Useful Hooks in Japanese for Foreign Loan Words

There's nothing more interesting than studying a foreign language, of learning the way its unique grammatical rules work so you can form sentences and ideas and communicate with others. Language is always rule-based, and even dialects like Ebonics and Cockney which may sound "wrong" to speakers of standard American or British English are actually formed around their own suites of unique grammatical rules. The Japanese make heavy use of foreign loan words, usually borrowed from English, but since the grammar of the two languages is different, something is needed to "bridge" the two, and conveniently there are two such grammatical aides built right into the language. The first is the adjective particle na which allows an adjective to be plugged into a Japanese sentence without breaking any rules, and you can hear phrases like surimu na onna (a slim, slender woman), gohjasu na hoteru (a gorgeous hotel) or torendii na dorama (the latest trendy drama on television) spoken every day in Japan. I've even heard the word "epoch-making" used in this fashion -- as in, epokkumeekingu na ibento, meaning an event that is truly Earth-shattering in nature. The other tool to help foreign words be used in Japanese is the catch-all verb suru which means "to do." Words you might hear in Japanese include getto suru (GET-toh suru, to get or find something), doraibu suru (doh-RAH-ee-bu suru, to go for a drive), kamingu auto suru (kah-min-GU AH-oo-toh suru, lit. to do "coming out" or to come out of the closet about something), and of course, sekkusu suru (to have, well, you know). The staff at J-List uses lots of English in their Japanese, too, and you can hear terms like sukyan suru (to scan something), pikku suru (to pick products in preparation for shipping) being used everyday.

Are you coming to Anime Expo? If so be sure and stop by booths 624-626-628 to say hello, and check out the many anime figures, plush toys, T-shirts, Hoodies, manga and dating-sim games we've got for you. We'll also be holding a panel on bishoujo games on Saturday July 5th from 8 to 9 pm in room LP4 (LACC 411), with free stuff for everyone who shows up, including a raffle and more. See you there!

Pleasantville, Japan

One of my favorite movies is Pleasantville, a fun film about two modern-day teenagers who get transported inside a 1950s-era black-and-white TV show similar to Father Knows Best or Leave it to Beaver. In the strange universe of Pleasantville, every wife stays in the kitchen cooking her family's dinner, and there's a funny scene where the husband comes home to an empty house to find no wife and no dinner waiting for him, which utterly confuses him since it's supposed to be impossible in the world he lives in. Watching that scene the other day amused me because just that day my Japanese father-in-law had been upset because his wife had gone off to a UNESCO meeting without leaving his dinner, forcing him to fend for himself in the kitchen, never an easy task for an older Japanese man. The idea that a funny joke about life in the 1950s could still describe people in contemporary Japan is a surprise, but then Japan is a very different place from the U.S. In my family I'm considered the daikoku-bashira or the "big black pillar" that holds up the family, and it's always interesting to observe from a cultural standpoint the way my Japanese wife or her mother jumps up when I get home from work, fetching me a bowl of rice and my chopsticks in a way that reinforces my role in the family. Part of me feels like resisting that kind of treatment, since I don't think it's particularly necessary, but in the end I usually just shut up and eat my dinner.

Anime Expo 2008

We're here at Anime Expo, the most excellent anime-themed annual event there is, with something like 40,000 other fans who have gathered to celebrate the important alternate popular world culture of Japanese animation. I've been involved with American anime fandom from the beginning -- I was at this event back in '91 when it was called Anime Con, when no one was sure if there were enough anime fans to fill a whole convention. As I wander the halls of the Westin Bonaventure hotel looking at the inspired kids (I'm at that age where most everyone I see can be described with this word) I see, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Cool Items: Friday, July 4, 2008

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.

