, the outstanding and highly researched set from White Rabbit, which gets you through levels 4 and 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, the first two levels.
	Eye Patch -- String Type. We've also recently restocked our cool Japanese eye patches, which are great for creating that "battle damaged" look in anime cosplay.
	Fun Sanrio Items Restocked. We live to bring you wacky things from Japan, and Hello Kitty is such a famous symbol of the country that Sanrio's famous character is often a great candidate for this. In addition to new colors of the Hello Kitty Aroma Ball (gothic black and "ramune"), enjoy fresh stock of Hello Kitty toilet paper -- yeah!
	Light Yagami & L DX Action Figure ~ Death Note *Preorder*. Two of the most excellent toys in the history of J-List are being reissued, and you can preorder them now. Enjoy these large super-action figures of Light Yagami, the devious person who uses the Death Note to cause the deaths of hundreds of criminals to create the perfect society, and L, the special detective who is chasing him. These figures are so cool they wear normal clothes!
	The World's Coolest Stapler, COPIC Marker Pad, More. We love the Universal Design series from Kokuyo, which really brings some beauty to everyday office objects, like this egg-shaped stapler, that uses standard staples to keep your documents together. Also, the famous Japanese pen maker COPIC also makes the best paper for artists, and we've restocked our A4 Marker Pad.
	New Manga Volumes. See some great newly posted manga today, including Nuki Jump, a tribute to the popular manga found in Shonen Jump, with plenty of futanari for good measure. Also, a great new release by legendary doujinshi circle-gone-pro artist Saigado!
	Kuki Pink File -- Yua Aida. Yua Aida is one of the classiest women in all Japan, and you can enjoy her most memorable performances in super detail in this great new Kuki Pink File release.
	Foot Job Knee Socks 4 hours. You probably know that tekoki means a girl giving a guy a little present with her hands. Ashikoki is the same thing, but using your feet, which is what you get in this great 4 hour release from TMA: foot jobs galore, made all the better because they're wearing charming knee-high socks!
	Nana Saeki's Swimming Club. Take a swim with sexy swimming instructor Nana Saeki (sa-eh-kee), who is ready to teach you everything you need to know, from the breaststroke to mouth-to-mouth to other methods of recreation in or beside the pool.

Words are Interesting Things

Like Cherry Blossoms in the Spring, words are fleeting things, and it can be surprising how their meanings change when they're imported into other languages. Many of the English words the Japanese use don't match up perfectly with their Japanese counterparts. When I had to replace a cooling fan in one of our Macs, I went to the local computer store ("Power Up Computing Life") and asked for a fan, using the English word, guessing correctly that the modern electronic concept of a fan would be covered by the English word. Other concepts that we use the word "fan" for go by very different names in Japanese, such as senpuuki (an electric fan), uchiwa (a fan you use to fan yourself, non-folding) and sensu (a traditional folding Chinese style fan). There are some other English words that the Japanese use, but only in limited ways. If there's a girl you're secretly in love with, a Japanese might advise you to "attack" her (meaning, go and win her love). The English word "camouflage" often refers to a gay man and woman marrying to hide this fact from others. And the English word "propose" is used in Japan only to mean a proposal of marriage, which certainly presents the potential for confusion in international work settings.

Space Invaders

I happened to see that this month marks the 30th anniversary of the venerable "Invader Game," what Space Invaders is called in Japan. This was one of the most influential video games ever released, with many innovative features for its era, including being the first game to introduce the element of competition by recording the day's high scores. For me personally, Space Invaders represents no less than the point in history when just about everything cool started to come from Japan. While the Golden Age of coin-operated video games would still see plenty of innovative releases from American companies over the next few years, it wouldn't take long for icons like Mario, Link and friends to win the hearts of gamers everywhere, for the first time creating a generation that looked to Japan as a major source of its popular culture of choice. Japanese influence would continue to be felt everywhere, starting with the tired lineup of after-school cartoons which were really ready for a smack-down, through the world of American comic books, and all the way to Hollywood. Now, it's almost impossible to separate the ways in which Japan has influenced the world we live in, and to me, it all started with that simple, fun Invader Game.

