If you were to plan a picnic, you might pack a basket containing things like sandwiches, potato salad or maybe some pickles, but a Japanese person would almost certainly bring along onigiri, the delicious rice balls from Japan. Formed using the honorific o prefix that can be seen on many Japanese words and nigiri, meaning "to squeeze," onigiri are a popular way to grab a quick snack in Japan. Although they can be as simple as a hunk of salted rice pressed into a shape, there's usually a bit of fish, konbu seaweed or ume plum inside, and nori covering the outside. Onigiri are a major product category for convenience stores in Japan, and even before a new gaijin learns to start reading the language around him, he often memorizes the all-important onigiri color code at Seven Eleven -- red for salmon, blue for "sea chicken" aka tuna mayonnaise, and so on. Onigiri are a staple of bento culture, and Japanese housewives get up extra early to press rice balls to include in lunches for their kids or husbands. Onigiri can be heated but are usually eaten cold, but there's a subset called yaki-onigiri that's basically a triangle of white rice that's roasted over a flame while being painted with soy sauce -- delicious. Along with popular bento items, we sell a lot of onigiri related products on the site -- I thought today's Hello Kitty Onigiri Maker is especially cool.
A language reflects the character of the people who use it, and vice-versa, and I'm sure that if I were to study German, I would see that the precision and attention to detail that Germans are famous for would be evident in their speech. One interesting area of Japanese grammar students learn early on is the verb ending masho, which corresponds to "let's..." as in "let's eat" (tabemasho), "let's go" (ikimasho) or "let's not smoke" (tobacco wo yamemasho). In situations where verbal or written warnings would be worded in a command form in English (do not smoke, do not ride on the escalator backwards), it's common for Japanese to express the same message with this softer "let's..." verb form, making statements like "let's put our telephones into vibration mode" (maanaa modo ni shimasho) or "when a pregnant woman or elderly person gets on the train, let's give our seat to them" (seki wo yuzurimasho). These statements subtly create a warm and fuzzy "let's all cooperate" atmosphere that make people want to do their part for the good of everyone, an important pillar of Japanese society. Every year, the Japanese tax office sponsors commercials featuring famous TV personalities walking to their post office to mail their income tax forms -- "Let's fill out our tax forms accurately and honestly," is the message. Language like this presents a challenge for translators -- if translated literally, the message might not convey the same meaning to everyone.
The various forms of popular otaku culture in Japan and around the world continue to grow, making barriers like geographic location mean less and less, and the recent events surrounding the broadcast of the last episode of the popular anime School Days were a further example of this. School Days is an anime series based on a dating-sim game about a love triangle between Makoto, his girlfriend Kotonoha and their friend Sekai, which combines beautiful characters and a complex (and fairly violent) story. The day before the last episode was to air, a girl killed her father with an axe, and fearing that the act might have been inspired by the show somehow, the TV studios decided to replace the much-awaited last episode with soothing classical music and images of a boat somewhere in Europe, which fans immediately dubbed "Nice Boat!" spreading images all over YouTube. The boat is now a part of pop culture history, and because we love to make esoteric things for otaku, we've made a limited-edition T-shirt to commemorate this really excellent boat.
Just a reminder that's it's a great time for you to make your 2008 calendar order now, as each day, we're seeing calendars disappearing off the site as they sell out, and since the order cutoff for most of the calendars has already passed, many are gone for good. We currently have a wonderful selection of 190+ anime, JPOP, bikini idol, traditional and modern art, and men's calendars on the site. Why not browse our great selection of Japanese calendars now?