	Olympic Domo Kun - Judo, Gymnastics and Hammer Throw. Next, we've gotten in three great Domo-kun plush toys featuring NHK's most famous spokesmonster, including Judo, Gymnastics and Hammer Throw. Outstanding!
	Newtype July 2008. Haruhi is back, and you can read about her in the new Newtype issue, which you can read about it in the new Newtype, in stock now!
	Death Note Super DX Action Figures. Also, see one of the most amazing figures we've ever carried, the deluxe "L" from Death Note. He's so cool, he wears clothes! Again, stock is limited so get yours quickly if you're gonna.
	Misa Amane Deathnote Action Figure Straitjacket ver. Also for Death Note fans, a figure of Misa from Death Note in her straightjacket. Love it! This figure is in stock now, but supplies are limited so don't delay if you love the series.
	Tachikoma DX Metal Finish ver ~ Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C 2nd Gig. When you really want the most excellent Tachikoma toy ever made, then check out this item, which sports a real metal finish. Fantastic!
	Smile Slime Plush ~ Dragon Quest. Here's the Smile Slime from Dragon Quest, recreated as a large, huggable plush! One of the most iconic video game characters since Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. Restocked by customer request.
	I Love Obento ~ Lunch Time Bento. For aficionados of bento, this is a great book teaching you how to make the best bento lunchboxes ever.
	Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann -- Nia Artbook. This is the gorgeous upcoming artbook for fans of Gurren Lagann, the popular new robot anime from Gainax This art book is dedicated to the character Nia, and it's in stock now!
	Dengeki Layers vol. 17. Layers is the fabulous perfect-bound magazine dedicated to cosplayers, and it's loaded with hundreds of photographs of great anime costume examples from Japan's best cosplaying events. In addition, they give you a complete pattern inside the magazine to make your own costume -- wow!
	Nintendo Animal Crossing Trio Set. Bento culture is really fun, and here's a great "trio set" (i.e. a spoon, fork and chopsticks) from Nintendo's Doubutsu-no-Mori (i.e. Animal Crossing). Really cool.
	New Snacks. Yummy Japanese snacks today, including Hard Sembei Rice Crackers, Morinaga Potelong (i.e. "potato long") in Spicy Shrimp Flavor, and fun Fue Gum, gum that you can whistle through before you chew it.
	WAGARA Mickey Mouse Ceramics. Then, blend traditional Japanese themes with Mickey Mouse with these coffee cup, saucer and rice bowls.
	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 (both 70 and 120 cm socks).
	Many Restocked Bento Items. The popular Blue and Red JU-BAKO (stacking box style) Square Bento Set is restocked, which comes with everything you need for a great Japanese boxed lunch experience.
	SANRIO Cinnamonroll Kanji Practice Notebook ~ 84 Squares. The best way to memorize hiragana, katakana and kanji is to write, write, write, and here's a very cute notebook to help you do it.
	Flamboyant -- Ugetsu Hakua. Then enjoy the gorgeous illustrations of a talented artist who created the characters for Burst Angel, along with many other popular works. Back in stock.
	Yotsubato Summer Version Figures *Preorder*. Wow, this is a great new figure for Yotsuba fans, of Fuka Ayase, which you can preorder now.
	Totoro Plush Toys. We've restocked the super cute Fuka Fuka Totoro Plush Doll, which is so soft to touch and hug you'll love it.
	Lucky Cat Origami, Restocked Pentel Pens. Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper, and we've restocked our cool Lucky Cat set that lets you create cute cats to bring good luck into your home. We've got fresh stock of the cool Lucky Cat Origami set, along with more popular Pentel pens.
	Amorous Professor Cherry. We're extremely glad to announce that the new game Amorous Professor Cherry is in stock and shipping now. A really outstanding game by the creators of The Sagara Family and Crescendo. Yes, order your copy and we'll get it out to you right away.
	Queen's Blade -- Allean, Ardra. See fresh stock of the two newest Queen's Blade art books, the line of gorgeous art books which can be used with the Lots Worlds battle system (if you like) or just enjoyed as a really affordable glossy hardcover artbook line.

