JapaneseSnacks.com returns online to continue to fill the minds and stomachs of people interested in the culture and sweets of the East.

Got Pocky? was the question heard nationwide when JapaneseSnacks.com first launched it's e-commerce site in 1999. After being covered in a multitude of U.S. and Japanese magazines including Entertainment Weekly, JapaneseSnacks.com effectively opened up a flood gate of interest from curious Americans, to hardcore fans of Japanese Animation (anime), console games, and scifi entertainment. Now, the latest incarnation of JapaneseSnacks.com has sparked a new explosion of interest.

(PRWEB) November 5, 2003 --Got Pocky? was the question heard nationwide when JapaneseSnacks.com first launched it's e-commerce site in 1999. With hundreds of products to choose from, JapaneseSnacks.com was the first company to sell these delicious and unique foods and beverages online. After being covered in a multitude of U.S. and Japanese magazines including Entertainment Weekly, JapaneseSnacks.com effectively opened up a flood gate of interest. Everyone from curious Americans, to hardcore fans of Japanese Animation (anime), console games, and scifi entertainment, began ordering Japanese snack products. It didn't take long for other stores to notice and catch on to the J-snack craze. Now over 20 online stores boast a selection of Japanese snacks and even some Suncoast/Sam Goody stores carry them.

Among setting trends in online sales and cross genre marketing, JapaneseSnacks.com also created standards in web design, customer service, and product selection that have yet to be surpassed. Once the J-snack sales market became over saturated with copycat stores, JapaneseSnacks.com took a long hiatus to reinvent itself and create an even better, and more educational, web presence.

The latest incarnation of JapaneseSnacks.com, which launched on November 1st 2003, has already sparked a new explosion of interest. "Finding snacks online is easy now," says Elaine Barlow, creator of JapaneseSnacks.com. "Everyone within the collective genre sells them. But some stores don't sell them with a real love and interest in the pop culture and J-Curious people that buy them. They sell snacks only because we did so well with them."

The new JapaneseSnacks.com returns as a fandom and resource website geared at supplying information and educational content to a new and old audience of snack fans. The website includes, among other things: an extensive database of snacks, beverages, and traditional foods, online store listings of where to buy them, and monthly columns about Japan and pop culture from people living in Japan and in the United States.

"Education and information is the heart and soul of what the Internet is all about," says Barlow, who also ran a successful and award winning magazine for 5 years which focused on Japanese Animation in the United States. "Evolving JS was the next logical step. I love providing places where people can expand their knowledge, find much needed information, and express their interests and fandom with other people."

JapaneseSnacks.com, in it's new evolved stage, not only appeals to those who wish to purchase and find information on Japanese snacks, but also greatly benefits the stores that now sell snacks in the wake of JapaneseSnacks.com's departure from the e-commerce arena. "[JapaneseSnacks.com] has maintained top positions in nearly all the search engines since it closed. No matter who springs up to sell snacks, that's the first site people find and the first name people think of," says Robyn Gandy, owner of Otaku Grocery (http://otakugrocery.com), an online store based in North Carolina. "It is a trusted name in this area and being able to advertise there has already increased interest in our new store before we have even opened. Getting endorsement from JapaneseSnacks.com, who is considered an authority on these products, helps route their old customers, and new readers, to us as an additional source for their snack needs."

In addition to providing advertising space, the crew at JapaneseSnacks.com doesn't let their 10+ years of experience in anime, gaming, snacks, and the Internet go to waste now that they no longer sell products online. JapaneseSnacks.com offers business consultation, web design (through Barlow's design and media company, Team Of Dreamers), and marketing advice to several online stores that sell, or plan to sell, Japanese snacks and related products. "Team Of Dreamers and Elaine are developing our new web presence and our new mascot," says Viki Paulson, owner of Japan Connection (http://www.japanconnection.biz), an online store based in Japan. "We have a need for a new look and a better shopping system which they are developing for us. They are even advising us on how to take much better product pictures using our existing equipment."

The future holds an endless number of possibilities for the newest installment of the JapaneseSnacks.com phenomena. The first stage of the immense web project has met with great response from those eager to see more. "We still have a long way to go," explains Barlow. "This is a very large project. The database expands almost daily as we learn about new products being introduced in Japan."

Stages two and three of JapaneseSnacks.com are slated for next March and July. The new developments include: extensive store reviews, fan created product reviews, and even an online radio station streaming Asian pop music, live DJs, and related news. There is, however, already plenty to see at the current website. The existing mailing list of several thousand has been getting more new people from all ages and walks of life only a few days after the stage one launch.

"Our fandom is very diverse. We had people from all professions and life status buying snacks when we opened in '99. Doctors, filmmakers, students, parents, writers, teachers, you name it. Teachers utilized our site specifically to find information that was of educational value to pass on to their students and to introduce them to a new culture. They also bought products to share with students and friends. Chocolate is very much a part of the universal language."

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ABOUT JAPANESESNACKS.COM (http://www.japanesesnacks.com)
JapaneseSnacks.com is the premier resource for fans of Japanese snacks, foods, beverages and popular culture. For its thousands of readers, JapaneseSnacks.com is the only source of information and fandom expression of its kind. JapaneseSnacks.com is committed to continued expansion of it's database of products from Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom as well as providing textual content that is both entertaining and educational.

ABOUT TEAM OF DREAMERS (http://www.teamofdreamers.com)
Team Of Dreamers is a team of freelance artists, designers, programmers, and multimedia developers who have come together to create a company that is dedicated to providing inexpensive web and media services to Independent Creative Professionals. Actors, artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs benefit from low costs which allow them to afford high end media and design so they can stand out above their competition.