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 sites. 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.
| | School Days Parody T-Shirt - "Nice Boat!". For fans of School Days, or for anyone looking for the most esoteric T-shirt ever: this is our cool new "Nice Boat" T-shirt. Great joke for all anime fans! |
| | Delicious New Japanese Snacks. See some great new Japanese snacks today, including a "bitter & orange" flavor of Nestle Aero chocolate, delicious Meiji Porte in "Hokkaido Milk" flavor, and mouth-cleaning Fragre mints. |
| | Cool Sanrio Bento Boxes -- My Melody. The popular Sanrio character My Melody is undergoing a big boom in Japan right now, and we've gotten in two different bento boxes that are great for collectors, featuring beautiful printing and design. |
| | Fresh Stock of Various 2008 Calendars. We've restocked some great 2008 anime, JPOP, sexy idol and other calendars for you, including getting in more stock of the incredibly popular 2008 Tachikoma Trading Figure Calendar, an extremely cool item. |
| | Hello Kitty ONIGIRI / Rice Ball Maker Set. We've got something really outstanding: plastic molds that can be used for making Hello Kitty-shaped "onigiri" or rice balls for bento. You could also make other interesting foods with this, like cookies, cakes and more. |
| | Casio Electronic Dictionary XD-GW6900. Wow, here's an electronic dictionary for serious students of Japanese, the newly updated Casio XD-GW6900, which is loaded with the best features to help you succeed in your mastery of the language. It's got over 100 dictionaries inside, and uses the excellent pen-style kanji input method that helps you memorize characters by the stroke order. Outstanding! |
| | Comp Hs vol. 6 ~ Comp Heroine 6. Follow the best anime series in Japan with Comp Hs, aka Comp Heroines, the outstanding "BIshoujo Only Visual Magazine." From Clannad (!) to Lucky Star (!) and everything in between, this mag is also cool because you get free stuff in each issue. |
| | Final Fantasy Trading Arts Mini vol.1. Wow, here's a really cool set of Final Fantasy miniature figures that are incredibly cute. We've got full sets in stock as well as a set of the heroines only. Really nice. |
| | Kiki's Delivery Service Blankets. If you don't know about the extra-soft acrylic blankets they sell in Japan, well, now you do. We've gotten in two different Kiki's Delivery Service blankets that are so soft and warm you won't believe it -- highly recommended. |
| | Delicious of Restocked Snacks. See restocked snack items too, including Cola Wata Gum cotton candy that turns to gum in your mouth, UHA High Conc. Milk Candy, Ju-C candies in Apple flavor, delicious Hi-Chew, and more! |
| | Sabra Nov 2007. Connoisseurs of such things know that the most beautiful women from Japan can usually be found in the pages of Sabra, the elegant magazine of gorgeous models. You also get a DVD too. |
| | Melty -- Tina Yuzuki. This is definitely an accurate description for the lovely half-Japanese, half-Portuguese Tina-chan in her first-ever hardcover photobook release. |
| | New "H" Manga. Of course we've got some great new ero manga on the site for you, starting with the fabulous Scold me! Twins Sisters (love that title) and a nice one called Midnight Nursing. |
| | Tony Works ~ Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro. Wow, that sold out really fast. We've gotten the awesome artbook of "H" illustrator Tony Taka (his pen name, he's really Japanese). Beautiful art throughout. |
| | Momo Leopard, Young Hip Cover Gal. Then for fans of "furry" themes, we've got a cute Peach Leopard Girl that's also a cast off. Or go for the incredible ChiChinoe figure, which finally game in, although most of our order sold out in preorder. |
| | Melancholy of Suzumiya Hiharu Cosplay Special. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is one of the most influential anime series in years, and now fans can get their cosplay fantasies fulfilled with this great release from SOD featuring "Hahiru" [sic] as she performs while wearing virtually every costume she wore in the series. Awesome. |
| | Finally, Lots of Restocked DVD Titles. We've got plenty of great DVD titles back in stock today, including Dream Idol First Buk 4 Hours, Shiko Shiko Japan, Akiho Yoshizawa's dynamite Max Pink File, Over 180cm Woman (the Japanese love tall, domineering AV idols), and the always-fun Zenra Bowling! |