Fixating on Japanese Phrases and Kanji

One interesting side effect of studying a foreign language like Japanese is finding yourself naturally fixating on various aspects of the language as kakko ii, or "cool." While learning Japanese I found myself liking certain phrases or kanji, like the flowing character for hashiru (to run), which is quite fun to write, or the mystery of the word ku-no-ichi, written with three kana characters from the kanji for woman and meaning "female ninja." In Japanese there are quite a few four-character compound words imported from China centuries ago, which are interesting because they express highly poetic ideas, like jinba-ittai, a slogan adopted by Mazda which means "man and horse as one." If you watch anime, you already know some of these kanji-based idioms, such as ikki tousen, which literally means "one knight who is a match for 1000 enemies," i.e., really strong; or tenchi muyo, written with the characters for heaven + earth + no need, although its meaning is somewhat less elegant, since it's what they print on boxes to represent "this end up." One of these compound words I found myself drawn to during my studies was issho kenmei (ee-SHO ken-may), written with characters that mean "to put one's only life on the line," which in everyday use means to try very hard, to do something with all one's might. It encapsulates the Japanese ethic of working hard, whether it's beating your rival team at sports, studying hard and getting into a good university, or showing diligence to your boss and coworkers at work. Perhaps the most famous symbol of being issho kenmei about something is the traditional Japanese hachimaki headbands, which are worn by anyone who is fired up with passion for something, for example high school students studying for their university entrance exams, new employees in a company opening ceremony, volunteers at a political rally, and so on. We just happen to have a great selection of these traditional headbands -- check them out now!

Cool Products: New Japanese Snacks, Kimono Mouse Pads, Nendoroid, Manga & 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.

