Japan is famous for its cooperative group culture, and you can see this in many places, from clubs in schools to doujinshi circles to more formal organizations. In the past few years I've noticed that many anime series have been made by groups rather than individual creators or companies, for example the Ikki Tousen Committee, the Claymore Production Committee, and the School Days Production Committee. These groups are generally made up of a variety of members working on the project, including producers, artists, representatives from companies like Bandai, and quite often, major anime retailers like Toranoana or Animate, who can give input that will help make the project successful with fans. One reason these committees come into being is financial -- having a group of experienced individuals be responsible for a project and makes it easier to raise funds -- but it also spreads responsibility around to more members. When Steamboy, the most expensive anime film ever made, failed to make back even half of its $26 million price tag, I'm sure Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo was glad to have had the Steamboy Promotion Committee to take some of the blame off him.
Each language is unique, and presents special challenges to learners coming in from other language groups. For example, Chinese or Thai are tonal languages, Romance languages have noun gender to keep track of, and so on. According to the J-List staff, the most difficult areas of learning English are the "helping verbs" that fly around English sentences ("she shouldn't have been able to drive, should she have?"), or knowing whether to answer a statement with a tag question on the end in the positive or negative ("You're Japanese, aren't you?"). The Japanese language also has some rough patches, beyond the obvious challenge of mastering kanji, which include getting used to grammatical particles that "mark" the parts of sentences, including the often-confusing "topic marker" (wa) and "subject marker" (ga) of a sentence; getting used to verbs coming in formal and informal forms; and (as a male) learning not to imitate female speakers too much, since you can easily find yourself speaking effeminately. Happily, Japanese is not an especially difficult language to pronounce, once you train the muscles in your mouth to say the five vowels, which are "a" (ah), "i" (ee), "u" (oo), "e" (eh) and "o" (oh). These sounds are so tightly formed compared to the "lazy" sounds of American English, though, that I've actually experienced muscle pain in my mouth from speaking too much Japanese.
There are certain mysteries associated with living in Japan, as any gaijin will tell you. Why does your boss say so desu ne ("Yes, that's so") right before shooting your idea down? Why are some trains called nobori (climbing) trains and others kudari (descending) trains? (Trains headed in the direction of Tokyo are the former, and away from the capital, the latter.) Why do stores suddenly start playing Auld Lang Syne from speakers fifteen minutes before closing? (To politely let you know you should complete your purchase and leave.) Then there's the great mystery of the kanji characters for "small" and "big" (sho and dai) which you see on most toilet flush handles. Although Japan is generally wasteful when it comes to its natural resources, often covering the sides of mountains with concrete just in case there might be a rock slide someday, it has a green side too, taxing less efficient car engines at a higher rate, selling refill versions of products to cut down on trash volume and promoting low-energy lighting. Japanese toilets are set up to conserve resources, too: you can turn the handle to the right to perform a normal flush ("big"), or hold it to the left for a few seconds to just let out a little bit of water ("small"). It took me a few years to make the connection, but of course the "small" character stands for shoben (meaning number 1, literally translated as "small convenience"), while the other turn of the handle stands for daiben (number 2, or "big convenience"). One more mystery solved.
As you probably know, J-List sells a wide range of delicious Japanese snacks, with the newest releases from companies like Glico, Meiji, Morinaga and more always on the site. Although our Japanese snacks are fun to much on any time, they can also make great gifts for the upcoming holidays, and what's why we've added a new Best Snacks Stocking Stuffer set, featuring a selection of the best snacks we carry, from Meltykiss to Kit Kat to Pocky to Meltykiss and that delicious Charcoal Roasted Coffee Candy.
 | J-list Best Snacks Stocking Stuffer Set A. Give the gift of great Japanese snacks this year with our new gift set. Includes all the most popular items, with something for everyone. |
 | Fox Squirrel T-Shirt - Men's standard. Really nice new T-shirt we're posting, the Fox Squirrel from Nausicaa and Laputa, one of the most beloved creations from Hayao Miyazaki. |
 | Pinky Street Figures. We've gotten in three great new Pinky Street figures too, gorgeous modern Tokyo girls who change outfits by popping their heads off and onto another included body. Super cute. |
 | Afro Samurai Figure. Awesome figure from Afro Samurai, the popular anime. Voiced in English by who other than Samuel Jackson. 1/8 scale, super detail. |
 | DX Hand-made Japanese OYAKATA Bamboo Setta. Here's a really cool pair of traditional Japanese "setta" sandals made from bamboo for a luxurious feel. They are especially long in the back, recommended for larger feet. These shoes were worn by firemen in the Edo Period. |
 | My Neighbor Totoro Wrist Watch -- Oval Gold Face. Wow, talk about something you'll treasure for years, here's a high quality Totoro watch from Seiko. Leather band, beautiful styling, chrome gold everywhere. |
 | Hello Kitty Tight 2-tier Bento Box ~ Glittery Ribbon. Enjoy a delicious bento lunch with Sanrio's famous Hello Kitty character. Nice tight-fitting bento box with two tiers, one for rice and one for the rest of your lunch. |
 | FURO-TAN --- Bath Water Proof Study Flashcard Set. The Japanese are nothing if not innovative when it comes to studying. Here's a new idea for you -- studying while soaking in the bath tub with these specially designed plastic cards! |
 | Kougyoku Yamaneko (Linx) Figure ~ Animal Girl *Preorder*. For fans of the genre known as 'kemono" (hair-thing, i.e. characters with animal characteristics), here's a great preorder figure with cat ears and a cool sword. |
 | Traditional Origami Paper. Origami (lit. "folding paper") is a great traditional Japanese art, and we've gotten in two new sets, a gorgeous traditional kimono series and a wacky origami bento box you can fold yourself! Incidentally origami has been shown to be good for older people, as it helps the brain maintain many skills. |
 | Cool Restocked Traditional Items. Some fun traditional items we're restocking include our Onegai Jizu Japanese statue that helps you diet, our some really cool cups for drinking sake, a cool cloth bag, and a netsuke featuring the flag of Shinsengumi. |
 | Bento & Related Items. Bento is popular all over the world, and J-List has dozens of cool items in stock. Today we're restocking the Nikyoro Ju-Bako style lunch box, our Bento Mini Cups for arranging your lunch, cool chopsticks for Autumn, and more. |
 | DMM May 2007. DMM is a leading AV industry magazine that follows all the top names in the business, from Yua Aida to Akiho Yoshizawa to Honaka and more. See lots of great pics as well as video caps, and each issue comes with a DVD of fun stuff too. |
 | Love -- Zhao Shan Shan. Positively captivating photobook featuring a gorgeous model from China, a beautiful, lithe woman whose photographs you'll treasure. |
 | Newly Posted manga Volumes. Got some great new manga for you today, with the gorgeous Baknyu ("Explosive Oppai") Fantasy my the famous Brave Soul artist Mogudan, and Squall, a collection of stories of sudden, savage love. |
 | A Girl 2 Figure Illustrated by o-ji. We've gotten this dynamite "cast off" (w/ removable clothes) figure back in stock since it was so popular. Incredibly detailed with a real cloth sweater you can take off. |
 | Mo-Retsu! Boin Sensei ~ Intense! Big Oppai Teacher. Rio Yamasaki stars as a teacher with some very big, um, guns, in this cool release from Soft on Demand's Ifrit label. Great for fans of meganekko, too. |
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