｜Length : 20min. ｜Year : 1995 ｜

What is the only gem that does not require cutting, grinding or polishing? The pearl, of course, and of the some 100,000 kinds of shellfish, only six can be used to produce these lustrous natural jewels. One of the best known pearl oysters is the Akoya variety which produces smaller pearls of superb shape, color, and luster. This program explains how pearls are produced, why Japanese pearls have that distinctive luster, and why cultivated pearls are superior to natural ones.

｜Length : 24min. ｜Year : 2000 ｜

Mongolia suffers from serious food shortages. At a school on the outskirts of the country's capital, Ulan Bator, a farm was established in spring, 1999. Teachers, students and parents transformed a one-hectare former garbage dump into the school farm. The crops harvested on the farm are given to poor families and sold at the market. The profit from these sales is used to buy teaching materials for the school. This program demonstrates how the Mongolian people are responding to a new form of food aid.

｜Length : 24min. ｜Year : 1996 ｜

Facing heavy competition and forced to adapt to modern management styles, street stall operators still dream of sweet success. Meet several of these determined entrepreneurs and learn the creative ways they find to survive and thrive.

｜Length : 24min. ｜Year : 1995 ｜

Mr. Inoguchi is working to bring back the great flocks of cranes once so common in Japanese skies - no easy task since these splendid creatures are now an endangered species. Inoguchi not only breeds cranes at the Okayama Prefectural Conservation Center, he must act as a surrogate parent teaching his charges to fly. While aware of the difficulties, Inoguchi is determined that the crane, so important in Japanese culture, will survive for the next generation to marvel at.

｜Length : 24min. ｜Year : 1995 ｜

Osamu Nagano is more than just a teacher at a small village school in the mountains of Fukushima - he is a certified weather forecaster too. Since the winter blizzards that strike can endanger his students as they return home, Mr. Nagano has taken it upon himself to study weather forecasting. During the winter he examines the snow at lunch time religiously to make sure it is safe for his charges to go home later.