	Tsuruya-san Nendoroid. Also, the new Nendoroid of Tsuruya-san has come in, offering dozens of optional parts that allow you to display her in many poses with differing facial expressions. One of my favorite characters from Haruhi.
	Dengeki Daioh May 2008. Great new issue of Dengeki Daioh ("Great King"), the 400+ page monthly manga that contains some of the most popular comics from Japan, like Yotsuba&, Kinki, Venus Versus Virus and Toradora. You get cool free stuff in each issue, too!
	Rider 1/8 Figure Maid version ~ Fate/hollow ataraxia. Awesome version of Rider from the capital-letter-hating Fate/stay night franchise, dressed as a maid, complete with sexy glasses. This figure has come in stock today.
	Evangelion Soundrop Type 2 Full Set of 8. I'm sure that you've often thought how cool it would be to have an Evangelion keychain featuring Asuka's voice shouting her famous line "Anta baka?" (Are you stupid?) when you pressed a button. Your wish now comes true, thanks to the cool Evangelion Soundrop Type 2, which have just been released. Capsule toy line features eight different keychains, all with famous lines and sounds from the series. Available as full sets or random individuals.
	CHIRIMEN Rabbit Mouse Pad. Wow, talk about a cool item: we've gotten in beautiful chirimen mouse pads in the shape of a rabbit, a popular animal in many Japanese folk tales. Made with the same materials as kimonos, these mouse pads are both functional and beautiful, and stay where you put them thanks to their rubberized bottoms. Three designs posted today. These are not just made in Japan, they're made in Kyoto!
	"Nandesuka?" -- Naan Snack Butter Flavor. One of the first jokes a foreigner in Japan learns is that that delicious Indian bread "naan" sounds like the word for "what" in Japanese (nan), hence Nan desu ka? could mean "What is this?" or "Is this Indian bread?" Anyway, here is a new flavor of Japanese snacks based on this delicious food.
	Meiji Fran Au Lait, New Bubblicious. Also, enjoy an awesome new flavor of the double-coated Fran Au Lait, Banana & Milk around a chocolate snack stick -- it looked so good I had to bust one open and eat it. Also, enjoy a new Grape Bubblicious bubble gum, only sold in Japan!
	Japanese Traditional Items. Lots of interesting traditional items on the site today, including a carved wooden phone strap that says "Happiness," a tenugui (hand towel from the Edo Period) with a Lucky Cat on it, our cool Ceramic Lucky Frog strap.
	Kyoto Sanpo with Yoko Matsuoka. Here's a super photobook w/ DVD for anyone who loves beautiful Japanese women...or Kyoto! Go on a trip to Japan's most beautiful ancient capital with Yoko Matsuoka, who poses in great pictures all around the city. Hardcover photobook.
	Learning 300 Kanji through Stories ~ Story de Oboeru Kanji 300. A good book for learning kanji using logical images, like the way the character for "old" looks like a grave stone, or how "river" can be memorized by remembering flowing water.
	Hello Kitty Kimono "Warabe" Doll with Fan -- RED. These Hello Kitty dolls stylized to look like traditional dolls from the Heian Period are just too cool. Back in stock now.
	Certain Victory ~ Hisshou Large Hachimaki. Japanese like to be issho kenmei, a word that means "trying very hard," and one way to show this is with a fashionable Japanese hachimaki headband. Whether you're launching a sneak attack against an enemy or are busting your butt to pass the next final exam, this is what you should have on.
	Kyon Figma Action Figure High School Uniform ver. ~ Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi *Preorder*. The awesome Figma line continues, this time with a great release of Kyon from the series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Poor Kyon is called upon to help Haruhi (who is basically God, although she's a depressed teenager at the same time) find meaning in her life. This series is the most posable we've ever seen.
	Indiana Jones Soft Vinyl Figure *Preorder*. The Japanese are great fans of "Indy Jones" (as he's always called here), and here's a cool soft vinyl toy line made exclusively for the Japanese market, featuring Indy and his father.
	SUPPLIO Green ~ Aroma Mechanical Pencil & Leads -- for Healing. Can a mechanical pencil heal you? That's the premise of Pentel's Supplio pencil + special aromatic leads that emit a soothing smell while you write.
	Lightning Warrior Raidy. Our happy news is that the first-person fantasy "ero" RPG Lightning Warrior Raidy is in stock and shipping now. Can Raidy defeat the sexy monsters of Cubust Tower and free the women enslaved within, or will she fall to the wiles of the fiendish monsters within?
	Comic AG Super Manga Anthology vol. 77. For those that like their "H" manga in English, we recommend Comic AG, the fantastic anthology manga from Icarus Comics, which gives you 80 pages of superb anthology style content in each issue.
	Lingerie Encyclopedia. Do you know your lingerie? Okay, what's a scanty? How about a three-in-one? Or a bustier or waist nipper? This is a great book that documents all the various types of sexy underwear from all over the world, illustrated by cute anime girls (99% free of nudity). A truly fascinating and instructive book!
	Aquarium - Twelve Angels in Water. There's something about a beautiful woman swimming when viewed under water, the way she floats and glides gracefully. What a concept!

Linguistics Land Mines in English and Japanese

If English is your native language, call up our parents and thank them now, because you've got it good. Japanese students learning English face an uphill battle on several fronts, not the least of which being the complex range of sounds they have to master if they want to be understood by anyone. Linguistically speaking, there are twelve vowels in most dialects of American English, with sounds like the schwa and the way New Yorkers pronounce "coffee" counting as separate vowels. One way Japanese learners can differentiate the various sounds in their minds is by memorizing "minimal pairs," sets of words that sound similar, such as walk and work, close and clothes, or election and, well, you know, that other word. I remember wondering why some of my former students would go out of their way to use "will not" as opposed to "won't" -- it turned out that they lacked confidence that the word wouldn't be mis-heard as want. There are pairs of words in Japanese that manage to give foreigners trouble too, and just about every expat living in Japan can tell about the time they really screwed up by using the wrong word in a delicate situation. Some of these tricky word pairs include kirei (kee-REY), meaning "pretty" or "clean," which is easily confused with kirai (ki-RAI), meaning "hated," as well as kawaii (KAH-WAH-ee), which means "cute," and kowai (ko-WA-ee), meaning "scary."