All About Japanese Pen Spinning

Pen spinning is the art of spinning a pen around your fingers and doing amazing tricks with it, and J-List has recently added a line of specially weighted spinning pens to our site for you to check out. The unique activity of twirling a pen is thought to have originated in Japan with ronin, a word which once meant a masterless samurai but in modern days refers to a student who has failed his university entrance exams and must live in limbo as he studies to take the tests near year. Since these students had plenty of free time, they'd get really good at spinning their pens in their fingers while they studied. The First Pen Spinning Boom got underway in Japan around 1976, when students of several famous national and private universities became known for the ability to spin pens. It was later learned that all these students had attented a yobiko (cram school) called Sundai Preparation School, which soon became legend among "spinners" for birthing the sport. In 1997 a pen spinning fan named Hideaki brought spinning to the Internet age with the first website dedicated to the activity, which ushered in the Second Wave of Pen Spinning. The Third Wave arrived with the defining of the various pen spinning tricks (backaround, infinity, palm spin and so on -- they are frankly over my head, although they look cool) and the rise in pen spinning internationally in the form of world tournaments. How long will it be before Electronic Arts comes out with Extreme Pen Spinning for the Playstation 3? I'll let that be a question for the ages.

Speaking English vs. Japanese, Part II

Last time I talked about how there are times when gaijin in Japan might find that some doors open for them if they speak English rather than fluent Japanese. I'm not sure why this, but the tendency for Japanese to react positively to someone speaking English seems to be related to the strange "English complex" they possess, the various difficult emotions each Japanese person has about the language, which most study for years but don't really master. Tomo tells me it's related to what's known as seiyo suhai shugi, translatable as Worship-of-the-West-ism, the tendency for Japanese to assume that Europe and America are more socially advanced and inherently superior to Japan. Basically, when a person speaks English, he seems to be elevated to a higher rung of the social ladder than if he spoke fluent Japanese -- even if he could recite the Tale of Genji from memory while performing tea ceremony and folding origami (sigh). One area that tends to be important to males living in Japan is, well, meeting females, and the great agony of gaijin who have studied a lot Japanese is the inverse relationship of language study to how popular you (might) be with certain kinds of Japanese girls. It seems that a fun English-speaking foreigner might just be more interesting (mysterious?) than a Japanese-fluent gaijin who can discuss the various historical causes for the Saigo Takamori's Rebellion which took place after the Meiji Restoration. Of course, this is a pretty big generalization, and I know that my wife was intereted in me because of my deeper passion for Japan rather than in spite of it. But seeing newly-arrived teachers in the JET program go drinking with girls hanging off them at the local pub made cramming for Level 1 of the Japan Language Proficiency Test just a little bit harder. Oh well.

My Journey to San Diego, and Reverse Culture Shock

Well, I've made the big hop from Japan to San Diego, in preparation for the upcoming Anime Expo, which is sure to be a blast. The trip is 24 hours door-to-door, which includes 3 hours on a bus to Narita, sitting around the airport, and the total flight time. It's a stressful journey to be sure, although I'm always happy to make it because one of my two favorite places (San Diego or Japan) is waiting for me on the other end. As usual, I've spent a couple days experiencing various forms of reverse culture shock, being surprised at things like "small" drinks here (quite large compared to Japan), how dirty some people let their cars get (you just don't see cars that beg to have "wash me" written in dust as you sometimes do here), or how American school buses and mail delivery trucks manage to stay exactly the same as they were when I was a kid in the 1970s. I'm also fighting off the late-afternoon jet lag that starts to slowly creep up on me, so if I fall asleep during this update, I apologize in advance.

This city is why I love to drive convertable cars like the Miata / Mazda Roadster.

Cool Items: Wednesday, July 2, 2008

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.

