Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan »

Lisa Katayama has written for Wired, Giant Robot, and Glamour, and is an editor at Planet magazine. She lives in San Francisco.

Joel Holland's illustrations have appeared in Holiday Hero as well as in Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and the New York Times. He lives in New York.

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 English until now! Urawaza collects more than 100 once-secret tricks, offering step-by-step directions and explanations in an eye-catching package as unconventional as its contents.