Japan and Brazil: the Emperor Comes to our Prefecture

The Emperor of Japan made a visit to our fine prefecture of Gunma on Monday, stopping by a community of Brazilian-Japanese citizens who worked at a large Sanyo plant. He was there with his wife, Gunma-born Empress Michiko, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of immigration between Japan and Brazil, when a ship from Kobe departed with 791 Japanese farmers in search of a better life there. During the first half of the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Japanese resettled in Brazil and neighboring countries, and many of their descendents have returned to Japan, forming one of the largest ethnic groups here. The town of Oizumi, about 30 km from J-List, has the highest official foreign population in the country (10%), although everyone knows that the real number about double that when people without valid visas are taken into account. It was quite a special event to have the Emperor in our neck of the woods, so naturally everyone dropped what they were doing to go try to get a glimpse of him, causing huge traffic jams everywhere.

Japanese Memory Tricks

Quick, what's the square root of five? I have no idea, but my wife knows: it's 2.2360679. How about the Periodic Table of Elements? My wife can recite the first dozen or so. Do you know what year the Kamakura Bakufu, the first military government in Japan, was established? She tells me that it was the year 1192. This isn't because she's especially smart -- like all Japanese she has a tendency to be self-effacing and regularly calls herself baka, or stupid. No, the reason she knows these tidbits of knowledge is because of the way Japanese memorize some forms of information, by converting it into easily learned phrases, which is called goro-awase. Through a mechanism few gaijin can really understand, numbers are easily mapped to syllables in Japanese, for example the "ee" sound can stand for ichi (one), and "yo" or "shi" for the number four, and "o" for zero. To conjure up the square root of five in the example above, my wife needs only to remember a phrase meaning "at the base of Mt. Fuji, a parrot cries" (Fuji-sanroku ni ohmu naku). Back in the late 1980s, the U.S. was going through a period of serious Japan envy, when just about everything from the country seemed to be perfect, especially the much-vaunted education system, and at least a small reason the Japanese were beating us on international standardized tests was because of these little mnemonic tricks. Of course, breaking information down into easy-to-digest chunks or memorizing by association are great ways to study more effectively. If you're looking for some innovative ways to learn Japanese, be sure to view our study pages for some good ideas.

Cool Products: Sunshine Buddies, Dragon Destiny and Pinky Street Figures, Sabra Mook 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.