	Totoro in Forest Plastic Mug Cup. Here's a very high quality item from Studio Ghibli, a "mug cup" that you can use to enjoy tea, coffee, or especially, hot cocoa. Features images of all the Totoro friends on the cup. Wow, this is a great item.
	Studio Ghibli 2009 Schedule Book *Preorder*. Preorder this great Studio Ghibli schedule book that will help you organize your life next year. This series is incredible well made, overseen (of course) by Hayao Miyazaki so you know the quality is very high, with all original art. There are books for Totoro and Jiji the Cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. Ships in August.
	Kemeko Nendoroid Plus Figure ~ Kemeko Deluxe! A cool preorder figure for Nendorid fans, this is Kemeko from Kemeko Deluxe! It's a popular manga serialized in Dengeki Comic Gao!, and we think it'll be popular because from the machine gun alone. This figure is in stock now.
	Em Em 1/8 Figure ~ Kemeko Deluxe. Also for fans of Kemeko Deluxe from Dengeki Comic Gao!, we've gotten in a less Super Deformed figure that's nevertheless very cute to display or play with.
	Akihabara Maniac Map. Here's a great book if you have any plans to come to Japan in the near future: a super guide to Akihabara, the mecca for electronics and recently for anime and otaku culture in general. This great book has all the places you'll want to hit when you visit Japan.
	Dengeki Maoh July 2008. Dengeki Maoh is the high quality monthly manga magazine that give you no less than 500 pages of earth-shattering Japanese manga, with great stories like Spice and Wolf, Tales of Destiny, Sengoku Basara2, and more. Also, free stuff -- we love free stuff.
	80's Classic Hello Kitty Card Holder Case ~ Red. We're posting another gorgeous retro Hello Kitty item which lets you hold all your cards, including train pass, credit cards, and business cards, in one very kawaii place.
	New Japanese Snacks. Then see great J-Snacks added tot he site, including Glico Cratz in Spicy Cheese Flavor, a crunchy snack that goes great with cold beer, as well as Meiji Salt'n Milk Candy and "Whistle Ramune Candy" that you can blow through to make a fun whistling sound.
	Pen'z Gear Spinning Pen-- Fire Fox Design. Want to try your hand at pen spinning? These high quality pens from Pen'z Gear are the best you can buy, with adjustable weights in the tips allowing you to spin them just so. You can also, you know, write down stuff with them.
	Super Soft Fluffy Mini TENUGUI ~ Lucky Rabbit / Pink. We've gotten in this new soft tenugui (teh-NOO-GOO-ee), an attractive traditional towel used in the Edo Period for drying hands, cleaning and just about anything else.
	Fun with Katakana ~ Sutekina Katakana. Learning Japanese begins with getting Hiragana and Katakana, the two basic writing systems of the langauge, down. Here's a treat book filled with ways to make learning to read and write katakaa (used for expressing foreign loan words or writing foreign names) in no time.
	Japanese Study Aids. We've gotten in some great ways to study Japanese, too, including a bilingual Traditional Comics Stories from Japan book, and a guide to Writing E-mails in Japanese.
	New Check Set with Erasable Pentel Handy-line Slim (Knock type Marker). The "Check Set" memory aid that helps you learn any information better by highlighting the text you want to learn in green, then hiding it with the red sheet while you quiz yourself, has been restocked. You can memorize any information with this great tool. Back in stock!
	Traditional Paper Balloons. We love these kami fuusen or paper balloons, a traditional toy played with in Japan since before America was colonized. This assortment comes with many different fun shape balloons to blow up.
	Hello Kitty Toilet Paper -- pink & green. Nothing says "I love Hello Kitty" than this official Sanrio toilet paper, which features their famous character not only on the high quality plastic printing on the outside of the toilet paper, but on each sheet as well. Great for decorating the guest bathroom in a new motif.
	iTunes Japan Music Cards. Every year thousands of fans gather for the Fuji Rock Festival in July. Even if you won't be attending this year, you can enjoy the music through the Japan iTunes store, which has a special page set up (iTunes link) featuring the Japanese and international bands at this year's show. Enjoy listening to the songs, and remember, we sell the prepaid iTunes Japan cards that make it easy to buy songs. Fully iPod / iPhone compatible!
	Restocked Japanese Pens. Got some great pens for you back in stock, including the Doraemon Action Ball Point Pen, the Pentel Handy Retractable Magic Marker that actually recedes into the pen so it never needs a cap, and the Snack Parody Markers that smell like delicious Japanese snacks.
	ShioriX -- Shiori Kawana. I really like the look of this Shiori Kawana new photobook, which is filled with the sexy photos of this hot Japanese model. I mean, body paint? Wow!
	Other Artbooks. Then see some other great restocked artbooks, including the legendary Satoshi Urushihars's Illustrations Fai, and the gorgeous 2D Dream Magazine Illustrations, with all the best 2-dimensional lovely girls.
	Otome Crisis Visual guide book. The game Otome Crisis is great because of its beautiful art and its story and fighting game features. Here's the official guide book to the game, one you'll really want to pick up.
	Queen's Gate -- Alice (nitro+). For fans of the Queen's Gate series, which takes the Queen's Blade beautiful female combat concept and has famous artist characters do the battling, we've restocked Alice from Nitro+. So cute!
	Rin Takami 1/7 Cast off Figure Lyrical Lyric *Preorder*. A gorgeous upcoming figure from the popular game Lyrical Lyric -- isn't that name just too cool? Anyway, this figure can be displayed in tasteful clothed version or, hee hee, you know. Preorder today.
	Raki Chuta 4 Hours Special!! (region 2). Anime cosplay parody fans, this is a memorable item for you: the best Lucky Star ero-cos you'll ever see. Now in stock by customer request!

