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Check out JBox from Japan.

Tell me about it. I've stopped counting the number of times I've seen a [DOWNLOAD[ button that wasn't on-topic.

Here you go.

Look at this figure http://www.jbox.com/product/PR... and discuss if it's sexist or not.

Getting sick in Japan, and celebrating 50 years of bullet trains.

Best author of all time, hands down. Reading her books is like watching a movie.

So the very best books are like movies? Why not just watch movies then?

If we are going to have a ranking of types of media, I'd put comics way up there. The flexibility of non real time pacing you get in books, as well as the option to choose between imagery and text to use each where it is best. Personally, I see even more flexibility from the visual novel format, which can leverage sound, animation, text and imagery selectively where desired, even optionally interactivity: its just so much more choice for the author (Which of course still has to choose some trade-off between quality and effort, but more options is better). Books, movies and comics are all just subsets of what you can get with a visual novel. There are opensource visual novel tools available, and its perfectly possibly to deploy cross platform, or multi-platform (html5 can do it).

I'm a bit surprised I haven't seen more content presented in the visual novel medium. It seems mainly used for Japanese dating sims. I've seen a few webcomics embracing some of the features, but I'd expect more widespread use of the approach by now. At least you can preorder Steins;Gate, and the megatokyo VN is in the works but I really haven't seen much else of interest (ok, katawa-shoujo was nice (and free), but I mean other genera mostly). Anyone got any other recommendations?

http://www.jbox.com/product/SNK041

Only in Japan, I suppose.

Then you're going to love the product description from JBOX.com.

As anecdote I present the Baka Gainjin

It's "Gaijin", you baka!

Apparently some people intentionally buy and wear stuff like that. As anecdote I present the Baka Gainjin (Stupid Foreigner) t-shirt. I don't know how many they sold, but since after all these years they still sell it... :P

Nice Boat.

(Sorry. Obligatory.) Here's the link for newbies: http://www.jbox.com/PRODUCT/SHIRT-BOAT1

JList/JBox has been selling Japanese iTunes cards for some time, and frequently advertise them in their ads in magazines like NewType USA. Right next to the hentai/bishoujo games and Domo-kun plushies.

JList/JBox has been selling Japanese iTunes cards for some time, and frequently advertise them in their ads in magazines like NewType USA. Right next to the hentai/bishoujo games and Domo-kun plushies.

While I agree that obligatory DRM is bad, and I certainly won't buy anything that implements it (get yer region-free DVD players here!) I think you are overstating the case a bit.

The "worst tyranny" would more likely be one that has uniformed soldiers rape children to death in front of your wife so she will tell them where you are hiding.

Peter Payne, the American-born founder of J-List, a source for all things Japanese, had this to say in today's instalment of his regular newsletter:

"After a long wait, Apple's iTunes Japan music store has finally opened, allowing customers here to download Japanese and international music for around $1.75 per song. Despite the large number of digital-savvy users in Japan, it's not at all surprising to me that it took so long for Apple to get the iTunes store up and running. Japan can be a very conservative place, and to big companies with established businesses, nothing is more terrifying than change, any change at all. Apple has had to navigate between greedy record companies who have kept the prices of CDs at the artificially high price of $30 for decades, and industry groups like the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) and the Recording Industry of Japan (RIAJ), who have closed ranks against any kind of digital distribution of music that doesn't guarantee more profits for them than conventional CDs. A big problem was JASRAC's insistence that Apple follow "Japan's rules" when it came to selling music online, which apparently meant that the industry group was to receive 7.7% of every song sold in addition to what the actual copyright holders receive. It's all very silly when you think about the fact that in Japan, you can go into any one of thousands of CD rental shops and rent a whole album for $3 or less. Sadly, Japan's copyright-happy record industry lacked the vision to allow Apple to sell Japanese music to customers outside of Japan, so worldwide fans of JPOP are shut out from participating in the Japan iTMS. Apple isn't the first company that's had to endure pressure from the establishment in Japan: Amazon was blocked from selling products below list price on their site here, since price fixing is still allowed for some products, like books and CDs. If there's one good thing that's come from the past decade of recession in Japan, it's that many of Japan's closed economic doors have been forced open, letting the light of competition and common sense flood in. If you want to see a hilarious commercial that marries the iPod with Sazae-san, one the most popular anime in Japan's history, here's the link: http://www.jbox.com/sazae (Quicktime required)"