	Sunshine Buddies -- Island's Leaf Windmill. We love the Hidamari no Tami, aka Sunshine Buddies, which are solar powered relaxation toys that never need batteries because they're powered by the sun, or florescent lights in offices alternately. This is the best item in the series yet, a windmill that turns while the figure lolls his head from side to side in a relaxing way.
	Ryomou Shimei 1/7 Figure Pearl Black version. There's something about a sexy French maid...with handcuffs, and an eye patch, and long stockings, don't you think? This great figure of Ryoumou Shimei from Ikki Tousen, aka Dragon Destiny, is finally in stock and ready for your order! Big 1/7 scale.
	SHOXX vol. 178 Dec 2007 ~ Visual and Hard Shock Magazine. The definitive magazine of Japanese "visual-kei" (related to visual imagery) rock music, this is Shoxx, an issue that's filled with the top bands in Japan right now, from Mook to Plastic Tree to The Gazette. Fabulous printing and imagery in this perfect bound magazine.
	Harvey and Etsuko's Manga Guide in Japan. A fascinating and hilarious look at Japan through the eyes of two manga characters who travel around the country and experience it in interesting ways.
	Satin KIMONO with Maiko & SAKURA & KYOTO pattern ~ Blue Green . J-List carries a wide variety of cool items from Japan, including kimono, yukata and so on. This is a great new satin kimono that's just beautiful.
	DX Men's Room Coat "ZEN". Or check this out: a cool long kimono-style coat with the kanji for "Zen" embroidered on the back, complete with obi belt. I love this.
	Mini Buddhist Prayer Beads -- Brown. Here's a cool item from Japan: authentic "juzu" prayer beads, used in Buddhist prayers not unlike a Rosary. You can also use it as a great fashion accessory.
	Sticky Head Cotton Swab 20pcs ~ Individual Package. If you've been reading J-List for a while you know the Japanese have many advanced ways of keeping their ears clean. Here's a new one: cotton swabs with adhesive on the ends to better remove ear wax -- great!
	Hello Kitty FURIKAKE Stencil Sheet for Bento ~ 6 sheets. Wow, this is an awesome item! It's a set of three stencils that you can use to decorate your bento rice with Hello Kitty shapes made of furikake (which is delicious dried nori and other stuff you sprinkle over white rice as a bento ingredient).
	New Hello Kitty Vibrating Shoulder Massager ~ All Color Set. One of the strangest products in our history are the Hello Kitty, er, massager, which you can use to massage your shoulder, neck, or any other area thanks to their strong battery operated motors. These unique items are back in stock, both full sets and individual colors.
	KADO-KESHI Petit Set ~ Blue & Pink. The Kado-Keshi (lit. "corner eraser") is the best eraser in the world because it features dozens of corners to make removing pencil marks easy. This is a set of two Kado-Keshi, in pink and blue, with included protective cases.
	SHINOBI ~ Secret Book of NINJA Strap with Natural Stone. Wow, this is cool: a phone strap for the ninja in you. Put it on your phone, Nintendo DS, camera and so on.
	High Grade GETA ~ Goketsu. Geta are the famous wooden shoes that Japanese samurai wore in days of old. This is the most awesome deluxe pair of wooden sandals J-list has ever carried, with quality construction that will amaze you. Back in stock today.
	Seven Days in Japan. Coming to Japan isn't nearly as expensive as you think. In fact, for the cost of this DVD you can spend seven days here, courtesy of student filmmaker Joe Doughrity, who made a documentary of his trip here.
	My Neighbor Totoro Playing Cards ~ Great Fun! We love to bring you great Studio Ghibli products from Japan, and today we're posting cool playing cards featuring My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle. Since they're personally okayed by Hayao Miyazaki, they're really well made.
	P:Chara Yuki Nagato, Tsuruya-san Pinky Street *Preorder*. The Pinky Street line of figures is totally awesome because you get two figures for the price of one, with bodies you can change the heads on and various accessories. Here are the android Yuki and Tsuruya-san in school culture fair maid uniform, that you can preorder now.
	Sabra SM Sisters -- Akiko Seo, Mai Mitsui. We love Sabra, the magazine that best captures Japan's most beautiful women. This is a special perfect-bound "DVD Mook" (a photobook with a DVD include) featuring the fabulous "S"eo Akiko and "M"itsui Mai (get it?). Some of the most gorgeous photography we've ever seen here.
	Queen's Blade ~ Musha Miko Emaki -- Tomoe. The Queen's Blade series is awesome, a collection of high quality artbooks built around a single gorgeous female character in combat. This is the "side story" that tells the background of the fighting shrine maiden Tomoe. Very sexy stuff!
	Max Pink File -- Yua Aida. Awesome collection of the best works of Yua Aida, the silky, elegant Japanese AV star who has brought much joy to her many fans. See this gorgeous woman's best works over 4 hours in the new Max Pink File, which provides the maximum pink for you.