The General Japanese Traditional of Nostalgia

I wrote before about how, in the complex world of obsessive otaku culture in Japan, there are (for example) fans of Japan's various city towers, who love to travel to Yokohama's Marine Tower or Osaka's venerable Tsutenkaku Tower (the name means "Tower Reaching to Heaven") and fill scrapbooks with pictures and ticket stubs from their journeys. This odd tower fascination is part of a larger general tendency of Japanese to feel natsukashii (nats-kah-SHEE) or nostalgic, about the past, especially the early or middle Showa Period (1925-1989). There seems to be no end to things the Japanese can feel nostalgic about, and there's even a well developed otaku culture that worships the old city busses used in the postwar period, like the charming bus the father rides in on in My Neighbor Totoro, as well as a fondness for those old covered shopping streets that used to be so important to commercial life in Japan, but which are now largely dilapidated. When J-List's Yasu first came to work for us, we took him to Yukara, a delicious local restaurant that opens at 11:30 pm, and their food is so good that there are dozens of people lining up to eat even at that late hour. (It's kind of an official initiation for J-List employees to go there and eat.) While we were standing in line, Yasu walked up and down the street admiring the run-down houses in that part of the city, many of which didn't even have people living in them anymore. While some might just see ugly old buildings, he was fascinated with the kinds of construction used back when the houses were built, including the wooden sliding doors or the large recessed areas by the front doors (genkan), which were often bare earth rather than concrete or tile as you'd have today. I can understand the Japanese fascination with cool old things -- I personally have an odd compulsion about pictures and postcards of Disneyland and Las Vegas from the 1960s and 70s which I can't explain. 

So, what do you feel natsukashii about?

The Benefits of Speaking English over Japanese

Between studying Japanese for four years at SDSU and living here for 17, I've pretty much got the Japanese language down. I've actually forgotten a large part of what I studied over the years, especially written kanji, since the great convenience of computers that let you select the right character by hitting the space bar means that almost no one writes kanji as well as they used to, including both Japanese and foreigners like me. Although I'm functionally fluent in the language, I've learned something odd, that it's often better to speak English in some situations. The other day I was at the public bath with my son (it's called Yura no Sato, which translates as Village of Hot Water Relaxation) when one of the other bathers struck up a conversation with me, asking me where I was from. He'd just finished an interesting trip around the world, visiting China, the Middle East and Europe, and was planning on going to the U.S. next. While my long years of studying tempted me to speak Japanese with him, instead I spoke only English, since I knew that getting to practice his language skills would really make the man's day. Speaking English instead of Japanese can open doors that might not otherwise open for you. Once I speaking with a Japanese female airline employee at a ticket counter about about the possibility of an upgrade to business class, and I received a somewhat cold reaction to my suggestion when I spoke in Japanese to her. I decided to ask at another counter run by the same airline, this time speaking polite English and batting my "gaijin Bambi eyes" as best I could, and darned if I didn't get that upgrade. My wife tells me that if I want to yell at someone for something, it's much more effective to do it in English -- it seems that angry words just carry more impact in English than in Japanese.

