autaku

After some delays caused by technical errors, I had a bunch of stuff from J-List show up at the end of last week. This order has been kind of a long time coming, not just because of the aforementioned delays (which were handled well by the J-List staff once I brought the issue to their attention, for the record) but because I’ve been eyeing off some of the items for a while, waiting to put them all together in a bigger order to save on shipping. I’m really pleased with everything that made it into the order, which covers a small cross-section of the pretty wide variety of products that J-List offers.

I’ve had a plush Corphish hanging off my keychain for a few years now, but as soon as I saw this very cute Yui Hirasawa plush keychain by Banpresto I knew it was time for something new. Since I almost always carry a bag with me I’m not concerned about it not fitting in my pockets, and having something like this on your keychain makes it pretty easy to find when rummaging through a bag. Besides, how can you say no to that face?

I’ve wanted to try some of these “food drops” for a while. They come in all sorts of flavours from fruits to regional Japanese dishes and even drinks like beer, sake and green tea. I decided to just get one flavour this time, and settled on takoyaki. They’re pretty tasty and actually do a decent job of replicating the flavour of takoyaki, though of course they can’t compare with the real thing. If you want a quick and easy way to enjoy classic Japanese flavours without having to actually cook anything, these are a pretty good substitute!

This notepad will make it really easy for me to practice kanji, and it’s properly set out for composition practice in the traditional Japanese right-to-left vertical style too. J-List has a variety of notepads for kanji and composition practice, but I chose this one because it matches the layout used at my university.

I’ve had my eye on this photobook by Masataka Nakano for a while, as not only do the photos look lovely, the concept is really interesting: as the title – Tokyo Nobody - suggests, the book is full of photos taken around Tokyo with nobody in them. It’s a pretty unique way of looking at a city which most people would consider the epitome of a bustling metropolis, so it’s perhaps no surprise that it took Nakano ten years to complete the project. That turns out to be a great feature of the book in itself, as this look at Tokyo from 1990 to 2000 also gives a bit of insight into some of the city’s history and development. It’s a fascinating book to look through and I might give it more of a spotlight in a separate post, but here’s just a small glimpse inside.

The final part of the order – and the most delayed component – is two shirts, one featuring the girls from K-ON! in a Beatles-inspired design and the other featuring a makkuro-kurosuke (also known as a susuwatari or ‘travelling soot’) from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away in a really nice inky-looking design.

J-List’s shirts have a small print on one sleeve that says where they came from. I was a little wary of this before ordering – I’m a bit picky with things like that – but they’re discrete enough. The shirts themselves fit just right and the quality is very nice with prints that aren’t too thick and plasticky, so I’m really pleased to have finally received these.