 Wednesday, July 9, 2008
There are three kinds of employees in Japan: full time, part time, and arubaito (ah-roo-BAI-toh). The last type, the name for which comes from the german word for "work" (arbeit), refers to contract-less employees who are paid by the hour and work irregular or semi-temporary schedules, as differentiated from full company employees, who have benefits like twice-annual bonuses and vacation time, and semi-official part-timers, who also have some formal benefits. One of the biggest trends in post-bubble Japanese society is the tendency of younger workers to shun traditional full-time employment, instead being content to work informal jobs staffing video rental stores and gas stations, tutoring at evening cram schools, and so on. According to a new government report, an amazing 35% of the workforce now occupies these "non-regular" employment positions, exchanging freedom to change jobs at will and less on-the-job stress for lower job security. Why so many would choose to work as "freeters" (as these part-time and temporary workers are called) puzzles older Japanese, who of course benefited greatly from the stable economic growth of the postwar period. The reasons baito is popular are many, but one big one is that many Japanese have come to value their own leisure time over work. This is a good thing of course, although I personally consider the industriousness of the Japanese people as a whole to be no less than a National Treasure for the country, and something that I hope will continue into the future. In addition to lots of anime-related panels, video rooms and other interesting events, anime conventions are great because you can wander the dealer's room and find some cool things to buy, like, well, J-List stuff. While there are always plenty of companies selling anime, manga and similar products, I like to check out what non-anime booths there are at a given show, hawking things like swords or vampire contact lenses or steampunk art. At Anime Expo I happened across an interesting booth by Japanese bottled tea company Ito En, giving out samples of that most Japanese of beverages, green tea, and carrying their marketing message of Oi, ocha! ("Hey! Tea!") to Americans. Bottled tea beverages are extremely popular in Japan, with twice the volume sold compared to carbonated soft drinks (6 million vs. 3 million kiloliters, if you're curious). Since all Asian-style teas are consumed without sugar of any kind, they're extremely healthy, and it seems clear to me that the #1 beverage of choice among Japanese being naturally free of sugar (unlike, say, Coca-Cola, or virtually everything sold in any store in America) is probably the single most important reason why Japanese are among the thinnest nations on Earth, which is certainly something to think about. (As an aside, today I was eating some tuna salad from a supermarket here in the States and was surprised to find there was sugar in it -- ack.) Incidentally, J-List offers various kinds of good Japanese tea for you to sample and enjoy, including a beverage I can't recommend enough, mugi-cha, the refreshing Japanese barley tea that's so cold and good in the summer. It comes in handy cold-water tea bags so you can always keep some in the fridge. 
Studying a foreign language is interesting because you learn a lot about how your own brain works in the process. I remember back in Psychology 101 at SDSU, being told that when you learn something while in a certain state, it's easier to recall the information later while you're in the same state. The example the teacher gave us was, if you're dumb enough to study for a test while drunk (it was college after all), you'd do better on the test if you took it while in the same state of inebriation. While I've not tested this, I have noticed that memory seems to be tied to language in interesting ways. During my Japanese literature phase, when I was going to read all the classic works of writers like Soseki Natsume in the original Japanese, I read several interesting Japanese literary novels, including Kokoro, a story of a love triangle between in Meiji-era Kamakura. After reading it in Japanese, I found that I had difficulty remembering the plot when I talked about it in English, but discussing it in Japanese was actually easier. For the new update, we've got some excellent products from Japan for you. You can view all new J-List products by clicking this link.