By the way, Aya Ueto is really cute.

Seasons, Summer and Cold Ramen Noodles

One thing you learn about Japan pretty quickly is, what a seasonal place it is, with people doing different things at different times of year. It's summer now, time to enjoy traditional activities like listening to the soft sound of fuurin (Japanese wind chimes) as the wind blows in and watching fireworks at the Tanabata Festival while people mill around wearing yukata and eating shaved ice. If you are male and live with a female, you can expect to have your share of what I call "air-con wars" over what temperature the room should be, with females shivering at anything below 27 degrees C (80 degrees F) while males like me instead prefer that the temperature be cold enough to see your breath. Summer is also the season to eat one of my favorite dishes, hiyashi-chuka, essentially cold ramen-style noodles in a tangy sauce, with things like scrambled egg, ham, crab and cucumber on it, a dish I've never come across in the U.S., although it must be available at some Japanese establishments. Restaurants only offer this dish in the summer months, and when summer is over it's off the menu, letting you know that the season has finally ended and Autumn has arrived. While I'm never too sad to see the heat and humidity of Japan's summer go, seeing that hiyashi-chuka is no longer available at my favorite restaurant always brings a tiny pang of sadness to me.

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.

	Megami Magazine Creators vol. 12. Here's a fantastic special issue of Megami Magazine, the #1 selling anime magazine at J-List. It features a special focus on the artists themselves and the types of character design techniques they use to create the incredibly cute anime girls.
	Hello Kitty Muffin Mold. How cool is this? A special mold for making Hello Kitty shaped muffins, from Sanrio and sold only in Japan. It's eerie how cute these things are. Great for adding a third dimension to your food life.
	Olympic Domo Kun -- Swimming. and Marathon Version. Domo-kun is back in the form of great plush toys celebrating the Olympics. Domo-kun looks great in his swimsuit or in his marathon running garb. These are limited edition plush toys that are really cool to display. Raaawr!
	Junction ~ Ken Ohyama. Talented photographer Ken Ohyama (Oyama) shows you images you've never before seen, the incredible freeways and sprawling overpasses seen in Japan, a true feat of engineering that few countries have achieved.
	Paint Jump ~ Art of BLEACH. Learn to draw and color using this innovative book that teaches you techniques using Bleach characters. Great either for coloring or painting manually, or scanning into Photoshop to practice coloring techniques that way.
	80's Classic Hello Kitty Card Holder Case ~ White. For Hello Kitty fans, here's a cute card holder to store all our important cards, from train passes to credit cards, drivers' license or business cars. Modeled after the 1980s retro Hello Kitty with puffy ribbon -- so cute!
	Waku Waku Oekaki Bento. See some of the cutest bento creations ever in this new cooking book, loaded with sample pictures of bento lunch creations that will take your breath away.
	Frog PAW Chopsticks & Chopsticks Case. This is a cute set of chopsticks w/ a Frog Face case that promises you a "Happy Lunch Time."
	Hiragana Times June 2008 No. 260. This is a treat for anyone trying to learn Japanese because each article on traditional and modern Japan is presented in both English and Japanese, with the Japanese fully annotated with hiragana to make it easier to read.
	Summer Yukata, Asakusa Bag. We've restocked our popular yukata (cotton kimono) line. This is a samue or the working outfit of a Buddhist monk, used when farming to doing something else that was non-spiritual. We've also restocked the attractive cloth Asakusa bags with beautiful images of Japan printed on the front.
	Super Soft Fluffy Mini TENUGUI ~ Lucky Rabbit / Green. Tenugui are the traditional hand towels of the Edo Period, which are like handkerchiefs used in the West. Here's an elegant traditional cloth towel featuring "Lucky Rabbit" printed on it.
