Hello from sunny San Diego. We've made the hop from Japan to the U.S. to enjoy our first Christmas at home in three years. As usual, the 24-hours-door-to-door ordeal is a hard one, but except for some December turbulence on the way over, everything went pretty smoothly. Incredibly, the kids even managed to sleep most of the way, which is a rarity. Of course, that means we've got to deal with two jet-lagged kids who are up at 1 am now. Hm, maybe things didn't go that smoothly after all...
Well, it's looking like 2005 is going to be a watershed year for Japan: this is the first year the population will actually shrink, meaning that the number of babies born will be less than the number of deaths, which is coming a few years sooner than previously expected. Like many countries in the West, Japan is a very low birth rate, since most couples choose to have just one or two children, and some Japanese are choosing not to bother with marriage at all (these people are somewhat rudely named "make-inu" or "loser dogs" in Japanese). In the U.S. and Europe there's a constant stream of immigrants to add to the societies, but in Japan, an island nation in more ways than one, populations will actually start to fall. What will happen? No one can say for sure, but a shrinking tax base and markets that decrease in size despite demand for quality products has got to hurt a country. If nothing else, it might bring about a recession-like business climate even though individual markets might be otherwise healthy. Japan has a highly developed educational system, with a network of compulsory elementary and junior high schools, and both public and private high schools (which are actually outside of optional here, although almost everyone goes). One of the goals of the educational system is to get students to that all-important day in their lives, the University Entrance Exam, which happens in January and February, when they will be tested on math, science, history, Japanese and English (grammar), to determine if they'll get into a top name school (the top school being Tokyo University) or a "suberi-dome" or "stop the slide" school, which is there to "catch" students as they slide down the system. Although studying for the university entrance tests is incredibly difficult, a funny thing usually happens once a student get into a school: he usually switches from study mode to "play" mode, working part time jobs or joining clubs (a friend of mine was in the Waseda ODD Club, which stands for Out Door Drinkers). Truth be told, a large number of Japanese college students fail to learn and grow in any meaningful way at many universities, which is why I've told my kids that I'll be sending them to school in the U.S. Scary Japan fact #736? Japan is continuing to build many new universities despite the shrinking population of students. We still have over 100 amazing Japanese calendars in stock for you, and although they're selling at an incredible rate (we started out with 250 different calendars), we fortunately got some last minute stock of many of our popular items, from the Studio Ghibli (always the #1 seller, it features all original art) to cute faces like Yu Yamada to the amazing kanji art of Mitsuo Aida and much more. Whenever a calendar sells out for that year, we know that we're likely to receive emails from customers asking where the calendar they wanted to buy went. All too often, the answer is that the calendar is gone for good. Don't let this happen to you! (And remember, you can get an extra discount by ordering 4 or more calendars, a great idea if you want to share the love with friends or outfit home and office with Japanese calendar action.) For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you, described below. To view all PG products updated in the past 3 days, click: http://www.jbox.com/UPDATES/3/ o First, for Hello Kitty fans, we've got a great plush toy: the Hello Kitty & Daniel Ballroom Dance edition (they look so happy together) o Also, we have our new Hello Kitty & Poodle bento box, so cute you could eat out of it o Doko Demo Issho (Always With You) is a cute cat character from Sony, and we have a cool cell phone case in stock o Also for fans of kawaiii (cute), enjoy a Rilakkuma Clear Holder, a document protector that will add a touch of Japan to all your work o Keep your finger on the pulse of Tokyo's street fashion culture with FRUiTs, our most popular revolving magazine subscription (we have some regular stock on the site for you, too) o J-List carries many unique books on learning Japanese as well as other topics -- we've got a fascinating book offering advice for any foreigners raising kids in Japan, or thinking of it o Next, J-List has a boatload of new J-Snacks for you, including Meiji 100% Valencia Juice Gummy (made with only natural fruit juice), Morinaga La Donna vanilla cookie, and a cool updated "Cinamaroll de Catch" (in which Sanrio's cute cinamon-roll character hands you a little candy to eat) o For fans of our "wacky things from Japan" we have music CDs of classical Japanese instruments and festivals, great for those who want to enjoy the sounds of Japan o Also, we have really cool ceramic "tokkuri" sake