｜Length : 46min. ｜Year : 1994 ｜

Who says you can't get something for nothing? Of course, sometimes there are strings attached: one restaurant offers free meals - free if you can finish the extra-huge helpings; a certain cosmetic surgeon's services are free, too - if you do not mind your "before" and "after" shots in magazine ads; and a used-car magazine raffles away a car a month. Still, there is a taxi driver who drives the physically handicapped to hospital free of charge. Some things really are free.

｜Length : 46min. ｜Year : 1994 ｜

Since not many people know much about Japan's North Country, Michinoku, in winter - not even the Japanese - three intrepid reporters decide to do a travel story the hard way, boarding a local bus in Tokyo and traveling north. It is a long and chilly journey and the group suffers various hardships, but along the way they meet a lot of interesting people including cheerful ladies at the morning market, dog breeders and others whose warmth takes some of the chill out of their bones.

｜Length : 27min. ｜Year : 1994 ｜

Japanese "urushi" lacquerware is justifiably famous worldwide for its exquisite finish. This program shows every step in the lacquerware process from the painstaking collection of drops of sap from lacquer trees in the hills, to the laborious processing of the sap into lacquer and the creation of the lacquerware itself. With many turning to cheap, imported lacquers, 70-year-old Shoji iwadate and his son Takashi may be among the last craftsmen to practice this traditional art.

｜Length : 27min. ｜Year : 1994 ｜

For centuries, straw or "wara" has been used to wrap priceless Arita pottery. Although straw is strong, pliable, readily available, cheap, and environmentally friendly, the technique is unfortunately a dying art. Among the few craftsmen who keep the old traditions alive, 70-year-old Masaru Hashimoto shows how straw can be used for just about anything from the most delicate porcelain to massive pots. This is a fascinating study of a fascinating tradition.

｜Length : 27min. ｜Year : 1994 ｜

Traditionally, money or gifts are presented wrapped in special hand-made paper bound with decorative strings tied in a stylized knot. These strings are made from coated paper called "mizuhiki", with different colors for different occasions. Nowadays, most "mizuhiki" are made by machines, but there are still a few craftsmen, like Ume Tsuda and her daughter Chie and son-in-law Gohachiro who work together to make creatively designed "mizuhiki" with traditional techniques.