	Lucky Cat Bento Box, More. One of my favorite bento box ideas is the simple but elegant Lucky Cat bento, which has been incredibly popular with our customers since we started selling it. See fresh stock of this item, as well as a Genuine Earthenware Sake Set.
	Traditional Japanese Pillows They have some really amazing pillows here in Japan. Here's a very comfortable one that's filled with bamboo charcoal, which makes the pillow scrunch around your head and feel great. Both varieties of this pillow are back in stock (pink and purple).
	Hello Kitty Bath Net -- Pink and Black. Get clean with Hello Kitty! These plush bath sponges are made to hold soap really well so you can get cleaner than you've ever believed possible. Plus they've got the cool "goth-loli" style thing going, really nice. Back in stock today.
	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.
	Kureha Figure Sit Down ver. ~ Shining Wind by Eye Scream *Preorder*. I am a big fan of Tony Taka, the (sometimes ero) artist that created Shining Wind. This figure of Kureha is one of the best, and you can preorder it now for shipping when it comes in.
	High Performance Origami Paper Airplanes, More. I distinctly remember checking out a book from the library in the third grade called "Flying Origami." It was cool, but not quite as cool as these ready-to-fold paper airplanes we've restocked today. Also see special deluxe sticky memo pads from Japan.
	Cover Girls ~ Kazuaki Sonobe illustrations. Then we have a very special art book offering from Kazuaki Sonobe, a hugely thick collection of his most memorable illustrations going back to 1999. Incredible art for you to drool over in this book that all collectors should be sure to snap up.
	Hiiro no Kakera Official Visual Fanbook. Otome Game fans, we've posted a great artbook for you, the official fanbook of the DS game aimed at girls, and very popular. Also, see fresh stock of some elegant yaoi manga works.
	Queen's Blade Books. See some of the most popular Queen's Blade artbooks back in stock, including the Tomo and Menace side story books that come with audio CDs, and the popular Cattleya, the fighting warrior who manages to do battle with her young son always under foot.
	"Sex Style" Sake Bottles. We love this wacky series of sake bottles, coffee cups and other fun items that shows you the 48 traditional lovemaking positions, enacted (in this case) by cute little frogs.
	Hakufu Sonsaku 1/8 Scale Figure -- Pink Nurse Costume ver. Enjoy the lovely Hakufu from Dragon Destiny, a delicious pose that will sizzle while sitting on your shelf. Only 3 are in stock so bag yours before they sell out.
	Ryoubi Gentoku 1/8 Cast off Figure School Y Shirt ver. ~ Dragon Destiny *Preorder*. Today we're posting the gorgeous Ryoubi figure from Dragon Destiny for preorder. This is a "cast off" so it's very cool, allowing you to remove her clothes and display her any way you like. Ahem, not that you'd do anything like that.

Brief S3stat Plug

In keeping with the tradition of plugging services that do things for me, I'm going to write a quick post about how cool Amazon S3 is, now that we've moved most of the J-List image hosting over to it. And since S3 is designed to accept plug-in features from other providors, the fine folks at http://www.s3stat.com, a service that lets me track the data going through the S3 "buckets" (a server paradigm I am still getting used to) is a really good service. Basically it gives you a way to see all the data, look for trends, really nice webmasters in China who hotlink your content and cost you $7000 extra a year in server fees. and so on. Bottom line, if you run a website that gets any bandwidth at all, or if you want a way to send big files to people, S3 and services like S3stat are highly recommend-able. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it's been totally worth it, so far. 

Some Pictures fro the Party

Follow the Firefox logo...

I mean, they had a giant Firefox ice sculpture. How cool is that?

The Japan Mozilla organization gave a lot of speeches and there was general celebration.

I managed to run into the president of Good Smile Company, and I got to give him my own recommendation on the future of the Nendoroid line.

Firefox Party!