| Star Wars USB Hubs *Preorder*. The Japanese product line that's taking the blogosphere by storm, this the R2-D2 and Darth Vader USB Hubs that are coming soon, which you can preorder now. Plug in a USB device into R2 and he comes alive, making noises and moving, while Darth Vader takes plugs into his chest plate, and moves and breathes. J-List is honored to be able to carry these fantastic items for our customers. | | Blue Slime Plush ~ Dragon Quest. Slime from Dragon Quest is great fun, and we're posting plush toys of the normal Blue Slime and King Slime that are great for decorating any room. | | Tomica 106 -- *New* Toyota Prius. We've restocked our popular Toyota Prius die-cast car, which gives you a super miniature version of the popular and economical car. | |
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| B's Log July 2008. For fans of yaoi and "BL" games as well as all the top otome games for girls, B's Log is the magazine you should be checking out. And we've gotten the new one in stock! | | Blue Dragon Trio Set and Bento Bag. Blue Dragon is coming to American TV, and you can get ready bento-wise with this Trio Set, which gives you a portable spoon, fork and set of chopsticks for enjoying your favorite bento meal. | | New Japanese Snacks. Enjoy delicious new Japanese snacks, including Glico Cream Collon (Vanilla Flavor), the hilariously named Japanese cookie snack, Fujiya Strong Green Tea Candy, and favorite of mine, Baby Star Yakisoba Noodles (yum!). | | DX Floral KAISEKI Earthen Ware Set Drawer Type. This is a delightful traditional item from Japan, a decoration box that features hand-painted drawers you can pull out to store all your important stuff. A nice item modeled after boxes popular in the Meiji Era. | | Paint Jump ~ Art of Naruto. Learn to paint with Naruto, with this great nuri-e (coloring book) that guides you to creating real art with colors. Whether you're using crayon, paint or scanning and coloring with Photoshop, this is a great new item! | | Deluxe "TENMARI " Bento Box Set. One of our most popular bento sets, it comes with everything you need, from the 2-tiered bento box to chopsticks w/ case to a convenient case to put everything in. Both colors are restocked today. | |
| Kimono Hime. We've restocked the popular Kimono Hime ("Kimono Princess"), a great perfect-bound magazine/photobook series filled with pictures of Japan's traditional kimonos, great for anyone who loves this cool culture from Japan. | | Jitte & Katana Display Set Up your ninja cred with this cool miniature katana (Japanese sword) and matching jitte (pronounced JIT-teh), a defensive weapon used by ninjas. | | Traditional Items from Japan. Then see some cool restocked traditional items from Japan, including the Retro Paper Balloon set that have been enjoyed in Japan for centuries, a wooden puzzle map of Japan, a traditional ceramic beer mug and the very poplar Traditional Bamboo Flute (Yokobue). | | Japanese T-shirt "Green Tea." If you like Japan's healthy culture of green tea, we humbly recommend our own "Green Tea" T-shirt, which does its best to turn your body into a giant bottle of Japan's most popular drink. | | Japanese Barley Tea. Also, remember that summer is a great time to enjoy refreshing mugi-cha, the barley tea that's enjoyed more than any other beverage in the summer. Unsweetened, it's delicious to drink and helps you battle the heat as well as stay healthy. Our deluxe sized bag of barley tea, which makes 40 liters of hot or cold tea, is in stock now! | | Talking About Buddhism ~ Eigo de Hanasu Bukkyou. For the many fans of our "bilingual books" which feature both English and Japanese printed side-by-side, we've restocked the popular book that discusses the history and culture of Buddhism in Japan. | | Chibi Maruko chan Kanji Dictionary vol 1 & 2. Students of Japanese, we've restocked a personal favorite item of mine, the Chibi Maruko chan kanji dictionaries, which help you learn how to look up kanji characters just like Japanese elementary school children do. | |
| Faces Stamp ~ Emotion Transforming Soft Stamp. The Japanese use hanko or name stamps in place of a legal signature, and here is a cute item in this vein: "face stamps" that can make all kinds of faces, from happy to angry to sad. They're fun, and back in stock today. | |
| NARUTO Shippuden New Metallic Pencil Case, Erasers. Naruto fans, here's a really nice all metal pencil case that will securely hold all your writing instruments, with a removable inside tray and everything. Damn this is nice. Also, we've got a set of Naruto erasers too, back in stock. | | Restocked J-Snacks. Finally, enjoy restocked Japanese snacks, including Calorie Mate in Chocolate and Fruit flavor, Fuwarinka Rose Gum and Otoko Kaoru Mens Fragrance Gum, and more of that lovely Bull-Dog Sauce that's known in Japan under the descriptive name of "sauce." |
For fans of our NSFW items from Japan, we've got many new and restocked products, too -- click here to see all new products. Remember that J-List carries region free DVD players, a great way to enjoy DVDs from around the world, including the region 2 discs that J-List carries, PAL/R2 discs from Europe, and so on. The player we recommend is the high-end RJ-1000 Upscaling DVD Player that's great for watching your DVDs on high-def TVs, using the HDMI port (and handy included cable), great for your present TV or the cool new TV you might have next year. It has cool features like the ability to view movies or pictures off USB flash drives, or burn DIVX/AVI movies to DVD-R for archival purposes. A highly recommended DVD player that J-List ships out of San Diego, for your convenience. |
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