bottle (great for cosplay or, er, drinking sake) on the site o For everyone with a cell phone that will take a strap, we've got a really stylish khaki canvas mobile phone strap, also useful on your keychain, PDA, camera and so on o Students of Japanese, we've restocked the Genki Workbook 1 & 2, which go with #1 textbook series for learning the language o Another cool item is the Zebra Check Set, a system for memorizing any information (highlight the info you want to learn, then quiz yourself using the special colored plastic overlay) o We've restocked our hit product for the year so far, the Nintendo Controller Alarm Clock o Fans of Studio Ghibli toys, enjoy more Image Models, with 3-D PVC scenes from Spirited Away, Nausicaa and Howl's Moving Castle o Also for Totoro fans, fresh stock of the Tin Toy Collection, with great wind-up Totoro and Neko Bus toys made out of tin, just like they did back in the 1940s o We've got restocked Sanrio items too, including the Chirimen (kimono fabric) Shoulder Pouch and Money Purse, both excellent items that combine traditional Japanese elements with, well, "cute" o Restocked snacks include Glico Winter Macadamia & Almond Chocolate, Morinaga Hi-Chew and Milk Caramel, and a favorite of mine, Green Tea Hanahiyori Chocolate o We carry cool "Fude Pens" (pronounced "foo-DAY"), which are pens that allow you to write like you've got a Chinese calligraphy brush in your hand -- see various types restocked o For bento fans, we have little sausage cutters to shape your sausages like little penguins o Finally, we've got fresh stock of our high-end Japanese plastic erasers, Naruto coloring books and general notebooks, and more! For our 18 plus customers, we've got many new products. To view all new products, click this link: http://www.jlist.com/UPDATES/3/ o For fans of Japan's beautiful photography of the female form, enjoy the new issue of Urecco, the #1 magazine at J-List o We also have the new Cho! Very Good!! magazine w/ 120 minute DVD in stock, a great item for fans of authentic Tokyo kogals o Photobook fans, enjoy Momoko Komachi in her drop-dead beautiful new glossy photobook o Then Natsume Abe, one of the original members of the cute-girl JPOP group Morning Musume, shines in a brand new Ako-Hello! (get it? Aloha + Hello) photobook for you o We've got restocked photobooks too, including several by amazing vixen Yoko Matsugane, the lovely Scent of Love by Keiko Akino, Rio Aoki's oddly named Eat Me and more o For fans of Japan's amazing pre-painted anime figures, we've got a positively naughty one from a show called He is my Master o We've got some super "H" manga on the site today, including the classic H comic Kamyla, the excellently illustrated A Girlfriend's Recommendation, and a special manga about rope-play o For yaoi fans, new issue of the popular Gekidan, an anthology manga for fans of Muscle Men art and stories o For DVD customers, enjoy some great new items in stock, including Big Morkal's 4 hour tribute (?) to the Japanese Office Lady (region free) o Next, V&R brings you Dream Fuzoku, a look at Japan's unique "soaplands" that satisfy your every wish (region free) o Then, we've got the dynamite Office Lady Black Stockings, a small but unique category from Japan (region free) o Next, Mio Ayase dresses up in your favorite costumes and performs for you -- lovely! (region free) o Moe (mo-EH) Kimijima shows you her incredible Licking & Spanking next, and you won't be disappointed (region 2) o From Moodyz, enjoy Kasumi Misato in Gokkun Club 10, a dynamite release (heh) exploring a popular indies genre (region 2) o Finally, look for restocked DVDs, including Akane Mochida's Gokkun Club 8, Sea Mizuki's "assist" DVD, Anna Ohura's "tease angles" offering, Mai Hagiwara acting in the Contrary Soap Heaven, and various "rezu" titles! Remember that you can enjoy Japan's amazing PC dating-sim games in English, since J-List carries just about every game in print. If you like the excellent games by G-Collections, you have the option of getting the CD-ROM or Internet Download Edition, too. Our games offer fantastic art by some of Japan's top artists, and great stories and characters, including stories for every taste. Why not browse our dating-sims today and discover a while new way of interacting with Japan? ________________________________________________________ This is the J-List Updates 18 List. If it's inconvenient for you to receive this message, see the link below (it really works) or reply to this message. J-List will never share your personal information or email with third parties in any way. J-List is accessible directly at http://www.jlist.com/ or to see all products updated in the past 3 days, click http://www.jlist.com/UPDATES/3/ Are you getting too much mail from us? Ask us to put you on our "infrequent updates mailing list" and we'll only contact you every few weeks. This version of the list is intended to be read by persons over the age of 18. If you're under the age of 18 or are not interested in these products but would like our "PG" products, please reply to this message and ask to be subscribed to our general list. 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