I took a day off yesterday to attend the official Firefox 3.0 launch party in Tokyo, which celebrated the historic third release of the great open source web browser. At the party, I wandered around a large room filled with various industry people -- developers, programmers, the occasional bigwig from Bandai or Yahoo Japan -- with everyone in attendance being Japanese, except for myself and two friends from Italy and Spain who were with me. I knew intuitively that the normal mingling you'd expect at a party like that would be a little more difficult due to the (perceived) language barrier that separated us from the Japanese around us, and we would have stood there not talking to anyone all night if it hadn't been for the natural exuberance that foreigners seem to have, enabling us to ignore whatever invisible social rules that may have been in effect and start up a discussion with strangers by, say, overhearing a conversation about Osaka and responding by doing an impression of the Glico Man, from the famous neon sign in that city. In no time, we had melted the ice and had a circle of interesting people around us, chatting about various topics. Back during my days as an ESL teacher, I quickly learned that my students responded more when I was energetic and outgoing, and in fact Japanese seem to take it for granted that foreigners will be a little more interesting in social situations than they are themselves. Incidentally, I really am happy to recommend Firefox as a great browser for everyone to use when viewing J-List or any other website, whether you're on a Mac, a PC or a Linux machine, and I'm not just saying that because they gave me free beer and sushi, although that was pretty cool. I mean, what has your web browser of choice done for you lately?

Tinkle Tinkle, Little Star

There are some words that the Japanese seem doomed to have problems with, due to the fact that their language is rather phonetically impoverished, with just 5 vowels and a limited repertoire of sounds produced normally. For example, the sounds of L and R are not separate in Japanese, which makes it nearly impossible for them to tell the difference between words like "right" and "light" without years of practice, and opening up some pretty humorous situations in election season. The Japanese are less likely to use the Internet term "FAQ" because it has the same pronunciation as another famous word that starts with F, which can cause confusion. The sound "si" is pronounced "shi" in Japanese, which of course can lead to problems when Japanese ask you, "Please, sit!" The J-List staff reports thinking that the the word "peanut," which is always pronounced as "peanuts" in Japanese (even if you're eating just one), sounds quite close to a potentially embarrassing word in English. Finally, the joker who introduced the song "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" to Japan might have thought it was funny at the time, but I've observed that virtually everyone here has managed to memorize the "twinkle, twinkle" part without the "w" sound. Tsk, tsk...

This is a Playstation game called Tinkle Star Sprites. 

340 mpg Savior: The Honda Cub

The most successful motor vehicle in history isn't the Toyota Corolla, and it's isn't the Ford F-Series pickup, or even the Volkswagen Beetle. It's the Honda Super Cub, the two-wheeled miracle created by the Honda Motor Company in 1958. Conceived as an easy way for people to get around cities in postwar Japan, the Cub (which stands for Cheap Urban Bike, in case you were wondering) was designed as a follow-up to a popular engine kit that could be attached to a bicycle to aid the rider when pedaling. The 50 cc motorcycle became an instant hit, making Honda a leader in economical transportation and becoming one of Japan's most successful export products. The Cub, which has sold more than 60 million units to date, is used in Japan in a wide range of industries, including delivery of mail and home-delivered ramen noodles. When I first got here I really wanted to buy one, although my high school-age students were shocked by this, since (in Japan) the stereotype of these small motorcycles is that only ojisan (middle-aged men) ride them, although there are enthusiasts who manage to tour the country on their little Cubs. Although sold in the U.S. and Europe, the Super Cub really caught on in Asia, especially in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam and where they're used by millions -- I'll never forget going to Bangkok and seeing a family of five, including father, mother, two toddlers and a baby, perched on one of these tiny 50 cc bikes. Considering that the Honda Super Cub gets an amazing 340 mpg (146 kpl), it seems to me that this is the perfect solution to the current gasoline crisis. All we have to do is encourage everyone to start commuting on these cheap, economical motorcycles, perhaps after reworking our cities a little to be friendlier to slower-moving traffic. Who's with me?