change feed

JList Blog

WTF, Japan?

No matter how long a person lives in Japan, there are always things that can bring on what expats call a "Japan moment," the feeling of utter amazement at something bizarre you've just encountered. Maybe it's something cute, like a big truck playing the Main Street Electrical Street Parade song ...

Posted on July 30, 2010 at 5:42 PM

Sushi in the U.S. vs. Japan

Normally when I come to the U.S. the last thing I want to do is eat Japanese food, since there there are so many other choices here, like Mexican and Thai and Chinese. (Chinese food does exist in Japan, but in a very different form from what you'd find at ...

Posted on July 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM

Big Problems in Sumo Land

Sumo wrestling is the official sport of Japan, enjoying special status and support by the Japanese government. It's more than a sport, really, since it's closely tied to Shinto religious ceremonies going back centuries, and legendary figures from Japan's history like Hideyoshi and Nobunaga were sumo aficionados, although contestants fought ...

Posted on July 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM

Cool Products Friday, July 30, 2010

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 ...

Posted on July 30, 2010 at 5:37 PM

Otakon 2010

Unfortunately I'm not able to attend Otakon, the awesome East-Coast anime convention, this year. But that doesn't mean you can't score some great J-List stuff, since our East Coast team will be there, with fabulous manga, dating-sim games, and J-List tissues for everyone who stops by to say hello. We'll ...

Posted on July 29, 2010 at 5:23 PM

Careful When Ordering Mango Juice From a Pretty Waitress

When you learn a foreign language, you definitely need to develop a sense of humor. Like the other day when I was talking about the concept of katami, which are the treasures of a person who has died which are distributed to friends and family members. But I'd gotten the ...

Posted on July 29, 2010 at 5:21 PM

Visiting the Anime Holy Land

One of the coolest things an obsessive anime fan in Japan can do is seichi junrei, e.g. making a "pilgrimage to the holy land," which in this case refers to visiting places from your favorite anime series. Whether it's traveling to Lake Kizaki in Nagano Prefecture, where Please Teacher/Twins was ...

Posted on July 29, 2010 at 5:17 PM

Harry Potter Loves Star Wars

"If there's a bright center to Britain, Number Four Privet Drive is the street that it's farthest from." I recently got a new TV, and proceeded to break it in by watching the nerdiest movies I could find, which naturally included Star Wars: A New Hope and the first Harry ...

Posted on July 29, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Cool Products Thursday, July 29, 2010

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 ...

Posted on July 29, 2010 at 5:12 PM

San Diego Comic-Con Wrap-Up

Well, the San Diego Comic-con is over, and the J-List staff is tired, but still exhilarated. As usual, it was awesome getting to meet so many J-List fans, shake lots of hands and even sign an H-game package or two. We also handed out about 20,000 of our trademark J-List ...

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 7:08 PM

Fish Names in Japanese and English

The other day I went out to a seafood restaurant with my wife and daughter, who are visiting from Japan. As they looked to me to help them decide what to order from the menu, I discovered a strange linguistic gap in my brain: I was almost completely ignorant of fish ...

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 7:06 PM

"Like, or Love?"

Suki desu ka? One of the first useful words a student of Japanese learns is how to say "like" (suki), which is pronounced quickly so that it sounds rather like the English word "ski," leading all students to immediately make the joke sukii ga suki desu ka? (Do you like ...

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 7:05 PM

The 100th Anniverary of the Invasion of Korea

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's invasion of the Korean peninsula, which started a 35 year period during which the entire nation of Korea was officially annexed by Japan -- high schools in Pyonyang even participated in the Koshien high school baseball tournament in Osaka, the same Koshien ...

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 7:04 PM

Cool Products Monday, July 26, 2010

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 ...

Posted on July 26, 2010 at 6:39 PM

J-List Comic-Con Update

We're enjoying our time at the San Diego Comicon, which is a a fantastic celebration of worldwide popular nerd culture. If you're at the show, we hope you'll come see us at booth 129 in the heart of "Anime Alley" and say hi, and check out the selection of items ...

Posted on July 23, 2010 at 6:19 PM

Uniformity in Japan

Just as Americans are accustomed to thinking of our country as a union of semi-soverign states, each with its own unique history and traditions, one of the hallmarks of Japan is "uniformity." During my bachelor days I travelled around the country quite a bit, going from cold but vibrant Hokkaido ...

Posted on July 23, 2010 at 6:16 PM

Japanese Food is Very "Herushii" (Healthy)

One interesting aspect of living in Japan is getting used to the, ah, unique pronunciations of English words the Japanese often employ. For example, the Japanese word for "healthy" is kenko-teki, but for various reasons -- mainly related to the Japanese having positive feelings about anything expressed with English words ...

Posted on July 23, 2010 at 6:14 PM

Of Math and Star Wars

I'm convinced that people can do anything they decide they can do. For example, I'm not good at math, and if you give me a difficult math problem I'm positive I won't be able to solve it for you. But if you were to change the math problem into something ...

Posted on July 23, 2010 at 6:14 PM

Cool Products Friday, July 23, 2010

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 ...

Posted on July 23, 2010 at 5:57 PM

San Diego Comic-Con is Here Again!

We're getting ready for the San Diego Comicon, which is going to be a blast. We hope you'll come see us at booths 129 and 228 in the heart of "Anime Alley" near the East end of the convention center. We'll be loaded with awesome J-List T-shirts, Totoro and Ponyo ...

Posted on July 21, 2010 at 6:11 PM