Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan

Japan has a way of thinking that is just . . . different. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Tokyo-born journalist Lisa Katayama's collection of urawaza (a Japanese word for secret lifestyle tricks and techniques). Want to turbocharge your sled? Spray the bottom with nonstick cooking spray. Can't find someone to water your plants while you're away? Place the plant on a water-soaked diaper, so it slowly absorbs water over time. The subject of popular TV shows and numerous books in Japan, these unusually clever solutions to everyday problems have never before been published in Englishuntil now! Urawaza collects more than 100 once-secret tricks, offering step-by-step directionsand explanations in an eye-catching package as unconventional as its contents.

Full colour advertisement, featuring an image of a smiling woman in a pink dress standing on some ocean headlands on a sunny day. A line of laundry snaps behind her in the breeze, and we can see wisps of cloud dancing on the horizon.

'The cleanest clean under the sun--new Tide clean!' is blazoned across the tip of the ad.

A text box below, with an illustration of Tide detergent, bearing the brand's distinctive orange and blue branding, reads:

New Tide with Reserve Cleaning Power

...wonderful extra cleaning power to get your whole wash clean and fresh as an ocean breeze. What a beautiful sight when your wash is done! Everything, even problem wash comes out more than bright, more than white...really clean! So clean smelling, too...with a fresh air and sunshine cleanness you'll love. Yes, the cleanest clean possible is new Tide clean!

So here I am, just jumped out of the shower tonight and cleaning out my ears for the 2nd time today. I realized that I hadn't done my daily photo today!

And of course since winter is absolutely miserable and I never see the sun anymore when I get off of work, all of my photos will mostly suck being indoors and nothing fun.

So here's a new tidbit you didn't know about me. I'm obsessed with cleaning my ears. Sometimes I even do it 3 times a day! And if I go a day without cleaning them out, I feel gross.

And I know! I know I'm not supposed to stick them in the ear canal, but that's the best part. It's like an ear-gasm or something. Ahhhh yep, that's the spot.

My boyfriend may make fun of me and my q-tip obsession, but I know no matter what, my q-tips will be with me FOREVER!