As Japan's economy continues its struggle to gain momentum after the bursting of the bubble economy, the young have been turning to numerous subcultures as a means to express their alienation from mainstream society.

Runtime: 16 minutes

Nabemono (鍋物, なべ物, nabe = cooking pot + mono = things, kinds) or simply called nabe, is a style of cooking a varieties of one pot dishes. One of the most famous is the sumo wrestler's meal of chanko-nabe (a stewed dish with many kinds of meat, fish and vegetables).

The Japanese have a long tradition of good luck charms for every occasion, many of them originating in ancient harvest customs.  This video explains a few of the mysterious objects you'll often see in Japan - statues of beckoning cats known as maneki-neko, one-eyed Daruma dolls, and the wooden tablets known as ema covered in personal wishes that hang in great numbers outside shrines.

植村花菜 - キセキ (KICM-1149)

Cafe de Maid "promo" clip

Note: I've no idea if this is a legitimate promo since this maid is "Kotone Aisaki" (a JAV actress)

Ero-kawaii gravure clip

Ero-kawaii gravure clip of Rei oiling herself up

Ero-kawaii gravure clip

Global warming is rapidly destroying the coral reefs that form so much of the oceans' beauty.  We need to act quickly to develop ways to repair and regenerate these reefs.  A Japanese university team is developing the first potentially large - scale method to cultivate coral eggs in open waters for transplantation to revive damaged reefs.