Bookends

On of the silly things about Japan is that they never want you to know what you are reading.
Which in some respect can be a little more detrimental for the authors if no one is publicly displaying reading your book and thereby advertising it. That's right you! No free advertisement for you! But in actuality, it doesn't hurt the authors terribly. At least Haruki Murakami seems to be doing just fine.

In Japan, every time you buy a book the cashier will either usually ask you if you want your book wrapped, which would mean to cover it in a temporary paper book cover very much like a book jacket, or they would just do it without asking you. This is one of the most bizarre things to me seeing as I am the kind of person to remove a book jacket from a hardcover immediately upon opening it. Not just to preserve the tender paper, but also because the book will slip a little if you use it. The book slowly creeps down and you will see more and more of that book jacket, until you get to a pretty intense scene. The hero has just discovered it!His old professor and ex girlfriend worked up some sort of scheme to use him in a psychological conditioning experiment in which they could profit from loads of blackmail from all sorts of important people affiliated, including the person in charge of the company who provides him sponsorship to continue with his studies with the graduate program! And now, she has caught on to his knowledge and is...SLIPPED there went your book.
And that is why I don't us a book jacket. Also I hope you enjoyed my crappy story I made up!...I didn't think to hard...
Anyways in Japan, everyone has a book cover or two to ensleeve their books. If you are like me, then perhaps you like a bunch of varieties of books and with varying sizes. Not the Japanese. There seems to be three standard sizes of book here in Japan. And really only one that most every book will appear in. But what about Harry Potter? Surely they read that right? and that is a big book. Yeah sure. But they split one book up to 3 or 4 books. Which really gets them like 3-4 times the profit from Japan. If you are familiar with Haruki Murakami, you might know 1Q84. In America, it is sold as one book, but in Japan it is split up into 4 books. All of which will fit that little books cover you have.
The reason for those book covers is that people are exceptionally paranoid in Japan. They don't want you to know what they are reading, they don't want you taking their picture, and yes, they know Big Brother is always watching them. But also it is a matter of privacy. For example, if they are reading a self help book, they don't want you knowing it. But let's be honest. That's ridiculous. The real reason is that it is porn. But then again, oddly enough, people are not so shameful about that. They sit there and read their manga smut rags on the train and you can see all the steamy scenes sitting next to them. And these rags come in those giant magazine sizes that are about 6 or more times the size of a normal american magazine with a very provocative picture on the front. And you can find all these at the local convenience store.
So why the covers? It is just another ridiculous quirky thing about Japan.

For Rent

In America we rent DVDs. In Japan there seems to be no limit on things you can rent.

From any given DVD store where you rent the latest Harry Potter movie or what have you, you can also rent the latest CD's to burn and make copies of at your home, or the latest manga or a whole series of manga, and of course their infamous porn. To rent a DVD here it costs about 150 yen to rent a not so new release for about a week and twice that to rent a new one. I actually cant say how much it costs to rent CD's or manga, but I feel like the manga price might be a bit much either way since you can simply go to a good number of cafes and read the manga for free there. Of course you would have to show patronage in some other way, namely coffee. Interestingly Japan does have a bit of a problem with piracy, but it seems not to the degree of the united states...or Korea. The rental business, open 24-7, is still a well sought out place on any given Friday or Saturday night. They often have decently large stores for a place in Japan and I would even say larger than your local Blockbuster store. Their DVDs are largely Japanese as to be expected but there is a surprising amount of foreign films there, and not just American. I see a very good number of BBC originals and French and German ones as well. Korean ones are also present but a bit less popular (Asian competition and all). This is because Japanese rental businesses have to purchase the Japanese DVDs to rent them out. But they do not have to purchase a good number of the foreign films. It seems that the film industry, as least in America, will give them the films but in return they get to claim a certain amount of the profit from each rental.

One of the more gaijin related things that you can rent however is none of the above. A great many gaijins come to Japan and think of one thing (for girls): kimonos. You can rent kimonos. Of course they prices can still be pretty expensive, especially if you are looking in the wrong direction. It also depends where you rent it from.  If you rent it in the Gion district of Kyoto (the large traditional and shopping district) of course it will be more expensive. And sometimes you rent them and they are almost in equal price to one you can purchase and take home with you. Additionally people often rent ones that are extremely low quality, such are they are made of polyester and not silk or cotton. And face it if you rented a cotton one and it is not summer you are being equally ripped off. You will be looked at very strangely indeed. Of course you might be looked at strangely regardless, because after all you are still a gaijin in a kimono. These kimonos-for-rent are often much more colorful and flashy than one a Japanese person might own so as to cater to the western fashion of colors.
Personally, as much as I think it is amusing for gaijins to rent these kimonos (I probably find it amusing because no matter how hard I might try I will never look that part wearing one) and wear them about, I think this is a splendid business venture. It is really an excellent way to discover some traditional aspects and
culture of Japan.